By Phil Hopwood
NEWCASTLE, New South Wales, Australia--In November we built our services around the theme of "Rebuilding the Church."
We started with a service on the topic of "Healing Our Hurts," followed by "Taking Care of the Body," "Building the Church of Tomorrow," "My Church" and "Celebrating Our Common Commitment."
For the "My Church" service we had a combined weekend with members from around New South Wales. We had a social and a volleyball tournament too.
We started with a 40-minute praise and worship service with almost all new songs, "Shout to the Lord," "Immanuel," "Shine Jesus Shine," "I Believe in Jesus" and "Power of Your Love."
Normally I introduce new songs by playing a tape first. This time we just went straight into them cold. Some brethren knew some of them, but they all sang as if they already knew them.
I guess it was a combination of factors, a good hall for singing, an enthusiastic congregation, and songs that were familiar to some, and easy to learn for the rest.
The second part of the afternoon was a service centered on talks by members on what they had learned, and what they appreciate about the church.
I distributed a handout a few weeks before with some overall suggestions and guidelines regarding time and keeping it to just a couple of main points. The members' talks were wonderful.
The sermons I gave during the month helped to prompt testimonials that were given. Each person gave his or her heartfelt thoughts about what the church has meant and means to them.
We grouped them in pairs, with a couple of songs and a scripture reading in between each pair, as well as a prayer around halfway through. I gave a 10-minute wrap-up talk at the end.
Our last service in our series involved a discussion of what we are celebrating and committed to. Some had questioned that we should have loyalty to our denominational leaders and our local congregation, saying that our only loyalty should be to Jesus.
We talked of the analogy of the church being a Roman galley with Jesus as the admiral who is leading a whole fleet of galleys and that many are heading to the same destination, but taking slightly different courses.
We as a local congregation are one galley. When people aren't agreed on the direction we are going they tend to slack off, or dig in their oars, or go and fight the appointed man on the rudder oar. Such actions result in a lack of forward progress, zigzagging or not going anywhere at all.
On the other hand, if we are all eager to move in the same direction that Jesus has made plain to us, and are prepared to let the appointed helmsman steer, we will all row in unison, and make great progress forward.
We discussed what we believe are the essential beliefs and teachings we need to be committed to, and what are nonessential beliefs.
I read in Neil Anderson's book Setting Your Church Free that this can be a helpful exercise. It reminds us of what is really important and worth being united in, and on the other hand, what should be treated as side issues.
We then discussed the importance of not being divided, not making issues out of nonessential matters.
We concluded with dinner. We set up the tables in a large square in our hall. After the main course we started with a couple of songs, then I handed out a half dozen printed scriptures pertaining to the purpose and unity of the church.
We passed a microphone around the tables, and those who wanted to (about 90 percent did) spoke about the church, what they feel about it, and in many cases expressed their thankfulness for it, and spoke of their determination and commitment to remain involved and supportive of our congregation.
Next some prayed, and we had a candle ceremony. Everyone who wanted to (it looked like everyone) lit a candle to symbolize their commitment to be a light in Jesus' service.
Several scriptures on being lights were handed out and read. To symbolize our being one, we then stood and walked around the tables and into the center, where we all placed our candles together in a group on a central table, symbolizing the light we give as a united congregation.
We concluded with prayer and two songs, "We Are God's People" (with a wonderful last verse in the context of our evening), and a Graham Kendrick song, "We Are Marching."
Phil Hopwood pastors the Newcastle and Narrabri, Australia, churches.
March 18, 1997, WN, page 5
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