“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8)

“Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” Tim Kizziar



Final Words For 2010

 A Good Year

There's something about the end of a year and the beginning of a new one that ticks all the boxes for me. It marks a transition from the past into the future with all its possibilities and potential. 2010 has been a great year for us as a church. We've grown in size and influence, we've seen hundreds of recommitment's and first time decisions for Jesus. We've been through a major change with our move across the river and new time and format of our service which wasn't all smooth sailing but we pushed through and we're all the more stronger for it, and we've received great news re our purchase of land at Cambridge which sets us up for an exciting year in 2011.

2010 is fading behind us in the rear view mirror and 2011 is just coming into view and the question that is uppermost in many people's minds at this time of year is "What will the new year hold for me?" It's a question I ask myself each year for myself personally, my family and our church. This afternoon I want to address that question and make it as personal as I can. Because at the end of the day what happens in your life effects mine and everyone around you–we each add to the whole here at Grace and as a church, we're only as good as you get. :)

So what does 2011 hold for you? What has God got planned for you in the new year?

To start with, we read in Romans 8:28 that God is always working everything together for our good so next year is going to be a year full of goodness for you and your family. It will be a good year! God has promised that He will work everything together so that good is the outcome. Think about that for a moment. Next year is going to be a good year for you. It's going to be a good year for our church. It's going to be a good year for your family. God has said it. If you believe it, you can experience it for yourself. Now that isn't a promise that says that everything you experience will start out good but you can have confidence that God will work it all together for your good. Even now there are situations that some of you are facing that don't look all that good on the surface but the promise of God is that He is working it all out for your good. It's coming, you just have to hold on.

FAITH

Personally I believe that 2011 will be a cracker of a year for us as a church and for each of you individually but for that to happen we need to approach the new year with a biblical perspective and attitude. We need faith if we're to see everything that 2011 promises come to pass. Faith isn't simply positive thinking - it comes in response to hearing the word of God. Romans 10:17 - hearing the good news about Jesus–knowing what God has said about you and your life–believing what the Bible has to say about your life and future. The bible goes so far as to say that without faith, it's impossible to please God. So a key question to ask yourself as we head into 2011 is "How is your faith?" "Are you believing God for something that you can't orchestrate in your own strength?" Do you really believe that God is working everything together for you good?

Hebrews 6:12 (NLT)

Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance.

We inherit God's promise through faith and endurance, an attitude that says I will believe God regardless - through till the end. I won't stop believing when I hit my first speed bump or experience a setback or reversal - I'll keep sailing on regardless of the storm with a confidence in his ability and not my own. Determine today that 2011 will be a year where you'll take your faith in God's promises to a whole new level.

LOVE

Hebrews 6:11 (NLT)

Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.

Love encapsulates everything that God has for you and desires you to be involved in next year. Being a disciple of Jesus means that your highest goal in life is to obey his commands. As he only gave us two it makes it easy to remember. We're to love Him with everything we've got and we're to love each other as he loved us. John 14 and 15 makes it very clear that loving others is the yardstick that God uses for our love of Him. As we approach 2011 we need to be convinced of God's will for each and everyone of us which is to intentionally and daily love others as He has loved us. Ministry is simply love in action.

As the senior pastors of Grace, Deb and I along with our pastoral team have one primary role, and that's to equip you for ministry. We're to exhort, encourage, prod, teach, model, celebrate, motivate each of you to love others intentionally on a daily basis. Ephesians 4 calls it equipping the saints for ministry. And just in case you've bought into a faulty concept of what ministry is, let me reiterate, ministry is simply you loving others as you've been loved by God and in the way you've been uniquely shaped to love. It isn't me giving you an opportunity to preach at our Sunday meeting or being put in charge of running a department. If your idea of ministry is being in charge of something you've completely missed what Jesus and the apostles were all about. Ministry is for all not just a few. Being in charge, being responsible for the functioning of a local church is only for a few. You can't have everyone running each department but you can have everyone involved in ministry - in loving others intentionally, in the same way that they've been loved by Jesus.

Hebrews 6:11 (NLT)

Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.

What are you hoping for? In my life what I'm hoping for personally has become more and more simple as I've gotten older and I hope wiser. All I'm hoping for is that I'll live a life that is pleasing to God and that I don't disqualify myself from the prize of eternal life because of sin or my refusal to obey daily the commands of Christ.

The apostle is telling us in Hebrews that by loving others and not stopping, we can make certain that the promises of God will come to pass. God himself will see to it. How good is that? You can't get a better guarantee anywhere else on planet earth. Which brings me to my final thought this afternoon.

Where is your security? It's one thing to say you're trusting God, it's another thing to do it.

You need to fix your mind on Christ, place your life in his hands, cast all your cares on him, cleave to him, obey him, follow him. Each of these require an intentional act of your will - they are things that you do and they start with an intentional thought. Where do you experience worry? In your mind. Worry identifies for us where our security is – where we're placing our trust. It could be your finances, it could be your job, it could be in another's ability to change their mind. When Jesus said "don't worry" he was talking about our security. We worry when we feel insecure because we are placing our hope in something other than God. When he said not to worry he went on to say we were to trust in God because He would take care of us. It's an intentional act of your will to stop worrying and place your hope in Him.

For some, talking about worry makes them uncomfortable because it brings up another question - maybe what they're doing and worrying about isn't something that God wants them to be involved in. To place something into God's hands means we look at why we're doing what we're doing. It's like saying to God - "God I'm about to rob this bank and I'm really worried that I might get caught - can you help me here." Sounds ludicrous but you'd be surprised at how many people find themselves in the same position and wonder why things keep going pear shaped for them.

So in conclusion - 2011 is nearly upon us and it has the potential of being your best year yet. God's will for you is that it brings you good. That it's a good year. We need to approach it with an attitude of faith and a determination to love others till the very end. If there are things that you're worried about ask yourself why - be as honest as you can and be sure that God will always provide wisdom and guidance to those who truly want to honour him with their lives.



TWO WEEKS ON . . .

12th July 2010

Yesterday was our second Sunday in our new venue and at our new time slot and to say I'm pleased with how things have gone would be an understatement. When embarking on any major change there is always a sense of trepidation coupled with the excitement you feel. Sunday the 4th of July was the launch of our new service and whilst I was totally convinced that God was directing us to go in this direction there was a little knee knocking going on behind the scenes as I wondered how it would all go down on the day. But then that's why they call it faith.

I remember asking an older pastor, when I was just starting out in the ministry, how he'd known that God was directing him in some of the major decisions that he'd made during his life. He looked at me and then said something that didn't inspire great confidence at the time "How do I know if its God? I suppose you know it is if it works." 20 + years later I've come to understand what he was talking about. Often the proof that God is in something is only found after you've done it. Which is why it's important that you are really doing what Proverbs 3 tells us to do - trusting in God with all your heart and leaning not on your own understanding, acknowledging Him in all your ways because when you do He really does make your path straight.

Another thing that I've learnt to do over the years is to listen to the team of people that God gathers round me. At Grace we've been blessed with an incredible team of wonderful men and women who are learning what it means to love God and to love others as they've been loved. I knew we were going in the right direction when every one of them wholeheartedly agreed with the plan to relocate our service and change the time to a 4 pm timeslot.

Already we're seeing the fruit of our obedience as each week in our new venue we've seen new people added to our church and the place packed. It seems that the grapevine in Hobart is alive and well and even though we're no longer in the centre of the city new people are still making their way to our service. Feeding the children in our Kids Program and having food for our youth and aduts after the service is working even better than I expected and it's a great way to end the weekend. The added advantage is you don't have to do the dishes and tidy up when you get home.

Whilst I was away in Sydney last week I felt the Holy Spirit encourage me that now was the time to step up and not step back because God had opened a door before us that He wants us to pass through. A door to greater effectiveness and influence in our city. A door into the heart of Hobart. There are 1000's of people who don't as yet know the love of God for them and it's my prayer that God will use our church, along with all the other churches in our city, to reach the ones He came to seek and to save.

The best is yet to come . . .



EXCITING NEWS

Last Sunday (May 16th) I made an announcement at church about a change that would be occurring in July with regards to our service time and venue. I've attached the letter that we sent out to all our people this week below this.

From the start of July we will be closing our morning services, both the 9 and 11 am services, and moving to a 4 pm combined service at Citywide Convention Centre in Mornington. Given our current space restrictions and our continuing growth it became apparent last year that we would have to add another service by the end of 2010 to what we currently offered that included our kids program to accommodate the new families that were joining our church.

To do that would mean a lot of extra work and committment from our volunteers, something that we were loath to burden them with. So instead we started looking around for a venue that was big enough to accommodate both our congregations and still have room to grow. I first spoke about this last year when we met as a church to talk about the Cambridge land purchase and said that we had approached Citywide re leasing their facilities.

Negotiations have resulted in Citywide agreeing to let us lease their building each Sunday afternoon from July onwards. Whilst any change in the way you do things has it's challenges there are quite a lot of positives associated with this move; some of which I've listed below.

  • No stairs - easy access
  • Plenty of car parking
  • One service with room to continue growing
  • It’s at a family friendly time
  • Extended community time after service
  • Lighter load on our teams running the service
  • Food as well as coffee will be provided
  • We’re over the bridge & closer to Cambridge
  • More people can participate in the Grace experience
  • Less stressed Pastors :)
  • Frees up a greater chunk of time on the weekend to BE the church

Nearly 50 people were directly consulted re the move and upon prayerful consideration the response back was overwhelmingly positive. We do appreciate however that there will be some who will find this change difficult. We will do everything in our power to help make the transition as easy as possible but we need to hear from people if they are struggling.

I was so blessed by the response from our church last weekend when I shared on the move and as a Pastor it is such a privilege to lead a church that responds so maturely to change. In the scheme of things a change of meeting time and venue isn't all that important when weighed up against the lives of the people we are reaching out to and I know that Jesus smiles when he sees his church staying focused the passion of His heart. I believe that this move will enable us to continue growing and to reach people that we have been unable to up until now. Already we are hearing stories of people who will be able to come to our new service time who haven't been to church before.

To make the change of service as smooth as possible I will be updating my blog regularly with news about the move so check back each week to find out what's happening.

Blessings,

Ps Dermot



LETTER TO THE CHURCH

Dear Church

Exciting days ahead!

If you were in church last Sunday you would have heard about our upcoming move on July the 4th to Citywide Convention Centre in Mornington for our Sunday service.

With our consistent growth these last few years, it’s become increasingly obvious that we need to add another service including our Grace Kids program if we are to continue providing for all the young families that are joining us. Unfortunately, that would mean placing more pressure on our teams and that is something we aren’t keen to do.

Late last year we started looking at our options, and our leadership team decided to look for a venue to lease for our Sundays services. Specifically, a large enough auditorium to house both our congregations with room to grow, enough classrooms to continue the current program we run, a large kitchen facility, and an area to have quality fellowship after the service. The only place currently available in the city that ticks all the boxes has been Citywide Convention Centre in Mornington. We started discussions with their leadership last November about the possibility of leasing their facility and now have a green light to hire their premises.

Because they run a morning church service, we need to change our meeting time to 4 pm. At first I was a little hesitant about changing from a Sunday morning to a Sunday afternoon. However, the more we’ve investigated what the change would mean to us and, just as importantly, what it would mean re our ability to connect with unchurched families, I’ve become convinced that it will be a very positive step forward for us as a church.

Our aim at this stage is to also offer food at cost price so that families with young children can come to church and have a meal rather than having to go home afterwards to cook and clean up before putting their kids to bed. This will also benefit those without young children and boost our already successful post-service fellowship time.

Whilst this may all sound rather radical it’s important that we keep the change in perspective. Grace Church isn’t changing; all that’s changing is our meeting time and venue. Everything else will be just the same or better. It will be great to have both our congregations back together again. It will be great to enjoy a meal together each week. It will be great to offer our service at a time that will suit families who currently experience difficulties making it to church due to Sunday morning sport and other commitments. It will be great to move over the bridge closer to our future home in Cambridge.

We realise that a change in meeting time and location may pose accessibility problems for some. We will do everything we can to alleviate any issues that people may have, so please contact the pastoral staff to let us know how we can help.

When preparing to present this new direction to our church last weekend, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly blessed to be leading Grace. We’re obviously not perfect, no church is, but we have a heart and a passion to follow Jesus and reach our city that goes far beyond our own personal comfort or convenience. It says a lot about the type of church we’re becoming that would allow us to embrace a change like this with such grace and maturity.

I will be communicating more about the move each Sunday at Grace leading up to July, so please make sure you’re there if you can be as I have a lot more to share.

May you be blessed,

Ps Dermot Cottuli

Senior Pastor