Yoo-hoo, I’m calling you! - God
It
was about the second Sunday after I had experienced an encounter with God. With
my mum, I went to the St. Johns Lutheran Church at Lobethal. I heard Pastor Tom Peitsch talk about every
member of the congregation being ministers! I was astonished as I saw the
pastor as a demi-god, doing it all. My impression of the church members was as
sheep being fed of lashings of fire and brimstone preaching once a week.
Obviously I now know otherwise.
However
I was again reminded of God’s ‘call’ on every believer’s life when I read a
brief article by Rick Warren. The headline read, “God Calls You
to Serve Others”. (My emphasis on YOU!)
Two
points highlighted are:
- God calls you to a service far beyond anything you could ever imagine. You were put on Earth to make a contribution.
- You weren’t created just to consume resources — to eat, breath, and take up space. God designed you to make a difference with your life. You were created to add to life on Earth, not just take from it. God wants you to give something back.
The
Bible says, “In our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good
deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10b
TEV). These “good deeds” are your service to the world. Whenever you serve
others in any way, you are actually serving God and fulfilling one of your
purposes (Colossians 3:23-24;
Matthew
25:34-45; Ephesians 6:7).
What
God told Jeremiah is also true for you: “Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I
chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work"
(Jeremiah 1:5a NCV).
When
most people think of this "special work," they think of pastors,
priests, lay workers or other professional clergy, but God says every member of his family is to minister.
In the Bible, the words "servant" and "minister" are
synonyms as are service and ministry. If you are a Christian, you are a
minister and when you’re serving, you’re ministering.
Have
you ever wondered why God doesn’t just immediately take us to Heaven the moment
we become believers and accept his grace? Why does he leave us in a fallen
world? He leaves us here to fulfil his purpose. Once you accept Jesus as Lord
and Saviour, God intends to use you for his purpose to see His Kingdom come.
God has a ministry for you in his Church and a mission for you in the world.
"It
is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ
Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping
others."
(Ephesians 2:10 LB)
For
prayer and meditation
- Is there anything holding you back from accepting God’s call to serve him?
- What task in ministry do you believe God has given you that you know you need his strength and power to complete?
If
you do feel that God is ‘calling’ you into any of the ministry areas here at
Good Shepherd, please contact me or other ministry team leaders. We
will help you!
May
the Lord bless you as you seek his will in your life.
Barry
Klaer
Pastoral
Care & Fellowship
Prayer Requests: Not
included in this newsletter, but if you would like to view the
current requests, refer to the e-mail that alerted you to this
Newsletter. If you have a prayer request or wish to be covered by
prayer please email churchenquiries@paravista.org.au with your request
This week we continue
the series “Soul Encounters on the Way
to the Cross”. This week’s message is “Someone special in Jesus’ eyes!” Bart petitions Jesus: “Lord, I want to see.” And Jesus grants his
request. “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” Immediately he
received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. (Lk 18:42-43 NIV)
Bible Reading: Luke
18:35-43
Podcasts available at www.paravista.org.au
Families
Good Shepherd families, we would love to
get you involved with leading the prayers in our 10:30am worship services. You
would be rostered on one Sunday a year and we would love to see and hear both
adults and children leading the congregation in their prayers. Please contact
Beth Einthal (beth.einthal@paravista.org.au) if you would like more information or
just send your interest through!
Kingdom Kids
We are enjoying getting into
our fabulous new resources – the first year of a three year program which
extends across all the zones and takes the children on a journey throughout the
whole bible!
- · Kindy Zone is held in the school (in Bethany Kluge’s classroom)
- · Kids Zone is held in the school library
- · Kool Zone is held in the classroom next to the school library.
We need at least 3 more
volunteers (helpers) for Kindy Zone/Kids Zone/Kool Zone (3-12yrs). You would be
rostered on with a Team Leader on Sundays and all of the planning will have
been done by them. You would need to come at about 10am on the Sunday you are
rostered on and enjoy spending time with the kids on their faith journeys.
Baby Zone
Baby Zone will be available
for children 0-2yrs in the Education Centre. We have an exciting program this
year and look forward to encouraging your kids in their faith journey and
having fun with them!
We still desperately need at
least 1 more volunteer to help with Baby Zone. You would be rostered on once
every 4-6 weeks and the commitment would be for about 2 hours on a Sunday.
Please consider if you can be involved!
Playgroup
We will be having fun with
Easter this term, please feel free to pop in and visit. We are also enjoying
some fabulous new equipment from a government grant we received last year!
Playgroup is held Wednesday
morning 9:30-11:30am in the Church hall, please come and say hi! If you would
like some more info about children’s ministry, please give me a call or send me
an email (I work Thursdays).
Beth Einthal (Relief Children and Family
Ministry)
Cebu Mission Fundraising
Our
major Fundraiser for 2013 is a RIVER BOAT MUSIC CRUISE on the Port River
Dolphin Explorer. Tickets are available from the church office, or from
Team members Joan McCarthy, Di Ollino or Karen McAleer.
Date: Saturday
13th April 2013, Boarding Time: 6.30pm for 7pm departure (don't be late
or you will miss the boat!)
Where: Near the Lighthouse at the end of Commercial Road, Port Adelaide.
Tickets are
$45/head which includes music by The Adelaide Old Time String Band,
dancing, 3hrs cruising and supper. There will be raffles, lucky squares,
games and a coin slide. Optional ~ you can even dress up like the band for some
added atmosphere! So gather your sea-legs and your friends and come along and
enjoy a fantastic night!
For
any further details please see Poster and flyers (please take one) in the
Narthex.
In service
announcements
As part of our
congregational communication strategy we include selected announcements in our
worship services. We appreciate that some people find this disruptive and to
minimise this we seek to keep our announcements to a minimum. At the same time
we also understand that ministry teams are passionate about having their
ministries and events promoted as much as possible. This creates quite a
challenge to decide what is included and what is left out.
As a rule of thumb the
announcement needs to be relevant for a large section of our congregation. We
tend to avoid announcing ministries that happen on a regular basis preferring
to promote these through the weekly news and the before and after service
slides. This can be arranged by emailing Sooty Lor (slor@paravista.org.au). In saying this if there is
something special happening at a particular meeting we would consider including
it in the in service announcements.
To have an event
considered for the announcements they need to be emailed to Pastor Noel (nkluge@paravista.org.au) at least two weeks before the Sunday
you want them announced. Please avoid asking one of the pastors to make an
announcement a couple of minutes before a service begins. It can create a
rather awkward situation if the pastor has to decline the request due to an
already high number of announcements.
It is important to note
that while an announcement can raise awareness of an event or ministry, the
best way to attract people to something is through a personal invitation.
Encouraging your team members to personally invite people will have a far
greater impact than an announcement.
If you have any further
questions about in service announcements feel free to contact Pastor Noel.
Alpha 2013
The Alpha course is
where participants can discover who Jesus is and what it means to follow
him. Following the presentations by
Nicky Gumbel, participants can ask questions and search for answers in a small
group with others.
God touched many hearts
and lives through last year’s Alpha course here at Good Shepherd. This year we are hoping to run Alpha on a
series of Sunday nights: 14th April to 7th July; plus a
day where we explore the Holy Spirit (Saturday 1st June). We would like to kick off each Sunday evening
around 5:30pm with a meal.
For that to be possible,
we need the gifts and help of others. So
we are asking whether members and friends of our Good Shepherd family can serve
in the following areas:- Helping with set up or pack up
- Catering or food preparation
- Creche
- Small group leaders
- Prayer team
- Music or sound
Please consider and pray
about being involved.
If you have any questions
or would like to join in this adventure, please contact any of the Alpha Team:
Debbie and Cees Wesselingh, Merv and Ros Thiele, Lindsay Freund.
CELEBRATING PALM SUNDAY
FISH and SALAD LUNCH
When: Sunday 24th March 2013 after 10:30am service
Where: Good Shepherd Church Hall
Why: Celebrating Christ’s Triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Who: You and your family and any guest you may invite
Cost: Gold coin donation
Did you know? The palm is a figure of the righteous
enjoying their deserved prosperity (Psalm 92:12), probably with reference to
the greenness of its foliage, the symmetry of the tree and its fruit. Palm
branches are a symbol of victory. (Revelation 7:9)
The primitive church
used the palm to express the triumph of the Christian over death through the
resurrection.
On the tombs the palm
is generally accompanied by the monogram of Christ, signifying victory of the
Christian is through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
The palm is especially the sign of martyrdom as this was considered in the light of victor (Unger’s Bible Dictionary. Moody Press 1985)
Barry Klaer
Pastoral Care (Hospitality)
In the Fast Lane:
Nola Watson has been a member at Good Shepherd since about June 2003. When I first met Nola I was amazed to learn that she rode a Harley Davidson motor cycle and loves touring with the club with whom she’s affiliated. Nola has clocked up over 178,000 kilometres in her touring around the state and country. One of the more special events of the year for Nola is being involved in the Clipsal 500. She with other Harley riders carry the V8 drivers as pillion passengers around the circuit as a pre-race parade. Jamie Whincup is an Australian auto racing driver who competes in the V8 Supercar Championship Series. He is a four-time V8 Supercar champion and four-time Bathurst 1000 winner. This year Nola was delighted to have champion Holden driver Jamie Whincup selected to ride with her, in fact she allowed Jamie to ride the bike while she rode pillion.
(Below) Jamie Whincup with Nola beside her ‘Hog’.
Barry Klaer
Pastoral Care &
Fellowship
From the Office
Volunteers make
it happen
Feel part of the
community. Become a volunteer.
Our community
strengths are found in the relationship that we draw upon for our identity,
interaction and support. It can be said
that a strong community is one where people understand and work towards
sustainability and is inclusive of their most disadvantaged groups. To achieve this, people need to be involved,
feel capable of working through issues they have within that community and feel
supported by their fellow person.
So to become a full
member of a society or group is to be completely involved in its activities,
whether they be the leader of that community or the person who is at the end of
the broom handle or tea towel. I
recently attended the interfaith dialogue hosted by Tony Zappia with the guest
speaker the Hon Kevin Rudd MP. One of the quotes he made towards the end of
question time attracted my attention. When Mr Rudd was talking about his many
travels around the globe, he stated that there were varied and many different
types of people out there but “of all the people I meet out there, the happiest
people are out there giving. The saddest
people are the takers or those doing nothing.”
Volunteers make it happen. Add your name to a roster
Our community is
desperately short of volunteers to assist in vacuuming the church. This can be a lot of fun when done in small
groups but becomes a huge chore when it has to be done on your own. The more volunteers we have the greater the
time between being rostered on. Please
consider becoming one of the “happier” people out there and contact the office
to find out how you could achieve this.
Volunteers make it happen. First Aid
Do you have a current
first aid certificate? With your skills
would you be willing to assist in times required. However we don’t know who you
are. As a community we would love to be
able to ask for help when and if the need arose rather than have to search for
someone in a crowd. I am putting
together a list of qualified persons to ensure the safety of all members and
guests. Please mark your welcome card,
contact Stephen or the office via email at churchenquiries@paravista.org.au or
phone 08 8263 5087 during office hours.
Volunteers make it happen. Village Board
The Village Board is
seeking an interested person to participate in the organisational activities of
the Lutheran Village at Para Vista.
Meetings are held once a quarter and your valuable input is required.
Please mark your welcome card, contact Stephen or the office via email at
churchenquiries@paravista.org.au or phone 08 8263 5087 during office hours.
Stephen Zanker
For Sale
The church currently
has three professional Phil Anderson produced table tennis tables for
sale. The tables do require a small
amount of maintenance to make them safe to use. Please contact Stephen or the front office
on 8263 5087or via email szanker@paravista.org.au for further information.
From the Board and Finance Team
Offerings in 2013
At
the half-yearly meeting of the congregation in November it was accepted to
increase the Offering budget to $512,500 for 2013. This is an increase of around $9,300
on that received in 2012 and represents an increase of $180 per Sunday. The board would like to commend this target
to all members who call Good Shepherd their spiritual home and prayerfully
consider how you could respond to this goal.
God has blessed us with many exciting and rewarding ministries at Good
Shepherd and the board would like to ensure that all these ministry areas are
suitably resourced.
Giving
can be done in 2 ways: Offerings can be
placed each week on the offering bowl. Money can simply be placed into the
offering bowl or offering envelopes can be used. These are available on the
shelf under the pigeon holes. These are
not numbered and therefore remain anonymous.
Offerings can be given electronically. The
Lutheran Laypeople's League (LLL) provides a service (Regular Electronic Giving
- REG) whereby regular payments can
be deducted from your own Bank account.
The account can be with any financial institution and is completed free
of any fee. Further to this your privacy
is ensured as the LLL does not provide details of where the offerings come
from. If you would like further information the link on the LLL website is
provided which also includes the application form (http://www.lll.org.au/giving/regular_electronic_giving). Forms
are also held in the brochure rack at the rear of the church.
Giving through REG has advantages:
- Your giving is regular even if you cannot attend service. This makes monitoring the budget much easier.
- You do not need to carry cash
- It is safer as less cash is held on the premises
- The work load of those volunteers counting offerings is lessened.
Convention
Delegates
The Convention of the LCA will be held at Immanuel College Novar
Gardens Monday 22nd April thru Wednesday 24th April. If
you are interested in being one of Para Vista’s delegates please contact John
Dolling (jdolling@bigpond.net.au /
8367 5296) or the church office.
For more details on the Convention go to the SA District web site www.lca.org.au
(We apologise that information
given in previous issues of Weekly news was incorrect)
Vacancies
CHILD AND FAMILY ENCOURAGER
(0.4 FTE negotiable)
An opportunity exists to help plan and
administer support and care programs for families. The position is based at the
Hand in Hand Family Centre run in partnership between Lutheran Community Care
and St Petri Lutheran Church in Nuriootpa.
Job Description and enquiries for this
position:
Visit:
www.lccare.org.au, Email: aroennfeldt@lccare.org.au
Tel: 08 8562 2688 or St Petri Lutheran Church
Tel: 08 8562 1011
Applications to: Anne Roennfeldt, Lutheran
Community Care
26 Second Street Nuriootpa SA 5355 or via
above email
Applications close Monday 18th March
5.00pm
ST STEPHEN’S LUTHERAN CHURCH PART TIME YOUTH WORKER (0.2 FTE)
At St Stephen’s we value our young people. We want a person to work with
us and share our passion to support
and care for young people. If you want to find out more about this important ministry
check our website:
Applications close on 22nd March 2013.
Notice Board
THE LUTHERAN - MARCH EDITION OUT NOW
TALKING WITH MY HANDS
Adelaide Deaf Community Church’s pastor, John Hoopmann, preaches the
best sermons you’ll never hear.
WATCH AND LEARN
Being deaf is not a disability; it’s a different ability.
MIRACLE ON THE FIREGROUND
Special Ministry Pastor Melvin Salzke doesn’t sit still in a fire
emergency: he prays—with his hands and
his feet.
RHYTHMS OF GRACE (new column in 2013!)
In the ebb and flow of liturgy, God is at work, whether we hear him or
not.
To subscribe, visit www.thelutheran.com.au
To subscribe, visit www.thelutheran.com.au
Subscriptions—11 issues per year; $40
Australia, $42 New Zealand
Friends of Lutheran Archives meeting. Topic: And still they speak
Diyari (Dieri). Speaker:
Prof Peter Austin. The Aboriginal language of the Bethesda Mission on Cooper’s
Creek is still being spoken. Peter Austin has been involved in its
preservation. At Bethlehem House, Sudholz Place, Adelaide, on Monday 25th
March at 7.30pm. Supper. Gold coin donation.
Fullarton Fun Fete - Saturday
16th March 2013
From 12noon to 3.00pm at Fullarton Lutheran Homes, 14
Frew Street, Fullarton
Lots of great food, novelty, produce and pampering
stalls and entertainment (including Irish dancers)!
Time heals almost everything. Give time
time
Church Web site: www.paravista.org.au
