Dear Church,
it’s so nice to be back act church after a long break. I’m excited about 2022, and all it’ll bring.
This year, we’ll get the chance to do so much together. It’ll be a time to rebuild, serve, grow and worship face-to-face over the next 44 weeks.
Yes, we’ve just come through one of the most challenging periods in modern church history, and, honestly, we are not yet all the way through it. For 24 plus months, the world has been in different phases of quarantine, sickness, now we’ve moved to flooding in QLD and NSW.
As I write to you—there will be more phases in the future because of Covid variants and all that will bring. To add to this, Ukraine is struggling with an invasion from a long-time enemy. Please keep Pavel and Nataliya Belan and the Rudenko family in your prayers. For Pavel and Nataliya it’s an immediate threat to their livelihood, freedom, safety and concern for their loved ones. Please keep them in your prayers.
Over the last few years, the good news is that the church never closed; we simply reimagined how we did ministry and discipleship. Now, as we reopen and restart our ministries, it is time to think about how we’ll welcome, encourage everyone to return and get involved.
We’ve just finished our sermon series, “The most loving church. I’ve been blessed over the month of February. This Sabbath, March 5 we’re commencing a new sermon series titled, Manifesto, a study of the Book of Colossians.
Over the next nine weeks we hope to present Jesus Christ to you in such a way you cannot help but love Him, that you cannot help but fall at His feet and give Him your undying devotion, not out of guilt, duty, obligation, or fear, but because your heart has been captured by a glimpse of the greatest person this world has ever known, Jesus the Christ. Out of such love flows everything else. Everyone will have the privilege of owning a Workbook, to work through, study, learn and grow.
Over millennia, Christians have made the gospel about so many things—things other than Christ. Religious concepts, ideas, doctrines, strategies, methods, techniques, formulas, "its" and "things" have all eclipsed the beauty, the glory, and the reality of the Lord Jesus Himself.
On the whole, the world is starved for a real experience of the living Jesus. We know a lot about our Lord, but we don't know Him very well. We know a lot about trying to be like Jesus, but very little about living by His indwelling life. Pastor Josh, Jess and myself are excited about this new series. Let’s dig deeply, explore, learn and fall in love all over again with the life-giver—Jesus Christ.
Please allow for me to share a few other items of importance with you:
Selection Committee
This Sabbath, March 5, straight after church—after the final prayer, we’ll be nominating the selection committee. The role of the Selection Committee is to choose the Nominating Committee. So if you’re a member of the Castle Hill Seventh-day Adventist church, please ensure you are part of the voting process. Your involvement is required for the process to function well. Please note—this part of the service will not be streamed live. All members are encouraged to be at our church service.
Nominating Committee
In Castle Hill stands a humble auto-mechanic repair shop where I have taken my cars since 2008. Every 10,00km, I give my car into the hands of Andrew, a great, honest mechanic. From time to time my car needs something major; mostly, though, it gets minor adjustments.
Maybe that’s a good metaphor for the church Nominating Committee. I consider the Castle Hill Seventh-day Adventist church vital to God’s agenda, a church that needs to be able to transport His love smoothly and dependably to the lives of our congregation and community. And the nominating committee could be like the periodic trip to my mechanic, where my church’s functioning is adjusted for the highest performance.
During my first few years in ministry, I, like many other pastors, discovered that the nominating committee could cause turmoil. I also found that, if tuned a bit to maximise its pluses and reduce its minuses, and mission—the nominating committee can be satisfying, even fun. If anything, I found it to be an exciting time to serve, get to know our congregation at a deeper level, and work to deadlines with a wonderful team of volunteers. We need you to serve your church in 2022. No holding back.
Church Choir
Leonora Pakoti has a passion for music and has wanted to start a choir for a long time. She has decided its time. Time to get a group of volunteers, learn new songs together, and worship God through music. If you’d like to join the choir, it will commence on April 30. Please BYO lunch and stay after church for a 2:00pm rehearsal in the church hall. For further information, please contact Leonora Pakoti: lpakoti@gmail.com
Church Picnic
This Sabbath, March 5, you’re invited to join us for a church picnic in the church hall. It’s BYO (which means, bring your own lunch), straight after church. Let’s eat together. Share together. Have fun together, and break bread together.
Board Meeting
Pastor Pablo Lillo would like to invite all Board Members to attend the next Board Meeting on March 21. It’ll be held in the Church Hall starting at 7:30pm. If you’d like to add an agenda item for the meeting, please forward it to our church clerk, Julie Laws: Julielawsleopold@gmail.com