Saturday, November 04, 2006

For what we proclaim is Jesus Christ as Lord!

Ahh, finally i have time to post. This week was the busiest uni week ever. 2 Major assignments due, one worth 60%. And a bunch of laboratories.
I got to lead our cbm main meeting on thursday, it was nice. We even had a song and ate cake :). It's finally the day of our ball, which is tonight. I decided i will bring a suit :P. It isen't me to ware a suit lol.
Anyways During the week i red through the Archbishop's presidential Address. It was on leadership, and has some good interesting points, for good old unchangeable anglican's lol. Here is some interesting things he said.

"The fourth policy of the Mission calls upon us 'To reform the Life of the Dioceses (including our culture, ordinances, customs, use of resources, and depolyment of ministry) to encourage and enable the fulfilment of the fundamental aim.' We have made reforms; so far we have not gone far enough in the changes we need to make. Much of what we do is still shaped by the nineteenth and twentieth century experience of church life. We are functioning well for a 1970s social context. We are ready to fight the last war. How do we so advance as to meet our missionary challenge, while remaining firmly committed to the gospel and the scriptures? The key to fruitful change is godly leadership and trained mission partners. I know that i am calling for something that is very demanding. It is especially difficult to lead in times of challenge and change. It is harder to be a Moses tehn a Solomon. The life of the people in Egypt was unpleasant. They groaned under their harsh servitud; they were the victims of a genocidal plan; their hopes were eaten up by the fears. Under God, Moses became their saviour. He defeated Pharaoh. He led them across the Read Sea. He brought them virtually to the Promised Land. And yet, again and again, the same people became unwilling and rebellious; again and again they contrasted their present plight with their days in Egypt, and they said that they longed to go back. 'We remeber the fish we ate in Egyot at no cost - also the cucumbers, meolons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!' (Num 11:5,6) The condition of the people in slavery was intolerable; and yet some of the people preferred to tolerate the intolerable rather than to dare the unknown. The challenge for Moses throughout his long ministry both before and after Sinai was a twofold one.
He had to get the people to accept and live by the word of God. He had to ensure that the word of God was believed and preserved. Indeed it was only because they had the word that they saw themselves as a people. Change that is worth accomplishing has within it the unchanging core of who we are, what we stand for, what we purpose to do with persistence and endurance. We must say, as the people did, 'We will do everything the Lord has said' (Ex 19:8). 'Sydney-anglicans' must allways be a Bible people, a gospel people. That's our inner corse."

"Without abandoning any of the five cheif features of our churches - conversion, preaching, training, fellowship and reform, we also need a leadership which will help to turn outward, to re-engage with the world in which we find ourselves - to study and be committed to the community onces again. I am not suggesting a huge problem. Just to ask about the missing men may be a good start. This time, however, it is not that we see the parish as a mission field made up of dormant Christians, but rather as a mission field of those for whom faith itself is a vague memory, who knows little or nothing about Christ and his kingdom. We need to ask ourselves, In God's name and for the sake of the Lord who died for us, and for his sheep scattered in all the world - how are we going to reach these people for Christ and his gospel?
That of course, is the real point behind the 10% goal. It is not a 10% increase in congregations but 10% of the population. It is intended to makue us look outward, to take responsibility not merely for our church, but for our community, our parish and indeed the world beyond."

You can read the full presidential address here

Anyways i must get ready for the ball :P.
Christ Jesus, triumphant King and our only hope: grant to us and to those for whom we pray, forgivness of our sins, deliverance from all that afflicts us, and entrance into your enternal kingdom; that we may praise you with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and for ever. Amen.

Laurence.

1 comment:

Matthew Moffitt said...

Yes...it started off as one of the worst speeches ever, but PJ managed to save it