Welcome to the Pastors’ Pen – a written update for life at Southern Cross…
This is a reflection from Sunday’s announcement from Ritchie regarding the consultancy at SCG (Ritchie is on annual leave this week). For those who were present with SCG on Sunday you will have heard – yes, the report from John Mark Extension has finally come in! We are very grateful that the report to Leadership Team (LT) arrived in time for our scheduled meeting last Wednesday night. We are not entirely clear on the reason for the length of the delay for the report, but expect it is somewhat related to how respected and sought after Tim D and Luke M are by churches and Christian organisations around Australia.
As Ritchie noted on Sunday, the report for the SCG church family will be available Sunday, May 21. Once the participants of SCG have time to read and reflect on the report members of LT will be around on Sunday, June 11, to present to SCG some of the critical features that will be involved in a final decision on the future of SCG. LT will then have its next meeting on June 14 and members of SCG will be invited to talk to, and pray with, LT.
A final decision on the future on SCG is due to take place at the LT meeting on July 26 following a season of prayer and reflection. Thank you very much to those from SCG who participated in the consultancy with Tim and Luke. Also, a BiG note of thanks to Ritchie who has facilitated this consultancy process with the coordination team at SCG. From here, I will begin to work with the SCG coordination team and LT as we chart this next season leading into the July meeting.
Please, can I encourage you to pray for the SCG coordination team, LT, the SCG church family and also for Matt and Sue as they return to SCG this Sunday following the completion of the consultancy process.
Finally, no matter what the future holds, we are thrilled that we can together on this enheartening journey with Jesus in John’s gospel and we want to commit to our Father God those that might join SCG on Food For Thought Sunday (May 28) as we explore the incredible love God has for our world.
Let me leave you with a picture of that love from the letter of 1 John:
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
SP on behalf of LT
