“How do you recover from a broken heart?”

That is how I opened a letter I wrote to the Trustees of the PCNSW on the two-year anniversary of the devastating floods in Lismore.

My letter to the Trustees was a plea to help us in our insurance claim for the devastation to the property we own at 99 Brewster Street. The letter led to a phone call with the General Manager of PCNSW. Then, like what happens for so many of us, time quickly passed and no real update arrived until an unexpected call from the insurance contractor that was doing repair work within the Northern Rivers in June. This call led to our discovery of a proposed pay out to SCPC for the property in Brewster Street. This, in turn, led to a flurry of phone calls between members of CoM at SCPC and the denomination. Thus, we feel we have had to play catch-up to try to get the process moving in a sensible amount of time. Below is firstly the process to date and then the two further tasks required:

• CoM met on 28^th July to unanimously endorse that we proceed to receive the pay out.
• Due to the amount of money in the pay out, the congregation needs to endorse it.
• Finally, the members of the Trustees of PCNSW also need to endorse it.

Therefore, the purpose of the congregational meeting on 25^th August will be to vote on the following two motions:

1. Accept the insurance pay out for 99 Brewster Street to the value of approximately $345, 000.

• Give the Committee of Management delegation/authority to sell the properties at 99 Brewster Street and 16 Wyrallah Road.

Understandably, members of the extended church family will be interested to know if the properties and land were both sold, what would we do with the proceeds of the sale?

As we have indicated over the last 6 months, we don’t actually know. As part of those reflections, LT, and subsequently CoM, is interested to hear reflections from our building working group. [1] They are preparing a briefing report for LT to peruse at their weekend planning from 25^th – 28th October this year.

However, here are two possible outcomes:

1. The funds of the sale go into a trust fund with PCNSW. Funds from the sale of the properties cannot be used for staffing, admin or ministry events. Funds received from property must be spent on property. The money in the account would grow as it earns interest. [2]
2. Funds of the sale could go towards the purchase of local rental properties, where rent from these investment properties could service staffing, admin or ministry events at SCPC.

I have mentioned in other correspondence with you at SCPC, that we are experienced, nomadic people, having endured different meeting locations over the last five years. [3] Obviously, from a theological perspective, being ‘nomadic’  is entirely correct, heaven is our home! But there is a general fatigue at the challenges of being renters and having to move in and move out most weeks of the year! We, as an extended church family, are indebted to our pack up and set up teams at Lismore High. There is a lot of physical and mental strain that goes into our weekly preparations at Lismore High, much of which is unseen to the extended church family.

Yet, as Rory Shiner, chairperson of The Gospel Coalition Australia notes, there is a greater threat to us than the physical rigour of setting up and packing up. Churches who meet in public spaces sit on a ‘ticking time bomb’ that at any moment can be removed. Even over the weekend, Dave and Kathy Thurston mentioned that in their church plant which met in a public school in Sydney, one Sunday morning 10 years ago, they found a sign on the fridge in the kitchenette at the school saying that they had three months to find an alternate meeting space. No email, no phone call, no meeting with the school executive, just a note on the fridge! We need to not be naïve or cynical about the future of Australian churches.

Am I interested in a building project? Absolutely not! (70% of pastors leave a church following a building campaign) [4]. Am I willing to explore the need of a building at SCPC? Absolutely!

Now, our greatest goal at SCPC is our vision to grow followers of Jesus. That’s where I want to spend 110% of my thought life, emotional strength and physical strength. Yet, a gospel base will be paramount in a rapidly changing culture. Therefore, we continue to move forward with gospel zeal, a LT with the heart and a CoM team with skill.

Christendom might be over in Australia, but what a hope that Christ will build His church and the gates of hell will not destroy it.

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Matthew 16:13-20

SP
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[1] You will remember from other Leadership Team reports we have called this working group our “SCPC spies”, like those from Numbers 13, seeking a good “flood-free” land!
[2] Recently, up to 50% of interest accrued from the growth in interest from the fund can be used for ministry purposes.
[3] This includes venues used by SCG from 2020-2023.
[4] Peter Steinke, Courageous Leadership in Family System Theory (p. 17).

Hello Team SCPC

I can’t wait for our SCPC family Olympics day on Sunday! What a fantastic way for families in our
church to connect with families in the community. Now, are you welcome if you’re single? Absolutely – you are part of our family! So, everyone, come and enjoy the fun and colour on Sunday morning at 9:30am, and then we have our regular 6pm gathering.

Now, our day does mean we will still tackle the question ‘Who is God?‘ But the way I approach it is very different to the study I prepared on Christian doctrine. I am thankful for having gone through the study with others during the week to help me consider how to ‘pitch it’ to a community member. But this has meant I will use Psalm 139 as an invitation to meet the God who knows you, and finish with the invitation to know God by knowing the son of God, Jesus, who is gentle and lowly.

Thus, as you engage the study next week, you will get no help from Sunday’s Bible talk! In the study I was following a traditional theological approach that suggests we can know God through his creation (see Psalm 19). But sadly, and devastatingly, due to the fall Romans chapter 1:18-32 reveals we (as a collective humanity) have a disposition to supress the truth, even though we can witness the majestic creator God in creation.

Now, not only does creation sing the praise of the majestic God (Psalm 96), his word the Bible reveals his character, nature, likes and heart to our world. Then, in fulfilment of the God who is Trinity, the Word (Jesus) enters our world. We see this powerfully in John’s gospel when Philip asks to see God, and Jesus replies (essentially) that you are looking at him! [1] This idea reveals the questions on the Trinity, and as I worked through the study during the week with others, and we saw the repeated passages that capture the Trinity, I found it very powerful personally!

Finally, the study ends on the wonder of God radiating his presence to the world, through the son, who is the exact representation of God.

So there you have it.

This Sunday we will see the God who is knowable and knows me from Psalm 139, then next week in your DNAs you will see the knowable God found in creation and his word (Psalm 19), who became flesh as a human in the God-man Jesus (Hebrews 1), and whose radiant glory can be exhibited in us through the Holy Spirit’s ministry, as we exalt the spectacular son Jesus Christ.

I simply loved preparing this material and benefited immensely from Michael Reeves’ book The Good God, a Moore College distance education course (you might like to enrol) and Broughton Knox’s book (through Matthias media) The Everlasting God. And here is a grab from Sunday’s Bible reading, how great!

1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Psalm 139:1-6

SP

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[1] John 14:8-18

As we prepare for Celebration Sunday at the end of the term, could I ask you “What makes your heart sing?”

Now you might come up with a list of five things very quickly – Vegemite, board games, sketching, sunsets and kombucha!

However our interest for celebration Sunday is what makes your heart sing as you consider life at Southern Cross Presbyterian Church!

It could be as simple as:
“Seeing kids from our church family heading down for the kids talk each Sunday.”
Or
“Getting together with my DNA to open God’s word and pray together.”

You might like to contribute just one, or you might find it to hard to decide on just one. That’s fine, write as many as you want! Inside your term booklet you will find two hearts that you can tear out to get you started and we will have more available for you across the term. 

Once you’ve written on your hearts, place them in the big heart that will be on display each Sunday at 9:30am and 6pm and our staff team will collect them across Term 3.

Then, on Celebration Sunday (September 22), we will display the small hearts as one large heart. Hence our desire for lots of little hearts to create our one BIG heart on Celebration Sunday!

Celebration Sunday is such a helpful Sunday for us – a rare moment to pause and reflect on the stories of how our God is at work through our ordinary lives, in extraordinary ways. Across our SCPC year*, there will no doubt be times of heartache, and even some times of real heartbreak. But our heartbeat continues, fuelled by the gospel, and Celebration Sunday will allow us to all consider (as we think about life at SCPC) what makes our heart sing.

You might like to reflect on this prayer of the Apostle Paul’s as you write on your paper heart for Celebration Sunday 2024…

1 Thessalonians 1:3 
We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

SP

* There is the calendar year, the financial year and the ‘SCPC year’ (which runs from Celebration Sunday to Celebration Sunday each year)!