Dear Friends,
Last week I was talking with our Bishop and I asked him about the issues which are going to impact ministry in the inner city in the next few years. Interestingly he has said that our city including the inner west is going to see greater immigration coming from Asia esp. China and Hong Kong. This means that the surrounding community will become even more multicultural than it is now and we need to be ready to meet this challenge. One of our visions for the last 3 years has been to become more multicultural and this is happening. Further we can see from our booming primary schools that younger families have moved into the area and it seems they will stay longer rather than moving when their family grows. About 5 years ago All Souls Parish and the Diocese engaged a church growth expert from America. Paul Borden conducted a consultation and produced a report. He indicated that a key driver for growth is children’s ministry. Over the last 3 years we have sought to act on this and employed a part time children’s ministry worker, Shion and established a kid’s after school club and sought to strengthen our Sunday school. Last Sunday we had a meeting with parents discussing children’s ministry and seeking feedback. We have much more to do and ask for your prayers for God’s guidance as are committed to ongoing evaluation and improvement.

We decided at our meeting to rename the creche ministry as Little Souls and develop this as a transition point to Sunday school. We are also working on the development of our Playtime Cafe to be more evangelistic. We are seeking to see all our ministries develop pathways that bring people to faith in Christ and fellowship in the church and this includes our children. This is relevant because as we look at Matthew 1:1-17 which discusses the genealogy of Jesus we see that He is descended from the royal line of David because He is a son of David. Matthew is effectively teaching us the the true King of the world has come. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus commissions His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples Matthew 28:16-20. We do this because Jesus is the rightful King of this world and calls all people to yield and submit to His Kingship. That is what Christmas is all about. Our King enters our world and dies to save us from our sin and calls us to submit to Him as Lord and Saviour. At our 5pm service we look again at the book of Jude and this time focus on understanding what false teachers look like and how to spot their deception and remain faithful. At our children’s ministry meeting we also discussed how we plan to develop a pathway for our Year 6 kids entering high school by commencing a fortnightly youth Bible study and games afternoon in the second half of next year. We will continue our monthly Friday night youth group but pray and work for this new group to create a pathway to engage our emerging youth in the evening church and help our young people to engage in being disciples and love and own their church. God’s Blessing David O'Mara 

Dear Friends,
Today we welcome Anton Triyanto and Ahn and their son Angus. Anton is a staff worker with AFES in Brisbane working in University Ministry. University Ministry is a very important ministry in seeking to win people for Christ as they think about their lives and what the future holds. Last week at our baptism service we read the Apostle’s Creed. This ancient document is a summary of the essentials of the Christian faith. Often the doubts or discouragements which we experience in our faith are because we have an atomistic approach to the Bible. We know bits of it but when something happens in our life we can become disappointed with God because lack a thorough grasp of the whole story. In effect our approach to the Bible needs to be comprehensive where the great truths as outlined in the Creed are well understood by us so that when a trial comes we have Biblical resources to draw on and so can gain strength from God’s Word. In the morning Anton will be looking at Philippians 2:1-11 which is a wonderful summary of the incarnation and identity of Christ and His work on the cross and subsequent call on people to submit to Him as Lord and Saviour. Jesus is Lord and Saviour because His being is very nature God. He came to earth as a servant emptying himself of His glory ! In the evening we are looking at the book of Jude and in particular v3 encourages us to contend for the faith. This takes up the idea of wrestling for our faith. Interestingly our faith is described as “the faith” meaning that even at this early stage in the life of the church it is seen as a body of teaching which has come down from the apostles - see Acts 2:42, Ephesians 2:20. Jude is warning against false teachers who had come into the church. Jude warns us to not be led astray and so we need to both know the great truths of the Bible well and also build ourselves up in our holy faith. God’s Blessing David O’Mara

Dear Friends,
John intentionally uses the Greek word “logos” to describe Jesus. In its original setting “logos” described a life principle which gave meaning to life and was the desire of all to align with. John has taken this philosophical term and enlarged and enriched its meaning. Jesus is the “logos” who is personal and has come to earth and who can be known. In the first section 1:1-4 John explains that this Word was with God and is God and always existed. The Word is divine. Further John explains that all things were made through this Word and that He gives life to all men. The Word is our creator and so we owe him our allegiance because our life is a gift from Him. In the second section 1:5-11 we learn that despite the witness of John the Baptist pointing to Jesus as the true light people rejected Him. In v5 the word “understood” or “overcome” is intentionally ambiguous and carries the sense that people are ignorant of this Word who gives life and this is also the result of their rebellion against God. This rebellion is the reason why people also want to overcome Him or control Him. Incredibly this Word came to earth and came to the Jewish people and was rejected by them. It is a reminder that people can see God and yet still reject Him. But in the final section 1:12-14 the good news is that despite this rejection this Word offers us the right to become children of God. This is a gift which we cannot earn or inherit through human effort. Indeed it is the work of the Holy Spirit. In 1:14 this Word became flesh and so is identified as Jesus. He lived amongst us and came from God and reveals the glory of God. The glory of God is the heaviness or weight of His goodness and love and power and purity and grace. Jesus is the true light and unless we know Him we walk in darkness 1:5. Pray for the Lord to give us a revelation of His love and goodness and glory. At the 5pm service we conclude our series on John’s letter. In 3 John John writes to his dear friend Gaius. He is praying for him and in fact John says what motivates him is to hear that believers are walking in the truth. John’s heart is for the health of the church. Despite the good things happening in the church community John mentions that Diotrephes wouldn’t welcome believers. This person is a leader and he is also involved in spread malicious nonsense as well as ejecting true believers from the church community. There are enemies of the Gospel even in church and we have to exercise godly discipline to encourage them to repent. God’s Blessing David O’Mara