40 Hours A Year

40 hours a year...

This is all the time that our Kids Space Team (10am Children’s Ministry) get to spend with the children in their groups over one year.

So imagine what can be accomplished if we were able to have an extra 48 hours with our Kids Spacers in the one year; we would be doubly blessed! Double the fun, double the relating, double the faith building, double the eating… you get the drift.

So rather than extending the hours of Kids Space, the Kids Space team have decided to have a weekend away for children in years 3-6 at school who come to Kids Space and Saturday Night Church.

It is important for this to be at the start of the year to ‘launch’ our year and establish relationships. Having the children come away with the Kids Space Leaders for a weekend will literally double our time spent together. The implications are huge: our Kids Space Leaders will get to know the children in their small groups, our children would get to know each other better, our Leaders will get be able to work alongside other Leaders, and we can all have a bit of a holiday together by the beach (of course we will need to find cooks as I am devoid of all giftedness in this area).

One of our core values in Children’s Ministry at Menai Anglican is to be a ‘community of friends’ and this is difficult when the children attend different schools, live in different suburbs and have only one hour a week together. A weekend away will make a huge difference in how we all relate to each other with shared experiences, funny stories and with a substantial amount of time in God’s word away from Facebook, computers and other screens.

The team of leaders are excited and all we need now are the children to join us February 28^th-March 2^nd at Austinmer Anglican Church. Mums can make the most of this quiet weekend as this is also the weekend away for the men at the Katoomba Men’s convention!

We are really looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us and your children over this weekend away.  

Mary Pickford - Children's Minister,  Yvette Maloney and the Kids Space team

A Church of Action - Not Just Words

 

Every year Anglicare's Emergency Relief programme provides financial and food assistance to an estimated 20,000 socially excluded families and individuals who struggle to get by on low income.

Now in its 10th year, Anglicare's Toys ‘n’ Tucker programme is a way in which communities can actively provide gifts of toys and food to be distributed to the families who come to the service for support. 

Nigel Beckman attends Menai Anglican Church.  He and his Growth Group became involved in the Scheme 5 years ago because they wanted to help those less fortunate at Christmas time. 

Nigel and his team have also discovered many other benefits from being involved in the scheme.  Nigel says, “It has been a wonderful out-reach opportunity and shown the local community that Menai Anglican is a church of action not just words”. The collection area covers Barden Ridge, Menai Road and over to the Woodlands Estate – so our church makes contact with approximately 2,200 homes.

In addition, it provides a great opportunity for absolutely anyone in the church community to get involved and serve God no matter their age, ability or which service they attend.

The scheme also provides Menai Anglican Church with a way to identify and help those in the local area who are themselves struggling.

This year, there were almost 180 people involved in the collection.  Between them, they collected over 300 boxes plus miscellaneous toys.  The best collection year so far for the church.

 

There is a lot of work involved in organizing the food drive.  Initially fliers are prepared and these are delivered by the congregation.  The actual collection takes place from Monday 4^th to Monday 11^th November. Because of the fliers many people are prepared with food by their door. It is heart warming when people have been shopping specifically for Anglicare and have a box or bag all ready. It also offers a great opportunity to hand over information brochures about Playtime groups at church and the Christmas service times.

One little girl donated her own tricycle because she wanted someone less fortunate than her to have a bike for Christmas.

All the donated items are boxed up at church and then Anglicare collect them and take the boxes to the Anglicare Mt. Druitt warehouse.  The items are then made into Christmas hampers and toy parcels for families in Sydney and Wollongong who would otherwise go without.

The Menai Anglican Church / Anglicare Food Drive is a wonderful example of how a small idea from a Growth Group can make a huge difference to the local community and beyond.  Thank you to everyone involved in this year’s scheme.  Please pray for Nigel and his group – may they be a guiding light to the rest of the church community.  Please also pray for the Anglicare teams – may they bring a little joy and support to those in need this Christmastime.

 

Living Out Your Faith

One of the great things about being on staff here at Menai Anglican Church is that you get to hear some great stories about people living out their faith by introducing Jesus and changing lives.

I received an email during the week from Peter Jarvis who comes to our 10am service and got permission to share it with you for your encouragement.

“Morning Bruce, Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed yesterday’s message from James.

It was really ‘on the money’ and contained loads of practical examples that both Gail and I discussed on our way to a family function yesterday.

I can’t wait to discuss it with the guys from Bible Study tonight.

I am currently talking to two younger women about my faith and what they their views are about God, eternity and faith etc.

One lady (about 44 years old) is a high ranking Union leader who has hard-line socialistic views. The other has worked in DOC's and is now in the education system. Her views are more humanistic.

Both are cynical about what they refer to as ‘the church’ and have a very worldly perception of Christianity.  

The Union lady came to me recently and complained about a business owner (who claimed to be a Christian), who treated his workers pretty badly. I gave her some practical extracts from the bible to discuss with this Boss that would hopefully make him think about his actions toward his staff. I mentioned that I’d be happy to have a chat with him if she thought it might help. 

She has also helped me find work for a young Brother who was out of work so I know she has a kind spirit and a warm heart.

I think your sermon from James would be a great ‘eye opener’ for both these women and provide another way for me to start up the conversation with them again.

I recently sent them the article (from Southern Cross) that outlined a Christian perspective to the asylum seekers topic. Both ladies were impressed and found it interesting.

I’m hoping to do the same with your sermon from Sunday by downloading it and giving it to them both. The lady who heads up the Union will definitely relate to James’s forthright instruction on how we are to treat ‘everyone’ equally."

It’s great to hear of the members of Menai Anglican Church sharing their faith in a gentle, confident and forthright way. I love the idea of passing on articles that might challenge and enlighten people. Thanks Peter for the encouragement and the challenge!

Bruce Dingwall

Senior Minister

Women's Hot Topic Evening - Why Envy?

When I was first asked to speak on envy, I had never really thought about it before.  I didn’t even think I’d been effected by it..... until I started to think seriously about what envy was and how it showed itself in our lives.  As it turned out “envy” was and is EVERYWHERE - even shops and perfumes have the name “envy”! 

However, what disturbed me most as I read and talked with people, was that most of us didn’t really think it was big deal - after all, it didn’t really hurt others....... or did it?

Envy is the source of almost every other sin, it destroys other people’s lives as well as our own, it skews our thinking and decision making in destructive ways.  For these reasons, I love speaking on “envy”- it challenges me to take a long hard look at myself, and reminds me that God gives us hope to turn our lives and thinking around, and an antidote to this most secret of sins.

I hope and pray that as women leave the evening at Menai Anglican Church, they will be challenged and given hope as I have been.

By Ainsley Poulos  

Ainsley is married to Archie and has three kids, 4 chickens, 2 rabbits and a guinea pig. She loves teaching God's word in an engaging way and helping women come to see how it speaks to every area of their lives.  Ainsley helps run EQUIP Women’s Ministries and chairs EQUIP ministry wives- a conference encouraging the wives of ministers.

In her spare time, she works as a speech pathologist (http://www.eastsidespeech.com.au/about/our-people)

WOMEN’S HOT TOPIC EVENING AT MENAI ANGLICAN CHURCH

WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST 7.30pm – 9.30pm

Getting weird for the sake of art

People say many things about artistic ministry in the church. But they don’t often mention the fact that it involves being kind of weird in everyday life. Makes you contemplate doing strange and awkward things.

Experiments with furniture for inside/out artwork

It’s a Saturday morning and I’m wheeling an unbalanced trolley laden with ten metres of Astro Turf down one overstuffed Bunnings aisle. As I wrestle the awkwardly heavy roll of black and green into a checkout there are stares, smiles, small chuckles. “ Well well, that’s a lot of synthetic grass, what are you going to do with it?” I pause for a second, there’s no conversation stopper like when you answer back “it’s for church”. No more questions asked. I often wonder if this should be phrased differently to create a conversation opportunity instead of an awkward pause… 

But the weirdness of buying ten metres of turf is mild compared to many of the everyday strange things that pursuit of art for church can bring….

Standing on the barely-stable wire fence of a vineyard in Camden at 6.45am on a Friday morning wondering if anyone (or that police car that keeps going back and forth) might see if you trespassed (just a little bit) to get closer to that grapevine for a better video shot…. 

or talking someone into running along a mangrove bank in the rain for half an hour, back and forth with little wings leukoplasted to their feet….

stopping to “borrow” some  tall grass from the side of the road because it looks just like it could be from a beautiful field…

carrying the contents of your house outside and arranging it in a tree just for a photograph….

or driving around in a car laden with a tool shop, a haberdashery, an art store and the leftovers of that roadside grass packed in so tightly it falls out every time you try to add in a grocery bag or two.

The pursuit of art-making for church makes every day an opportunity for weird and random acts of creativity. And sometimes it creates a conversation worth having too.

These past few weeks the creative team have been, among other weird and wonderful things, diving into the book of James to prepare for MenaiAnglican Church’s new series- Inside/ Out.

But what does astro-turf, boxes, lampstands and couches have to do with living inside out, being people of integrity, living as the new creation where our new heart and renewed mind and the spirit at work in our lives produce the fruit of our faith expressed in good works? 

Well first, the box. 

The brown box, filled and closed, has no integrity, no markers on the outside of what lies beneath. It could be a fruit bowl or a chimpanzee inside, we really can’t know for sure. A bit like us, at times we have the ability to present ourselves to the world as something other than we are, we can pay lip-service to our beliefs and live lives that fail to step out the changed person God is working out inside of us.

Over the course of the series we will be revealing items of living room furniture (the stuff that’s inside) being brought outside these boxes. House furnishings (like our faith) are significant contents that you can't see are in a house when you are standing outside it.  

Bringing them outside seems dangerous, risky even. Things might get ruined, broken or damaged, plus it looks pretty weird (maybe even weirder than a shop assistant finding those leftover eagle feathers stuck to the bottom of your green bags at the coles checkout), people might say something!

Living on the outside the stuff that is being transformed on the inside looks kind of weird too, it’s risky, it puts our contents on display, it demands consistency, integrity, resolve and so much more.

It is also something weirdly attractive to other people though- a couch on a lawn- don't you want to sit on it? doesn't the strangeness of it seem kind of wonderful?…so it is, we thought, with living inside/out, it is a strange kind of wonderful thing that shines a light on who Jesus really is, the crazy changes he has really made in us and is making in us, day by day, that set us apart. 

And that completes the story of why astroturf, boxes and living room furniture will be gracing our stage for the next 8 weeks. 

We hope you enjoy!

Volunteering at Menai Anglican Church Kids Club (MAK Club)

Hi, 

My name is Joshua and I have been serving as a volunteer for Menai Anglican Kids Club (MAK Club) since it started several years ago. I have always wanted to serve in ways that matter most to God. The Bible clearly states that children are a blessing from God (Matthew 18:2-6). Being part of the MAK Club Team gives me the opportunity to make a difference in children’s lives and in a very positive way too. When I serve in children’s ministry (MAK Club) and teach children about the great love God has for them I also have the chance to indirectly influence the future generations that are to come. I also love seeing the children learn about God's love and existence in 3 high impact fun filled days. It is also a great encouragement to me when I see the amount of people who come together and volunteer their time to help make MAK Club a memorable experience for all the children who attend.

I have found that working with children has taught me patience and this is a wonderful ‘fruit of the spirit’ (Galatians 5:22-23) gift to have when you are surrounded by many excited and squealing children.

Joshua Mendez 

Are you are interested in volunteering for MAK Club?  This year it will take place from 25 - 27 September.   Call 9541 0990 or email office@menaianglican.org if you can help.

To Brand or Not to Brand?

Menai Anglican Church......St Paul’s Anglican Church Menai........Menai Anglican........St Paul’s Menai, whatever you choose to call our church, the name is not what people in our community associate with. 

People go to church and continue to come to this church, for the people, the Bible-based worship and the friendship, not the name, not the brand, not the building. A sense of community is what we all hunger for. Humans are not designed to be solitary. As people begin to seek God it can be a daunting and uncomfortable process to first set foot into a church and be greeted by people they may not know.

So why do we need a brand, a logo, an identity and why don’t we just concentrate on getting our worship right and our hearts in the right place to be able to genuinely welcome newcomers and to reach out into our community about the Good News of the Gospel message?

We live in a material world (as Madonna sings) and in this material world we are surrounded..... no bombarded..... by brands, logos and identities, all day every day. It is so common that we sometimes fail to even notice the branding. Railway stations are easily identified around the world by simple branding, as are airports and other landmarks. We don’t identify these as brands, but rather location identities to help us find our way around.

Most churches, whether they seek to have a brand/logo/identity or not, do in fact have a cross somewhere on the building. This identifies them as churches to people who pass by. The cross is a symbol of Jesus sacrifice for us and it has been used on churches for many years. The cross is a powerful symbol or icon and means a great deal to a Christian. This is our branding, whether we like to admit it or not.

Almost from the start, in 1982, when the first flyers were circulated to the few houses in the Menai/Illawong/Alfords Point area advising of a ‘New Church’ starting up, we sought to have an identity. Something people could associate with us and recognise us by. We moved from Rob Barrie’s house in Hall Drive, to Bangor Community Centre, to Bangor Primary School, as we grew and outgrew facilities. Finally we settled in Barden Ridge (or Lucas Heights) on our current site. Our signage out the front was typical Anglican style. Even today, our blue and white Menai Anglican Church sign carries the traditional logo or branding of the Sydney Anglican Churches.

Under the guidance of Rob Barrie we developed a vision for the church in the 1990’s which, was simply, “Menai for Christ”. Around the same time we started using a logo for the church which reflected this vision. This logo was:

 
This logo was used by the church on newsletters, letterheads and other communications, both internal and external for several years. The incorporation of the ‘t’ into a cross was a reference to our Christian faith.

After the construction of our new extensions at Barden Ridge, the church building became a symbol or logo for our church. This is still used in many of our ministries. 
 
The next stage in our logo or branding became the use of the stained glass imagery. This has become the standard in our current website and our current electronic news items. In this version of our ‘branding’ the abbreviation of our name from Menai Anglican Church to MAC found its origins
This branding looks like this:
 
As we move into our new branding for our church, (which has evolved from the work of a representative group of parishioners) there has been a great deal of thought and prayer involved in finding an image that truly represents what we stand for. Our new vision for our church is
‘Introducing Jesus : Changing Lives’

We needed an image that presents Jesus to our members and our community in a way that is approachable, welcoming and easily recognised. The making up a cross from a wide variety of colours is, in some way, symbolic of how we all come to the cross from different places and backgrounds, but the cross is what binds us together.
Our new logo is:

I started asking why do we need a church logo. The fact is that we have always had one and it is important for us to recognise the importance of having a symbol of our church which people in our community can identify and relate to.

A church logo, although not an end in and of itself, is a powerful means to assisting a church’s vision. As Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance puts it, “A great church logo in and of itself does not create great church branding. But it does give a church the foundation needed to build a solid brand.”
Our new logo is a positive, colourful and contemporary symbol of our cross and the people who come together under it. As we move forward this symbol will become a positive image in our
community, if we are prepared to embrace the vision and believe we can make a difference by “Introducing Jesus and Changing Lives”.

Ian Johnson

An Insight into CampOne 2013 - Illuminate

On Tuesday April 16th, hundreds of eager campers arrived at Deer Park, keenly awaiting the start of CampOne 2013: Illuminate, excited for the days ahead of them.  At camp, the leaders were filled with enthusiasm and a passion for God’s word. They interacted with us, cared for us, and genuinely loved us. This had a deep impact on us and encouraged us to grow and learn in our faith.

Our daily schedule included exciting activities such as water-bomb fights, archery, soccer, tribal games, numerous turns on the water slide and a lot of free time.

Every night we would forward into the main auditorium on-site to worship God and hear the brilliant and moving messages both Joel and Damo had poured much of their time and effort into preparing for us. We were all challenged to examine our relationships with God, reflect, and evaluate what needed to be improved upon.

During this time, we were greatly encouraged to see a large amount of young people come to Christ, and it was also inspiring to see them being welcomed into our ‘family’ with open arms.

We are extremely thankful to God for this, and as a youth group/church, recognize that this is not only the start of a life full of trials, but also a rewarding life reflective of God’s light, love, and Christian fellowship.

Another great part of camp we were blessed to experience was the small groups. Every afternoon in groups of 5-10 people, we were presented with reflection questions - usually regarding the main talks. This provided an opportunity to really think about and apply what we had learned in the main talks.

As a result of CampOne 2013, we were united as a group and as we grew in our faith and love for one another, we bonded as a family. We grew closer, encouraging one another in brotherly and sisterly love, and supporting one another in our walks with Christ.

We are very thankful to all the leaders and YouthWorks staff for taking their time to plan and prepare all of the above, plus much more. Camp was something we will never forget, bringing us closer to God, our peers and our leaders.

It served as a brilliant reminder that even though our life on Earth may be short, there are much greater things to come for those who are in Christ.

- Daniel Wallace

Do You Choose Glitz And Glitter Or The Sun And The Moon?

Did you know that here at Menai Anglican we have only about 60% of our members [not those in our data base but those who attend] in church each weekend? And 25% of our members only come at the most once every three weeks.

Some people reckon that we’re mad to aim at having 1100 regularly in church by the end of 2016 http://www.menaianglican.org/information/vision/, but if everyone turned up we would have just under 1000 in attendance!

I’m not saying that there aren’t good reasons from time to time for missing church, but the truth is, it’s often just too much effort or other things seem more attractive.

I make that point because I think the book of Revelation does.  John paints this picture of our culture as the “Great prostitute” [Revelation 17:3-5] and it looks very attractive, but it’s a shallow beauty. This woman is the “material woman”.  She is all glitz and glitter but no substance. In fact, she is full of filth and decay [17:4]. That is our world; our culture. [1 John 2:15-16].  In contrast remember John’s description of the church in chapter 12.  He describes her as a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet and who has a crown of 12 stars on her head. There is something of real substance!

The church is the heavenly woman, and as we’ll see in chapter 19, she is the bride of Jesus. John gives us these two pictures and encourages us to compare them, and there is no comparison! Why would we align ourselves with the culture and not God’s people? Why would we not make every effort to meet with those who comprise the bride of Christ?



Bruce Dingwall

 

Women meeting Jesus: Equip Conference 2013

Before moving to the Menai area we had lived interstate and overseas for nearly 20 years.  When we returned to Sydney in 2008, I was so thrilled to learn that there was a Women’s Conference being held at Darling Harbour.  Where we had recently lived, it was hard to attend any Christian conference unless you organised it yourself or travelled many miles.  I had never attended a conference that was purely put together so that women could teach other women.  In fact it is Biblical!  Paul writes to Titus exhorting the older women to teach the younger women and I am sure, with this in mind the organisers of the Equip Conference work hard in choosing speakers that can teach women well.  

For me there are so many distractions and worldly voices that challenge me to water down my testimony of God’s love and forgiveness or to change my views because of strong peer pressure.  I wish to live my days making Godly choices and the Equip conference offers me Bible teaching so I am able to do so.  These Bible teachers have the ability to speak to a woman’s heart and to her world.  

Come and join me and other Menai Anglican Church(MAC) women who want to hear, meet and grow in our understanding of who Jesus is.  If you are new to MAC what a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know you better.  I look forward to this day because I love our harbour and praising God with so many other women.  I hope to see you there!

- Margaret Icke, Women's Ministry Coordinator

Find out more here about registering for and attending Equip as part of a group with other women from Menai Anglican Church