Our vision as a church is to be a really BIG church that activates a generation to lead thousands of people into Jesus way of life.

Our mission and the sole reason why we exist is to Lead the Change! For us this means that we exist to lead people into Jesus way of life. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man shall come to the Father except through me.” Jesus life, teaching and salvation is the only way to live and his primary mission when he incarnated himself as the Son of God was to seek and save the lost. Every local church is called to the same mission.

Lead the Change!

Biblical Life

The Bible and preaching is very important to us and we are creating a culture where people’s thinking, relationships and lifestyles are being shaped by God’s Word.

Innovative Leadership

To innovate is to renew, make changes and start again. As leaders we seek to innovate our ministry to fulfill our mission to inspire people to live Jesus way of life. Additionally, we seek to be tech savvy and cutting edge with the tools and methodologies needed to proclaim the gospel in an effective way.

Authentic Relationships

Christ-centered community is essential for the church to embrace and model. Authentic Christianity is characterized in part by genuine love for God’s people (Rom 12:9). Jesus said in John 10:35, “By this shall all people know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another.” How we treat each other and have fellowship with each other is a litmus test of our relationship with Jesus and our witness to the world of the reality of the Spirit of God living in us.

Lead the Change!

I have been and we as a church have been, and still are, on a journey of clarifying and establishing the foundational doctrines, culture and expression of the Activate Community.   

Activate Church is a Missional & Attractional church in practice 

We believe that the primary task of the church is to send Christians into the culture as missionaries of the gospel through relationships rather than primarily through programming. Jesus incarnation is missional and Jesus sent us out into the world to be missionaries, preaching the gospel to all creation and making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18-20; John 20:21; Acts 1:7-8).

We have both a ‘come and see’ (attractional) emphasis and a ‘go and make’ (missional) emphasis. It’s not ‘either or’ but it’s ‘both and’. We gather together for corporate worship and biblical teaching on Sundays and invite people to these gatherings and we gather together during the week for biblical community in life groups to encourage one another and establish new believers in their relationship with Jesus (Acts 2:42-47). We  are sent out as missionaries into the culture the rest of the week sharing the gospel in word and deed wherever we get the opportunity. 

 Pure attractional churches need to move members from consumers to contributers and pure missional churches need to gather crowds to hear hard preaching to expose hearts and establish foundations. The overall goal is to see more people saved and more influence for God’s kingdom in the earth.

Activate Church is both closed-handed theologically and open-handed culturally

We are closed hand theologically (Jude 3) believing, teaching and practicing the unchanging truth of God’s Word. But we are open hand culturally as we engage with the culture as a missionary of the gospel (1 Cor 9:9-23). This means that we do not restrict people from drinking alcohol in moderation or getting tattoos for example because the bible remains open handed about this from a cultural perspective.

Activate Church is Pentecostal in expression and Biblical in Theology

We believe in the biblical expression of all of the gifts of the Spirit according to the limitations of Scripture. We believe in the essential need of being Spirit-filled and Spirit-led in life and ministry. Being Spirit-filled is ultimately evidenced by being like Jesus in mission and character, not simply by expressing a certain gift. Yes, we believe that speaking in tongues is the normal evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit but we believe more importantly that being like Jesus on mission is the fruit of being filled with the Spirit.

The point of Pentecost is mission, not tongues (Acts 2). The Corinthian Church were tongue talkers but a terrible witness for Christ in their community (1 Cor 14). That’s why Paul addresses them as he does.

We are also evangelical in our theology embracing the sacraments of baptism and communion, the centrality of the cross and Christ as our saviour God-man, the Godhead as trinity, the revelation of God, the inspiration of scripture, the autonomy of the local church, the total depravity of man and salvation of sin by grace through faith. For a more in depth study of our doctrines I will link you to our soon to be updated doctrinal statement on our new website currently being built.

Activate Church is an elder led church

We believe and practice the oversight of eldership according to 1 Tim 3:1-7. Elders are not a separate board to the leadership of the church. They are the pastoral oversight and doctrinal teachers of the church. The elders lead the church by example in character and family life, able to teach, set and protect doctrine and appoint, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, deacons and associate leaders of church-wide ministries.

We have embraced the egalitarian-complementarian position on women in eldership whereby we believe that men and women in church life can occupy and fulfill any role or office according to the Holy Spirit’s calling and gifting. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Chief Shepherd and senior pastor of the Church and I am the lead pastor as the first among equals and the rest of the eldership is made up of senior-associate pastors, male and female.

Within the home we believe and practice that Christ is the head of the church, the husband is the head of the wife and the husband is to use the authority and leadership role within the home not to manipulate or control but to serve, love and give himself up for the wife and family just as Christ gave himself up for the Church (Eph 5:22-33).

Stay tuned for more in the coming days.

Lead the Change!

Yes, we have seen transfer growth from other churches but we have also seen over 240 people make first time decisions to follow Christ. Many of these people have been baptised in water at our church or connected in with local churches closer to their home.

At Activate we are seeking to identify, train and send out those men and women of God who have been called to start and lead churches. We have a vision to plant an activate church in state capital cities around Australia and overseas where God leads us to.

Healthy churches reproduce themselves and and healthy leaders reproduce who they are in the lives of the people they lead. Ephesians 5 tells us that Christ gave himself up for the church and Acts 1 and 2 show us that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to birth the church on the Day of Pentecost.

The Apostle Paul’s ministry was marked by church planting, teaching in those churches and appointing elders to lead the individual churches with the support of qualified deacons. The same needs to be in operation in the 21st century church as well.

Mark Driscoll has a great session on qualifications for church planters on his blogsite (Click on my link to Mark Driscoll). Mark is president of the Acts 29 Network and planted over 100 churches throughout the US and abroad. We are hoping to secure him to come and speak next year at Activate 2010 Conference.

Lead the Change!

A lot of western Christians take a haphazard approach to gathering together for corporate worship. There is even some Christians who think that they can grow in isolation without the need to gather together with other believers in corporate community. Community is where the fruits of the Spirit have an opportunity to be developed in your life.

I believe that the scripture teaches the fundamental importance of gathering together to stir up one another to love and good works and not to neglect the importance of meeting together in corporate worship.

Acknowledging God’s greatness and mercy in our lives together is a key part of church life and covenant community. Although it doesn’t matter where we worship God (John 4:21-24), it does matter that we gather together to celebrate God’s presence and work in our lives.

God is worth giving honour and glory to. Make corporate worship a key priority in your daily and weekly life. Worship isn’t just singing or giving, it’s our entire lives offered up to God everyday.

Lead the Change!

One of the key things that our guest kept emphasizing was the need for community within the life of the church – a place to belong. People are hungering for connection and relationship.

The Christian Church is positioned uniquely within the wider community to provide exactly what people are searching for – a place to belong. When churches don’t build this we are a false representation of Christ and his mission in the world.

Acts 2:42-47 gives us a brief but detailed snapshot of what community in the early church looked like. “All who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”  

As a result of the community within the early church God added blessing and fruit to it. We can experience the same today. It doesn’t matter the size of the church, what matters is the heart of the church. Leaders within a church set the pace and example for community. Cold leaders ultimately breed cold congregations. But if the leadership is warm and interested in people, then the after effect will be reproduced in the church community.

At Activate Church we are seeking to build this community through life groups that meet regularly each week throughout the city of Melbourne. It is our hope to connect many disconnected people within the church community and outside the church community into authentic relationship with Christ and his followers.

Lead the Change!

1 Corinthians 9:22-23

Within a local church context the following principles need to be observed:

1. The medium of the sermon is just as important as the content of the sermon.
2. Incorporating more technology will require more of your time.
3. The more technology you use, the more money you’ll spend.
4. The more technology you use, the more staff you’ll need to manage volunteers & equipment.
5. Experiment with equipment before making long term purchases.
6. Be humble enough to visit lots of churches and businesses to see what’s going to work for you.
7. Tech consultants should serve your needs not their wants.
8. See technology as a tool, not a demi-god.
9. Count the cost of technology to time, staff and finances.
10. The more technology you use, the more it will affect how you communicate.

At Activate Church we are trying to leverage technology for the proclamation of the gospel. One of the ways we do this is by filtering our Sunday gatherings through 5 phases (Adapted from Vintage Church):

Phase 1: Attracting – Media is key to this in our culture. Website, radio, billboard advertising and the local paper are key to developing brand recognition with people. Building relationships with people and involving them in church life is the most effective way statistically to seeing people drawn into a church service environment.

Phase 2: Entering – What impression do people receive when they enter your property? How approachable is your venue? Is the directions and advertising clear enough? What is the decor like?

Phase 3: Engaged- How are you going to engage people during the service? Technology is a key part of this. Use stage design and creative props during the sermons. Allow people to sms text in their questions while you are preaching and answer them at the end of the sermon. Utilise multi-media more effectively. Don’t just use powerpoint, it’s quickly becoming outdated and video clips or other media images need to be incorporated in.

Phase 4: Exiting - As people leave the worship experience and are developing connections with others, what are you going to leave them with? Are you going to hand them something that reminds them of what you were teaching on?

Phase 5: Extending- Think about how you can extend the teaching of God’s Word in people’s hearts during the week not just on Sunday. Will you get life groups watching a video clip of your message and then having discussion questions to follow up afterwards? Do you make your sermons and teachings available for free on CD, iTunes, Website? Do you have a Q&A section on your website that allows people to give feedback on your sermons?

Lead the Change!

God has called us to pursue a Spirit-filled, Spirit-led and Spirit-empowered life. This does not mean that we are to chase miracles and signs and blunders…I mean wonders. We are to chase Jesus and the preaching of the gospel and signs and wonders will naturally follow.

We are not to chase personal ecstatic spiritual experiences as if they are a sign of our spiritual maturity. The book of 1 Corinthians shows us that the Corinthian church thought they were spiritual because of strange supernatural manifestations but God judged this church because their misguided frenzy led unbelievers to think that Christians were out of their minds.

At Activate Church we embrace the exercising of spiritual gifts according to the limitations of scripture (1 Cor 12, 13, 14; Romans 12:3-8; James 5:13-18, etc). The missional church prays for the sick to be healed in faith, The missional church embraces the gift of prophecy, tongues and words of knowledge, etc, according to the stipulations outlined in 1 Cor 14, “Everything should be done decently and in order.”

 At Activate Church we value those gifts that build up the church over those gifts that build up the individual…ie..prophecy over tongues. Some believers are more hung up on tongues being the visible sign of being spirit filled rather than being like Jesus and embracing mission. The point of Pentecost wasn’t tongues (although I speak in tongues and value it deeply as apart of my normal prayer life) but MISSION. Men from every nation could hear the gospel being proclaimed in their own native language and the end result of Peters explanation was that 3000 people were added to the church. Embracing mission is what the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is about not just if you have a certain gift (Acts 1:8).

In regards to demonic activity and spiritual warfare, we must acknowledge that these are a reality in the clash between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. While we don’t blame everything on Satan, nor do we go looking for demons, we must acknowledge that he is a real personality with an agenda to steal, kill and destroy anything that God promotes as being good (John 10:10).

For further reading on this subject I am releasing my new book titled, “Supernatural” in late June 09 and I hope you order a copy and read it to grow in your theology and application of the supernatural in your life.

Lead the Change!

Easter with the family (photo thanks to my sister-in-law Helen)

Easter is a special time in our family.

We had the opportunity to attend Activate Church Good Friday service – a moving time of acknowledging what our lives are like without God and how He has given us the ultimate gift.  Then some time to chill with friends and family.  We loved just hanging out with the kids in the evening.  Then saturday was more of the connecting with each other – doing some shopping and hubby going to the footy. Then another amazing day at Activate Church on Resurrection Sunday.  Such an inspirational time as we witnessed 7 young people get baptised!   (I love it.)  We then enjoyed a delicious lunch with my brothers, sister in laws and their beautiful families.  Such good company and an opportunity for the cousins to connect.  They enjoyed an easter egg hunt (some of these photos above).  My family is such a gift.  Back to Activate Church sunday night for some more inspiration and some time to hang out with some good friends till quite late!  Then Monday was more chilling and catching up on food shopping and organising the house.

For me, easter is a time of reflection and contemplation, its a time of relationships and growing, it’s a time of revelation and inspiration.  It’s a time for lots of chocolate and eating with family and friends.  It’s a time of relaxing and reconnecting.

Easter is very significant to us as we remember what Jesus did on the cross for us.   It’s the demonstration of the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate act of love towards us.    The complete acknowledgement all over again of who our amazing God is and expressing how much I am truly grateful for Him.

What does Easter mean to you?

In the New Testament there are 3 main groups of people in church: Elders, Deacons and church Members. In 1 Tim 3 Paul outlines to Timothy what the qualifications for eldership and deacons are. They are specific and character based rather than gift based although elders must be able to teach. Elders (not age based) are senior leaders in the church and deacons are associate leaders in the church. Elder-leaders are to teach and protect doctrine, administer church discipline, shepherd the flock, appoint elders and deacons under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, set direction for the corporate body and set an example of Christ-likeness to the rest of the congregation. At the end of the day Jesus Christ is the senior pastor.

John Piper gives a great analogy for how we are to look at embracing (from a qualification perspective) the three groups of people (elders, deacons & members) in church life: The front door to attend church life should be as wide as possible. The door to membership should then be smaller. The door to deacons should be smaller again and the door to eldership should be tiny (Adapted from Vintage Church).

The terms we use today for different expressions of leadership can be confusing: pastor, prophet, teacher, apostle, evangelist (Eph 4:11). In a church government context all senior pastoral leadership roles (5 fold gifts) are elder based leadership roles. All other associate leadership roles are basically deacon roles.

The need for leadership development in the church is massive. We have a great lack of biblically qualified leaders throughout the church. Elders have a responsibility to coach Christians to develop in their calling as a leader (If Holy Spirit has called them to this role) and to reproduce the Character of Christ in others. Both life on life and formal leadership development needs to be apart of every local church.

Leadership is also an important issue in the home as well as in the marketplace. Eph 5:22-33 outlines the biblical instructions for expressions of leadership in the home. Matt 20:20-28 and Eph 6:5-9 refer to leadership in the marketplace. Leadership is a biblical issue and is critical in the establishment of kingdom culture.

Lead the Change!

Matthew 5:14

Any discussion on kingdom culture has to include the all important topic of mission. At Activate Church we are seeking to become a missional church, that is, a church obeying Jesus last command as their first priority to ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’ (Matt 28:18).

Too many Christians hide their light in their prayer closets and don’t shed the light of the gospel to a world that desperately needs to see it. The example you set counts for everything. I want to share with you 10 characteristics of a missional church and I have adapted these from Mark Driscoll’s excellent book ‘Vintage Church’.

1. A missional church is biblical: The bible is the anchor of our missional expression
2. A missional church preaches and practices repentance: Call both lost sinners to repentance and religious people to repentance.
3. A missional church goes into culture: Watch TV, listen to talk radio, go shopping, pay attention at the grocery store, visit borders bookstore, pay attention to kids and teenagers, Talk to the people, go online and break your routine.
4. A missional church contextualises the gospel: Follow in Jesus’ footsteps as he incarnates the gospel in the world.
5. A missional church ministers to both families & singles: Many churches are soley focused on families but the surge of singles as the majority population is increasing.
6. A missional church trains Christians as missionaries: Train, expect and send Christians to the front line of mission.
7. A missional church is supernatural: Use the gifts the Spirit has given you to manifest God’s love and power in the earth.
8. A missional church is countercultural: The kingdom of God is counter-cultural to the spirit of the world so embrace it.
9. A missional church multiplies itself: Plant churches, multiply campuses, practice unity amongst churches and equip other churches to grow in maturity.
10. A missional church is messy: Wrestle with questions, culture and theology is messy. Ministering to broken people is messy. Jesus was born in a messy stable but divinity is often seen in the messiest places of our lives.

Lead the Change!

Theology is the way we think about God and his Word

I have had the privilege of being apart of several church and denominational affiliations over the years both growing up and in my ministry experience. I have seen churches strong on God’s Word and churches strong on the Holy Spirit. I agree with the maxim: If you just have the Word, you’ll dry up, if you just have the Spirit you’ll blow up but if you have both the Word and the Spirit, you’ll grow up…food for thought.

2 Tim 3:16 -17 says, “All scripture is breathed (inspired) out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Some Christians approach the bible like they approach a buffet at a restaurant. They pick and choose what they want and leave out what they don’t want. We are all guilty of this sin at times and it is really dangerous for our own relationship with God and the example we set to the world around us. While none of us are going to get it right all the time, we need to do our best to intentionally study, interpret and apply Scripture with the tools, counsel and wisdom that God has provided us.

Paul exhorted Timothy In 2Tim 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” Pauls teaching implies that we can mishandle the word of truth and form a theology that is shameful to Jesus, God’s people and the world.

Paul again continues to exhort Timothy by saying in 1 Tim 6:2-4 “Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understand nothing.”

At Activate Church we are seeking to be biblically faithful yet culturally accessible and this requires a commitment to developing a theological framework that is consistent with scriptural teaching that is expressed in everyday life. I believe that theology should have a practical expression to it because God shows us in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that he cares about the practical details of our lives. Our theology must be connected to our practice.

Lead the Change!

The church has benefitted greatly from the influence of women within it. The stats tell us that over half of a church congregation is made up of women. Some of my best leaders have been and are women. But I believe that there needs to be a resurgence in the church of strong male leadership.

For too long women have taken up the mantle of spiritual leader in the home, mostly because the male hasn’t had the spiritual balls to play the role God has called them to. I get sick and tired of seeing men take the back seat while their incredible wives take the lead because they get frustrated waiting for their man to lead. I have listened, prayed for and counseled too many wives who are frustrated to the point of considering walking out, not because they are sinful creatures but because they are sick of the ‘ol boy’ who doesn’t seem to get it.

Alongside this is the reality that too many young aussie males are wasting their lives watching football or porn (or both), masturbating, having sex with their girlfriends and free loading, having no clear direction or responsibility in life. Why is this so? I think because this is the example that has largely been set for them in previous generations.

I am believing and preaching for a tribe of men to rise up within the church to take the lead and set an example to the church and to the world of what a man can do when filled with the love and power of Jesus. Men need to be taught and led how to manage their personal lives (finances, health, relationships) and to work diligently on their personal relationship with Jesus (praying, bible study, serving and giving), as well as not neglecting the importance of a hard days work in their job.

In both my preaching and my leadership I am going to engage more of the male demographic because I believe that men (as well as women) are critical to the direction and moral foundations of a society.

Lead the Change!

Every Easter thousands

I want to be counter-cultural as a follower of Christ. I believe that Easter weekend is the most significant weekend in the annual calendar and I have always prioritised attendance at church and reflection on the goodness of God in sending his son Jesus Christ to die for my sins and to rise again to give me new life.

How are you going to spend easter weekend? Is it going to just be more about you or would you be willing to sacrifice you to think about Him?

This weekend at Activate Church we are hosting a Good Friday service at 10am and Easter Sunday services at 10am and 6pm at Ringwood Secondary College Performing Arts Centre. You can check out the website www.activatechurch.com for more details. Why don’t you make it a priority to attend church, any church and think about the significance of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross and why over 2 billion people over this weekend will do the same thing.

Lead the Change!

Activate 09 was far superior than last year (even though activate 08 was fantastic).  There were several reasons for this. They include the following:

• More registrations
• Excellent venue
• Great sponsor support (like 08)
• God’s presence
• Multi-media
• Richness of preaching
• Diversity of speakers
• Inspiring worship
• Electric atmosphere
• Incredible volunteers
• Fellowship
• Organisation behind the secenes
• Teamwork

If you missed Activate 09 make sure that you register for Activate 2010. We will be hosting the first 24hr conference in Australia. YES, that’s right from Friday night 26th March to Saturday night 27th march we will be activating men and women, kids, teenagers, parents, pastors and leaders to LEAD THE CHANGE right where they are.

The program will begin at 7.30pm on the Friday night with an opening blockbuster and incredible teaching from one of our several guest speakers including prophet Greg Burson from NZ. We will have a second session at 10pm-11.30pm and then we will have a youth stream starting at midnight with an incredible praise party and teaching from the amazing MJ. The rest of the program will be revealed in the coming months.

I am believing for an additional 500+ registrations on top of what we he had this year because I believe that Activate Conference is a move of God in this nation and you don’t want to miss out on being apart of this incredible experience.

Why don’t you set aside one day (24hrs) in your life to position yourself to encounter God and be activated to LEAD THE CHANGE! Registration details will be available in the next few months. This conference is only 24hrs long and it will be a catalyst to great transformation in your life. 

Lead the Change!

Attractional evangelism is made up of the following components (generally, I know there are exceptions):

• Believe in Jesus, then belong to the church.
• Gospel information is presented
• Hearers are called to make a decision for Christ
• If an affirmative decision is made, person is welcomed into church
• Friendship is extended to the person
• Convert is trained for service in ministry being separated from culture

Missional evangelism is made up of the following components (generally, I know there are exceptions):

• Belong to the church then believe in Jesus
• A genuine relationship b/w a Christian and a non-Christian is built
• The non-Christian sees authentic faith and ministry lived openly and participates in it
• Gospel is naturally present in word and action within the friendship
• The non-Christian’s conversion to Jesus follows his or her conversion to Christian friendships & church
• The church celebrates the conversion of their friend

As a spiritual leader of a thriving local church, I believe in, lead the church in and practice both missional and attractional dynamics in the life of the Christ community I belong to. I don’t think it’s ‘either or’ but in fact ‘both and’. I am a preacher of the word corporately and a missionary of the gospel culturally.

Too many leaders put down one or the other but I’ve seen both of these models of gospel ministry work with fantastic results. Someone who has put both into action in an excellent way is preaching pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Seattle is the most unchurched city in America but Mars Hill is one of the fastest growing churches in the city. He has combined the two approaches with excellent results.

I am currently leading Activate Church through a transition from a more attractional model to a missional approach without losing some of the corporate gathering qualities we excel at as a church.

Jesus said, “Go and make disciples…” This is an incarnational (missional) approach but one of his early disciples, Phillip invited Nathanael to ‘Come and see’ Jesus and he brought him to Jesus. This is an invitational (attractional) approach to evangelism. Why do one when you can do both?

Lead the Change!

You will be equipped to make a greater difference in the world and be inspired to fulfill your calling in a greater way. Speakers like John Cameron, Matt Fielder, Andrew Newbold, David McCracken, Alun Davies and others are coming to share with you insights that will help you lead the change right where you are.

You can find out more about registering today at www.activate09.com

Lead the Change!

In the opening chapters of his book he touches on 3 important crucial elements of the Bible: Gospel + Culture + Church. Mark talks about the triangular movement of the gospel through the culture and into the church. This is a very helpful way for us to understand the intersection of all three of these important biblical themes. Here are some of my thoughts added to Mark’s:

1. The gospel of Jesus is the heart of the Scriptures
2. The culture is where we live and what shapes us
3. The church is the “called out” (ekklesia) people of God

For us to truly be a missional people that is making a significant difference for the advancement of God’s kingdom then we need to heed Jesus’ call to firstly, the gospel (Loving our Lord); Secondly, the culture (Loving our neighbour) and: Thirdly, the church (Loving our brother).

Where mission breaks down in church life is when 1 or 2 of these crucial elements aren’t being engaged effectively. When this happens, mission starts to look like this:

• Gospel + Culture – Church = Parachurch:Many Christians are so frustrated with the church that they bring the gospel into the culture without it. What happens is that Christians get disconnected from the local church, connecting pre-Christian people to Jesus without connecting them to the rest of Jesus’ people.
• Culture + Church – Gospel = Liberalism: Some churches can get so concerned with being culturally relevant, that though they are deeply involved in culture, they neglect the gospel. They convert people to good works and the church but not to Jesus. 
• Church + Gospel – Culture = Fundamentalism: Some churches are more into the traditions of their church and the politics involved in church life that they rarely take it out of the church. They know the gospel theologically but aren’t engaging with it outside of the church walls practically.
• Gospel + Culture + Church = Missional (Best case scenario):Being a missional church is the intersection of the best of these types of Christianity and living in the tension of what I call culturally accessible and yet theologically conservative. Being missional is about being driven by the gospel to love people in the culture and connecting them into God’s House.

Lead the Change!

There is a dynamic line up of communicators including John Cameron (NZ), Matt Fielder, David McCracken, Alun Davies, Andrew Newbold and my wife Simone and I.

What makes this conference different from any other conference you’ve attended? Well, there will be similarities to other events you’ve attended but there is a unique move of God taking place at Activate Church that will inform & inspire you to lead the change in the marketplace.

This conference is morphing into something that is challenging people to become influencer’s of others in the world around us. The music is fresh, the presentation innovative, the speakers are practitioners who have proven track records in ministry and the culture of the conference is unique. There will be lots of one on one interviews with the guest leaders and time for interaction amongst conference delegates.

Come along and step into the next phase of what God is calling you to in your personal life and work. Check out www.activate09.com

Lead the Change!

Lead the Change!

I will be sharing stats, footage, stories, scripture and insight into breaking free from porn’s stronghold. See you at Activate this Sunday at 10am gathering or the 6pm gathering at Croydon Secondary College.

Lead the Change!

Come along and be inspired to lead the change right where you are.

Lead the Change!

The Activate worship team will be playing and our ministry team will be promoting our Activate Conference happening on 2nd-4th April. I will also be sharing an inspired message on Lead the Change. You are more than welcome to come along and be apart of the special night. Other rallies will be held at Doncaster Secondary College on the 21st Feb at 7.30pm; City of Glen Eira Civic Centre on the 28th Feb at 7.30pm and Abundant Life church Golden Square (Bendigo) on the 14th March at 7.30pm Tonights details are:

• Time: 7.30pm
• Venue: 2/5-6 Len Thomas Place, Narre Warren

Lead the Change!

I will summarise how attitude forms your future by sharing with you one of the best quotes I have ever come across by author and leader Charles Swindoll. Be inspired!

The longer i live, the more i realise the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It’s more important than the past, education, money, circumstances, failures, successes and what other people think, say or do. It’s more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. it will make or break a company, a church, a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we can’t change the fact that people will act in a certain way and we can’t change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we do have and that is our attitude. I’m convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how i react to it. And so it is with you. You are in charge of your attitude.

Lead the Change!

Is it in the joy of the eyes of the lonely man whose found his one true love

Or in the tears of the man once lost but now found

Or in the beauty of a new born child

Or in he who once grieved but now smiles

Is it in the sunset of a tropical beach

Or your arm stretched to outreach

Is it in the father who found his lost son after years of seperation

Or cries of revival in desperation

Or in the broken dreams restored

Or in the tears in the eyes of a repentent sinner

God I find your goodness in all your being. When you forgive me of my sin. When you listen to my cry and understand what I’m going through when no-one can. There I find your goodness.

I find your goodness when you reassure me everything is going to be okay. When you answer my prayers I’m blown away that you even listen let alone answer.

I find your goodness when you give me the words to speak and other people are touched.

I find your goodness when you meet my needs.

I find your goodness in everything around me and in everything you do.

I love you God.