Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb

Sobering News

Sunday 19 October, 2008 · Posted by Raj Gupta

Sometimes, it is strange how God makes his point.

This week began with the death of Steve Rossiter, who has been associated with our 8am congregation for many years. It was a privilege of mine to have prayed with Steve and Lee, just a few days beforehand. Steve asked me to pray that ‘Jesus would wield some of his magic’. For reasons we may not know until Jesus returns, God had a different plan. But we should remember that the promise of the Bible is that those who trust in Jesus will have eternal life.

Most of my week was dominated with synod, the annual meeting of representatives from all Anglican Churches in the Sydney area (about 800 people). Our elected representatives are David Gawthorne and Jacqui Doran.

The most important item on our agenda is an ongoing discussion about our mission to bring the news of Jesus to our community. Connect09 is an important part of this mission.

The statistics are somewhat sobering. Overall, as a network of churches, we are not growing. That is, generally, we are not seeing many people won for the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet this is the reason that God has left us in the world.

This will not change through ‘head office’ initiatives, nor through any other centralized endeavours. Rather, we will only see more people won for Jesus if people in our church (that is, you) would like to see this happen and are prepared to be involved.

Are you?

Our Archbishop, Peter Jensen, shared with us some of his personal fears in sharing the news of Jesus with people. I could relate to what he was saying. We all have fears. Yet, the Bible teaches us that those who do not trust in Jesus for forgiveness will be judged (Hebrews 9:27). Steve Rossiter’s passing away is a lesson for all of us about our earthly future.

Interestingly and generally, our fears tend to be unwarranted. Many would testify to the experience of people being very happy to talk about Jesus, and with the current uncertainty in our financial markets, we have a unique opportunity to engage people in dialogue about the certainty provided by a relationship with Jesus.

We have an urgent job to do. What could be more important?

Raj

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