Category: Ministry


It was great yesterday to meet and plan with the leaders of our all-new youth group at my church, Sylvania Anglican. We start the new group, ‘Slice’, next term.

I was a great joy to experience the enthusiasm and excitement of the leaders as we start something new and even a bit groundbreaking! We’re starting a group for years 6 to 8, and it’s going to run from 3.15 to 5.15 on Friday afternoons. The plan is that it will help smooth out the ‘bump’ between our children’s ministry and the teenage youth ministry.

However, in many ways nothing is really new. We’re still preaching Christ in his word to young people, encouraging them to pray and serve God and each other, and we still will provide leaders who love and care for them as spiritual parents. Nothing new there.

Pray that the new ministry next term will meet its goals, and will be a place where people Grow in God!

To find out about ‘Slice’ visit http://www.youth.sylvaniaanglican.org

Last month I wrote an article for sydneyanglicans.net called Praying to Win (see my ‘talks and writings page for details’.) It addressed the surprisingly controversial practice of praying in ‘evangelistic’ gathering.

It was nice to receive some positive feedback from some readers. One reader emailed me, and included the following in the body of his email:

“I have had many people tell me stuff that is going on in their lives, either on the train, at work etc, and the only people who have ever refused when asked if it was OK to pray with them about that, were Christians. Every time I have asked a non Christian about praying with them they have said yes. Whether it be on the train / station, bus,
work and even on the street. Some of those people I have never seen again, some of them I have prayed a few times with since and the door is open to share the gospel message more with them – but every time they have been touched, and said “thank you to me””

In response to this feedback, and at the request of the www.sydneyanglicans.net editor, I’ve written a follow up article further exploring the issue of public prayer as a form of promoting the gospel. Look out for the article in the next few days!

Read article online at www.sydneyanglicans.net, click here. To discuss the article, visit the forums at sydneyanglicans.net.

Read article online at www.sydneyanglicans.net, click here. To discuss the article, visit the forums at sydneyanglicans.net.

The Futter Hall at The Kings School-- The new venue for TWIST

The continued growth of TWIST, the music conference of Emu Music and Youthworks is causing more growing pains. As a result of three years of capacity crowds, despite increasing the venue size every year, we need somewhere larger.

To solve this problem, we will be moving this year to The Kings School, in Parramatta, to a venue that can seat in excess of 1000 people.

This year’s conference will be held on Sat 12th – Sun 13th August, 2006. Our guest speaker is John Dickson.

For full details, including online registration, visit www.twist.org.au