14 November 2018
Unless you are brand new, you are probably getting the hang of how our “4E discipleship process” goes:
- E for Engage. We seek to engage the community, individually and as a church.
- E for Evangelise. We share the gospel of Jesus (evangelism) with people who do not know Christ, again individually, and via church activities and programs.
- E for Establish. We want to establish believers in the basics of Christian belief and practice.
- E for Equip. We want to equip Christians to serve others with their time and talents in ministry.
Over time, this 4E process can take someone from being a non-Christian to a mature disciple ( = follower) of Jesus. Of course you can do all four of these Es at any time. But in the last two years, we’ve emphasised one E for each of the four school terms. Now we reckon it might make even more sense to match the Es to the seasons.
In particular, emphasising ‘E for Engage’ in Summer brings into play all the Christmas chances to connect with our community. It also helps us think of the more relaxed pace of summer holidays as a time to engage personally with friends, neighbours and family. And it makes the most of the chance to connect with new students and other residents arriving in February for the start of a new academic and working year.
And emphasising ‘E for Evangelise’ in Autumn means Easter, and its lead up, will always fall into this period. It’s often one of our best times for directly speaking about Jesus.
Anyhow, you get the idea. Let me speak a little more about opportunities to engage in summer that St Michael’s is assisting you with, apart from your own efforts and ideas…
- We need more volunteers for ‘Apartment Engage’ – where you ‘adopt a block’ of brand new apartments in our city for prayer and a series of 4-6 letter-box drops.
- You can invite contacts to Christmas Events:
- Kids Christmas Celebration – Thursady 13 December, 4-6pm,
- Carols on the Lawn – Sunday 16 December, from 5pm,
- Carols in the Cathedral on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services.
- Get involved in the Australia Day Aquathon (26 January) as competitor or volunteer.
- Encourage friends and those on the fringes of church to join you in the WaterWorks ‘Walk for Water’ event on Saturday 16 February, and the ‘drink only water’ lead up!
Later, over March 22-23, we expect many will be interested as we host seminars from Dr Patricia Weerakoon, a Christian sexologist, social commentator and educator on sexuality, sexual health etc. And for the 160th anniversary of our Cathedral building in December 2019, we look forward to some great chances to re-engage our community.
Sandy Grant
(Senior Minister)
