What's On?
Wild Church Details
Wild Church will be at MM Beach this month.
Park near the corner of Darcy Rd and Gloucester Blvd. We gather on the grass there on the north end of MM Beach.
Bring something to sit on and a cup for communion.
NAIDOC Week: Adam and Lisa Gowen
We are delighted to have Adam Gowen and his wife Lisa coming from Ulladulla to speak on 12 July at our classic service during NAIDOC week.
Adam is an Aboriginal Christian leader from Wiradjuri country who is passionate about 'faith culutre, identity, instruments and chooks!" Adam and Lisa will be sharing on salvation from an Indigenous perspective - please join us if you can!
Jono Barnett - Our New Kids and Youth Worker
We're really excited to be welcoming Jono onto our staff at Central. He's coming in half a day a week to coordinate our kids' and youth programs. Jono brings his commitment to the Jesus way, creativity and organisational skills and a commitment to seeing young people grow in their faith. Here is Jono in his own words:
"I’ve loved building relationships with many of the kids and youth at Central in our time here so far, and am excited to have some paid time to prioritise them further. Sarita and I have been coming for two and a half years now, which isn’t the longest time, but we feel so at home and integrated here. When the chance to lean further into this community came up, I had that gut sense of excitement that can be an indicator of God’s invitation. I hope to help our young ones feel a sense of belonging in our church, and an ability to bring their whole selves, including their spirituality, to their lives outside the church. I’m keen to explore ways for them to learn and identify with a healthy Christianity centred on Christ’s love and God’s goodness, including by connecting with some in the broader church beyond our own to see some of the larger family we’re a part of. Thanks to the many of you who already do these things within your families and with your time on church rosters - I look forward to working with you. If you have ideas or questions, please feel free to reach out!"
New Monthly Contemplative Group
Are you wanting to explore more deeply the contemplative stream of Christianity?
We are starting up a monthly mid-week contemplative group which will make space for deeper engagement with both contemplative practice and the rich thinking that flows out from this stream.
Our next gathering will be Wednesday, 22nd July at 7:00 PM.
Prayer Meeting
On the third Tuesday of every month, a prayer meeting is held in the church.
Feel free to join us in prayer, or send on your prayer requests to Cheryl Meers.
Afterwards, grab a coffee at Cake by Rach Cafe in Port Kembla.
This month's meeting is Tuesday the 21st of July.
Common Grace Conference
Central Church has been allied with Common Grace for a number of years and a small group of us are going to the Common Grace Conference in Canberra this year.
This will be another incredible opportunity to gather together as the movement of Common Grace to connect, yarn together, go deeper in understanding and relationship and take action to call and advocate to see justice flow across Australia and beyond.
If you are interested in attending, please see Becca.
Sunday Arvo Bible Study
On the third Sunday of each month, following Wild Church, Oran will be leading a Bible
Study at the church from 4:00pm. Throughout the year, we’ll journey together through
the Gospel of Mark—listening closely, asking questions, and discovering afresh the
good news it holds for us today.
If you’d like to dive deeper into Scripture, bring your Bible and join us. Please let Oran
know if you’re planning to come, or if you have any questions.
Our Church Podcast!
Most of our Sunday gatherings are recorded and put up on our church podcast which we’ve had since 2018.
It’s a great way to access the content and practices that are forming us as a community if you miss a Sunday.
And there are plenty of goodies from the past if you want something to listen to while you’re walking, driving or cleaning the kitchen!
Just search for 'Central Church Port Kembla' wherever you listen to podcasts.
Recommendations
If you want to check out what we discussed at the theology night on 'hell' here are the slides we went through. We looked at three different views present in the Christian tradition: eternal conscious torment; annihilationism/conditional immortality; and ultimate reconciliation/Christian universalism. We also workshopped the pros, cons and fruit of each belief.
3 Views On Hell - Google Slides
Podcast Reccos for July!
Last month we were blessed to host Steff Fenton in collaboration with Rainbow Christians Illawarra. Steff shared some of the Biblical basis for holding space for a gender expansive faith. We recorded the talk and it's up on our podcast. It's definitely worth a listen. Check it out wherever you listen to podcasts.
Finally, as we're talking about salvation we thought it was worth linking again Brad Jersak's 'Gospel in Chairs' presentation, where he goes through two different ways to tell the gospel, and the good news of God's pursuit of us. If you've never seen it, it's worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7FKhHScgUQ
Edgewalkers Book
I (Caro) had the privilege of contributing a chapter that highlights people who are seeking to cultivate life around the edges of faith, church and theology.
Each chapter is written by a different person from around Australia who has been wrestling with what faithfully following God looks like in their lives and ministry.
We were asked to write in the style of 'memoir theology,' so I wrote about some of the challenges of my own faith journey and the creation of our contemplative service. I haven't quite read all of the chapters yet, but those I have read have been both encouraging and challenging. It gives me so much hope to see people exploring the expansiveness of our faith and putting that into practice in all kinds of creative ways.
You can buy a copy of the book on Amazon if you'd like to read it. It's been published by a new, independent publisher, so you'd be supporting some local grassroots goodness if you are able to buy it.
