Posts from 2017

The Rest of 2017

G’day Parents, This might be my last post of the year so I thought I’d give you a good idea what’s happening over Christmas: Sunday@6 is finished for the year. This Sunday (Dec 17) we have the Diamond Creek Community Carols which we encourage you to come along and enjoy being a part of. Literally finishes with a bang (fireworks). Click here to view the details of our Christmas Eve services. If you’re not sure which service will be the most…

Baptism and Confirmation Service this Sunday

G’day Parents, I recently wrote about our upcoming baptism and confirmation service. I’m pleased to announce we have 5 people getting confirmed and 2 getting baptised. It should be a great night. Come along and hear their stories, witness the commitments of these young people and celebrate the promises they make. The following week is Diamond Creek Community Carols. And the week after that is Christmas Eve! Our first Sunday@6 service after Christmas will be 7th January 2018. Kirk

Last Sunday@6 Dinner for the year

G’day Parents, All year we’ve held fortnightly dinners at 5pm before our evening service. This week will be our last for this year. The following weeks will be our Baptism/Confirmation Service followed by Community Carols and Christmas Eve! Thanks to all our legendary cooks who have helped out during the year and helped make our service a more welcoming and hospitable place 🙂 Kirk

150th Thanksgiving Appeal

We’re reaching big, and asking for $150,000 to reduce our debt. Every year at St John’s we hold a Thanksgiving Appeal as an expression of thankfulness and love to God for his faithfulness and goodness to us. It is an opportunity to show generosity in giving over and above our regular gifts. It is a powerful expression of our dependence on God, our love for him, and our thankfulness for all he has provided. This year we are giving thanks…

New Volunteer Leadership Team

Thanks to everyone who came along to the AGM on Wednesday night. It was great to reflect on the past year and to thank God for providing for us. It was also good to think about the year ahead, to make plans about how we will resource our ministry, and to elect leaders for our church. The following people will lead us over the coming year: Parish Council The highest decision-making body within the church, they are responsible for overseeing…

5pm Activities – Nov 26

G’day Parents, Sometimes we run some fun times before the service on a Sunday. This week we run our last for the year. Like the recent youth event, it’s games based, but not epic like the youth event because we only have an hour. There’ll be a bunch of short-and-sharp games to play that we hope will bring some fun social time to everyone who attends. Details? It’s at 5pm. It’s free. Just turn up and have fun 🙂 Click…

Baptism and Confirmation Service – December 10

G’day Parents, On December 10th Sunday@6 will be hosting a Baptism and Confirmation Service where people have the opportunity to stand up in front of their church community and publicly commit to following Jesus. In the Anglican tradition, confirmation is for people who have been baptised as infants or children and, now that they’re older, want to affirm the promises that were made on their behalf. We’ve already got a bunch of young people keen to be involved. If someone…

Location confirmed for Epic Board Games

G’day Parents, Just a quick note to let you know that tonight’s youth event will be held in the portable building between the main church building and the church office (which looks like a house, just to make it more confusing). It’s commonly known as the Pizza Box. We’ve received a number of RSVPs but we can fit a few more people so it’s not too late to sign up. Rocking up without RSVPing might be okay, it would just…

Last youth event this Friday – RSVP needed!

G’day parents, Hopefully you’re aware of our Epic Board Games event this Friday. I wrote about it here previously. We’re currently at a point where we need two more rsvps to go ahead with the event. The more people who come, the more flexible we can be with what games we play and how we run the night and it’s always helpful to have approximate numbers. For those who have already rsvp’d, thanks heaps, we’ll contact you directly regarding the…

Youth Event: Epic Board Games

G’day parents, We’ve got our final Friday night event coming up in just under two weeks. Here’s the details: Board games are fun but not always epic. Forget Snakes and Ladders, forget Monoply, we’re going way more hardcore than that. Plus: food and friendly people! This event will run from 6-10pm on Friday the 10th of November. We’ll confirm the location closer to the date when we have a good idea of numbers. It will be in Diamond Creek or…

The PONG approaches

G’day Parents, I’ve written about the Youth Unite ping-pong-a-thon previously. If you missed that post, please do have a read. I received an update on the campaign from the organisers and wanted to share some of the details with you here. GIGANTIC. WEEK. OF. PONG. Team Pong, this week you: – Broke the All-time School Venue Record – Recruited another 250 Pongers to the team – Had a 14 year old event organiser raise more than $3,000 – Had your…

Why our next Youth Unite is so important

[vimeo 77140285 w=640 h=360] Tony Talks about the anti-slavery movement from Destiny Rescue on Vimeo. G’day Parents, Last week I wrote about our upcoming Youth Unite event. This video is from one of the organisations we’ll be supporting through this event. It’s a small snapshot into what these groups are doing on the front line. I recommend having a watch and maybe watching it with your kids as well. There is more reading and videos on the Destiny Rescue website…

Youth Unite Term 4 – October 27

G’day Parents, Youth Unite is something we’ve been involved with for a long time. For our last event this year we’re doing something a little different. This video gives you a bit of an idea about the cause we’re supporting: [vimeo 226983566 w=640 h=360] 2017 Ping Pong-A-Thon 2017 // Promo from The Pong on Vimeo. You can click here to read more about the event and the cause. As for practicalities, see below: Youth can fund raise in advance by…

Sunday@6 in the school holidays

G’day Parents, There are three Sunday@6 services this holidays: 24/9, 1/10, 8/10. At each of these services there will be a prayer meeting at 5:15 which everyone is welcome to attend (we meet in the Prayer Room near the back door and do a variety of prayer styles). The service is at 6pm followed by supper afterwards. We aim to finish our services by 7:30, something we achieve 95% of the time. On 8/10 we will have one of our…

Sunday@6 Dinners in Term 4

G’day Parents, Our Sunday@6 dinners are a great point of connection for people across all age groups and I highly recommend popping them in the diary so that you and your family can come and enjoy the food and company. Here’s what term 4 looks like: 15/10 Dinner 29/10 Dinner 5/11 Cup weekend (no dinner) 12/11 Dinner 26/11 Dinner 10/12 Dinner (Confirmation Service) 17/12 Community Carols (No dinner or normal service) 24/12 Christmas Eve Services at 5pm and 11pm (No dinner) Kirk P.S. Actual Sunday@6 dinners…

Some key dates for the rest of the year

G’day Parents, This is not an exhaustive list of dates but they are on my radar: October 27 – Youth Unite. Click here to see the Facebook event. December 10 – Baptism and Confirmation Service at Sunday@6. Email kirk@stjohnsdc.org.au with expressions of interest. December 17 – Diamond Creek Community Carols (replaces Sunday@6 service that night). Date TBA – Board Games Night. More info soon. I’ll give you more details on these events as they get closer. Kirk

The 3 Stages Of Adolescence

G’day Parents, I came across this interesting clip on adolescence which you might like to watch. It’s American so they use terms like “Freshman” which I don’t really understand but the basics are there to relate to Australia. Clip here to watch the clip. The YouTube channel this clip is hosted by has lots of great stuff. It’s mainly targeted at youth workers/ministers but I like to think of parents as the real full time youth ministers so I lot…

Entry level service opportunities for youth

G’day parents, At our most recent Sunday@6 service I mentioned that there are a few simple but important roles that are ideal for youth to take on if they’re wanting to serve at church. The obvious ones in my mind are reading the bible, hospitality and praying for people (either up front or in prayer ministry). I was encouraged that multiple people responded and signed up for bible reading and prayer. If your kids are keen to serve Jesus and…

Free Maths Tutoring in Term 3

G’day parents, This Sunday at 3:30pm we will be hosting free maths tutoring for high school students. This is something we’ve done for a while now and is a fantastic opportunity waiting to be taken advantage of. Sometimes I wonder why this hasn’t been more popular than it is. Remember, it’s free! Normally this would cost about $60 an hour! Here’s some details: At St. John’s in Meeting Room 2 (to the left of the toilets). Bring your school work…

Key dates for term 3

G’day parents, Here’s a few key dates for term 3. Pre Sunday@6 dinners (5pm every two weeks): 30/7 13/8 27/8 10/9 Free Maths Tutoring, 3:30-5pm every two weeks, always leads into dinner: 13/8 27/8 10/9 Both the dinners and the FREE Maths Tutoring come highly recommended both because they’re high quality and great for relationship building. Kirk

Panel Night July 23

G’day Parents, This Sunday we’re hosting a special Sunday@6 service which features a guest speaker from Barcelona and a panel where we’ll attempt to answer peoples’ big questions about God, life and faith. Click here to see the Facebook event. Panel nights are important because young people value transparency and the willingness to discuss questions and doubts. We try and do these nights a few times a year to get a good sense of where people are at and what…

Classic Youth Games – July 16

G’day Parents, First up, I’m about to go on leave for a few days so there will be no post from me next week. However, I’m back on Sunday 16th for our 5pm CLASSIC YOUTH GAMES. This is going to be one hour of people’s favourite youth group/youth camp/school camp games; at least the ones that fit in our building and are legal 😉 We’ll have a mix of high intensity and low intensity so there should be a good…

Sunday@6 in the Holidays

G’day parents, During the three Sundays of the school holidays we give our cooks a rest and take a break from 5pm dinners. However, on the last Sunday of the holidays (July 16) there will be some fun-times activities from 5-6pm. Classic games from youth group/camp. Pop it in your diary, more details to come. For the rest of the year we plan to do one big pre-service event each term as well as some post-service activities during holidays/long weekends.…

Reminders for the weekend

G’day parents, Three key things to note for this weekend. Our Youth Games and Movie Night on Friday. Click here for details and to RSVP. Please respond today if you know you’re coming. Tomorrow (Wed) I will send out a message to everyone who has RSVP’d with the address and what to bring. Our Girls Life Group is doing a fundraiser on Saturday. Click here for details. At this stage they have had zero people register in advance! You are able to…
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