Dear Real Life Family,
You may have heard me say that it is better to have growing pains than dying pains...
I am pleased to say that we are still faced with growing pains!
As we navigate the new world that COVID-19 has ushered us into with a missional mindset, the church leadership are constantly and prayerfully considering how we might foster the most fruitful opportunities and environments to partner with where God is at work. This means making changes from time to time as we calibrate our church life and activities around this. If you have been reading the weekly e-news e-mails or posts you will have seen last week the ongoing vibrancy of our Friday night youth ministry. This needs some further background support on Friday nights to help it make the most of the disciple-making opportunities it presents - including connecting with and serving the parents and families of those youth.
With this in mind, and in evaluating the resources we have available to us, the Church Council have endorsed moving our Friday night worship service to Sunday afternoons at 4:30pm.
The Friday stream on the 11th September (tonight) will be the last Friday night stream and from Sunday 20th September we will commence a Sunday afternoon worship service stream.
When the time is right to commence in-person worship gatherings, the Sunday afternoon service will be at the Carbrook Campus and, while being intergenerational, will give greater opportunity for families with younger children to attend. We plan that a Kids Life program would run for that service. Having an alternative opportunity for communal worship other than Sunday mornings is important to us, as is continuing to develop a worshiping community at Carbrook.
The opportunity then remains to build a community connection on Friday nights with the parents and families of our youth through a focused group. This group will function like a life group and will engage with invitational opportunities such as the Alpha Course. I am pleased to report that we already have the start of a team who can facilitate and grow this underway!
As a church we continue to remain focused on our stated God-given mission of partnering with him in drawing people into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus. I am so grateful to be able to serve a church with a heartbeat like that!
A new service time is a great opportunity to invite someone to join you for it. Right now the invitation is to connect online, or to connect with you in person as you together connect online. Do you know someone who would like to connect with Real Life but Sunday mornings are a challenge and Friday nights were not possible? I encourage you to prayerfully make an invitation.
Blessings,
Adam Low | LEAD PASTOR
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