Pastoral Letter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi church,

Church in Cinema 5!

Well! What an amazing start to our new adventure in Event Cinemas in the heart of Westfield! Already God has done some amazing things outside the service, and we’ll start getting some of the testimonies up on the big screen!

Our Official Opening service @ Cinema 5 Feb 19, 9am

This is going to be a great time together. We’ve sent out our invites to local and community leaders and many of them have responded positively. Our Sunday Service venue sits almost on the boundary of two State and two Federal Government seats. It’s exciting for me to be able to tell you that we will have representatives of all levels of government at our Opening. We have the local Mayor, one of our State Members, and two of our Federal Members joining us for the morning. We have Event Cinemas management coming and other leading business people in our community.

Let’s make sure we make this a great and impacting occasion, welcoming the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst us. First of all, come! Don’t sleep in! Second, come prayed up! Don’t sleep in spiritually! Get there early as we have a very special musical item to open and we are ex-pecting a lot of visitors.

Getting used to the new space

Along this whole journey, I’ve tried to make sure that we all understand: we haven’t made the shift to the Cinema because we’ll have a better “experience” there. We’re here because God wants us to see that he has placed us in the heart of a community he longs for and has great plans for. He’s calling us to partner with him, to see there is a bigger picture that he wants us to be a part of.

But, having said that, I must say… I’ve been excited by how well the environment of Cinema 5 works for our main worship service. In fact, many of us have become quite animated by the possibilities of next steps forward within the service. That’s great, and I certainly have a lot of goals for how we do all aspects of our service. So long as we all know that we want to enjoy the ride. We’ve hit the ground with a great experience. And we have plans relating to the sound, lighting, video, projection, coffee, welcoming, new Christians, set up, advertising… the list tru-ly goes on. Over the next 12 months, we’ll make a number of tweaks. So if you’re really excited, and your creative juices are flowing, sit back and smile for a moment – don’t miss the Presence that is amongst us each Sunday. All things in their right time.

I had a revelation last Sunday. In a year’s time, Cinema 5 will be “normal” for us. It’s where we “do Church”. It will “feel” like Church to us. And then I pictured one of us coming in to Cinema 5 during the week to see a movie, and as soon as they sat down they were now struck with the realisation… “This is where I worship! Jesus is here! These people around me right now are missing out! I’m called to reach these people. They are our harvest field! Oh Lord, save them.” It’s going to change Cinema 5 forever! And that will change us! And that will change our com-munity! Yes, Lord, raise up workers for your harvest, and pour out your Spirit on Hornsby and its surrounding suburbs.

Wrap Up

Testimonies are starting to roll in. Now to get them out there so we’re all encouraged. If God has done something amazing in your life, tell me about it. On the website there’s a link “Got A Great Story To Share”. We’ve had a really exciting healing of a neck injury; healing of a prob-lem that has emotional roots, some amazing witnessing experiences in Westfield flowing out of us being in the Cinema. It’s beginning to rain! Prepare for the floods!!!

As I shared with the church a few weeks ago, as heaven reaches into our world, that’s the very time to step up our praise, worship and prayer. Revival is exciting, but nothing like the very liv-ing, breathing Presence of God among us.

See you Sunday. Come expectant. Come full of the Spirit. Hallelujah!