Regional flooding.

With all the recent rainfall, catchment dams are overflowing, causing flooding along the Murrumbidgee river system right across the Riverina area.
This will affect many within our congregations & our communities.
As Baptist Churches, lets be actively seeking to help where we can, by offering hospitality, support & assistance.
If you know of any way Baptists in the Riverina can assist, please contact Rev. Andrew Skewes or Pastor Steve Maynard.


The flood waters at Gundagai where the Murrumbidgee River peaked at 10.20 meters around 3pm Sunday afternoon [4/12/10] causing major flooding.

Moderate to major flooding will extend downstream of Gundagai over the next week or so.

Another rain band is predicted to move through the state which could result in further major flooding.
Predicted River Heights/Flows:

Wagga Wagga

- reach major flood level (9.6 metres) Sunday night 05/12/2010.

- Peak near 10.0 metres on Monday with major flooding.

Narrandera

- Reach 8.0 metres with moderate flooding Friday 10/12/2010

- peak predictions for the following towns will be made when upstream peaks are known

Darlington Point

- Reach 6.8 metres Monday 13/12/10 with minor flooding

Carathool

- Reach 7.4 metres with minor flooding Friday 17/12/10

Hay (Town)

- Reach 7.8 metres with moderate flooding Sunday 19/12/10.

Balranald

- Remain below minor flood level at this stage

FloodSafe advice is available at www.ses.nsw.gov.au

For emergency assistance call the SES on telephone number 132 500.

For life threatening emergencies, call 000 immediately.

Diary dates

As the year draw to an end, we need to note a few dates in our diaries for 2011.
Riverina Baptist Association will meet on Saturday 19th March for our annual rally.
This will be a time to encourage each other, be challenged from God's Word, and time to think about our role as Baptists within the Riverina area.
How can we be more effective in reaching our communities for Christ?
How can we best use the resources God has given us?
How can we empower the next generation within our churches?

Directions 2012 Taskforce 1 has proposed G1K, 1000 Baptist churches in NSW & ACT within a generation. In which communities should we be planting churches?
What shape or form should they take?
RBA Rally 19th March

Once again we have lined up a great speaker for our Riverina Mens Day Saturday 4th June.
Rev. Simon Manchester from St Thomas Anglican Church in Sydney will be our main speaker this time around. Simon is well known by many, has previously spoken at the Riverina Christian Convention, at Katoomba Convention etc. His Sunday service is broadcast on 103.2 FM in Sydney each week & heard by thousands.
Along with Simon, we will have several workshops to chose from: "Ministry out of the box" & "Reaching Generation Y"
Please make sure others in your congregation know about thes 2 great events!
Blessings.

The Church is the Gospel made visible.

At the recent "Together for the Gospel" conference, Mark Dever spoke about the Churches role in displaying Christ to the world. I highly recommend it to you.
To quote Mark; "Take away the local church & you take away the visible manifestation of the Gospel in the world!"

What do you think?

Pastor Steve

T4G 2010 -- Session 1 -- Mark Dever from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

The future of the evangelical Church.

Rev. Kevin Webb & myself had the opportunity to attend the 'Baptist Evangelical Today' conference in Sydney last week, held at Morling College. Both of us came away very encouraged by what we heard there from guest speaker Dr. Mark Dever (Pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C.)
Approx 50 of us sat under Mark's teaching & were challenged to remain true to our calling, to be faithful to God's Word, & to stand up for true evangelical beliefs.
With some of the current thoughts 'emerging' from within Baptist circles, many of which seem to challenge long held views & beliefs, it was a solid reminder that we must build our ministry on the Gospel. Our leadership must be humble & servant like, not looking to models that the world holds up, but looking to Christ! We must continue to preach the need for repentance & salvation by grace alone.
Each Baptist Church in the Riverina has a clear responsibilty, to know Christ & to make Him known, to faithfully teach God's Word, to be a light in the darkness, thereby bringing glory to God!
You can find out more about Mark Dever's ministry from these links, there are plenty of free resources for Church leaders & teachers. Well worth a look.
www.capitalhillbaptist.org
www.9Marks.org

Church Planting: Moving from Policy to Practice

This post will make public the email discussion kicked off by Peter's suggestion to form a church planting working group.

Feel free to add your comment as a comment or email it in.

Peter started by saying:

Can you put this on the agenda for the RBA AGM?

Notice of motion for 2009 RBA AGM
Regarding the church planting initiative presented at the 2008 Wagga
convention: if something more specific is adopted than the motion accepted at that convention, more is likely to happen.

Therefore I move that a church planting working group be established, to be advised by the Union, who shall also be asked to supply representatives. The group shall:

* Identify suitable towns within our Association for evangelism & church planting.
* Find workers & encourage them to move to these towns.
* Establish a small "cell" of support people, who will move there with the workers if they are not already local.
* Establish a board of reference, either one for them all the cells or else one per cell.
* Source adequate funds before the cell is set up, either directly or by finding local employment for cell members.

The search for workers & their support cells shall be conducted first in the town concerned, then in Riverina churches [for maximum local credibility, & so the RBA is more likely to "own" the venture], then in other rural towns, then wider still if necessary.

I asked for feedback from the executive, particularly on whether we like the idea in it's current form.

Here are some responses

Kevin replied:

I agree that unless something concrete is done, nothing will happen and unless resources are found, nothing will happen. We have to get our head around the things Pete is saying. I don't know who is going to do it but we are in agreement that something should be done. Pete Davies needs to be a part of this when he comes we need to have a side bar meeting with him about this.

Andrew Adds:

The concept is good, it certainly means the rubber hitting the road.
I think there is something misleading in the first line, do we advise the Union or get advice from them?
Certainly anyone can bring a motion to the meeting. It is strong but what happens if there are aspects that cannot be met? Is there flexibility to run with resources that are available rather than be hampered by being able to fully meet one requirement.

Just thoughts

Steven also adds:

* Identify suitable towns within our Association for evangelism & church planting.
Then they could possibly be called to;
Investigate & identify the most appropriate ways for that evangelism, and/or church plant to take place at each of the towns identified.

Peter Quinns points can be looked at & adapted to suit the group.
Depending on it's makeup, the group will bring their own ideas as well.
We need to use any resources the Union has available, but still be self controlling as a regional body.
The working group could then report their findings to the executive who could then decide to implement or not.

Thanks for the work that has already been done, good to see something happening!
Steve

Any further comments are most welcome

2011 Men's Day

Riverina Men's Day.
Simon Manchester has agreed to be our guest speaker next year, & the date is Saturday 4th June 2011 so lock it in now!
We'll also be having several workshops to choose from;
"Ministry out of the box." and "Reaching generation Y."

Once again we'll be meeting at Wagga Wagga Baptist Church
to be encouraged, challenged and equipped to live as Christian men
Our Men's Days are free to attend, but a donation is gratefully accepted toward our costs.
See you there!

Other Downloads

Other files available for download:

Fliers etc:
Mens Day 3 May 2008

Resources:
Church Planting Policy 2008

Minutes:
AGM Minutes March 2008
AGM Minutes August 2007