This week as we prepare for the churches Annual General Meeting next week, things have been growing busier and busier.
I took Monday off of work, seeing as most of the ministers as well as MTSers were away for the day at the Priscilla & Aquilla Conference at Moore Theological College. Most of the day was spent watching Superbowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and the Pitsburgh Steelers with Jase, Matt, Pete, Jimothy, The Fish, Billie and Geoff. It was a good game, with most of the game influenced by the defense. The afternoon was spent with Jase & Geoff around Carlingford Court and Church where I picked up an old bookcase which belonged to Gary, but is no longer needed and brought it home for my room.
Tuesday was back on deck at work, but with Monday’s work added on top, so a fairly busy day. That night was the first of Lairdy and Swanto’s Growth Group at the flat, so whilst that was going on, I was confined inside my room. I spent the time trying to chip away at organising my music collection, sorting out the meta-data for some radio shows that I have.
Wednesday night’s will be my Growth Group night. I’ve joined Tim & Alicia’s group. Our first night we spent in fellowship over a BBQ, followed by some get to know you games and group prayer. It’s a group of some great guys and girls, and I’m looking forward to looking at and wrestling with the bible with them. The group consists of:
- Amazing Alicia
- Jovial Joelle
- Sweet Sophie
- Musical Monique
- Terrific Tahlia
- Perfect Penny
- Jumping Jono
- Tall Tim
- Yodelling Yohan
- Awesome Alex
- Authentic Angela
- Marvellous Mel
- Elegant Emily
Thursday at work was spent with lots of time looking at a bookmark that I’m in the process of designing. I’m trying to express a few different ideas that the staff have about the churches vision. I hope that it’ll be finished and distributed soon. That night I went home for dinner to my folks place. It was a productive time. I grabbed a whole heap of files from one of my old computers that lives there, had my hair cut by my sister, and grabbed a whole bunch of books that have been stored there as well.
Friday was a bit more of a relaxed day… I went to visit the dentist first up in Epping at No Gaps Dental. My sister works at their head office in the finance department and she recommended it. It wasn’t a bad experience. I got my teeth polished and checked out with relatively little pain or discomfort. The day seemed to roll through pretty quickly, nothing particularly significant happening. Touch was a pretty good game, with a good 14 a-side or so. I played on both wings and didn’t get much of the ball at all, despite some good runs…. SALT was really easy as well because it was picnic, so there wasn’t much tech for me to do. I did get the job of putting together a flyer for the talk next week by James Fong entitled “How can a loving God allow Suffering?“. Post SALT, I was delightfully told by Susannah about a dream that she had involving Penny and I, which was quite hilarious.
Saturday was Good Vibrations Festival!! I made my way out to Geoff & Tiff’s place in Newtown and Tiff kindly drove us out to Centennial Park. We walked into the festival around 2 O’clock to the sounds of Time & Jean on the Good Vibrations Stage before wandering the grounds to see where the stages were and to work out who to see. My main draw to Good Vibes this year was Sasha, with Faithless and Phoenix running equal second. In my lead up to Sasha who was starting at 6:45pm, Geoff and I managed to catch Koolism, Fenech-Soler, Fake Blood, Friendly Fires in the rain (who were pretty enjoyable), The Ting Tings, AjaxRusko, and Bag Raiders who were also good, especially hearing their current single: Sunlight. I managed to make my way over to see Sasha from the front, on the barrier. He played an awesome set, filled with a mix of Progressive House, Breaks and Trance, tough and dark with breakdowns every so often. The crowd appreciated it and Sasha seemed to enjoy it. After Sasha finished, we wandered past the last of Miike Snow into Nas & Damien Marley before venturing back out to the main stage for Faithless. The presence of Maxi Jazz was almost enigmatic, his thin frame standing there bare chested in a suit jacket and pants, a mix of defined muscles and bones showing, and as he began his signature vocal stylings we could tell that the show would be a good one. As with any live show, it can be difficult to pick the songs that are being played, as they’re often tweaked to be played in a live environment, but with more experienced groups that have been around for an extended length of time, that difficulty grows since they can choose from their great repertoire of tracks. What was unmistakeable though was their classic, almost signature track: God is a DJ. As much as it is a great track, I struggle with it’s theology… the lyric of
“This is my Church, this is where I heal my hurts. It’s a natural grace, Of watching young life shape It’s minor keys, solutions and remedies. Enemies becoming friends, when bitterness ends.”
is simply not theologically sound. It gives a theological spin to the everyday clubbing and festival culture, but it misses the key ingredient to making a Church what it really is: the gathering of the body of Christ. The festival finished off with a visit to see Phoenix, who were very much the same as their album, before catching a couple of Faithless tracks and heading back to Geoff & Tiff’s place via Janet’s Pies in Newtown for a late dinner of pie and chips.
This morning, we ate breakfast at a cafe on King St before coming back home in the mid afternoon. I got confined to my room again as Jason & Eliza’s Growth Group met for their first time. Tonight Mike preached from Haggai 2, the talk entitled: Disappointed, Discouraged and Doubting. It was a good talk that encouraged us as Christians how to face times where we are feeling down, which is inevitable in our fallen world. We are to:
- Be Strong
- Work
- Look Up
- Look Back
- Fear Not
- Look Forward