ALL ABOARD!  Sorry that was a bit lame.  But this isn’t!  This saturday at church at 8am we will begin the first of our saturday morning train-ing events.  This time we will be looking at how to lead church.  Welcoming people, setting the tone for the meeting, directing people to the Bible and getting them to begin engaging with God. Its more than just the announcement!!  If you’d like to lead church or have a go at it then make sure you come along this Saturday for the train!  Yes, at that time of morning there will be coffee (and pastries – I hope) let Mike know if you are coming.  mike@rockypc.org.au

Well its holiday time for this little black duck and as you can see from the pictures we are heading off to Cairns.  I’m preaching at the Cairns Presbyterian Church Camp July 16-18 at Camp Tinaroo doing 4 talks from Revelation 1-3 and then preaching at the morning and evening church services at Cairns Presbyterian Church in the city, also from Revelation 1-3 from the series I did earlier this year called The Church Jesus Wants. It’s kind of exciting for me personally to be going to Cairns, and preaching at the church there – it’s were I first heard the gospel and came to faith in Jesus when I was 17 years-old.  So, to be returning there to preach is really quite a thrill and a humbling honour.  We have two weeks holiday in Cairns following the Camp, and apart from reconnecting with my family, I’m hoping to do as little as possible so we can return home refreshed and renewed to serve Jesus faithfully in reaching our City of Rockhampton with the gospel.

Cairns Presbyterian Church

Starting Sunday May 17, we will begin a new Bible Talk series called “In My Place: The Cross Of Christ”.  It’s an 7 week series looking Jesus death on the cross as a substitute for us, dying for our sins.  Jesus died the death that we should have died.  He payed the penalty for our sins by his death for us so we could be declared right with God.   The Bible is filled with the idea of a penal substitute who dies on behalf of many all pointing us towards Jesus. During the series we will look the Bible books of Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, John, Romans, Galatians & 1 Peter. Our small groups will be following the series with studies prepared on each of the passages during the week. Of course, the talks will be available to listen to online or to podcast through iTunes but we would love to see you at church if you live in Rockhampton or you are visiting or just passing through.

With Good Friday coming up we want people to know about God’s love and nowhere more clearly do we see the love of God expressed for us at Easter, in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Want to know if God loves you?  Easter Nails It!  That’s what we will be looking at this Good Friday and we’d love it if you can join us at church over Easter on Good Friday at 8am and Easter Sunday at 9am & 6:30pm

By far the biggest surprise and encouragement for me has been the number of hits our website has had and the number of downloads the Bible Talks have had from right across Australia and the World.  We had over 505 downloads of the talk “The Church In Ephesus” which is really pleasing – not to mention the number of podcasts the talk has had as well.  

March begins with meetings and a presbytery retreat in Yeppoon and bringing together the details for our April mission and May convention and continuing to preach through the Church Jesus Wants series.