• If you know how to use a chainsaw, but haven’t got an official chainsaw certificate, you can get one at no charge, next Saturday. It’s a 7 hour course, and you need to be willing to be part of the next 2-3 (roughly annual) Street Intensives.

1. Contact me by Monday morning, 10am if you are interested in this free-to-you course.
   

The annual Street Intensive is a way we can express our Parish mission. Anyone is welcome to join in. You don't need to operate machinery like chainsaws. Just to able to help with tidying up a neighbourhood is enough.

• The next one is in 3 weeks on Sat 15 October,
  
• It's at Rata Place between 9am and lunchtime.
  

One of our 3 core values is “Reaching out with the love of Christ”, like a beacon of hope to our local community.
With the greater awareness of the need for health and safety people can no longer just turn up. We need to be able to do a briefing ahead of time of those who will help. If you can be there please let me know as soon as possible. Leave a message at the church office by phone, email - or in person.
May you know the joy of Jesus reaching others. God bless
Bob Barnes

I enjoy oxymorons ... most of the time.
In the early 1970s the Ministry of Works was regarded as one. Later Microsoft Works was another. I discovered about 5 years ago that Military Intelligence definitely was one.

Then last week I heard another. This one I did NOT enjoy. "Family Violence".
I'd never thought of that as an oxymoron. But it is.
A lady named Jude Simpson heads up the national "It's Not Ok" campaign. She was in town last week, as keynote speaker after about a dozen local service agencies - and the churches - had each briefly told the Mayoral candidates what they believed were the priorities for Marlborough in the immediate future. She asked the question: "Who would put those 2 words together - Family and Violence?"
Family violence is a phrase we are only too used to hearing. We're so used to hearing it that we are often no longer thinking critically, other than a silent, even unconscious "tut-tut" perhaps, when it's spoken of.
Family Violence is not limited to any particular demographic of our society. Don't ever think it can't be happening even in churched families. Jude told of her upbringing in a well-to-do NZ white family, and how verbal abuse in her family dehumanized and nearly destroyed her. It presents in all sorts of ways: physical, verbal, sexual. Even spiritual abuse.
The ads on TV alerted us to the need to speak up when we are aware of it. Unfortunately, largely due to our presumptions about it not being in "our" sector of society, we develop a deafness to it. But it's like a cancer. Left untreated it can kill. Jude certainly challenged us to ask which NZ woman who is alive now will be dead in the next 3 weeks because of family violence. Statistically that's what's going to happen, somewhere in NZ. And Blenheim is just as likely a place as anywhere else in the country for that death to happen. Police attend 24 callouts each week here, to "domestic incidents".
I want to draw your attention to this cancer. The very place that should afford safety - the family - can be a place of danger.
Please be aware of what's going on, and if you suspect something, speak up, preferably to the person you are concerned about.
Speaking of the prophet God would send, the prophet Malachi said:

"He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse' (Malachi 4 v6)

There are times when journeys are smooth. Times when they get a bit bumpy. At times they just seem to have a lot in front. At others they're exciting prospects.
I'd like to share with you about a journey the Nativity Ministry Staff had a couple of months ago, that impacts on the journey we're all on at Nativity. 
Staff took a day to pray and discuss the worship and preaching themes for the rest of the year. It was a journey in it's own right, revealing a much longer journey we as a church are on. The first part takes us to the middle of next year! Like a journey Libby and I did earlier in the year with our mountain bikes, there will be uncomfortable sections and glorious ones, and everything in between. So staff spent the first hour, and then had other stops too, listening to the leader of our journey - Jesus.
As we went along, it was exciting how the different skills and gifts of each member of the crew added to the trip. Chaplain, Deacon, Nurse, Counselor, Priest all had insights that got us past obstacles as we scouted out the road ahead.
The outcome is that we are following the Good Shepherd in life. All the preaching themes for the coming year are based on the 23rd Psalm. You may remember we've had themes about who God is, who we are (Shepherd and Sheep) and what that means. It gave us themes around life issues like work and rest, provision and worry. Currently we're looking at restoration in different ways. A promise of restoration gives people hope, which is an ongoing theme for the whole Christian church.
With all the changes in society and challenges ahead of us, our journey will have uncomfortable times and glorious ones too. One change will be discerning what buildings will be needed for us to accomplish our journey.  Another is be how we develop ministry to the rising and future generations,
I hope and pray that you will stick with the journey. Listen to the leader (Jesus) as well as your co-travelers (the church), and enjoy the ride.

On Friday evening 2 August, at the end of the Family Fun night he was out in the kitchen helping with the cleanup. Here's the evidence. Yes - life is full of little surprises!

Not such a surprise was the quality and depth of John Neal's Father's Day sermon. We know he's a real Wordsmith as well as a great Pastor and a theologian faithful to the Bible. But this sermon was a real doozy. With John's classic wit, humility and his subtle humour he guides us through the minefield of gender politics of being a man - and a father - in 2016.

John preached this sermon at both our 8am and 10am services This version was recorded at the 10am service. Many Dads were out at Nativity kids, having breakfast with their kids , playing some great games and picking up a touch of Biblical teaching in there too. Men and women at both our morning services said they really appreciated what he had to say and many were looking forward to hearing it again.

Now, here it is - for those who want to hear it again, as well as for those Dads who missed out the riches of this feast. If you've not figured it out already, you can find it by going to our website Home page, and clicking "Sermons" at the right hand end of the pull down menu at the top of your screen. It's the sermon (not so strangely) entitled "Father's Day".

Most weeks, technology permitting, our Sunday sermons will appear there a few days after they've been preached. These will be good for listening to again, for those who can't make it to church, and small groups.

I'm very thankful to Kathy Taylor of 'Taylormade Solutions' for the way she has designed this site. It looks very smart. Even my tech savvy kids from overseas were impressed. There are a few more touch-ups to be done. Sermons to be added – maybe videos one day (...? Or holograms!) There's a bit of training of staff to happen, etc., and it'll be even better once we've got the hang of it. To ensure safety we need to have permissions signed to show photos of people.

Despite all that I am very thankful that for the ultimate communication, I am not required to be trained up or someone's signed permission to name them. All I need to do is start chatting, even in my head – it's even easier than blogging. Then I am doing what's called praying - talking with the creator and owner of the universe and me. The one who knows me before all else, who died and rose again for me, and at depths I am unaware of in myself. It's a fearful thing, yet a huge relief, all at once.

It causes me to think about what the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (in the Bible) said:

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:31)
"But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved." (Hebrews 10:39)

So have a look round. Check in regularly. If things aren't up to date let us know – send us those wake up calls (but nicely)!

Thanks for visiting. Thanks for reading. God bless.

Bob