Hi everyone,

Well, wasn’t Sunday good? It’s great to hear God speaking to us and to hear that he is interested in our lives. In particular, it was good to hear so many praying out – it always creates a stronger sense of community and of God’s presence amongst us when so many contribute to the service.

In the prayer meeting this morning, we strongly felt God saying more to us as a church. This may be particularly encouraging if you were one who responded to the word spoken on Sunday morning, but I think this is for any who feel like they are being stretched at the moment:

We felt like God was encouraging us that He brings us to maturity; that like a father who often stands off some distance from their child to encourage them to walk to him, that God wants us to reach out and persevere in searching for Him. We felt that these verses were important:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

(Eph 4:11-16)

The key parts of those verses are that we minister to each other so that we may all ‘grow up” and “be mature”. And that we “speak the truth in love” (i.e. we are real).

Also, We felt to encourage people to persevere in the struggles they are having and we got Romans 5.1-5:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

(Rom 5:1-5)

We can persevere in hard times, and have hope because we know that God is using these things to grow us up and mature us and bring us to maturity!

So if you are encouraged by what God is saying here and feel like this is for you, why not reply to this email and let me know.

Also, a few notices:

1. Brocky is no longer coming on Sunday. But he is sending Jeremy Faumoina in his stead. Jeremy spoke last year at our end of year meeting where we all ate KFC. Jeremy is funny, down-to-earth and very real – he is a good swap for Brocky!

2. We will take up the expansion offering for LinkNZ on Sunday. Please consider giving generously to this, as this helps churches just like ours to function and keep encouraging and supporting people just like you all around NZ. Luk 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Remember, the new Tribe website has all the upcoming events on it, so go there to see what’s coming up: www.thetribe.org.nz

Have a great week,

Ben