Back to Church Sunday - Updates

Update 9 September 09

Wow – 13 September is here!! May you all have a joy filled Sunday and shine like stars in the universe, this week and always. As soon as possible after Sunday would you please complete the evaluation form at: www.nicolajamescommunications.com/booking/btcs09feedback This has been organised by the parent body in the UK, so your response will be ‘assembled’ by them and sent back to Tony Gerritsen. As we approached B2CS on a Diocese by Diocese basis, your feedback to me direct about your joys and frustrations with the process too would be much appreciated – however, please not at the expense of the formal evaluation form! We recently taught our Small Saints to be teachable as “he who hates correction is stupid” Proverbs12:1, and I’m prepared to humble myself and practice what I preach, I think! Blessings to y’all Ginny McCarty mccarty@paradise.net.nz     Update 30 July 09 Which sons and daughters are we being called to lead out of the darkness?

“Oh for all the sons and daughters
Who are walking in the darkness
You are calling us to lead them back to You”

From Hillsong United's “Tear Down These Walls”

Hi all,

The Back to Church invites are on their way to you. May they be dispersed with love and received by an aching heart. My collation skills led me to being three packs of posters short, so if you got one more than you ordered, please let me know and I'll get you to forward it to the short-changed Parish – THANKS!

I pray your vision for incorporating your Back to Churchers is formed, and that your Worship team and Welcomers are set for excellence. At the Willowcreek Kids’ Ministry conference in the weekend I heard excellence defined as “doing the best we can with what we have”. May those events for post 13 September be excellent, and relevant, and the perfect bridge for relationships to be built on. This week I have also seen a sign “Don't go to Church, be the Church”. I guess we are asking them not to just “Come as you are to Church, but be the Church with me.”  AWESOME!

At All Saints Hataitai we are looking at the following events as a follow up – some new, some existing:

• Light Party (positive alternative to Halloween) – 31 October, for families with school-aged kids
• Guy Fawkes Fish ‘n’ Chips night – 5 November, for families with pre-schoolers
• Network/Alpha – for those who want to know more about the journey, or progress theirs
• Spring Celebratory Dinner – evening meal for all

I would also love to mention the beautiful “Girls’ Day” we had in the school holidays. All ages, 8-99 came together to learn or teach knitting, crochet, cooking and sewing, with lunch and testimonies. God's provision was astounding. I recommend such a day to all who want to develop the relationships between the ages. The boys have just had a mad “Boys’ Night” smuggling Bibles, sharing testimonies and building bonfires at the beach – another awesome opportunity to bridge the generation gap.

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK NOW – go on,
it could be the most fruitful 37 seconds in your day:
Back_to_Church_Sunday.

A Back to Church resource has been uploaded
with sermon outlines, follow up ideas
and relevant small group studies

Blessing y'all, except for the mouse scratching in our pantry,

Ginny McCarty

t: 04-973-9303
m: 021-145-0398
e: mccarty@paradise.net.nz

Update 9 July 09

Yay – the invitations and posters are in my hot little hands. Alas, I’m now away for the school holidays so watch your postbox in the next couple of weeks. Apologies to Philip Yancey for confusing him with a Chinese river in last week’s update!

I’m praying that our Back to Church champions are coming up with brilliant ideas for including Back to Churchers in Parish life. These ideas need to be events scheduled for post-September, and well before Christmas, such as:

• A Light Party – a positive alternative to Halloween
• Quiz Night
• Dinners of Eight
• Hospitality Lunches
• Guy Fawkes celebration
• Studies such as:
• God’s Never Ending Journey
• Alpha
• Journeys
• Christianity Explained
• Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace? – Archdeacon Tony Gerritsen has copies available
• And so on...

Good food and sincere fellowship is always a fabulous combination!

Love and Blessings

Ginny McCarty

Email: ginny@allsaints.org.nz