Pete's Pastoral Care Time!

* Happy Birthday to Rachael Collins (a cadet in our session), hope you have a cool night tonight!

* We're all praying that the new Victorian premier John Brumby will be blessed by God as he makes decisions that affect Victoria, Australia.

* I'm praying for healing for my mate Shaun whose been unwell lately... not to mention everyone else whose sick; I hope God will bless you!

* For all those that are wanting to change the World and God hasn't brought the harvest yet... Be content where God has called you at this point in time.

* Just a thought for you, in such a pluralistic, 'anything goes' society, remember, love the sinner, hate the sin. Don't love the sinner and love the sin. (Just a thought...)

* Thanks to all those at the Training College who have supported the 75 hours of prayer we will be doing. (I hope you've heard of the 24/7 prayer happening within the Salvation Army Southern Territory)

* God comfort those right now, who feel abused, who feel depressed, who are addicted, who are hurting, who are lonely, who are supressed, in the name of Jesus!

Faith for the Future

Who has it?
Do you have it?
Do most of our Soldiers in The Salvation Army have it?
Do the officers of The Salvation Army have it?
I sure hope I have it.

FAITH for the FUTURE!

I believe 'Connections 07' is going to be great. That the Holy Spirit will move freely and powerfully in our midst!
I believe that God is reviving The Salvation Army, and that I'll be part of a wonderful Revolution.
I believe that we will be sold out to Jesus.
I believe we will have an integrated, holistic mission in the future.
I believe God will choose the right person to govern Australia.
I believe that many of the future leaders of our Salvation Army aren't even saved yet.
I believe that the way in which we train cadets, will change and adapt radically in the future.

I believe in Jesus, the son of the living God.

I need Shampoo!

Have you ever had your income come close to your expenses? Hmm... It's kind of interesting being a cadet, living off a small Centrelink wage and paying all the fees for College, mobile phone, etc, etc. It's actually great to have to rely on God to survive at times.

Anyway, here's my quick story. We've run out of shampoo. It's time to go shopping with hardly any money... Jo goes off and does her house duties, and in the Cadet Common Room there is a box full of free goodies for the cadets, including... yes you guessed it... SHAMPOO!

So, that's my story. God is Jehovah Jireh, my provider. Ohh yeah. Praise Jesus.

Speak. Your Servant is Listening.

We had a retreat day today. A day of opportunity to pray and listen to God and what he would speak to us about.

I couldn't stop thinking of 'Servanthood'. That fancy word for what God calls his people to be: Servants. Jesus humbled himself and became man, and in his life he served. (John 13, he washes his disciples' feet)

I've been tossing around thoughts recently of success. How does success tie in with serving? To serve is to succeed? A life that is faithful to God is successful? You may feel the same, but sometimes I wake up and think, I want my life to be successful. I want it to mean something. I want it to reach thousands of souls for Jesus. I want it to live on when I die. But maybe God's wanting me to do one thing. To focus not on success. To focus less on fruitfulness. To not let my life be consumed with busyness, attractiveness, money, peer pressure, etc. But above all things, that I would learn how to...

Serve.

Isaiah 42:1 - 'Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations.'

Back to School

Oh no, I gotta go. Oh no, I gotta go, back to school...

Well, it's Semester Two ladies and gentleman... You know, I think it's going to be a good Semester. A time of learning, a time of discovery, a time of challenge and frustration, but a time where God will show himself to be powerful and mighty.

I believe God has big plans for the 'Training College system' in which I find myself at this moment. I choose my words carefully here, as I believe it's not a matter of saying God has great plans for the Training College, as a building, but if we think outside the box, and see that God has great things in store for how we train cadets (whereever that may be) in whatever, postmodern, postChristendom, posthierarchial, postpaperworkfilled place that may be.

Hmm... God is good. Will you pray with me, that for many, it is a great time to be learning, a great time to discover new things?

Is that the Lord calling?

I was reading 1 Samuel the other day, and I felt a word from God was given to me about the Candidates... You may be familiar with the story... (Have a quick read - 1Samuel 3:4-10):

Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, "Here I am. "
And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down. Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." "My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel! " Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

This is the what God laid on my heart as I began to pray for the candidates. I said, Lord I believe you have called many candidates into officership, but I also believe many of them cannot hear your voice. They are hearing someone calling them. They are receiving 'the call' into officership, but are not recognising whose voice is calling them. God let them understand your calling so clear...

Wait! There's more. I thought this was a good prayer time, but then yesterday, I was chatting with Marney Turner, and shared her this story. She said on Saturday morning of the Candidate's Weekend, she is using this exact scripture from 1 Samuel!!!! PRAISE GOD! What an awesome word from God.

Let us hear God when he calls us...

Time to Innovate

It has been great being on holidays. Why? It has been a time to innovate? A time to think. A time to strategise. When I get back to College I aim to spend atleast every month apart from people and have my own retreat day.

When's the last time you stood back from the busyness just to think? Thinking outside the box is hard to do when you're inside the box. Take some time out to think, to create, to innovatively solve the problems you're facing. John Maxwell has a thinking chair, maybe that's a good idea...

Here's my thinking lately: I've come up with a great fundraising idea, called TACO (Train A Cadet Overseas). I'm going to get the ball rolling with that soon. Also, I've worked out how to make my own videos and upload them onto RevolutionEarth, which is awesome! Stay tuned for some interesting videos...

To finish in a tacky way... What's the time Mr. Wolf? It's time to innovate!

Australian 2006 Census Material

Steve Addison published some interesting stats on his blog recently. Have a read: (Or check out: www.steveaddison.net/)

2006 Australian Census
The latest figures for the 2006 Australian census are out. Here’s some highlights on religious identification:
Christianity remained the dominant religion in Australia, although non-Christian religions continued to grow at a much faster rate. Since 1996, the number of people reporting that they are Christian grew from around 12.6 million to 12.7 million, but as a proportion of the total population this number fell (from 71% to 64%).
Over the same period, those affiliated with non-Christian faiths increased from around 0.6 million to 1.1 million people, and collectively accounted for 5.6% of the total population in 2006 (up from 3.5% in 1996).
The most common Christian denominations continued to be Catholic (26%) and Anglican (19%). Since 1996, the number of Australians affiliated with the Catholic church grew by 7% to 5.1 million, while those affiliated with the Anglican faith decreased by 5% to 3.7 million. Other groups to decline were the Uniting Church (by 15% to 1.1 million) and the Presbyterian and Reformed churches (by 12% to 0.6 million). The fastest-growing Christian denomination was Pentecostal, increasing by 26% (to around 220,000).
Australia’s three most common non-Christian religious affiliations were Buddhism (2.1% of the population), Islam (1.7%) and Hinduism (0.7%). Of these groups, Hinduism experienced the fastest proportional growth since 1996, more than doubling to 150,000, followed by Buddhism which doubled to 420,000.
Since 1996, the number of Australian residents who stated no religion increased from 2.9 million to 3.7 million (17% of all residents in 1996 and 19% in 2006). New South Wales had the smallest proportion of its population not affiliated with any religion (14%), and South Australia had the largest proportion (24%).
ABS Media Fact Sheet

Calling all Apostles!

I once had an argument with a guy who insisted that there are no longer any apostles. The nice heated discussion started when I said something about being an 'apostle'. He didn't like that. I mean, how dare I equate my life to that of Paul or Barnabas or Peter.

But I believe in the Word of God.

Eph 4:11-12 says, 'So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up... (TNIV)

Just because I'm passionate doesn't make me an evangelist. I believe I'm an apostle. Someone who pioneers communities of faith. Someone who is 'sent' by God to fulfill a task.

Do you sit in church frustrated at times, and want to do something, or say something, to bring glory to God? Do you ever think of ministries you could start that could change the world? Do you ever dream of planting churches? Maybe you're an apostle.

CALLING ALL APOSTLES. It's time to step up and pioneer. It's time to innovate and create. It's time to invest in people's lives, so that people would come to faith in Jesus!

Would you pray with me... 'God, use us to change the World. Empower us by your Holy Spirit. May we live and breathe as Jesus would today. Salvation for the World, we pray in the name of Jesus! AMEN!'

Invent the Future

We can't control the past.

How we live in the present determines the future.

We can change the present.

Therefore we can invent the future.


Will you dream with me a little..? ... ... ... ... I dream of pioneering thousands and thousands of healthy churches, that reach many, many people for Jesus. I dream of preaching the gospel in South East Asia, with many people coming to faith in Jesus! I dream of seeing corps reaching thousands of people with the gospel (Mega-Church or Mega-networks -- whichever!) I dream of having the influence to make the changes I know are right...

Will you dream once again? We CAN invent the future, by what we choose to do today.

Rest is Good

Rest is good. Rest is needed. Here Jo and I are at a place called Mannum in South Australia. Enjoying the view and taking some photos. God is good that there has been much rain lately. I pray God will send what's needed in the amounts that are needed.

Have you been too busy lately? Remember God is the one who grows the Church. Stop a little. Rest a little. Trust God that he will grow your ministry. Trust God that he will expand your business.

Rest is good. Rest is needed.