https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM0z-JwqpsI&feature=youtu.be

Westcity Church

Love God | Love People | Follow Jesus

WESTCITY HUB

WE ARE A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO ARE ALL ABOUT JESUS

(Well, what did you expect from a church?)

We are old people and young, artists, people with disabilities, lawyers and plumbers, activists and accountants who have been captured by, and caught up in God’s Dream for the world and God’s purpose for our lives, that we see revealed in this Jesus.

Maybe we are a church for those who don’t like ‘church’. A church for those who don’t want to play religious games or be entertained  but on a good day, desire to live the love that God has shown us.

 

WEEKLY UPDATE – May 26

To all members and visitors of the Westcity community

We trust you are enjoying our current Beautiful Attitudes sermon series and are finding more and more each day that Jesus’ priorities are becoming your own. That the deep work of allowing our own heart attitudes to be transformed is occurring, and that this will inevitably lead us to see others through Jesus’s eyes and to take action in His name.

Your invitation to sit with Jesus – During morning prayer with Phil

In one of the hardest days of Jesus’ life He asked His disciples to come and pray.
Jesus didn’t need to share all his prayer requests with His disciples. Just the fact that they were together was enough.

These prayer mornings are in a similar vein and are an invitation to each of you to come and be with Jesus.

Join us on zoom, every morning from 7am – 7:30am (Monday – Sunday, until May 31). Each of us read the scriptures to ourselves, think about what we have read, have a few minutes of stilling ourselves before God, and maybe a few minutes blessing and praying for one another before we enter the day.

Join us on zoom for prayer

 

Worship at Westcity

This Friday 29th May @8pm Livestreaming

You are most welcome to join us. We will be led by Kate and Laura Kerridge and it expect it will be a wonderful night of worshipping our great Father.

You can find out more by visiting The Wescity Hub.

 

Peace and blessings,

Phil and the Westcity Team

SUNDAY SERVICE

10am @ 63 Nanson St Wembley, Perth, Western Australia

Our desire as the Westcity community is to find God’s story in our stories and our stories in God’s story. Each week, we explore scripture so that it might capture our imaginations that we would be open to the Holy Spirit’s transforming work and be equipped to live God’s love. We often give a gentle opportunity for those who haven’t said yes to God’s love to do that and to explore baptism.

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CHILDREN’S CHURCH

8am ONLINE

Godly Play is a great opportunity for adults and all ages to listen, wonder and respond.

Listen to the story, stop and wonder about the questions, then respond by doing your own work – each person can do their work differently.

Parents, it would be lovely if you can sit down and watch this video with your children. Pause the video after each wondering question, and share your thoughts with one another. Set aside time to “do your work” – you might draw, or paint, or make, or play, or read, or write … each person can do their work differently.

Please share your thoughts and work in the “Westcity Community” Facebook group if you wish.

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CURRENT SERMON SERIES

Beautiful Attitudes: April - May 2020

‘But who is my neighbour?’ (Luke 10:29b)

The Covid19 pandemic is a call to action for followers of Jesus. Many commentators are saying that things will never be the same again and that may not be such a bad thing. It could be a moment when Christ-followers come together to “love their neighbour “as never before, especially since the question ‘who is my neighbour?’ has been comprehensively answered on a global scale!

In his “Sermon on the Mount’ (Matthew 5-7), Jesus laid out a counter-cultural way to live that could have been written with our present crisis in mind. In it, he paints a picture of a society that pivots away from self-centredness and instead pivots towards our neighbour.

The sermon begins with ‘The Beatitudes’ (Matthew 5:3-11), here paraphrased by Glen Stassen.

Joyful are those who are poor and humble before God, for theirs is the reign of God (verse 3).
Joyful are those who are deeply saddened to the point of action, for they will be comforted (4).
Joyful are those whose wills are surrendered to God, for they will inherit the earth (5).
Joyful are those who hunger and thirst for restorative justice, for they will be filled (6).
Joyful are those who practice compassion in action, for they will receive God’s compassion (7).
Joyful are those who seek God’s will in all that they are and do, for they will see God (8).
Joyful are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (9).
Joyful are those who suffer because of restorative justice, for theirs is the reign of God (10).
Joyful are you when they criticize, persecute, and slander you, because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in God. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you. (11-12)

The Beatitudes anchor our April-May theme, Beautiful Attitudes and will remind us that, ‘the church is the only institution that exists for those who are not in it’. As we journey through the sermon we will find Jesus’ priorities becoming our own. That will mean the deep work of allowing our own heart attitudes to be transformed, and will inevitably lead us to see others through Jesus’s eyes and to take action in His name.

This series aims to:
· Invite people into thinking deeply about living kingdom priorities in troubling times.
· Reframe cultural norms around Jesus’ priorities and attitudes.
· Highlight how we can respond honestly to the challenge that the message has invited us into.
· Motivate listeners to memorise scriptures that speak into their everyday experience.
· Encourage the Westcity community that everyone following Jesus has a part to play in His mission.
· Be a sacred [cyber] space in which to encounter the presence of Christ.

PODCAST

RESOURCES

Home Study Notes – May 24 

Beautiful Attitudes | Blessed are the Merciful | Jon Bergmann
Livestream Sunday Sermon

Scriptures: Matthew 5:7 and Matthew 7:1-2

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy.” Matt 5:7

“Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgement you judge, you shall be judged; and the measure you use, it shall be measured back to you.”

Quotes and Comments:

  1. Our challenge is to be dispensers of mercy rather than just receivers of mercy.
  2. Mercy is a function of power. When we feel powerless, we find it difficult to empower others by dispensing mercy.
  3. We have the power to diminish and demean people or to encourage and lift them.
  4. “We tend to judge ourselves by our intentions, and we tend to judge others by their actions.”
  5. People don’t care about our intentions. They care about our actions.
  6. We need to think about the possible causes of people’s actions.
  7. Let us remember:
  • Like us, they are hurt and damaged.
  • They are loved and forgiven children of God.
  • They are created in God’s image and initially good at their core.

“Our greatest power is how we choose to judge, treat and talk about others.”

Questions:

1.Why is “mercy” a function of power?

2.How would we like to be judged? Would it be by the same measure that we dispense it?

3.How does it help us to think about the causes of other people’s negative words and actions?

4. How do we become people of mercy?

“Tattoos of the Heart” by Greg Boyle – Recommended by Nina and Jon.

Richard Kerridge – Home Churches & Building Healthy Communities

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Pastoral Note – May 21

“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.” Augustine

Being an academic can be frustrating, especially when you can’t actually see students! Yes, I know that there are a dizzying array of virtual platforms and I know that apparently most people are hyper-connected these days. But virtual platforms are just that…virtual, as in not actual. My logic goes something like this then. If most people are hyper connected to and via something that is not actual, then many people are not actually connected. And that is borne out by recent stats on loneliness.

A survey last year found that 50% of Australians feel lonely sometimes or always, and this mostly in younger hyper-connected individuals. Not so surprising perhaps if we take Augustine’s words to heart. Before the turn of the 5th century, this young, intelligent, and ambitious scholar was finding what countless numbers have found before and since, maybe even more now than ever before, that people were not made to be alone. We are all very different of course and some seem to need more companionship than others but all of us have restless hearts longing for friendship with God. And that is not a virtual hyper-connectivity.

Friendship with God is as real as real can be and when we are connected to him, as Christ-followers down the ages have found, connection with others is deeper and stronger than ever. So, my frustration about virtual platforms and connectivity may in reality be a simple recognition that people can know love and friendship so far beyond what people alone can provide.

My one desire is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and to share his sufferings in growing conformity with his death, in hope of somehow attaining the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10 REB)

Chiz (Neil Chisholm) – Teaching Pastor – Spiritual Formation & Discipleship

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Worship Night – This Friday May 29, 8pm Livestreaming

You are most welcome to join us. We will be led by Kate and Laura Kerridge and it expect it will be a wonderful night of worshipping our great Father.
You can find out more by visiting The Wescity Hub.

Community Care Response Team (CCRT) During Covid-19

As a church leadership group, we have been working hard to make sure we are able to stand with you if you’re personally struggling, as well as being able to help those you know to be in need. To do this we have established a ‘Community Care Response Team’ (CCRT) made up of staff and volunteers.

Get in touch if you or someone you know needs help.

We will endeavour to give you relevant advice on possible support from Westcity sources, local community agencies or Government provisions. Please understand we are a Church, trying to respond with love and care, but we will not be able to meet every need. However, you can be sure we’ll give it our best shot to help wherever we can.

Westcity Help for All – – Summary of support available from the government and support agencies.

Are you or someone you know in need?

The Westcity Church ‘Common Purse’ is a common fund sourced from within the Westcity community, via an annual offering (June 21 & 28, 2020).
These funds are redistributed in two ways:
1. Locally – to support those within the Westcity community, and their neighbours, who are in a financial crisis. We provide urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from crisis.
2. Globally – Financial and prayer support is provided to projects that Kingdom build through practical, capacity building ways. We primarily focus on long-term relationships with development organisations providing reconstruction and development for communities living in poverty or extreme need.

T0 make a tax deductable donation or for more information visit our   Giving page.

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CONNECT

Whether you're young or old, Christian or non-Christian, we welcome you at our church and we have a place for you to connect, be loved and in turn learn how to love God, love people, and follow Jesus.

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Care

Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will obey the law of Christ. Gal.6.2

We all have seasons when we need people to stand with us in prayer, by sharing your prayer need, the Westcity prayer network will do just that. You can email your prayer request by clicking the button below. Or to talk with one of our prayer team email westcitychurch@gmail.com

Grace produces gratitude and gratitude gives gladly.

2 Corinthians 8:7 (NIV)

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