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 – October 20

To all members and visitors of the Westcity community

A few updates to keep you in the loop on what is happening at Westcity……

Sunday Services
We are meeting together at our Nanson Street building at 9:55am (5 minutes earlier for extended worship) for church services. There is plenty of room and  we would love you to register and reconnect with others over the coming weeks. Please go to the links below or The Hub to register your group. We would love to see you there!

Register for Sunday October 25th 

 

Baptisms – November 8

Sign up here to be baptized or to find out more visit The Hub.

Baby Dedications – November 15
To sign up to have your little ones dedicated or to find out more visit The Hub.

Young Adults (20-39 year olds)
Our Young Adults have another social get together planned on November 1. To find out more visit The Hub..

Youth – Term 4, starting October 30
Visit The Hub to find out what we have planned for our Our High School Aged Youth in Term 4.

SAVE THE DATE…… Carols in the Carpark – Sunday 13 December
Westcity Church Carpark, 6pm – 8pm

 

Big Thanks to our Talented Speakers
Over the next couple of weeks we will be wrapping up our sermon series on Acts: Being Church in a Different World. Big thanks to our talented pool of speakers who have shared their thoughts, insights and scripture with us over the past three months – Richard, Peter L, Andreas & Amke , John B, Jon  & Nina, Heidi, Chin,  Kathleen, John G and Dawn. These valued and loved members of our community have added much depth, humor and wisdom to our Sundays, mid-week resources and core teaching team (of Phil, Chiz and Kelley).

We look forward to launching into our next series together, The God Jesus Reveals in November.

We hope you are enjoying “Take Out” – A 3 min video describing the big idea of the Sunday message and a practical application. Our newest weekly resource aimed at giving you additional ways of go deeper in your spiritual thinking and daily walk with God. Posted on our ‘Westcity Church Community’ Facebook group, each week.

Westcity Supporting the Heart of the Common Purse 
Over the past few weeks we have been running a ‘Common Purse Thank you Campaign‘ to say: Thanks Westcity for your amazingly generous giving in 2020 and supporting the heart of the common purse……’more like Jesus’.

We have re-shared stories, updates and videos from the global and local projects we are currently supporting. Check out our our ‘Westcity Church’ Facebook page and ‘Westcity Community’ Facebook group.

We have also been promoting that applications are now open for funding for Common Purse Global Projects for 2021/2022 (applications close on 15 January 2021). We are looking to partner with people who have a direct relationship with Westcity and are working on small, grassroots type projects that our church community can support.

To have an initial discussion regarding the suitability of your organisation/project with the conditions of our fund please chat with our committee chairperson, Kirrily Kilbane or contact westcitychurch@gmail.com. Selection criteria for funding for global projects and more information can be found on our Giving page.

 

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

10am Children’s Program at Nanson Street 

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.

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.

Each Sunday, Godly Play will be posted to our ‘Westcity Church’ Facebook page and ‘Westcity Community’ Facebook group. Please share your thoughts and work in the “Westcity Community” Facebook group if you wish.

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CURRENT SERMON SERIES

Acts: ‘Being Church in a Different World’

Acts 10:38
Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.

In 1952, the founder of the Iona Church Community asserted,
“I simply argue that the Cross be raised again at the centre of the market-place as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage-heap; at a crossroad so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek (or shall we say in English, in Bantu and in Afrikaans?); at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where he died. And that is what he died about. And that is where church…...should be and what churchmanship should be about.” (George Macleod)

Jesus promised to build the church into a new community that would change the cultural face of the earth, beginning in Jerusalem and branching out across the world. From the day of Pentecost, the church began to live a life of doing good, of showing in word and deed that the way of the “kingdom of God” is a better way to live, especially for people who normally miss out. It would be brilliant if the post-Covid-19 world was also a place where the church could reset and show again how love and peace and light can forge a positive community culture. And even more than that, it would be magnificent if the church could be like the first church when it comes to making spaces where people can encounter the presence of the risen Christ. In that kind of place anything, including miracles, are possible. Acts tells the early part of that story and Paul’s letters often explore what it meant to be church in a different world a few years on.

So, we will journey with the early apostles up until Paul arrives in Corinth in Acts 18, and “stopover” so-to-speak in Philippi and Corinth as Paul reflects back on key aspects of living the way of Jesus in these earliest of church communities. We will be looking for missional moments, situations and “ways of being” that we can emulate in our own small, and maybe not so small ways.

PODCAST

RESOURCES

Home Study Notes – October 11

Acts: Being Church in a Different World | We are all in this together. And we are magnificently unique. | Peter Llewellyn
Livestream Sunday Sermon

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, and chapter1 2, especially v.4-7, 8-10, 12-13, 19-20. Use the Message version for its fresh approach.

Notes: Paul arrives in Corinth, a very different city to sophisticated Athens. Corinth is a port town, a necessary stopover for east-west travelers by ship. He tries to win over the Jewish congregation, but before too long the Synagogue rejects him and he announces that his message from now on will be to the non-Jews, the Gentiles. These are a motley crew of immigrants, dock workers and Jewish converts; by the time Paul moves on after nearly two years, they lack decent leadership and quickly descend into factions, problematic behaviour, and immature self-aggrandisement over the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

When Paul some time later writes several letters to them (condensed to our two, 1 & 2 Corinthians) he cannot commend their Christianity – he describes them as infants in Christ. The letters must be read in that light: as basic instruction, and correction of their many errors.

On spiritual gifts, he emphasises that the purpose of God in the giving of gifts – which once given are ours to use or misuse! – is to build up the body of Christ. The Corinthians’ individualism and self-aggrandising have no place in God’s purpose. The variety of gifts, such a source of rivalry for them, is akin to the various parts of the human body, each of which has its function in making the whole body work. Paul urges the readers to learn the magnificence of each person and their gifts – which are normally given in accord with their personality and nature (with occasional exceptions); and also to learn how the whole body can work together for the good of all.

Questions and Lessons Raised from the Text or the Story:

Is there a definitive list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Why, or why not?

Paul doesn’t discuss spiritual gifts in the same way in his other letters. Why does he have this focus in 1 Cor. 12? What is his pastoral aim?

Paul calls the Corinthians immature in Christ. What would they have to learn, and do, to earn a better assessment?

What would a mature church, using the Spirit’s gifts effectively, look like? How does Westcity Church shape up?

Advanced discussion: Is salvation individual, corporate, or both? What are the implications of different answers for the life of the Church?

Final Thought / Prayer

Pray for maturity in understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in the church, and especially for a mature approach to the possession and use of the Spirit’s gifts.
Pray for individuals’ contribution to building up the Body of Christ.

Pray over the application of your answers to the discussion questions.

Register / Find out more

Pastoral Note – August 19

Being you

“…in the life of faith each person discovers all the elements of a unique and original adventure.” Eugene Peterson. Run with The Horses.

Eugene Peterson is one of my heroes and for many years his life and writing has been an inspiration for me. The quote comes from a recent short documentary from his home on a Montana lake, just prior to his death. It is eighteen minutes of love and encouragement worth watching here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaMgIvbXqSk

Among other things his life was an encouragement to become authentically yourself, not to try to be anybody else or live “down” to other’s expectations. To say I haven’t always done this is an understatement.

I guess that is because to be honest with yourself and others is dependent on a deep honesty about yourself to the Spirit who gives life in the first place. And that is not easy for many of us, even though when you think about it there is no better place to start being honest. Psalm 139 and many other places make it plain that each person has a unique footprint to bring to family friends and culture and that we all miss out when we bring a caricature instead of who we are. I am not for a minute saying it is easy to put aside the expectations and insecurities that encourage us to be “acceptable” rather than authentic. What I think is true is that there is a clear place to begin or reboot that journey and that is by being radically honest with the Spirit. And I am sure of this, that at a level too deep to fully understand, who you are is acceptable to God.

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

Register / Find out more

Baptisms – Sunday, November 8

Sign up here or email westcitychurch@gmail.com for more information. Registrations close October 26.

 

Baby Dedications – November 15

To sign up or for more information on having your little ones dedicated, email westcitychurch@gmail.com. Registrations close October 26.

Register / Find out more

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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