Almost there!

The renovations on our new building are progressing very well and we are on schedule to be ready for our first service. This Sunday 23 November is our last service in the Cornerstone Stadium. Sunday 30 November we will begin meeting in our new premises at 65 Owen Terrace Wallaroo.  We would love to see you there feel free to pop in for a visit. We will have an official opening in February 2015 so stay tuned for details.

It is official !!!

We now have a building! Settlement was completed on Friday afternoon and we now have the keys for 65 Owen Terrace Wallaroo SA 5556. Work has already begun on the refurbishment.

Our planned schedule for the next few weeks is:

Saturday 15th of Nov working bee!

Friday 21- Sat 22 Nov 24 hr prayer vigil.

Sunday 23 Nov last service Cornerstone Stadium

Sunday 30th Nov first service 65 Owen Terrace Wallaroo (also 1st Advent).

God has provided for us tremendously and we give him all the glory for this wonderful phase of our development as a church.

Do you need pruning?

Todays message was inspired by the story "the Gardener and the vine" By Andrew McDonough

Details here!

It is a great reminder that we need to stay connected to the vine to flourish.

This weeks sermon "Do you need pruning?" can be downloaded here!

Echidnas-Spiky but loveable.

Todays sermon was inspired by the story "Echidnas on Everest" by Andrew McDonough.
details here

It is always good to be reminded (even through a children's story), that love for one another is central to being the church in the world.

Buy from here

Echidnas-spiky but loveable listen to sermon

No Service Sunday 21st September

This is a reminder that due to the church family camp in the Clare Valley there will be NO service in the Cornerstone Stadium in Kadina this Sunday the 21st of September . If you are not able to attend the camp please take this opportunity to bless one of the other local congregations with your presence.

All services will resume as normal on Sunday the 28th of September

God is our provider

After 7 years of moving around the area and renting accommodation, God has provided Copper Coast Baptist Church with an appropriate building and the means to purchase it.

               The former Church of Christ building and Freemasons Lodge at 65 Owen Terrace Wallaroo SA 5556.

We hope to be celebrating the Birth of Jesus in this place later this year. This year is the 100th anniversary of this building (first opened in 1914) and  this year is also the 150th anniversary of the first Baptist congregation starting in the Copper Coast at Moonta in 1864. We will certainly have much to celebrate!

We are very excited about the ministry opportunities this building will provide and we are looking forward to building more relationships with the local community.

We are well aware that a building is not “the church”.  We, God’s people are “the church”.  The building is simply a tool for ministry to the community.  Moving into this premises is not the end of a long road but the beginning of an exciting journey into the future.

Join with us in prayer as we dedicate this resource to the Lord and his work. 

Decisions

I have often found it difficult to make decisions. Have you? 

Sometimes decisions are easy for me and I don't need to think much about them. I don't think God really minds what the outcome is for these decisions.  However sometimes those decisions  are difficult and God has a vested interest in the outcome. 

I remember a wonderful week I spent in Germany in 2001. Alison was in London for a week at a summer school so instead of spending my days alone I hopped on a plane to Germany and visited my family.  I was hoping to just hang around and soak up some of the local sights.  My very generous uncle had other plans. He wanted to take me on a cultural tour of Germany.  We spent a week driving through culturally significant towns like Hameln (from the Pied Piper story), visited Weimar to see the house of Gothe and we also saw the room in Wartburg Castle where Luther translated the bible into German. It is an experience I will never forget and I will always be grateful for. Whenever we stayed overnight we would go to the local Rathaus or Keller. My choice from the menu was easy.  I would ask what the specialty of that particular restaurant was and I would order that. this can be a more difficult decision for some people particularly if they are not adventurous eaters! 

                                                     Gothe's House Weimar 2001

                                                        Pied Piper Staue Hameln 2001

                                              Luthers Room Wartburg Castle 2001

Some decisions I have made have been agonising though. I have fretted and stressed about whether I was making the right choice or not. Giving up my career to go into ministry was one of these decisions. Ultimately I felt a strong sense that no matter how scary the decision was I just had to trust God and jump in with both feet. When I studied my first subject at university level and passed I felt encouraged that I had made the right choice. When a church hired me as their student pastor I again felt a confirmation of the choice I made. When I received my first call to be a sole pastor of a congregation I received confirmation again. I have received many confirmations along the way to encourage me that I had made the right choice. 

I want to be clear that I am NOT saying that if you make the right choice everything is easy, because in my journey I have also faced obstacles which have also encouraged me that I had made the right decision. We Christians sometimes call this a "spiritual attack". Often when I face an obstacle while trying to do something for God I ask almost out loud "why is this happening now?" and I hear God tell me "because you are making the right choice and it will be hard".

Jesus is the perfect example of making a decision and facing discouragement for example in Luke 22:42 he prays

"Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine."(NLT).

Jesus goes on to die on the cross for our sins. God used that choice to enable us all to have a relationship with him through the forgiveness of our sins and the inauguration of the new kingdom in the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

Some decisions are hard and you won't always feel warm and fuzzy after making them. They may also cause you discomfort and trouble. You may have to jump in and ask God to take over. But if you make these important decisions for God and his plans for you, then he will bring glory to the outcomes.