Newsletter #27

Hi Southcity

What a day yesterday! Days like that give great insight into the glory of our eternal life and I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God as our lives are interwoven together with each other as we love Him.

What a brilliant day, being able to start as a local community and ending the day as a coastal community, so well done to all of you that were a part of it. I trust you have been encouraged, strengthened and fallen more in love with our incredible King, Jesus Christ.

Days like these don't just happen, and I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of those who helped Southcity host this event so outstandingly. Please read below, so we can honor those who went over and beyond.

As we gaze upon the awesomeness of God, we turn our attention forward with an incredible few days ahead. As we start our church fast today from after lunch, I trust you are anticipating eagerly for great breakthroughs, wisdom, and clarity for us as a worshipping, believing, witnessing group of friends. And as we fast together, standing in unity, let us make every effort to come and pray at 6:30pm tonight in our auditorium, so we can seek God together, hear his voice together, know him together, and encourage one another together.

Then on Tuesday evening, after continuing the fast through the day, we look forward to breaking the fast together in our community groups as we take a closer look at the Lordship of Jesus Christ. What a brilliant evening that is going to be!

And the Kingdom continues to advance as strong, forceful men take hold of it as the men get together on Wednesday night to have dinner and take a stand on this coast; a stand which says God reigns, and we humbly follow Him as our lives are submitted to Him and to each other. What a privilege for our wives, the widows, the single ladies, and the children to know that the men in this community are serious about the things of God.

May God bless you richly as you bless him through your faithfulness this week.

See you tonight.

Much love

Rich

Thank you to those who made last night happen:

Ian Pretorious for setting up the half a ton of scaffolding on Thursday afternoon to build the stage extensions. Mark Bolton from Nuform in blessing us with the scaffolding at no cost.

The muscle men; Johan Schoeman, Johan Viljoen and his boys, Rob Hoatson, Harry, Terence Strydom, Guy Spittal, Miguel, James, Eddie, Daine, Jason, Duane Wood and his boys and all those others that jumped in and moved, cleaned, set-down and set-up.

Miguel for learning how to operate the lights, rehearsals and running the lights throughout the evening which he did so exceptionally well. Clint Stevenson from Wired Media in blessing us with all the lighting at no cost.

The kids supervision team: Gea, Joey, Jenny, Ryan Mather-Pike, Dianne Griffiths, Shelley Jacobs.

The cappuccino makers, Liz and Heidi. For managing the tea trolleys; Jenny, Penny, Chris Louw, Joey, Ursula, Bev. Washing all the dishes; Katie, Debbie, Dave and Karen, Rose Ledward, Benita. Taking care of the tuckshop; Esther, Catherine

Mark Hoatson and Avril Greco for driving the combis and bringing SCRC residents and taking them home afterwards. Traffic control; Gert, Nick Buitendag, Kevin and Darren. Fred for organising the car guard. Grant hill for his groundwork in barrier’ing and red taping all over to create parking and direction

The band, Deon and Alex, Nobs and Amy, Jason van Zyl and from the other churches, Jason Price from Norwegians, Nati and Mark VP from Glenridge, Wayne and Jen Duncan from Coastlands. Davin from Gates of Praise in lending us some of their sound equipment, and Luanne on the computer (baby and all).

The everything champions – from picking up litter, to opening doors, to moving trolleys, to clearing stages to filling urns etc, Dwayne de Beer, Gert Meyer, Daine who was the sound champion all day from 7am-9pm setting up stages, rehearsals, sound checks, making lunches and doing pretty much everything – I think Daine covered more mileage than a marathon runner in this one day.

Clifton for being around pointing everyone to where they were able to be involved and for coordinating the entire evening from many weeks ago.

Thank you to all of you from all of us who got to enjoy the evening and we honour you. We appreciate all the work you have done, and in addition we want to make a special fuss over Jenny, Daine, Gert, Dwayne and Joey and Miguel who made themselves so available and worked so hard and were key in making yesterday a success....

Newsletter #26

Dear Southcity

What a joy it is to serve and live amongst this community. Three and a half years ago, Jaci and I had the incredible privilege of being called here to lead Southcity in her journey with God and as a witness in our city. This, it seemed, was good to God, it was good to the leaders of Southcity at the time, and it was good to Jacs and I; all of this leading to an incredible three and a half years in which we believe as a community we have "shone like stars in a crooked and depraved generation as we have held out the word of life", as Paul encourages the church in Philippi to do.

I have been carrying with me a great vision of our future together, and together with the elders, believe that we are again at a juncture where decisions we make today will shape our future and set us on a trajectory to walk into the inheritance God has set before us. I have been fervently praying for us, and for our elders, and I rest in a spacious place of incredible peace in the knowledge that Jesus is building his church. Yet, in this, he has called us to a mighty task as the gospel carriers in our city.

To this end, the elders of Southcity are calling the church to a one day fast as we lay aside our own agendas, submitting to the will of our Father, and seeking him as we align ourselves toward our future. We encourage you to be a part of this communal activity as we serve each other in this way.

All the details of this time are on the church website and can be found by clicking on ‘A call to Southcity to fast’under the ‘Resources’menu tab.
Alternatively you can click on the link below to take you directly to the article:

http://www.nakekela.org/southcitychurch/lettersrichard/fast.pdf

I am really looking forward to Sunday as we wrap up our series on discovering Jesus, and then as we come together with many churches on the coast to glorify God at 6pm in the evening. May I encourage you to plan wisely and strengthen yourself in Him as we have an exciting week ahead participating in Kingdom activity.

Much love to you all
Rich

PS - Men, I look forward to seeing you all on Wed the 29th Feb as we spend an evening together. Get your names down and those of your friends so we can cater excellently.

Newsletter #25

Dear Southcity I want to commend you church for the witness we are carrying in our city. Our prayer has always been that we would be a people who influence our city for God's glory and that we would grow increasingly more effective in doing so. Through the Phakamisa project, a local newspaper has asked to publish a story on it, as well as asked Mark Russell to speak at a business forum in order to open ways for businesses to help transform our social concerns. As a few of you have been faithful in serving God through loving his people and giving what you can in the way of resource, skill and time, Jesus will take centre stage in multiple contexts in the coming weeks and months. We also continue to welcome many visitors Sunday after Sunday into our community gathering which, by observation, means that our witness is standing strong in this city. Again, well done, and may I encourage you to continue to be faithful in loving God, and loving people. As we seek to increase our effectiveness in revealing God's glory to our city through the example of our own lives as well as our proclamation of His goodness, as elders we feel it important to pray and fast together as Southcity Church. The purpose of the fast comes at a point where as an eldership team, we believe that there are key decisions that are needing to be made which will direct Southcity Church for the coming years. And since we are a community together, we believe we need to seek our Father together for clarity and strategy with regard to increased effectiveness. I am aware that many of you are unsure of what a fast is or of how to fast, but in the coming week, we will be trying to help in giving and increasing understanding in this area. For now, we ask that you would join Southcity, join your friends, your community groups, your leaders, and set aside Monday the 27th Feb from 5pm to Tuesday the 28th Feb to fast as a church. We are asking that you fast dinner on Monday and breakfast and lunch on Tuesday, and break your fast together in your community groups on Tuesday evening. On Monday evening, the 27th, at 6:30pm, we ask that the whole church gather to pray in our auditorium. Bring your kids, as these moments in our corporate journey are key for setting up our future generations for a great inheritance. Thank you again for your testimony church, and be encouraged that God's glory and goodness is taking ground on our coast. Much love to you all and very excited for the next couple of weeks as we continue our Jesus series, gather with multiple churches on the coast, and fast together. See you on Thursday as we pray. Rich

Newsletter #24

Hi friends

"It is clear gentlemen, that by the decisions you are making, you do not want to win the war."

These were the words that swung the 2nd World War into the Allied forces favour when Winston Churchill met with his generals and told them what he thought about their decision making.

I learnt this yesterday and have been captured by the statement. Jesus came to defeat the enemy, which he did completely, and then left the good news in the hands of twelve men. Ever since then, the number of believers has been increasing as we continue our role in the great battle plan to proclaim the overwhelming act of Jesus who has made a way for us to be reunited with our Father for all eternity.

There is a battle raging for human souls. Those of us who believe in the finished work of Jesus, the Son of God, have been enlisted to be part of the great army leading people into His safe arms. And now, as I reread Winston Churchill's statement, I plead with God that the decisions we make will convince our Father that we are with Him and that we are determined to win the battles raging in our own lives and in the lives of others.

As God has given vision to us as a community, I ask this: By the decisions you are making, will those around you be convinced that you are determined to see the vision come to fulfilment as God continues to pursue mankind for his glory?

I end this letter reminding us of the future that Southcity has:

"Under God’s lead, Southcity will become a community of people transformed by Jesus. We envision upwards of 3000 people worshiping Jesus spread throughout multiple locations across the Hibiscus Coast, all on mission for the Gospel."

May our Father in heaven strengthen you as you realign yourselves into position in order for this great army to roll out and win the battle.

May courage be yours.

Rich