Westlife News - Current Edition

Here is the current edition - and another great edition of Westlife News.

Well done team - and great to see Mel making her first appearance!

Yes! We Care - IGA @ The Lakes

Here are some of the crew from our Life Group doing an innovative Yes! We Care project.

They are handing out bags with free Saturday Courier Mail, loaf of bread and a carton of milk.

When they open the free newspaper here is an alternate front page they would have found - with a message of hope.

As you can imagine the people were very surprised - and very thankful.

It was a privilege to share God's love today with random acts of kindness.

Well done, Westlifers!

New PULSE - Out Tomorrow

I have seen the new PULSE that will be out tomorrow.

It is a ripper.

Make sure you grab your copy as you walk in the door to Westlife tomorrow morning.

Twitter!

Are you on Twitter?

If so, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/AndrewStaggs and join the fun.

Pentecost Sunday - What an Anniversary!

I came across this great verse this week.... it's John the Baptist talking:

"I'm baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I'm a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.
Matthew 3:11 (MSG)

That's worth repeating!

"... (Jesus) will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. "

Then we read later about the fulfilment of the promise!

1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1-4 (NIV)

Then I am inspired by this verse:

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.
Galatians 5:25 (MSG)

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.

And we are going to make some room for Holy Spirit this Sunday Night - 6pm to 7pm - at the Orion Community Room.

This is a chance to praise, celebrate and worship - and then pray - and open ourselves up to more of God.

Hope that you can join us!

Giddy Up!!

Hold On, Hold Fast - The Greasy Pole Illustration

We had a another great Sunday in the House on the weekend. It was part 3 of the My Next Chapter series.

The BIG idea was to "Hold On and Hold Fast," so I set up this illustration of the Christian life - the greasy pole. Tracy S gave me the concept a while ago... I think she got it from Greg Laurie.

The Christian life is like a greasy pole - you need to hold on and hold fast, coz if you let go you go backwards! Or fall off!

You need to maintain your grip - and the 5 fingers in the grip are a daily quiet-time with God, prayer, weekly attendance at church, commitment to a small group, and serving in the House.

Drop one of these vital "fingers" in the grip and you start to get slippage.

So here goes with an edited video clip!

Special thanks to Chris B for some great video work and DVD turnaround.

And thanks to the generous Sam Skerman for the greasy pole!

Connecting With God - The Photos

We had a really great afternoon yesterday learning about how to improve our connection with God.

Here are a few happy-snaps of some very focussed people!

Here are a few final nuggets from the teaching:

Stephen Olford, a great Christian and minister in New York for many years, said, “I want to hear the voice of God before I hear anyone else’s in the morning, and His is the last voice I want to hear at night.”

Don't get legalistic because missing one day does not make it a flop. BUT don't give up. If you miss a meal, it does not mean that you should give up eating because you're inconsistent. You simply eat a little more at the next meal and go on from there. This same principle is true with your quiet time.

Psychologists tell us that it usually takes three weeks to get familiar with some new task or habit; it takes another three weeks before it becomes a habit. The reason why many people are not successful in their quiet times is because they have never made it past that six-week barrier. For your quiet time to become a habit, you must have had one daily for at least six weeks.

I believe the greatest mystery of prayer is that it joins the hearts of the people on earth with the heart of God in heaven. Prayer is spiritual and it goes into the unseen realm; it brings things out of that unseen realm into the realm we can see and into the world around us, right where we live. It ushers spiritual blessings into our natural everyday lives and it brings spiritual power to bear on our earthly circumstances. We human beings are the only creatures in our known universe who can stand in the natural realm and touch the spiritual realm. When we pray, we connect with that spiritual realm, which is where God is, and which affects our daily lives more than we often realize…prayer opens up the door for God to work.
Joyce Meyer

Today is the Day! Connecting with God

I did this post with media clip about the Connecting with God workshop we are doing this afternoon.

You can check it out here.

I am very excited about the sessions today.

"O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You."
(Psalm 63:1)

Teaching Approach and Values

We are building a great ministry and teaching team.

We really want to sync together and allow God to use our different SHAPES to impact our whole church.

It takes different kinds of speakers to reach different kinds of people with different kinds of needs.

Here are 7 values that we have drafted up that keeps us focussed as trainers when we prepare and deliver.

A New Day is Dawning - Guest Post - Jillian Staggs

Jillian did this great post about the great changes at our home church, Garden City Christian Church.


You can check it out here.

And you just gotta love that Hillsong logo!

New Screensaver Image

My daughter is awesome!

She connected my iPhone to the App Store and downloaded me some new backgrounds and images. This is my current home screen/screen saver.

An image really is worth a 1000 words.

Where were you heading before Jesus found you?

Q & A @ the HUB - Looking for More?

Really excited about this new thing we are trialling - Q & A @ the HUB.

We have a lot of people hanging around after our prayer times - connecting, asking questions, reflecting on what God is doing.

Some of our people really want to grow too!

So this Sunday night we are formalising it a bit.

Hope to see you there!

Bring a Bible and a question.

Triggers - Powerful Insights

I am really enjoying this book called Triggers by Joe Sugarman.

This is why I am interested. Joe says,

"It is estimated that 95% of the reasons a prospect buys involve a subconscious decision."
He then says that "the purpose of this book is to show you what goes on during the sales process that triggers a sale and how the subconscious mind responds to various aspects of an offer. This knowledge will become invaluable to you, as you will soon discover."

Product Description
Dramatically increase your ability to sell by learning how to control the mind of your prospect using 30 psychological tiggers to motivate, influence and persuade.

About the Author
Joe Sugarman is one of America's top advertising and marketing entrepreneurs and the man who built several large busineses all through the creative power of his pen.

How Triggers Were Discovered
Joe Sugarman, the best-selling author and top copywriter who achieved legendary fame in direct marketing, ran a highly successful mail-order company in the 1980s, JS&A (the forerunner of The Sharper Image). Joe learned on a mass scale which ad approaches worked, and which ones didn’t. He studied the ads that achieved a high degree of success, and discovered that they were clearly successful because of certain underlying psychological triggers.

He identified 30 of these triggers that activate psychological forces buried deep within the subconscious brain, and cause people to buy.

Result: Through the effective use of psychological triggers, Joe sold over 20 million pairs of BluBlocker sunglasses, as well as countless other products. Joe also sold several million dollars’ worth of product on QVC – sometimes in a single day.

In his book Triggers Joe reveals his startling discovery of how to get into people’s minds, eavesdrop on their thoughts, know what they want – and make a fortune in the process.

Cracking the Psychological Code That Reveals Untold Secrets
Just as the human genome cracked the genetic code that reveals untold secrets of the human body, Joe Sugarman’s Triggers cracked the psychological code that activates a person’s buying sequence. This is the secret code that has eluded the sales industry for years.


I'll keep you posted on what I find!

Unplugged Night for New People

Ever since we started our church in 2006 we have these quarterly "new people's nights." I really like them because it's our chance to explain in a bit more detail who we are and what we understand God has called us to do.

We are a little different in our style and approach - and the night can be an on-ramp into our church ... and it can be an off-ramp too.

I am a fan of being very clear about where we are heading so we are all on the same page.

People who have tried and change our direction and style have just ended up getting frustrated.

Here is a bit of a quick media promo clip.

And here is the cover of a colour booklet that I hand out with all our vision and details.

Westlife Youth Camp - Oct 09

I really enjoy watching our young people flourish!

And when they seek their God.

".... Yet I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth."

1 Kings 18:12 (NIV)

Here is the first of their promo media clips for their 2009 youth camp.

I want one of those t-shirts - I got the 2008 edition.

The Importance of Men Connecting With God

I love the men of our church.

Here is what I sent to them recently by email . I made a call about how to best serve them this month.

It’s about this time in a quarter that we have a Blokes in the Shed session. And don’t we love the food!

Our church calendar fills up very quickly and we try and keep the ministry “menu” balanced in a month so that families are not under too much pressure.
So we only like putting 1 major church-wide opportunity per weekend
(and have 1 weekend per month where there is nothing extra church-wide on)

So I thought, “what is the most important thing that I can do for the men this month?”

And it became a “no-brainer.”

Men need encouragement and support to meet that deep desire to become all they want to be - +they want to be good providers, good fathers, good leaders and good workmates.

And one of the best ways to do that is to be connected with God’s life-giving love and resource and wisdom.
Men need to be constantly connected in a quality relationship with God.

And the people around you who love you, relate to you and depend on you will know if you are connected to God or not.
If you are feeling risky, ask them some time. Ask them to be honest.

So if you need
1. some tips about running your “engine” well
2. a God-tune up,
3. an oil change in your God-relationship
4. a heart re-bore
5. some new rubber to get some traction
6. a God-assessment under your hood to see if things are running OK in the engine-department

please respond to this email with “count me in” for this Saturday 2pm to 5pm.

When you RSVP we will tell you more details etc... and we will need to print you a very helpful manual for the workshop.

You can click here to see our video clip promo.

Connect with God's Love

Here is a quick summary of my notes from the Saturday PM message.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:13 (NIV)

They recognized them as companions of Jesus
Acts 4:13 (MSG)

When we are connected with God's love and with Him our lives are different, they are transformed and those around us notice.

The 3 ways that you can connect with God's love:

1. live the lyrics of the "As I" series theme song
2. open up a channel to God's presence
3. have a meaningful daily quiet time

I loved this quote which I used and I got from Wayne Corderio.

Paderewski was a great Polish concert pianist who once said it this way.

He said, “If I stop playing scales for one day and I play in concert, I know it; I can tell.

If I stop playing scales for two days and I play in concert, my coach can tell.

And if I skip three days of scales and I go and do a concert, the world can tell.”

And for a Christian, the foundation of your whole life is your daily devotions.

Those are the scales to a Christian person.

You say, “Andrew, I already study the Bible a lot. I mean, I go to church and this …”

No, I’m not asking you to study the Bible; I’m going to challenge you to invest time to sit at Christ’s feet on a daily basis and let the Bible study you.

Are you connected to God's love on a daily basis at a quality level?

A Love Letter from Jesus

I read this out during my message last night.

I love Jesus.


How are you?

I just had to send you this letter to tell you how much I love you and care about you. I saw you yesterday as you were walking with your friends. I waited all day, hoping you would walk and talk with me also.

As evening drew near, I gave you a sunset to close your day and a cool breeze to rest you. Then I waited, but you never came. O yes, it hurt me, but I still love you because I am your friend.

I saw you fall asleep last night, and I longed to touch your brow so I spilled moonlight upon your pillow and your face ... Again I waited, wanting to rush down so we could talk. I have so many gifts for you.

You awakened late this morning and rushed off for the day. My tears were in the rain. Today you looked so sad, so alone. It makes my heart ache because I understand. My friends let me down and hurt me many times but I love you.

I try to tell you in the quiet green grass. I whisper it in the leaves and trees and breathe it in the colours of the flowers. I whisper it to you in the mountain streams and give the birds love songs to sing. I clothe you with warm sunshine and perfume the air. My love for you is deeper than the oceans and bigger than the biggest want or need you could ever have.

We will spend eternity together in heaven. I know how hard it is on earth. I really know because I was there and I want to help you. My Father wants to help you, too. He's that way, you know. Just call me, ask me, talk to me. It is your decision ... I have chosen you and because of this I will wait ... because I love you.

Your friend,
JESUS

"The Relationship Principles of Jesus" - Pastor Tom Holladay.

The following is Rick Warren's Introduction to the new book "The Relationship Principles of Jesus" written by Saddleback Teaching Pastor Tom Holladay.

If I asked you what your #1 goal in life is, what would be your answer?
Happiness? Success? Wealth? Comfort? Fame? To have fun? To be respected?
Your answer would reveal your dominant life value. Everyone has a dominant life value whether they realise it or not. You have one. It’s what you unconsciously base your decisions on.

If your dominant life value is having fun, when choosing between two events, you’ll naturally choose the one that’s more fun. If your dominant life value is comfort, you’ll tend to choose what’s most comfortable for you. If its safety, you’ll choose the least risky alternative. If it’s being appreciated, you do what gets you the most recognition.

God tells us that our dominant life value is to love. Because God is love, and because he created you to love you, he wants you to learn to love too. Learning to love is the #1 lesson God intends for you to learn here on earth. Life is the school of love. Jesus once said that the entire Bible can be summed up in two commands: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.

In fact, every one of the New Testament writers taught that learning to love God and loving each other is the most important lesson God expects us to learn. Paul wrote “Let love be your highest goal” John wrote, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” James wrote, “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbour as yourself," you are doing right.” Peter wrote “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.”

Learning to love God and others is to be our highest goal, our greatest aim, our first priority, our deepest aspiration, our strongest ambition, our constant focus, our passionate intention, and the dominant life value of our lives. The more we learn to how to love authentically, the more like Jesus we become.

This book is written by someone who has modelled genuine love to others for his entire adult life. For over 35 years I’ve closely watched how Tom Holladay lives and leads by showing Christ-like love to everyone and can say that I feel very fortunate that he married my sister. With his incredible grasp of both the Scriptures and human nature Tom is eminently qualified to teach and write on this profound theme. For nearly 20 years, as a teaching pastor of Saddleback Church, tens of thousands of Saddleback members have been blessed by Tom’s insights into relationships. And hundreds of thousands of pastors have been trained by Tom as he and I have travelled the world together. This man has much to say and you’ll be blessed if you listen to him!

The opening sentence of The Purpose Driven Life is “It’s not about you.” This book, The Relationship Principles of Jesus, is a natural extension of that concept. Selfishness must be replaced by unselfishness. Conceit must be replaced by compassion. Ego must be replaced with altruism. The focus on “me” must give way to “we.” It’s all about loving God and others.
But how? In our fallen world where every heart and relationship is marred, broken, and damaged by sin, how can we apply the healing power of authentic love? This book points the way.

Learning to love unselfishly is not an easy task. It runs counter to our self-centred nature. Only Jesus can teach us the kind of love that heal, restores, and deepens relationships. And only Jesus can give us the power to love that way.

The Relationship Principles of Jesus deals with the second of Five Renewals I deeply believe are needed in our culture and world. The first book, The Purpose Driven Life, focused on personal renewal. This is the starting point. Everything starts in the heart. Only changed people can change the world. The foundation for everything is getting to know and love God, and serving his five purposes for your life.

But you were never meant to live your life in a vacuum. In fact, you cannot fulfill your life’s purposes by yourself. You need other people’s help, and they need yours. We’re better together. This second kind of renewal, relational renewal, is what this book is all about. You must not only learn to love God with all your heart (personal renewal) you must learn to love your neighbour as yourself (relational renewal).

With conflict, divorce, violence, prejudice, abuse, division, and polarisation around us daily, it’s obvious we all need some lessons in building healthy relationships. This is my dream: If every group and church that participated in 40 Days of Purpose worldwide would also study this book as a part of 40 Days of Love, it could bring about a revival of love that would change the cultural climate of or world. It can start with you.
Rick Warren

40 Days of Love - I was Made for Relationships

Thinking out loud here...... I am really liking the look of this campaign......

My Next Chapter - Series Promo Clip

I am captivated by this new series we are doing.

Much of the resource we need to live a life of wholeness has already been prepared by God. But we need to do something new to be aware of it and release it and activate it.

My Next Chapter is a series
1. about a new season in people's lives... and people working with their God to write a new GOD-chapter.
2. about what we need to do to unleash more of God’s love and resources
3. in which people become aware of how much God loves them and wants them to live in freedom

Here is what the media guys have done as a promo!

One Hour on Sunday

I love what I heard Nancy Beach from Willow Creek say years ago.

What can happen in one hour on Sunday?

1. The wonder of a quieted soul
We live busy lives. This hour is a unique moment for people to reflect and quieten to listen to what God wants to speak to them about. It’s important to give time for what has been done, or taught, for people to apply it

2. The wonder of a deeply felt emotion
Make it your goal to move people. Hearts need to be touched and transformed, whether through laugher or tears. We need to speak the truth about life – loss & victory

3. The wonder of a turning point
God brings people to a place of turning, making a decision, to take the next step

Although church this week is on Saturday Night at 6pm I am hoping for the "one hour on Sunday" to be the same "one hour on Saturday."

That would be wonderful!

Connecting With God - Workshop - Sat 23 May 2pm

Do you want to get close to God?

Can you hear clearly what He is saying to you?

Check this out!



Sign up ASAP for this practical workshop with workbook.

Child care is also provided.

My Next Chapter - Unleashing God's Love

I am really looking forward to part 2 this Saturday Night!

My Next Chapter - Rocky Soil aka Shallow Soil

Here is another post from Tracy linked to part 1 of this new series. Enjoy!

When looking at your next chapter in God, my last blog discussed the purposes God has for each season of our lives, and how our response to what he wants to do can produce fruit, or undermine that purpose.

Our responses are much like the parable of the soil.

The first soil I'll look at is the shallow Rocky Soil.I remember hearing a message many many years ago about youth and how many of the things they do are because of the culture they hang out with, rather than the conviction they have personally.What they do is largely because of what ..... (click here to read the rest)

Saturday Night Church - 6pm - Pizza @ 5.15pm

It's a special weekend this weekend because we are having Saturday Night Church!

No matter how much advertising we do we always have people who don't remember - and turn up on the wrong day.

So here is another effort to communicate CLEARLY - enjoy!!

And see you then!

Rainbow After The Funeral

Milk Dog

We had a big spill of milk on the floor recently.

I am so glad we have a dog!

Lilley offered to do 10 minutes on floor cleanup duty.... and then I mopped up the rest.

I am glad we share the load in our home!

Westlife News

I really enjoyed this new edition of the news.

Lots of great stuff coming up!

Mother's Day 2009 - Beautiful!

We had a great day at Westlife today!

All the women felt very special.

Here is a media clip the team developed - beautiful!!!

The Night Before a Great Tomorrow

I was leaving the USQ carpark tonight and saw this - it is the cars of the people setting up for a great Mother's Day Celebration @ Westlife tomorrow.

If you look closely you can see guys pushing large trolleys of equipment.

They are doing a great job... you should see what it looks like inside!


Hope to see you 10am Sunday with your Mum. It will be worth it!

My Next Chapter - part 1 thoughts

Here are some of Tracy's thoughts about part 1 of this great new series.

One of the best aspects of my starting bible college this year is that I'm connecting the dots on so many 'truths' that I've gleaned over the years.

One of the must frustrating aspects of starting bible college this year is the time it zaps from my 'free time', meaning my blog is like our garden and lawn.. neglected.

However, last Wednesday I am thankful that I was be able to share a word that God had excited me about over the last month or so - which kicked off the new "My Next Chapter" series at Westlife.

Here are a few 'highlights' from Wednesday night:

Although there is nothing immediately dramatically different.. often we see indicators everywhere that we’re entering a new season. We know that seasons occur as much in our spiritual lives as our physical lives.But what does this next chapter... (click here to read the rest).

Alan and Mavis

I dropped in to see Alan and Mavis today.

They are beautiful people.

They care for other people and put them first.

They also make a great cappuccino!

Here is a photo of them with their grandson, Lincoln.

11 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.
12 No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
1 John 4:11-12 (MSG)

The Morning Sun On The Fence

I really like the way the morning sun brings out the colour in the
fence.

How does God's light colour your life?

My Next Chapter - the New Series has Started!

The new My Next Chapter series started on Wednesday night!

Tracy Skellern-Smith powerfully launched off with part 1. It was awesome.

You can download the audio track here.

We will keep you posted about other blog entries with the series content.

You can watch Tracy's blog content here.

Military Power

Lucy Swann - Gone to Heaven to be With Jesus

I received this powerful email message today from Pastors Brett and Carolyn Swann
I have admired them for several years now. We pastor in the same geographical area.
It is a privelege to know them.

Their daughter, Lucy, has gone to heaven to be with Jesus.

To all our dearest friends

We would like to let you all know that on Monday night just gone our gorgeous daughter Lucy died at home surrounded by mum, dad and her sister Bonnie. She passed from this life into the presence of her Lord Jesus Christ at 8.50pm.

We want to thank you all for your prayers and support over the years and we would love to invite you to come and remember her life on Monday May 11th @ 2.30pm at the Whitehill Church of Christ, Whitehill Road, Raceview (Ipswich).

There will also be a grave side service earlier on Monday at 11am at the Kalbar Cemetery on Munbilla Road, Kalbar. All are welcome at both services!

Blessings!

Ps Brett and Carolyn Swann

Bless this School

I have just finished doing 2 classes of RE. It is a great privelege.
Here is a photo of the school I am now standing out the front of.

Dear God, please bless this school.

The Art of Innovation - Guest Blog - Eric Swanson

Eric did this great blog post recently.

You can read it here.

I liked this bit......

8. Follow the 10/20/30 rule.

When making presentations to clients or investors, use:
· 10 slides - Not 50 as most people do
· 20 minutes - You may have an hour, but some people will be late, others may leave early, and you want plenty of time for Q&A.
· 30 point font - If you use a small font, it usually means you’re trying to use a lot of text, which implies that you’re a lousy speaker (which most tech company CEOs are, he says).
Why?
Because they don’t practice.

A Morning @ the Football

We had another great day on Saturday with the boys!

This is picture was sent from my iPhone directly to my blog account and posted - wow!

Test from Mail2Blogger

Check out this test of Mail2Blogger!

It was sent from my iPhone via an email account to my blog.

I just need to learn how to do images too.

Sent from my iPhone

West End Bookshop

We had a family afternoon today and ended up at West End.... and Bent Books.

I found a copy of the Ken Blanchard book, Raving Fans, that I had wanted for some time now.

Westlife's 3rd Birthday!

Today is the day we have cake!

Happy birthday, Westlifers! What a ride it has been together!