God's Family, My Family - Westlife Church

We closed our Reach Out! series with a powerful Sunday called Reach Out to each Other.

He is the key text:

So reach out and welcome one another to God's glory. Jesus did it; now you do it!
Romans 15:7 (MSG)

The media team did up this great clip - below - showing some Westlifers talking about their experiences in God's Family. Powerful stuff.... enjoy!!

And I really like how it closes off...

Drug Action Week - Day 5 - Alcohol is Not an Ordinary Commodity

Alcohol is not ordinary commodity.

Mr Templeman said that the World Health Organization (WHO) had concluded that alcohol was the third most important avoidable cause of death and disability in developed societies like Australia.

“Given this finding, alcohol is not an ordinary commodity and should not be treated as one.

Alcohol is a drug – TOO!

Alcohol is a commodity that is deeply entrenched in Australian society with substantial industry economic interests in production and distribution,” Mr Templeman said.

“Each year more than 3000 Australians die and another 10 000 need ongoing medical treatment through alcohol-related harm, with the annual cost in alcohol-related absenteeism being 7.5 million working days and the economic impact of its abuse some $15.3 billion.”

Be wise with Alcohol

Alcohol is a Drug Too

Try this quick check to see what you know about drinking????
http://www.whatareyoudoingtoyourself.com/

Thanks for your information for our awareness this week, Larry!

Drug Action Week - Day 4 - The Reality of Alcohol

Larry continues our journey of awareness,,,,,

Lives shattered
The young female said to me “I’ve seen all the adds on television but when you are actually watching a real person flying through the air twenty metres after being hit by the car it’s different”.
There were two ambulances, about six police cars and about twenty emergency services personnel at the scene. Cars blocked the streets, sirens wailed, crowds gathered.
(This was a real incident, the quotes are real)
Six young females were shaking and not just from the cold winter night, some in tears, but all in disbelief at what just happened. When asked they all had a bit to add to describe the incident they had just witnessed, emotionally, tearfully, shaking their heads some were saying “I don’t know how it happened, it just did, it all happened so fast.”
Wandering around, pacing up and down the footpath in varying degrees of shock trying to understand their feelings, trying to gather their thoughts and make sense of what had just happened.

In an instant
§ one man seriously injured in hospital, his life changed
§ one innocent car driver emotionally shattered.
§ A dozen young people, witnesses, shocked to the very core of their personal reality.

Alcohol impairs judgement.

Drug Action Week - Day 3 - Alcohol is a Drug Too

More research from Larry........

Alcohol is a drug and that's the bottom line.
It affects millions of people each day. Unfortunately, the person doing the drinking is not the only one who feels the impact of this abuse. It has a profound and direct impact on their families as well as their friends and acquaintances.
Besides what it can do to hurt everyone in the immediate social circle, alcohol has strong and lasting impact on the human body.
When you drink alcohol, even though you may not notice the changes, everyone else around you will.
It may start with changes in your behaviour such as mood swings. Your judgment may be impaired and you can start to have problems with relationships, in your marriage, with your children or friends.
Down the line, you may start to have problems with your job that can lead to obvious financial problems and maybe even legal problems that stem from arrests due to bad judgment caused by alcohol.
As far as your body is concerned, it can only take so much of a beating from alcohol before you start to notice what can become very serious problems.

Remember - Alcohol is a drug too.

Australian Bureau of Statistics full report
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/4364.0~2007-08~Main+Features~Risk+Factors?OpenDocument

Drug Action Week - Day 2 - Teens in the Grip of Grog

Article from Herald Sun - Michael Carr-Gregg - June 09, 2009 12:00am

AUSTRALIA is in a mental health crisis. It's not impending. It's here. Government figures show one in four people under 25 will suffer a mental illness.
While we're worrying about lifting the retirement age and caring for our ageing population, it will cost billions to treat people who develop mental illness in their youth.
This bill will soar if we don't act now. The ready availability of alcohol and its enthusiastic promotion to make it a normal part of society are major contributors to the youth mental health problem.
According to the 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, more than 20 per cent of 14 to 19-year-olds drink alcohol weekly.
A third of boys aged 12-17 downed seven-plus drinks at a time and one in three girls put away five or more in a session.
One in 20 students put away 50 standard drinks or more in a month. An Australian study published in international medical journal The Lancet found that alcohol caused 27 per cent of deaths involving 15 to 29-year-olds in 2002.
That's tragic, but the physiological effects of drinking on young, developing brains are much more insidious.
Brain development continues until the age of 20. Damage from alcohol during this time can be long-term and irreversible.
Adolescents need only drink half as much as adults to suffer the same memory loss.
Kids who binge once a week, or increase their drinking between the ages of 18 and 24, increase their chances of not attaining the goals of young adulthood like marriage, educational attainment, employment and financial independence.
While alcohol consumption rates among young people have remained stable for 30 years, what's really disturbing is the rising intensity of drinking in a small proportion of young people, especially girls.

NOTE: - Michael Carr-Gregg ( is a psychologist and leading writer and author of adolescent behaviour books)

Drug Action Week - starts Today!

Drug Action Week starts today!

It is for this week ........ 21 – 27 June 2009.

Over to you now, Larry.

This years theme is “ALCOHOL IS A DRUG TOO”
Young people are at a huge risk. It is because of this that I am writing a short word each day outlining the extent of the problem and what we can do to avoid the problems.

Did you know that drinking alcohol is the most common type of drug used in Australia?

Alcohol is so widely used that many people don’t think of it as a drug and may not realise that it can be harmful. As a result, they may drink too heavily at times, or binge drink.

Research shows that young people are at greatest risk from alcohol consumption.

Among 16–24 year olds, alcohol-related harm is one of the leading preventable causes of disease and injury in Australia.

For more information go to:-
http://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/druginfo/fact_sheets/the_facts_about_binge_drinking/the_facts_about_binge_drinking.html

More tomorrow.........

ReachOut! - Live a Life of Action

I read this great post from Steve Penny and thought of our current ReachOut! series.

Steve has captured the essence of one of the main points of this series... get on the front foot!

Over to you Steve!

I was speaking recently to a conference on leadership and urging them to understand the power of taking action.
So often in our lives it is the inertia of inactivity that locks us into a spiralling cycle of negative and destructive habits.

If only I had acted at the time; or, I should have jumped at the chance.

Why didn’t I do something?
Over and over again you hear people lamenting their inactivity and loss of an opportunity.

Action creates action. When you take action, further actions are required, and so you begin to make progress and build momentum.
The lawn never gets cut while you sit and watch television, but once you decide to act, the lawn soon gets mown and usually then the car gets washed or some other chore gets completed. Why?

Because action creates action.

Make up your mind to live an action packed life.

Do not be a spectator watching others have all the excitement of action in their lives.
Get enthusiastic about something in your life and take action.
Enthusiasm produces energy; energy produces action; action produces achievement and achievement produces enthusiasm.

Once you get started on any project just keep the action happening and soon momentum will kick in, and you will be amazed at how much can be achieved.
Life was meant to be lived through creative action not through reaction.
Take control and decide to act creatively to make your life what you once dreamed it could be.

Drug Action Week - Starts 21 June 2009

Drug Action Week (DAW) is an initiative of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA) and it starts this Sunday.

I will be doing a series of daily posts with materials by Larry Evans. This is also part of our current Sunday AM teaching series, ReachOut!

You can check out Drug Action Week activities an resources here.

ReachOut! to Others - The Final Instructions

I love the lyrics of that great Noiseworks song.....

"reach out, and reach out and reach out and touch somebody...."

Jesus set his team up and sent them out on their first "ReachOut! Tour"

Matthew 10 records the final instructions.

They are well worth reading, especially in The Message version.

Here are some samples:

You don't need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment ...
Matthew 10:10 (MSG)

Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighbourhood.
Matthew 10:6 (MSG)

Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.
Matthew 10:8 (MSG)

So don't hesitate to go public now.
Matthew 10:27 (MSG)

You can read the rest of the passage online here.

Why not read the whole passage?
Can you see the word "platform" in there?"

So come on......
"reach out, and reach out and reach out and touch somebody...."

Reach Out! to Lost People

It's time for part 3 of the current series.

I am speaking tomorrow about the compulsion to reach lost people for Jesus.

I have been weighing this up heavily... and it has made me think about a great series we did in October 2008 titled, Your Ever After.

It was a series about eternity, heaven and hell.

It was kickstarted with this great verse....

"……. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], ..."
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (AMP)

We talked about Hell and how it was never designed to be inhabited by people.

We did this so that "people will not be ignorant" of a powerful biblical truth with eternal consequences.

I did a blog post about the series and also included some powerful media clips about hell.

You can check in that post again here.

Warning - be careful!

Shimizu Church - Japan - Opens this Sunday!

This was a great privilege last September... to be involved with like-minded "partners" in activating God's global plan for His church.

5 Simon said, "Master, we've been fishing hard all night and haven't caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I'll let out the nets."
6 It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity.
7 They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch.
Luke 5:5-7 (MSG)

Kazuo and Johanna Syrja-Sano open the new church this Saturday in Shimizu, Japan.

Warwick and Elizabeth Aubin who are members of Garden City Christian Church are staying in Japan for a few months assisting the Church team over there at this stage.

The launching of this church is part of a ministry-focussed "triangle plan" - a prophetic response and plan of supernatural breakthrough for Japan.

Go for it, team!!! ANd keep pushing through in the face of adversity!

Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

James 1:12 (MSG)