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FROM THE BIBLE

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25

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Planting seeds

11:09pm Sunday, 24th January 2010

RENAE The first In the Chute-Geneva Push conferences was held on the 7–9th of December at Collaroy NSW. My husband Daniel and our daughter August and I got along. It was exciting to be part of a new network of Christians who were keen to see grounded and growing churches established throughout Australia and see how we as a family could be a part of Gods work by planting a church in the future.

DARREN Monday: So today was day one of ‘In the Chute’ and it was absolutely packed full of good stuff. People started trickling in around from around 1:30. I think all in all there are around 50–60 gung-ho, keen-as young guys ... and their cautious, nervous wives.
It was good to also hear experienced Aussie planters—guys like Andrew Heard (Central Coast), Paul Dale (Kirribilli), Wayne Pickford (Berkeley), Tim Baldwin (Central Coast), Chris Ekins (Forster), Dave MacDonald (Canberra) etc. share their experiences, lessons and struggles. A few common things came through loud and clear:
l Planting is hard work. It doesn’t make you popular. It doesn’t get you kudos.
l Planting is contextual. Different strategies work in different places. You can’t take what one church has done and transfer it directly across to your context.
l Planting is wonderful. All of the guys who spoke today had great stories of seeing Jesus save many in their area. One particular that comes to mind is Wayne Pickford who planted with the Church Army in Berkeley. His church, two years in, has 82% new convert growth. God is doing great things!

RENAE As the idea of church planting really seems to have taken off over the last couple of years, there has been a sense of it being a prestigious, glorious, rewarding and exciting life.
Though there may be elements of these things, throughout the conference there was a common undertone of the harsh realities of being a church planter.
It was very confronting but helpful to hear that the call of the gospel on your life will cause strain on your marriage, people will be offended by what you are doing, communities will be against you and there will be resistant hearts where ever you go …

DARREN Tuesday: early morning with our newborn daughter August. Walked into Collaroy with her and bought myself a coffee while Renae slept in.
Renae and I had our “Church planter assessment interview” this afternoon ... After filling out what seemed like a million questions on theology, pastoral issues, our marriage, our giftedness etc, we finally get to this interview stage where we are asked all the questions again, but this time they look you in the eye!
Rather than just telling us whether we could plant or not, the panel gave us areas to work on in our marriage, godliness, ministry training and other things.
I found it great then to go with Renae to our room and chat it all through before spending good time as a couple thanking God for what he has been doing in our lives and praying for the future.
Jim Wallace from the Australian Christian Lobby spoke tonight on leadership principles and his experience as commander of the Special Forces.
I found some of the ideas he was teaching us about to be really helpful but I felt quite tired after a long day and so found it difficult to listen. I’m looking forward to going back to it on the Geneva website http://thegenevapush.com
Really big day! It’s midnight now and I’ve stayed up late with a few of the other guys, mucking around and talking about our different ministry contexts over coffee until the conference centre kicked us out.

RENAE The thing that keeps capturing many of those who have planted churches, especially when experiencing hardship, is that they are convicted by the saving grace of the gospel and the power it has to save the lost.
DARREN Wednesday: far and away the most helpful session all week was from Dave Sheath (The Lakes Church, Central Coast) and Dave McDonald (Crossroads Church, Canberra). They shared the struggles that they have had in church planting. It was a very humbling experience to have two seasoned church planters explain all the hardships they have suffered over the years as they sought to do ministry .

Darren and Renae Godden attend the independent EV church on the NSW Central Coast where Darren is the focus leader for Nite EV. They are currently working through plans to plant a new church.

Pic:Darren Godden (centre) takes a break in a hectic week. Pic form the geneva Push

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Planting seeds

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