Want to come to church? We meet on Sundays at 9am at 38 Hutchinson Street, Mount Barker. Prayer and Discipleship is Wednesday nights from 7-8pm at the church building.
Acts 4:33 - Sunday Sessions Discipleship 27.4.24
And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
Sunday Sessions
On May 26 we are launching “Sunday Sessions” - a space following our 9am service to share a meal, open God’s word, and encourage each other. We hope this time together will help us mature as the body of Christ and take us deeper in our discipleship.
‘Sunday Sessions’ will meet fortnightly from 11:30am until 1:30pm. Bring lunch to share. All welcome!
Acts 2:42 - New Meeting Time 9.4.24
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Grace Hills Church is now meeting at 9am Sundays from Sunday 14th April! We are so thankful to God for the partnership in the Gospel we have with Mount Barker Presbyterian Church and being able to share the space in the heart of Mount Barker. We will no longer be holding Sunday 4pm services.
In Term 2 we will be deepening our discipleship on Wednesday nights, exploring what it means to be faithful disciples of Jesus in our culture.
Prayer and Fasting in Lent 13.2.24
“Draw near to God and he will draw near to you” - James 4:8
Lent 2024: Wednesday 14th February - Thursday 28th March.
Lent is a season in the traditional church calendar of 40 days of spiritual preparation for Easter. The long-standing church tradition is based on the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting (Matthew 4:2) in the wilderness as he was tested before entering ministry and is used for growing in holiness and discipleship to our Saviour.
This time is usually marked by people committing to grow their relationship with Jesus by practicing spiritual disciplines such as prayer and fasting, extended bible reading and forgoing usual luxuries and even some essentials for the purpose of spiritual growth. This time begins on Ash Wednesday each year and finishes on Maundy Thursday (and doesn’t count Sundays during this time).
Why participate in Lent?
Christians have a long tradition of seasons of prayer and fasting in order to draw near to Jesus. Lent is just one way of doing this. The reason we do things like this is because of God promises such as: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you (James 4:8). When we have intentional seasons like Lent of growing our relationship with Jesus, we say to Him “I’m drawing near to you” and we then call on this promise, trusting that He will also draw near to us.
How to participate in Lent
There are many occasions in the bible where God’s people set aside a time for prayer and fasting. In Ezra chapter 8 we see God’s people returning from exile to rebuild the temple set aside some time for prayer and fasting. They ask God for protection from their enemies in the perilous journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem.
In the book of Jonah, we see that the king of Nineveh proclaimed a fast for all the people, even the animals, in an act of great repentance to avert God’s wrath in judgement. Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount that fasting is an expected practice of His disciples, but we are not to make a show of it (Matthew 6:16-18). Later in Matthew 9 Jesus explains that during his ministry on earth, that there is no need to fast in order to draw near to God, because God is physically with them (in Jesus himself). But Jesus further explains that when He returns to Heaven and we can’t physically see Him, then we ought to fast.
In Acts 13 we see the early church practice prayer and fasting, where God’s people set aside time to seek the Lord for his gospel mission in proclaiming Christ to an unbelieving world. And amazingly we also see the result is new leaders raised up, many people converted and churches planted across the Galatian region (modern day Turkey).
Practice 1: Daily bible reading and prayer
A daily habit of bible reading and prayer is the staple diet of a Christian who is seeking to grow in the Lord. We need ‘daily bread’ and there is nothing as satisfying, nothing we need more each day than the bread of life, Jesus Christ and the Living Waters of the Holy Spirit. Over the whole of Lent I am encouraging each person to develop this habit for God’s glory in all our lives.
Below are some examples for how:
1. Start reading the bible and praying each day.
There is no better time to start than today and this can be as simple as reading a chapter of the bible and praying the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). The Lord’s prayer is well used as categories to pray through, rather than just praying the words only. I suggest setting aside 20 mins first thing each day (which may mean getting up 20 mins earlier!), starting with one of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and finding a quiet place where you will not be disturbed.
Remember that this time of bible reading is not about checking off a spiritual list, but rather drawing near to Jesus to know him better. Make this your one aim of the time.
2. Extend your bible reading and prayer times.
If you are already in a regular habit of reading the bible and prayer, I encourage you to extend this time each day over the month of January. Firstly, I suggest the M’cheyne Bible Reading Calendar (http://www.edginet.org/mcheyne/year_classic_single_a4.pdf), which will see you read the Old Testament once, New Testament twice and Psalms twice over the course of a year. Secondly, write out a short list of bible verses (2-3) that you can mediate on in prayer that will fill you with the knowledge of Christ, some examples are: Titus 3:3-7; Romans 13:14; Romans 15:13; Psalm 131; Psalm 139; Psalm 51; Proverbs 3:5-6; James 1:2-5; Philippians 2:1-11; 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5; Colossians 4:2-6; John 15:1-11.
3. Include an evening prayer/bible mediation time.
Many people who regularly have a habit of prayer and fasting have found great benefit by including a time each evening before bed. This time can be used for spiritual reflection on the day, repentance, intercession and worship.
An encouragement Is to use the Psalms as a prayer guide for this evening time. If you set aside 15-20 mins you can read 5 psalms each evening and by the end of the month you will have read all 150 psalms. People like Billy Graham and Tim Keller have practiced this ‘5 psalms per day’ for much of their lives and found great benefit.
Others like Martin Luther have used this evening time for reflection and examination of their own daily life, using the 10 commandments (Exodus 20) as a guide for repentance and applying the work of Christ each evening.
Practice 2: Prayer and fasting
People often set aside one day per week in Lent for prayer and fasting, where you are encouraged not to consume food for a full 24 hours (unless you have a medical condition that prohibits you) and to use the time during that day, whether you’re at work or home, for prayer at regular intervals. There are a few ways to do this, but I suggest fasting after dinner one evening and breaking the fast with dinner the following day, approximately 24 hours. Remember, the exact time is not so important as the quality and intention of this season.
During the day I would encourage each person to set aside 2-3 intervals with an extra half hour of prayer instead of your normal mealtimes. The following are some suggestions for how to do this:
Breakfast 30 mins
Spend time slowly meditating on Ephesians 3:14-21, praying each verse for your own heart to be filled with the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Lunchtime 30mins
Read Hebrews 12:1-11 and Psalm 139:23-24, examining your own heart in prayer and confessing your sin, forsaking it before the Lord as you apply the work of Jesus Christ on the cross to yourself personally.
Practice 3: Setting ourselves apart – New Nazarite Vow
In Numbers 6 the Lord instructs Moses to tell the people about a Nazarite vow, which literally means the vow of one separated.
A Nazirite would abstain from certain things (food, alcohol ordinary practices) to set themselves aside for God, or to be holy as God is holy. This idea of setting ourselves apart from the world has been a regular practice of Christians throughout each generation, which we do firstly In Christ, finding our holiness in Him and then secondly as we apply this to setting our lives apart from the world, by keeping his word seriously or working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Peter encourages the church to set themselves apart to ensure that God is glorified in our lives and our witness to an unbelieving world in 1 Peter 2.
Some things that you can give up over lent may include any or all of these:
· Social media/Reading and watching the news
· Alcohol
· Meat
· Coffee/tea/Sugar
· Netflix/TV shows and movies
Instead of doing these things plan that this Lent will be spent with focusing on drawing near to Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to make a commitment to the Lord of this manner.
Practice 4: Corporate prayer
Seasons like Lent can be hard to start and even harder to continue to the end. But by meeting together with other like-minded disciples of Jesus we can encourage each other and stir one-another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25). The bible shows us that when God’s people get together to pray, He changes us and His world. It is in corporate prayer that we often begin to see the Kingdom of Jesus come on Earth as in Heaven.
Prayer Meeting
We will also continue our usual prayer meeting on Wednesday nights from 7pm – 8pm as we continue to press in, seeking God glory to pour out into every part of our lives in Christ Jesus.
Preparation
Will you join with me in spiritual preparation using the words of Psalm 85:6-7 for our season of prayer and fasting in Lent this year:
Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.
Acts 1:1 - A new series 10.1.24
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,
We have begun a new bible teaching series through the book of Acts as a church. This ambitious project will take the best part of two-years (God willing) and see us explore the nature of Jesus ongoing ministry through the early church and how this impacts us today through it’s teaching and witness. If you would like to keep up to date with our sermons, you can find a link here to our media page or use your favourite podcasting app.
Our desire is to see our church resemble the faith, power and impact of the early church recorded in the book of Acts. We believe that Jesus’ will is the same today as it was then. We prayerfully and genuinely desire that this series would sow the seeds of renewal and revival in our hearts and across our region in the years to come.
Colossians 4:2-6 A door for the word 6.12.23
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
After 40 days of prayer, God has answered us in providing a place for our church to meet in the heart of Mount Barker. Mount Barker Presbyterian Church has graciously offered for Grace Hills Church to use their space for our church gatherings from Sunday 17th December 2023 onwards. We are very thankful to these dear brothers and sisters, for their heart for Jesus, the Gospel and the Word of God and willingness to support Grace Hills Church as we share in the mission of Jesus to the Adelaide Hills.
We will be transitioning our church services to 4pm on Sundays with a shared dinner on a regular basis after our service.
We are thankful that as we prayed for a ‘door for the word’ God has given us a public space to meet.
Our first Sunday will be the 17th December at 4pm, followed by a shared dinner. If you are planning to come along please bring a plate of food to share.
Continue in prayer with us that this space will bring glory to God and we will make much of Jesus and we proclaim His way, truth and life to the people of our town and region.
Ezra 8:21-23 Proclaiming a fast 26.10.23
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
Israel was in disarray. Jerusalem was a shell of a city that it once was. Both the city and its worship was in tatters, but God was on the move. He had called his servant Ezra, part of the exiles in Babylon with a remnant of Israelites to go back to Jerusalem with a specific mission, the reformation and renewal of worship in Jerusalem. Ezra’s goal was to see the city of God worship God again. Ezra had the unusual favour of the king of Babylon both to provide and support the work in Jerusalem. But the journey was long from Babylon to Jerusalem and fraught with danger for the small band of Israelites returning to their homeland.
In Ezra 8:21-23, Ezra proclaimed a fast. He called the people of Israel to go without food and humble themselves (a synonym for prayer), seeking from God a safe journey for the whole party. Ezra hadn’t asked the king of Babylon for armed soldiers to protect them, because he had told the king ‘The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him’ (Ezra 8:22). Ezra had played his hand and told the king of Babylon that God was their protector. All their eggs were in one basket. If God was with them, He would provide their protection. If Ezra had been called by God, the Lord would show him favour. And so, the people prayed, they humbled themselves before God as Ezra proclaimed a fast.
At Grace Hills Church we have stepped out in faith by planting a new church in Mount Barker. Our goal is to see a church empowered and shaped by the power of God, sought by the prayers of His people. To be a church that grows through people meeting Jesus for the first time. A church that draws together a team of people called to love and serve the Adelaide Hills through our whole lives devoted to Jesus and His purposes. To be a church that is powered by faith and prayer, taking God at His word. And so, like Ezra – we have all our eggs in one basket.
We have held back by conviction on particular seeker sensitive methods to grow the church. We see that Jesus is not limited by these methods (and does use them), but that He used different methods in bible and particularly the book of Acts to build the church. The centre of power for effective mission in the church in the book of Acts was the Holy Spirit, given to the church as they prayed and sought God (Acts 1:8, 14). As they took Jesus at His word, Jesus answered during Pentecost and a new movement was born out of demonstration of the Spirit and power, converting and creating a compelling community.
Today, we seek the same power and seek to employ the same methods as the book of Acts. If Jesus truly is the one who came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10), then it’s His mission not ours. We are on Jesus’ mission and so we need His power. And that is why all our eggs are in one basket, for we trust that God is the one holding the basket.
Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness as he prepared for his ministry. His fast and prayer not only set the precedent, but gives us the motivation - that if Jesus did it, so should we. His fast prepared him for the whole course - culminating in the cross and His resurrection. As we look to Jesus, our fasting and praying God - we trust that He will appropriate His life giving power to us as we seek Him in prayer.
What does this mean for our church? It means we need to pray. We need to, like Ezra did – proclaim a fast and see God move in our midst, in the region of Mount Barker for the advance of the Gospel and the honour of God.
1 Peter 2:9-10 - The Church 12.10.23
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
What does it mean to be the church? There is a great temptation in our individualist, consumer age to slip into a 'buyer's market' mentality where the customer is king. Stanley Hauerwas writes "What we call “church” is too often a gathering of strangers who see the church as yet another “helping institution” to gratify further their individual desires". Church is reduced to an attractional production whereby what is offered is simply a better version of what the world is offering already. Come to church and you will be beautiful, you will be happy, you will be entertained.
Whilst we do offer something in the gospel, the church is primarily not a production for consumption - she is a people. We are not offering a better life; we are offering a whole new reality. We are citizens of new country, not consumers. It is whole life reorientation to the kingdom of God and a witness to the truth that Jesus rose from the dead. As Peter reminds us - we are a people with a purpose. Paul says, citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20). As life runs out of meaning, we invite you to look again - through the wardrobe if you like - to a world beyond imagination.
What then, does it mean to be the church? As we think about planting a church in Mount Barker, we see our task as joining together as members of a new polis, declaring to those who will listen "the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light". Our task is to be the church, faithful in embodying the love of Jesus, faithful to be his witnesses.
Acts 2:42 - The Apostles Teaching 05.10.23
If you can imagine a spring of water, fresh from the source, providing life giving, pure and satisfying water for all. But as the spring goes down the water course it gets polluted, mixed with chemicals and becomes utterly undrinkable. In the same way the bible is our pure source of God’s word where we receive life giving teaching and become satisfied by His power and grace as we learn to trust in Jesus through His word and Spirit. The problem is that the further we are from the source of God’s word, the more polluted, unhelpful and perhaps utterly indigestible the teaching becomes.
In the 16th century the church began to reform, using the motto ‘ad fontes’ which in English means, back to the sources. These reforms took the church back to the bible for their authority and teaching and enabled a cleansing from the pollution of human traditions that had greatly veered from the purity of bible teaching.
Today we seek to do the same. Just as the early church in Acts 2:42 were devoted to the Apostles Teaching about Jesus, so do we. We believe that taking God at His word and applying that word today is our ‘bread of life’, helping us to trust in Jesus our Creator and live according to His plan and purposes. We also believe that this ‘reforming’ work is ongoing. We are constantly going back to the sources, shaping our lives by what Jesus has done for us as revealed in His word.
One of the beauties of God’s word is that it stands the test of time. When our culture and world is constantly been driven along by every wind of teaching, pulling us to the right or left, eastern religion or western progression, we find that God’s word is stable. No matter our culture and time, generation and personal preferences, personality and disposition as we turn to God in His word, we find ourselves refreshed, renewed and transformed. The bible doesn’t just give us a better life than we would otherwise have, it gives us true life and everlasting life by faith in Jesus. We don’t just refine the value system of our world, but have entirely new values, a kingdom under the rule of our King.
At Grace Hills Church we are disciples Jesus, living by His word. Because we believe that His word is life; pure, good and satisfying in ways that you cannot find anywhere else, we are constantly being taught by it. We try not just to read, teach and study the bible, but let the bible ‘read’ us and draw our hearts near to the God who saves us in an attitude of humility and grace.
All about Jesus 24.09.23
During our ‘house church’ services we have been drawing near to God as we sing, pray and listen to the word of God. We are thrilled by what Jesus has done for us in the Gospel and want to live faithfully for the good of our neighbours and the glory of God. We are praying for God to open the hearts of people in the Adelaide Hills to Jesus and for people to partner with us as Jesus’ disciples.
Part of our commitment to following Jesus is to create a culture of love and hospitality, where we minimise distractions from our busy world and set aside time for God and each other. We are pushing away from social media, slick presentations and self-help style seminars so we can be real about our lives and our common need for a Saviour.
We believe Jesus loves families and young people and so we are praying about starting a small youth group in the Adelaide Hills to share life and hope in Jesus in a fun and age appropriate way.
The best way to be updated is to meet with one of our pastoral team in person!
You can also sign up for our newsletter by emailing lawsonh@gracehills.com.au