Why not make the decision to start a new habit that will reward you for a lifetime? It's not as hard or improbable as it seems.

God has given us the scriptures in the bible to not only teach us about Him but to also teach us how He wants us to live our lives. It’s not just there as head knowledge but so that we can apply the teaching and principles to our lives. And when we do, it will be life changing!

As we read and meditate on the scriptures, the Holy Spirit gives us understanding and revelation. When this happens, the word of God becomes living and powerful; becoming simply life changing.

Oh, the joys of those who … delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
Psalm 1:1-3 (NLT)

You might have tried reading the Bible and found it hard to stick at. Perhaps you haven't really even seen the point. There are 3 keys to meaningfully engaging with what the Bible has to say if you want it to truly impact your life.
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3 Keys To Engaging With Scripture In A Life Changing Way

1. Make a habit of Reading and engaging with scripture daily. Real benefits happen when you do this 4 or more times a week.
2. Reading is the first step, but don’t stop there. Read, Reflect on what is says, meditating on what the scripture is saying and on what the Holy Spirit is saying to you.
3. Then Respond by deciding to apply what you have reflected on to your life.

It's as simple as Reading, Reflecting and Responding. And the benefits are enormous!

Some of the Benefits of Regularly Engaging In Scripture
A survey of over 100,ooo people has found that regularly engaging with scripture has the following incredible benefits:
“We find that if a person who engages the Bible four or more times a week their odds of giving in to these temptations decreases: 

• Drinking to excess -62% 
• Viewing pornography -59% 
• Having sex outside marriage -59% 
• Gambling -45% 
• Lashing out in anger -31% 
• Gossiping – 28% 
• Lying -28% 
• Neglecting family -26% 
• Overeating or mishandling food -20%
• Overspending or mishandling money -20% 

Bible engagement also produces more peace and joy in a person’s life, by reducing the frequency of various emotional struggles. 
Receiving, reflecting on, and responding to God’s Word four or more times a week decreases a person’s odds of struggling with these issues: 

• Feeling bitter -40% 
• Thinking destructively about self or others -32% 
• Feeling like they have to hide what they do or feel -32% 
• Having difficulty forgiving others -31%
• Feeling discouraged -31% 
• Experiencing loneliness – 30% 
• Overeating or mishandling food -20% 
• Having difficulty forgiving oneself -26%
• Thinking unkindly about others -18%
• Experiencing fear or anxiety -14% 

The impact of engaging in God’s word on a regular basis is absolutely amazing! And there's a simple tool called SOAPing that can help you on the path to experiencing benefits like those listed above.

SOAPing; a Great Tool To Help You Regularly Engage With God’s Word
SOAPing is simply a tool to help you engage with scripture in a way that becomes life changing as you partner with the Holy Spirit in applying God’s word to your life.

If you aren’t already using amore comprehensive reading plan or if your church doesn't recommend a particular reading plan, you can use the 2 month plan below.

This plan will help you start a habit that will reward you for a lifetime by leading you to read 1 chapter a day over 52 days, starting with the story of Jesus life and then the story of some of the first believers found in the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. After this there are 2 short letters written by the Apostle Paul.

You can SOAP by simply:

1. Reading the scripture for the day
2. Pray, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal insights to you
3. Selecting a scripture to focus on and then SOAP as follows:

Scripture – write out the scripture
Observation – write what this scripture is saying to you
Application – write how you will apply this to your life
Prayer – commit this to prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to help you

   4. Take steps towards living the life God wants you to live and that He will blessYou can watch a short video helping to explain how you can SOAP here.

How Long Will This take Me Every Day
On average it takes 3 to 4 minutes to read a chapter form the New Testament. That's not a lot of time is it? So if you were to read a chapter a day and SOAP on that. it's likely to take you just 10 to 15 minutes a day. I don't think anyone can say that they don't have the time to do this! It's more a matter of whether you want to make the time to start a habit that will reward you for a lifetime.

A Reading Plan To Help You Get Started
For those who have already developed the habit of SOAPing regularly, we recommend that you keep using a comprehensive reading plan such as the Life Journal reading plan or the plan that your church recommends.

However for those starting off, it may be easier to start off using an introductory reading plan like the one below. What’s really most important isn’t how much of the bible that you read and meditate on, but that you develop a regular habit that leads you to meditate on scripture every day.
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Below you will see a 52 day introductory reading plan; 1 chapter of the Bible a day through January and February. Why not give it a go and get SOAPing?

Happy SOAPing! May the benefits be life changing!

As we approach Christmas, it’s a great time to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for. 
To me the spirit of Christmas is all about giving. We catch a glimpse of this in that this is the one time of year where a diverse range of people across our country engage in the act of giving, and of course also in receiving!
Giving is as old as Christmas; older in fact! We read about the generous giving of the Magi in Matthew 2:11

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

​The Magi sought Jesus out. They worshipped Him. And they unleashed generosity on Him.
To me, these actions reflect the Spirit of Christmas and the generosity of the Magi reflects God’s heart and it should reflect our hearts as well.

Jesus came to earth as God’s gift to us, and He gave His precious life to us. What an amazing gift that we have much to be thankful for!

​For some reading this, perhaps this last year hasn’t gone as you have expected. Perhaps there are dreams that remain unfulfilled and plans that remain incomplete. Perhaps you have experienced the hard of life and ministry in a way that you didn’t anticipate. And maybe you are finding it hard to be thankful at present. Or perhaps this last year has been a wonderful year and a time of great blessing.

​Either way, all of us have much to be thankful for and Christmas is a powerful reminder of this. For all of us, Christmas is more than a reminder of what Jesus gave to us. Christmas provides a wonderful opportunity to recalibrate our attitudes and perspectives to embrace thankfulness.

For Sharon and I, 2018 has been a year where we have seen incredible grief and acts of evil, as well as unexpected and major crises, but in the midst of this, God’s grace and love have been amazingly evident. 

​The world in which we minister is undoubtedly becoming darker, but as this happens the light of Jesus shines brighter through people like us and faith communities like the churches that we lead and are a part of.

Looking back on the past year, we can see the hand of God in calling us to be a “sent” people, carrying the scent of Jesus into our communities.

Being a “sent” people means that we will love Jesus so much that we will obey and follow Him, and we will love our neighbour so much that we will take risks for them in the hope that they will come to know and receive the incomparable grace that Jesus offers.

As churches, we are to be His people on a mission. As a movement we are to be a fellowship of diverse churches united by the desire to see our nation reached for Jesus.

​We have much to celebrate from this last year:

• The ELI program for emerging leaders has got up and running in such an outstanding way
• Camp No Fear youth camp has extended to the northern states for the first time
• There has been a wonderful uptake on the Mentoring Program to help ensure our leaders will be healthy and enduring
• 2018 has seen many A2A churches grow in the way that they are being missional and engaging with their local communities and beyond
• Across the movement, there are now 5 new church plants being planned by 2022
• the 2018 Conference has been an outstanding success​

As we prepare for a new year, I encourage you to uphold the value of journalling on scripture and develop strategies to see people in your churches decide to practice this as a healthy spiritual habit.

Having adopted this habit now for over 16 years, I still get blessed by the fresh revelation and insights that I receive from journalling on God’s word to us. In fact, I’m still pondering the insights I gained from journalling just this morning!

A short video explaining how to SOAP is below. Why not show this to your church? with thanks to #ourchurch

I would also appreciate your prayers for the National Leadership Team as we will be preparing for another retreat in the new year, specifically putting aside Tuesday 12 February as a day when we will be coming together to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance for our movement for the times ahead.

We have a great sense of anticipation about the 2019 National Conference to be held on the Gold Coast commencing Monday evening 29 April.  If you haven’t booked yet, just reminder that the early bird discount is still available until 31 December. You can book for the Conference using the LINK HERE.

And finally, don’t forget to register for the next round of Leaders Together days in February. We have a guest speaker lined up to come and provide excellent input at these days. Dates and locations are as follows:

• Thursday 14 FEB TAS at the Rock Penguin
• Tuesday 19 FEB VIC at Gateway Seaford
• Thursday 21 FEB QLD at Church One Helensvale
• Saturday 23 FEB SA at Coast and Vines Willunga

You can book for the LT using the LINK HERE.

Thank you for being part of A2A.
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​We are a diverse group of men and women who God has pulled together to be an alliance of dynamic missional churches, loving on our communities, impacting them and making disciples.

​It is my prayer that you will be filled with the joy and peace of Jesus, overflowing with thankfulness to Him and that you will be freshly envisioned, inspired and invigorated for the work He is calling you to in the year and years ahead.

Be blessed!

Tim O’Neill
President, A2A
19 December 2018

Introduction
 
I begin this discussion by teasing out some remarks I made on the subject of humility in the first article of this series, Identifying our Distinctives.
 
The nature of our humanity defaults to the dark side, and it creates a competitiveness in us that wants to get to the top of the pile and be the star. This is the exact opposite of what Jesus demonstrated, and highlights the difference between the example of servanthood and that of the chest thumping Pharisee who stands where all can see his bogus greatness.
 
This counterfeit prominence destroys authentic community, and isolates many leaders and congregants leaving them feeling defeated, devalued, and a failure. The level of devastation that this God dishonouring behaviour causes is widespread, and nothing short of evidence that the enemy of us all is at work to steal, kill, and destroy at every opportunity in the life of leaders. Put simply, I see this dark side of leadership as an extreme abuse of power.
 
One of the most common discussions I have had with church leaders during my time in vocational church work has revolved around feelings they have even in the crowd. They feel loneliness, pessimism, a lack of appreciation, and a disappointment that  leaders without biblical humility create too often in the environment of church leadership. 
 
When dealing with broken people in our congregations there is a level of grace given to the church leader which protects their heart from disreputable behaviour, as life transformation is taking place. But the assault on their spirit that comes with the self-importance of some prideful leaders is unexpected, and blindsides them and is therefore all the more damaging to the wellbeing of the leader.
 
A leader without biblical humility harms the reputation of Jesus in the earth, and reinforces the cynicism many irreligious Australians have of church leaders.
 
Biblical humility as a distinctive
 
We want to be a movement that is known as one where every leader is included and encouraged, and able to celebrate authentic community one with the other. We want A2A to be a safe place where a church leaders regardless of the size of his church, and regardless of how measureable their success might be can come and be celebrated for who they are, and for the sacrifice they make in faithfully serving God.
 
A distinctive is a visible distinguishing characteristic about a person or organisation. It is encouraging for us that visitors to our gatherings where leaders are together regularly make a spontaneous and telling observation about the environment of our get-togethers. 
 
Consistently church leaders from mega churches, large churches, large independent ministries, small churches, and as individuals say we stand out in the Australian context as an all-inclusive group of church leaders who are comfortable in our own skins and enjoy an authentic level of community not commonly seen on the Australian landscape. I know Australian leaders who regularly tell me that the spirit we have amongst the church leaders at A2A does not exist anywhere else. 
 
Least we become immediately prideful of these welcome appraisals, it is not impossible that regardless of the overall healthy environment, there is someone who feels isolated and dishonoured. We are doing ok, but we have not arrived. To think more highly of ourselves than we ought will quickly put us on a slippery slope towards prideful God dishonouring habits that will quickly destroy what God has done in us.
 
Defining biblical humility
 
Humility is generally defined as unpretentiousness, modesty, self-effacement, and similar words of explanation. Biblical humility certainly contains all of these characteristics, but more. It is the more that makes the difference and gives us the key to the way we should pursue humility. 
 
Biblical humility is placing our gifting, our strengths, and the power gained by our position in leadership in submission to God so that they are always under His control. 
 
Understanding the biblical basis of humility
 
In the greatest sermon in history, Jesus includes a few lines about humility. Matthew records his words in chapter 5 verse 5; Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. This comment is the foundational thought that should effect all of actions in Christian leadership.
 

1. Meek is an old fashioned word that does not have much usage in the 21st century. Meek is better translated today as humble. Meek in the Greek language had much imagery attached to it, it reflected a lion which had been tamed to perform in an arena, even though a lion can be trained to sit on a small stool, it still has immense strength and the lion tamer would not dare turn his back on the lion. It simply has its strength under the control of the lion tamer. It was referred to as a meek lion, but you would never think of it as weak or insipid. 

 
This is the biblical picture of meekness or humility. Humility is having your strengths under the control of King Jesus. In this section of scripture we learn that the person who puts their strength under the domain of the King [king-domain/kingdom] gains their inheritance. The implication is that if you do not humble yourself before King Jesus, you will not gain your inheritance. This is a law of the kingdom.
 
Jesus was the greatest example of humility. He had great strength and power yet he resisted the temptation from Satan to use it. As he approached Calvary in the moment of his greatest testing, He did not call down ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set himself free. He put his power under the Father’s control and as a result he gained his inheritance and sits at the right hand of God today. And we are part of his inheritance.
 

1. Failure to submit our power as leaders to God is the reason so many leaders are not successful, and why some who appear successful because of what they build loose it.

 
Peter wrote to Christians scattered all over the world with some sensational advice. What he said is found in 1 Peter 5 verse 5; ……All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
 
I say this is sensational for these reasons;

1. Peter says put humility on like you would a set of clothing. It’s something you have to do. Then he tells us that our humility will position us to direct this distinctive towards others. He makes it clear that humility should be directed at others. Humility is meant to make others feel included, valued, and celebrated.
2. Then he says something sobering. He says if you do not do this God will oppose you. I am not sure how you respond to this statement, but I know how I respond. I do not under any circumstance want to have the most powerful identity in the universe oppose me. I do not want the God who with a word created all things oppose me. It scares me to consider that God would ever oppose me. Much better to humble myself.
3. None of us is perfect or ever will be this side of heaven. We are all capable of slipping effortlessly to the dark side of our nature. If we are serious about placing our strength at the feet of God, the same all powerful God who will pull us down will also extend grace to us.

I love the way David who let his sexual juices get out of control, and allowed his emotions to drive him to murder was forgiven and lifted up. There is only one reason for this. When Nathan counselled him regarding the ugliness of his dark side, instead of using his great strength and power as king and reacting, he responded. He humbled himself and David’s days following were even greater. That works for me.
 
Have you ever considered the delusional aspect of pride. Leaders without humility are deceived. They believe their own propaganda. They think everyone thinks as highly of them as they do themselves. They think no one notices when they are positioning themselves for the best seat at the table. They think no one notices when they drop a name, or look over your shoulder when you are in conversation with them. Most of all they think God will not notice.
Pride, which of course is the opposite of humility, is the single reason why seemingly successful leaders are brought down. In the decades I have been in vocational ministry I have seen great leaders on the national and international stage come crashing down. I have been personal friends with some of them. In recent times one of the most prominent leaders of the church in the western world has come crashing down because he did not place his strength and power under the hand of God. God opposed him.
Peter finishes his thoughts on humility with these equally sensational words. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 
This is the key to success not only in vocational church work, but in the market place, wherever God has placed the Christian to serve him. 
 
Walking in humility
When God spoke clearly to the National Leadership Team in February 2017 and helped us to identify our distinctives, humility was not the entirety of what we heard about humility. The Holy Spirit talked to us about walking in humility.
A form of the word walking is used about 130 times in the bible. It always has with it a sense of plodding along, travelling along, treading along through life. It has the feel of consistently doing something about it. 
On that February day I am certain that the Holy Spirit was telling us to keep this distinctive of humility as a constant in the life of our movement. We are encouraged to live in humility so that we can continue to be a life giving movement to each other, and not a life sapping movement to each other.
Conclusion
I believe there is a genuine humility becoming more and more visible in the culture of our churches. It is something to be guarded at all cost so that all of us can enter into our inheritance which scripture tells us is the right of every believer.
I look forward to walking in humility with you all.
 

It’s amazing to realise that most of 2018 is now behind us and Christmas is just around the corner. Where has the time gone?
It’s been great seeing so many A2A churches taking steps to engage in a greater way with their local communities and to be more missionally effective. I think that we all want our churches to be like the church in Acts 2 that was so engaged that they enjoyed the favour of all the people in their city with the result that more were being saved and added to their number every day!
Thats a wonderful focus for us to have as we embrace the great commandments and the great commission. As Rick Warren says, a great great commitment to the great commission and the great commandment will build a great church! And of course to do this, requires great leadership.

National Leadership Team Update
At our last National Leadership Team meeting we discussed ways in which we as an NLT could add value to the churches across the movement. One of the ways we thought may be useful was to make ourselves more available across the movement to help catalyse change. Ralph Moore in his book MegaMultiMultiply makes the following comment:
An apostolic leader, whether in a large place or small, feels the need to keep moving. Some, like Paul, move from city to city. Today, most shift from project to project while extending the boundaries of the gospel. These people are catalyzers. If this is you, you naturally spark change.
Just to be clear, we are not calling ourselves apostles, but we do believe the the NLT can add value by functioning in an apostolic fashion. What this means is that:

• The members of the NLT have agreed that they are willing to minister in other A2A churches if they are invited. This is of course subject to their schedules. The practical reality of leading a church means that mid week ministry may be more possible than Sunday ministry for some of the members.
• The members of the NLT are happy to contribute in this way without expectation of an honorarium. Just a side note here; if you do make a commitment to paying a visiting ministry an honorarium, please follow through with this. There are too many stories across churches in this country of honorariums being offered and even love offerings taken without being forwarded on.
• If your church cannot afford travel costs in respect of the visiting NLT member, A2A may be able to assist to some extent.

The bottom line is that we want to do what we can to help local church leaders spark change to help their churches become more missional effective.

ELI (Emerging Leaders Initiative)
The first year of ELI has by all accounts been an outstanding success with some wonderful testimonies from the emerging leaders who have taken part. The recent trip to Canberra was an incredible experience for all involved. 
Whilst in Canberra, the participants had their worldview significantly expanded with substantial input from politicians and other key individuals in relation to our nation’s history both politically and militarily, the workings of the constitution and High Court and of Parliament House. Meeting our Prime Minister was surely also a highlight for all.
Special thanks to Mark Ansell and the team form Gateway who run ELI, and to Phillip Mutzelburg who arranged the trip to Canberra.
If you are a young or emerging leader, or you have emerging leaders in your church, I encourage you to consider next years ELI program. Please Contact Mark Ansell or Tina Silk on 03 9785 7500 & eli@a2a.org.au for more information about ELI. ​

Mentoring
The NLT is delighted with the uptake that has occurred with credential holders entering into mentoring arrangements. We are particularly pleased that nearly all A2A Senior Leaders are in a mentoring arrangement. We see mentoring as being key to the ongoing health of a leader. 
One further initiative that we will be instigating in the near future is introducing a short form agreement that can be used between the mentor and mentee to ensure a few key components to mentoring are agreed upon and to a degree formalised.
You can find out more about A2A mentoring here  or by contacting Mark Ansell 03 9785 7500

Revised Marriage Rites
Religious bodies, such as A2A, may be granted permission by the Attorney General’s Department to endorse religious marriage. Ministers are permitted to solemnise marriages on the basis that they conduct marriages within the rites of their denomination. 
The NLT has revised A2A’s Marriage Rites, with a copy being sent to all credential holders registered to solemnise marriages. A copy of the Rites is available here.

Leaders Together
We are just about to complete our latest round of Leaders Together. Here is some of what we have covered as well as links to resources
Keeping Fresh In Ministry
We revisited Mark Conner’s excellent teaching about Keeping Fresh In Ministry, from the 2018 National Conference.  Mark reminded us of the Theology of Self Care and the 5 habits of healthy leaders. We watched Mark teach first 2 habits (Retreat Regularly and Deal With Your Internal Stress) and then had a time of discussion. You can watch Mark’s excellent teaching on Keeping Fresh In Ministry here.

Developing A Strategic Plan
Rod Dowie presented the strategic planning process that he and the team at Coast and Vines have been putting together. They have come up with a brilliant template that could be used to help your church to develop your own strategic plan.
Their founding scripture is Isaiah 61:4 “And they shall rebuild old ruins. They shall rise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolation of many generations.”
CLICK HERE to hear from Rod.  The document templates they have developed are available below.

Fringe Benefits Exemptions For Pastors 
Most pastors would be aware that there are certain fringe benefits exemptions that may apply to pastors. Following is a brief summary of how that works. 
Under tax law in Australia, income is generally taxable. When instead of receiving income, a person receives a benefit, this is generally subject to assessment under the Fringe Benefits Tax legislation. So any form of remuneration that is not assessed as income is generally regarded as a benefit.
The FBT legislation however provides that benefits paid to pastors and church workers may be exempt from FBT under certain circumstances.
The Draft Taxation Ruling issued in July of this year provides three important tests that must be passed for a benefit to be exempt. 

1. The provision of benefits must be made by a ‘registered religious institution’. A ‘registered religious institution” is an institution that maintains current ACNC registration with a subtype ‘advancing religion’. If you lose ACNC registration, you will lose your eligibility for exempt fringe benefits
2. The provision of benefits must be to to an employee who is a ‘religious practitioner’, or the employee’s spouse or child. The Draft Ruling elaborates on what this means, but can include a minister of religion or a student at an institution who is undertaking a course of instruction in the duties of a minister of religion. The Draft Ruling then outlines certain characteristics of their employment.
3. The provision of benefits must be principally in respect of pastoral duties or directly related religious activities’ that are related to the practice, study, teaching or propagation of religious beliefs.

These are explained further in the Draft Ruling which can be found here.

School Holiday Programmes
It was discussed that School Holiday programmes and other programmes that churches undertook where with children under the age of 13 years, where parents or guardians were not on premises may require licensing as a Child Care Centre.
There is an important exception to this under the Education and Care Services National Law where it can be shown the programme or service is being conducted principally for the purposes of religious instruction.
This could have substantial ramifications on a number of activities that churches may run, including camps.
The take away from this is to document the purpose of the activity and why and how it is being undertaken for the purposes of religious instruction.
Link to Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 (p17)

This past week I have spent time with the mob at Kyogle.
We drove up into heaven country for a women’s soul retreat.
As I stepped out of the car I could feel the spot was magical.
It was perfect for a women’s soul retreat.
 
The delicious invitation to rest, renewal and delight.
 
 I was expecting love and life to happen but what I wasn’t expecting was the beauty.
The beauty of the environment was simply delicious.
I could feel myself slowing, resting, nestling into God’s luscious palms.  The flowing creek, the shafts of sunlight finding its way through the tall trees and shrubs.
The bower birds penetrating the silence with their pinging sounds.
 
But it wasn’t this beauty that truly captured my heart.
 
What captured my heart was the sound of lives turned from brokenness to wholeness; from pain to hope; from messy to life and love.
Over the coming days I was privileged as girls time and time again shared their story of surrender.  The moment when they turned their will and their life over to God.
 
The heart sharing always began with a smile, a giggle and then the  story of how God turned their hard, their broken, their messy into love and love.
 
I loved the child likeness, the simple delight of “I was once lost and now I’m saved.”
 
There was Janet who came to faith because her daughter went to youth group and then wanted to go to church.  Janet recalls how her first service was filled with unexplained tears.
 
There was another who saw a sign advertising the church, went home and googled, saw their was a small group meeting on in the evening and simply turned up.
 
I love what God is doing in this church.  First generation Christians.  Story after story after story of families discovering Jesus for the very first time.
 
There was this child like wonder.  “God’s done this for me and my family.”
I loved BJ who every day says to Jesus, “Okay who are we going to love together today?  Who are we going to give dignity to?”  I love the heart.
 
I want to give a big shout out to Danielle and James and their team for creating a space where people who are far from God feel safe enough to explore, to bring their broken soul and have it redeemed and healed.
 
May Kyogle continue to be blessed and to be a blessing.