Mission is for me - 14 June 2026

Mission is for me - 14 June 2026

Psalm 67:2 sings, “May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere.” When you read the big picture of the whole Bible, from Genesis through to Revelation, one of the themes you will notice is that the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, were blessed by God to be a blessing to everyone else. At times they remembered this; many times they kept the blessing to themselves. Jesus came to release that blessing once and for all. As the entire world gathers around screens to cheer on their teams in the World Cup, we see in Psalm 67 a much smaller group of people gathered together to cheer on a future when the whole world will sing for joy—not because a round ball went into a net, but because: “ ... you govern the nations with justice and guide the people of the whole world.” (Psalm 67:4) The ongoing work of mission in today’s church continues singing that same song of Psalm 67. We are all part of it. The apostle Paul was part of it too and reflected on his motives and strategy in Romans 15:16–22. If you were to write to a church community you had never met, describing the mission work, motivations, and strategies you have been involved with during your lifetime, what would you say? This Sunday we will hear from a number of different people and gain a bigger picture of what BCUC is involved in when it comes to mission. You might hear your own story, discover places to get involved, or notice gaps that God is calling you to step up and fill. Your brother in Christ, Benji

Mission in our community - 7 June 2026

What does it look like to do local mission? In 1 Thessalonians we see a church with an incredible story - a complete turnaround from serving idols to worshipping the true and living God. The gospel went deep into this church, transforming them from the inside out. As this church lived out authentic gospel shaped community, the good news rang out from them to others all around their region, and many more people came to know the true and living God as well. This church can help be an example to show us what it looks like to live out authentic gospel shaped community, that overflows so that the gospel flows out into our local community, even into those parts of our local community that not all of us can go out to ourselves (like our university campuses!). Lauren Hansen

Mission - 31 May 2026

Dear friends of BCUC, Anyone who has watched the cult classic film The Blues Brothers would know that the movies is about Jake and Elwood Blues who are “on a mission from God” to get the band back together and raise money for a church orphanage. Church mission is a word used by many people and can sometimes seem to mean almost everything the church does or very specifically, making new converts.  What then is mission?  I like to define it using our church’s motto ‘raising Children of God’ or discipleship. The wider Uniting Church has been drawn to the message of ‘reconciliation’ since its formation, drawing heavily from the words of the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself…. and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us"  (2 Corinthians 5:19). Reconciliation is the work of peacemaking, those that were friends, became enemies and are now reconciled into friendship once more. Our wider church’s mission, therefore, is making peace between God and others, between people and each other, and with all creation. Over the next three weeks we are going to explore ‘mission’: what is it, how can we participate in it locally and globally? I hope we will all learn much and be inspired into everyday action.  Your brother in Christ Benji

Pentecost - 24 May 2026

This week we celebrate Pentecost! Followers of Jesus celebrate this day as the birth of the Christian Church. Happy Birthday!In Acts 2:1–21, we read of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples, empowering them to speak in different languages so that people from many nations could hear and understand the good news of Jesus. The crowd was amazed by what they witnessed, while others questioned what was happening and assumed the disciples had lost their senses. This moment revealed something extraordinary. Through the Holy Spirit, God was opening the invitation of Jesus to all people.Pentecost reminds us that the Church was never meant to be a building, but a gathering of people filled with God’s presence and sent into the world with love, courage and purpose.Many of us know that Benji is currently in Korea with the Uniting Church PROK group. How fitting that during this time of Pentecost, our minister is immersed in a culture that is so familiar and significant within our BCUC family. We look forward to receiving Benji’s Pentecost message via video this Sunday.Please join us as we celebrate Pentecost together, giving thanks for and celebrating the many cultures that make up our church family, and sharing in an international lunch following the service.BlessingsKaitlyn Phillips

Jesus invites us into Relationship - 17 May 2026

On Sunday we have the last in our “Jesus invites” series, with Jesus inviting us into relationship with Him. In the John reading Jesus explains the concept of remaining in deep relationship with God to the Jews using words and pictures the Israelites, an agricultural people should understand well - the vine, or vineyard. Jesus casts God as the gardener, himself as the vine, and us as the branches, which when tended well and remaining in relationship with the vine, will produce much good fruit. Just as a healthy vine and a bumper crop of quality fruit takes effort and attention, so too does abiding with God. The Israelites had fallen out of a close relationship and Jesus was now inviting them (and us) back.Relationships are defined by shared feelings, communication, trust and mutual expectations. They anchor us, give us identity, comfort and support us. Those same markers of secular connections are part of the deep relationship into which God invites us. He promised to remain close, so we need to hold firm to Hebrews 13:5, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you”. And the result? Being in relationship with God bears much fruit in us, as recorded in Galatians 5, “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”. A list of beautiful attributes and evidence we are abiding in God.To continue to produce good fruit we can come to God with our confession of sin and our profession of belief. We can follow God’s commandments. We can follow Christ’s teachings and example of forgiveness, mercy, inclusion, hope, humility, service and obedience to God. We can remain in contact with God through prayer and bible reading and we can relate in love to our church community. Last Sunday Kaitlyn said, “When we invest our time in prayer, bible reading, worshipping and in church community, God begins to do the work within us”. So, we don’t have to view the invitation to relationship as too hard, or lonely, as God is doing it alongside and within us. Matthew’s reading concludes, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” We are invited into relationship with God and given the confidence that He will be with us, always.Jenny OlverMatthew 28:20 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPDJrz32bRw&t=1700s] and John 15:1-10