Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, the day arrived that all history had been building towards. The Holy Spirit was poured out, meaning God could move into and change the lives of all who put their trust and hope in Christ. That day is called Pentecost, and we celebrate it as the birth of the church. Jesus presence and power were no longer contained to a human body, but manifest through his body the church, wherever his people are located in the neighbourhoods of the world. 

One of those neighbourhoods is ours. It was Pentecost Sunday 2021 when we celebrated the Grand Opening of our church building. We declared our new spiritual home open to the glory of God, to bear witness to Jesus in our neighbourhood and be a place of welcome, life and healing to all who come. We also set in the foundations, that this building would be a house of prayer. 

This week we have been praying the Lord would Heal our Land. For the Holy Spirit to be poured out over our church and neighbourhood, healing hearts, souls, bodies and relationships. On Sunday afternoon we finish the week with a prayer and healing service at 3pm. Everyone is welcome. 

So one week of prayer finishes and another one starts - the QB week of prayer in two week’s time. You might wonder why we keep promoting prayer. Well, it’s because the bible is crystal clear in its teaching and stories that prayer changes things. It was not a coincidence that Jesus followers gathered for ten days to pray before Pentecost. Prayer always precedes movements of the Holy Spirit. The Grove’s story is one marked by prayer at every defining moment in the church. 

With this in mind, I will leave you with words from the director of our movement, Jason Elsmore:  

Thanks for being a part of QB One Prayer for 2024. We have been witnessing a new move of God in Queensland. In the last year, we have seen older people come to faith that have been resistant to the gospel for decades. Younger people are turning to Jesus that have tasted the things of this world and found them empty and meaningless. Last year we baptized more new believers than ever before in 170 years of Queensland Baptist history. God is moving across Queensland and He is not finished with us yet. 

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20) 

From 2-9 June 2024, we are inviting all QB churches to pray together as one, for God to do immeasurably more than what we have ever seen before in our Movement. 

There are daily devotions based on Ephesians 3:14-21 and we would love as 

many people as possible to gather on Tuesday 4 June 2024 at 7 pm to pray for a 

mighty move of the Holy Spirit across this great state.  God Bless, Jason.

God bless, Marty.

Happy Mother’s Day! I pray you would be encouraged by our special service today. We are honouring mums and all women today, and invite you to stay after the service to enjoy a cuppa, cupcake and conversation.

Serving alongside Anita, Jill and Janelle in our Flourish Women’s Ministry has been a blessing, as I have witnessed God’s love for women and for His ministry. When we first gathered as a team in 2022 to discuss the women’s ministry, God gave us two key verses which have led this ministry.

The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are

dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like

an ever-flowing spring  (Isaiah 58:11).

She is more precious than rubies (Proverbs 3:15).

God made us all in his image. Totally unique, unconditionally loved and precious to him. He also made us to live in community, expressed through love, encouragement and care for one another. This is really the heart of Flourish. It’s an opportunity to invite others to come together, where we encourage one another, form deep friendships through which love and care are given and received.

I think something we learnt from last year is that we really needed a balance of coming together to grow in friendship, but also to grow in faith. We believe God wants to gather us for more than social catch ups. He wants us to experience his presence, fill us afresh with his life, and speak words of encouragement and wisdom to us. It's the combination of these things that will form a community of women who are flourishing – both in friendship and faith.

This year we are holding four events; two have a friendship focus and two have a faith focus.

On the info table are some beautifully designed postcards which have all the dates for Flourish events for the remainder of 2024. I encourage you to pop these dates in your calendar, so you can save the dates and invite others along.

My prayer for all women this Mother’s day is that you may personally know the love of God, your creator - the one who knitted you in your mother’s womb, the one who knows you intimately, who says you’re precious to me, the one who made you uniquely with a purpose and plan, the one who comforts and the one who loves you immeasurably more than you could ever imagine.

God bless,

Mel

Flourish Women’s Ministry Leader

We had the most wonderful two days at the QB conference as a staff team. I can’t remember there ever being a greater expectation of what the Lord will do in Queensland, than among the leaders and churches at the multiply conference. Many stories were being shared of how people are being awakened to Jesus, and sometimes just arriving at church wanting to know God. We have experienced this at The Grove, and I can think of people straight away who arrived at our front door having experienced some kind of awakening.  

We celebrated the fact that in 2023, QLD Baptist churches reported the most baptisms in our history. There are also more Alpha courses being run, and churches preparing to reap the coming harvest. Preceding this has also been an increased commitment to prayer in our movement. In the last few years QB churches have set aside time to pray for Revival, and it’s making a difference. It makes sense, because there has never been a movement of God that didn’t start with people praying. We can think of all the spiritual battles we face, but what the devil works hardest to stop, is people coming together in prayer, because prayer is how we win over darkness.    

It’s great to have Dan Lyons preaching the third message in our Jonah series. It’s a remarkable story of how a whole city was revived by a short sermon that Jonah preached. It’s clear enough that this was a powerful work of God, the only explanation for such a godless and barbaric people to fall on their knees in repentance to Israel’s God, Yahweh. It’s a story that can fill us with hope for our neighbourhood and city. It’s really not about how skilled or impressive we are, simply about how available we are. Jonah finally obeyed God’s call, and what a reward for his obedience. We need to get our eyes off what God’s call costs us, and onto the life it brings to those we are sent to share his message and love with.  

Over the next couple of weeks, maybe you have someone you could invite to church, or into a conversation about Jesus. Mother’s Day is a good opportunity to invite family to come. The week after is Pentecost Sunday, where we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. Join us as we pray into that day, asking the Holy Spirit to heal our land, and revive our city. This week we pray particularly for the children in our church and neighbourhood.  

Let’s pray and obey God, and see what amazing things he will do.

Marty   

I have things to be thankful for, and things to look forward to. 

I am so thankful for the Alpha dinner this week. Around twenty attended, and it was wonderful to meet the friends, family and neighbours who came because people at The Grove invited them. Thank you also to the Hill’s and the Hockey’s families for cooking and serving the meal. There was an obvious sense of God’s love and presence among us throughout the evening. Let’s pray Jesus really blesses lives through this Alpha series. 

I am also thankful for Scott and Sandy McClintock who have started eight weeks well deserved leave. Scott and Sandy work as honorarium staff members and have poured out their lives to bless The Grove over a number of years now. I still remember after Scott sold a couple of IT businesses, that he starting volunteering part time during the week for the church. Then the pandemic hit and the building project was in full flight. Scott’s skills and availability were God’s provision to lead us in building our technical infrastructure, and mobilizing our live stream services. Sandy has also been a faithful support to our office and ministry needs thorough many acts of service behind the scenes, serving with a generous and loving heart. We praise God for this amazing couple and pray they have a deeply refreshing holiday. 

There are also three things I am looking forward to this week. 

The first is my wife Leanne is flying home this Thursday after six weeks! I have missed her so much, but am glad she had the opportunity to spend time with our daughter Christie, who works as a Midwife in the UAE. The second is our eldest daughter Gemma is due to give birth to their third child sometime this week. We give thanks to the Lord for this wonderful blessing and the joy of being grandparents again! 

The third thing I am looking forward to is the QB conference on the Gold Coast. Henry and I are going on Tuesday and Wednesday, and it will be a great opportunity to not only hear some excellent speakers, but to network with other QLD Baptist church leaders. The conference is called Multiply, and we pray God would speak to us and reveal his wisdom for our lives, leadership and the church. There is a growing expectation across our movement that the Holy Spirit will multiply his work in QLD churches through making disciples, sending workers into the harvest field and planting new churches. 

Please pray for us, and the QB movement as a whole. 

Thankful and expectant, Marty  

I was talking to Skip from Alpha after the brilliant training night he led for us on Tuesday. Skip told me that he was blown away by the heart of The Grove. He has led many training nights at churches, but said he doesn’t always see the leaning in and hunger to be part of what God is doing that he witnessed among those gathered from The Grove. Now I don’t pass that on to pat ourselves on the back, or be prideful. Rather, because I agree with Skip that I constantly see this growing heart to follow Jesus and reach the world with the good news. It's like a shift is happening in many lives, that is totally from the Holy Spirit. 

Now saying this isn’t minimizing the pain of hardships we face, or that struggling emotions due to circumstances are a lack of faith. We only need to read the bible to see the ups and downs of life and faith, even in our most loved bible characters. However, what I am seeing is a special nearness of God and perhaps an increase of his power in his church. Little by little, more people are coming alive, and faith is growing. It’s making me feel so expectant about what’s coming.  

The key to being caught up in a movement from God is a little like being swept along in a current. Standing on the banks of a river won’t take us anywhere, it's only as we dive in. Practically speaking, it’s making ourselves available to God. I pray we would all be caught up in this movement of the Holy Spirit among us. To move from observing what God is doing, to being totally part of it. 

Let’s consider what God is calling us to dive into. Maybe it's inviting someone to the Alpha Dinner or joining a Connect Group. Perhaps it’s being baptised or serving in a ministry. It could be that God is calling us to stop running away like Jonah, and be fully engaged with his people and mission again. Whatever it is, we probably recognise God’s call in our hearts. 

Grove family, I really believe the Lord is working among us and inviting us to be caught up in something marvellous. However, we need to leave the safe shores and shallow waters to really see what God can do through our lives and church. It’s getting late, the world is dark, but the movement of the church and the gospel is growing in brilliance and power. Maybe the lyrics of the old Mercy Me song, Caught Up In The Middle, is an appropriate response. 

I believe Your Spirit is alive and on the move, Oh I want to be caught up in the middle of You.
I want to be a part of what I know You're going to do, Oh I want to be caught up in the middle of You.

God bless, 

Marty.