We are all disciples on the way.

Hopefully you will have heard that I was not elected to be Moderator of the Uniting Church Queensland. To be honest I am actually quite happy about that. Rev David Baker who is now our Moderator- Elect will do a great job. He is passionate about the church engaging with mission in different ways and isn’t afraid to challenge traditional thinking/structures.

With regard to my future; as you are aware I have an extension until the end of April 2016. Within the Uniting Church, however, it is possible for a call to another congregation/ministry setting, to arise before that time. This means that, along with Glen leaving, it is very important we continue to deeply engage in the process of prayer and discernment regarding the way God is shaping Logan Uniting and what we need in our Senior Leadership, that Church Council has called us to.

The theme of the recent Synod was “Disciples on the Way” and we heard many stories from individuals and congregations/sections of the church about how they are seeking to follow Jesus and creatively serve others. Over the next few weeks the “Journey” magazine will report more fully on the issues covered.

We also engaged again with the Vision 2020 “Together on the Way – enriching community” that the Synod has adopted. Below you will see the Vision Wheel which is helping to shape the church in Queensland.

 At Logan Uniting we don’t use the language of the Vision 2020 as God led us to a clear understanding of our Purpose and Vision many years ago. Having said that, the “Wheel” is a useful tool for checking how fully we are engaged in the breadth of God’s purposes. Have a look at it and celebrate the way in which we are actively living out God’s call.

PLEASE REMEMBER that Glen, Vikki and Jacob’s farewell will be after the morning service at Springwood on Sunday the 16^th June (only 4 weeks away). We will share in an early BBQ lunch and as part of the morning there will be time for people to share for 2 minutes (only) something of the way in which Glen (or Vikki, Jacob, Zoe) have impacted your life. Please only share ONE THING; that way more people will be able to speak.

We will also be blessing them with a special gift. If you would like to contribute toward this can you please put your donation in an envelope with “gift for Glen” on the front (and put it in the offering bag or hand it in to the office); or if you send money electronically please put “Glen gift” in the reference field.

Another point of prayer is for the Qld Synod meeting from the 24^th to the 28^th May. Tim R, Glen, Jim Haak, Russell Pearce, Libby Stanley and I are reps to the Synod. It will be at this meeting that a decision regarding our next Moderator will take place.

Over the next 2 weeks Church Council has called us as a church to a 2 step process of prayer and discussion regarding the way in which God is shaping us as a church and what we require in our Senior leadership to continue to facilitate this. If you are not in a faith life group you are invited to attend BOTH nights on Wed the 22^nd May and Wed the 29^th May from 7-00pm to participate in this important process.

Church Council has a strong sense that out of this focussed time of prayer and discussion God will make it clear what our next steps, regarding our Senior Leadership model, are. There is a growing sense of excitement with regard to what God is doing now and over the next few years in and through Logan Uniting Church.

Thank you for your participation.

Yours in Christ

Graham Keech

Thank you for your encouragement regarding my nomination for Moderator. People have reflected a sense of potential loss but also openness to God’s call for us. This really is the key - that we keep praying for God’s call to unfold for Logan Uniting, the wider Uniting Church and for myself (and indeed for all of us who follow Christ). In God the best is always yet to come.

I am sure you have also picked up my mistake in the last Keech’s Korner – the role of Moderator would not start in Oct 2013 but in Oct 2014.

Church council is working on a process that will call us to deep prayer and discussion/discernment about the way God is shaping us as a church over the next 3 years and what we will require in our Senior Leadership. We are called to continue to develop a disciple-making culture (pre and post conversion – helping come to faith in Christ and grow in following Him).

At our leadership community on the 28^th April we will be working with our leaders on this process, with the goal that in May we take time in all our Life groups, IFFF’s, Ministries and also through special working groups (for those who aren’t in a life group etc) to pray and explore questions that will enable us to walk into the next couple of years with expectation, excitement and deep faith in God.

Glen’s last Sunday with us will be the 16^th June. Following our Springwood 8-30am service we will be having an early BBQ lunch with an opportunity to say thank you to Glen, Vikki, Jacob and Zoe for their ministry with us. We will also bless them as they step forward into God’s future.

If you would like to contribute financially for a gift for Glen, could you please put your donation in an envelope with “gift for Glen” on the front (and put it in the offering bag or hand it in to the office) or if you send money electronically please put “Glen gift” in the reference field. We want to bless Glen and his family greatly for the incredible gift they have been to us and to encourage them as God’s gift to the people of Chapel Hill.

As much as every change involves grief and uncertainty, God is powerfully at work and will bring new life in and through the changes we are facing.

Yours in Christ

Graham Keech

PS. I will be on holidays from the 24^th April to the 13^th May. 

Gambling Community Benefit Fund

After careful consideration of the responses from members of the congregation, prayer and reflection on Scripture, Church Council has decided to “...allow Groups/Ministries of Logan Uniting Church to submit applications to Church Council for approval to apply for grants from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund for activities that help develop a healthier, more just society that reflects God’s Kingdom.”

This is not a decision to allow groups/ministries to access the funds freely but rather allows groups/ministries to apply to Church Council for permission to apply for a grant. Church Council is also clear that these funds are not to be accessed for the running of the church but rather for those activities that directly serve the wider community.

We are aware that there are members of the congregation who hold strong views on either end of the spectrum on this decision and are grateful for the honest input that has helped shape our decision.

Wherever you stand on this particular issue we are all united in the call of God to participate in bringing His healing, wholeness and hope to the world. May God grow us in our capacity to do this.

On Sunday the 24^th February we had our first leadership community for the year. As part of the night we asked people to share the way in which they have seen God at work in their group/ministry over the last six months. There were many FASTASTIC stories – one was about the National Soccer titles and the way in which at the end of the game every player from our team prayed with a member of the other team; a faith life group that has a pre-Christian couple who has joined the group and are genuinely exploring Christ; others spoke about the way in which their faith life group offers incredible support as they seek to live out God’s mission/kingdom in their workplace.

We also reflected on how we are going at participating in God’s purpose of “Drawing people into a life transforming relationship with Jesus Christ”. It was identified that we still have more growing to do in the area of “conversion” (helping people take the step of faith and commitment to Christ). We did some initial brainstorming around this and identified some initial steps to take. We will continue to explore this not just as leaders but as a whole church in second and third term.

I believe the most important step we can take is to ensure that every time we meet (faith life group, IFFF, ministry etc) we make it a priority to pray for pre-Christian people we know, that they will discover true freedom and hope in Christ.

Yours in Christ

Graham Keech

Financial Update

In September last year I shared with you the difficult financial situation we faced – with the possibility of finishing the year $45,000 down. Praise God for His generosity reflected in His people; we finished 2012 with approximately a $9,000 deficit (the figures are still being finalised).

Whilst this is a fantastic improvement on what we were facing, it still left Church Council with very difficult decisions when working out this year’s budget. We were facing up to a $50,000 plus deficit for 2013. A big part of this will be covered by promised donations (over and above regular tithes and offerings) but we still had to make some staffing cuts to have any chance of covering our costs.

The decision has been made to reduce our Children and Families Pastor’s position to 32 hours per week. This will leave Libby with 15 hours per week in PITSTOP (this is funded by the government and includes PPP parenting program etc) and 17 hours per week for the rest of our Children and Families Ministry. This is a decision the Church Council agonised over but we could not in good conscious move into the year with such a large deficit. As it is we are still facing a deficit budget of about $8,000, so there is still more work to be done.

The consequence of this decision is that we have effectively reduced the time put into our general Children and Families ministry over the last 2 years by half (up until the end of 2010 Libby was employed for 30 hours per week with another person employed for the PITSTOP program for 15 hours per week). Libby, Glen, Tim R and I are continuing to strategise the best focus for Libby’s time as helping children and families grow as disciples of Jesus is vital for the life and health of our church (across all campuses). We will be looking to more and more people from the congregations to help lead Kid’s GIG and other children’s ministry.

Please be in prayer for this most important part of our life together. Please pray for Libby as she adjusts her time and priorities. Please pray about how you might participate in helping disciple children. Please continue to be faithful in giving to work of God through this part of Christ’s body called Logan Uniting.

Yours in Christ

Graham Keech

Surprised by Hope

Happy New Year!!! Through our “Elijah” series we are being called to a fresh surrender to God and a more radical belief in His work in us and through us. I am looking forward to the way God will lead us in experiencing this individually and together throughout 2013.

From the 17th Feb right up until Easter we will be engaging in a whole of church experience using NT Wright’s “Surprised by Hope”. I found this following extract from a website advertising the material:

“Gain an exciting new vision for your life on earth in light of your future in heaven. Wonderful as is the promise of heaven, a glorious hereafter is just part of what salvation is about. What about today? Jesus called his followers the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Your life here and now is of tremendous consequence, and what you believe about the future has a direct impact on how you live in the present.

In six transforming, faith-inspiring sessions, premier biblical scholar N. T. Wright opens your eyes to the amazing full scope of what God's Word has to say about the world to come and the world that is.

Filled with discussion questions, thoughts for reflection, and ideas for personal application, this study will help explore such questions as:

o What is heaven really like
o Is our main duty as Christians simply to help non-Christians get there?
o What hope does the gospel hold for this present life?
o In what ways does God intend for us to experience that hope personally and spread its healing power to the world around us?

Surprised by Hope will give you a clearer vision both of the future and of God's kingdom at hand today.”

This really will be an incredible, life changing journey we engage in. The way to get the best out of this series is be to be part of a weekly faith life group where you can help each other apply the transformative insights you hear and discuss. If you are not currently part of a faith life group we will help you join an existing one or become part of one of the new faith life groups we will be creating for the duration of this series.

I praise God for gifted interpreter’s of God’s word such as NT Wright who can help us walk in the fullness of God’s purposes.


Yours in Christ


Graham Keech

Live beyond yourself this Christmas

Throughout Advent (the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas) we have engaged in the “Advent Conspiracy” material through which we are invited to turn Christmas upside down this year. We are called to “worship fully”, “spend less”, “give more” and to “love all”. If we think of the gift Jesus gave it was acceptance, hope, healing, friendship, forgiveness, love, salvation. Truly the best gifts cannot be wrapped in paper but require the giving of ourselves relationally to others.

My prayer is that you and I will “live beyond ourselves” and give as Christ did by reaching out to pre-Christian friends and to the disadvantaged in our community. Some of you have already done this by participating in the TEAR campaign, and/or the Churches of Christ Foster Care Christmas Tree and/or the sausage sizzle held at the Springwood Central School. 

Some will help out with the Fishers of Men dinner on the 23^rd of December. Others will quietly go the extra mile in helping someone or including someone or inviting someone to our Christmas Eve or Christmas day service. Many will hear the prompt of the Spirit to engage in a conversation with someone (perhaps that distant cousin on Christmas day) that moves beyond the “weather” and “what gift did you get” to something deeper. 

A conversation that journeys into more personal areas such as genuinely exploring how a person is going, life purpose/hopes, or faith is one that Holy Spirit uses to help a person move closer to God.

May God help all of us to participate more fully in His purposes this Christmas and give of ourselves to others.

Happy Christmas

With love from

Graham, Merrett and Kayla