Hi Craig,

we do have a piano, which I use sometimes, my husband David even plays the guitar sometimes with me, so we’re not completely locked to the pipe organ, but we move slowly on it as some of our members are very fond of the organ.  We’re a fairly elderly congregation, but we’re not all old - the other week I noticed that a quarter of the congregation were under 18, though the majority of the adults would be over 60.

But the critical issue for me at the moment is finding appropriate music to sing - if I can find something good enough people will sing it with any accompaniment I come up with, so long as we have the organ a reasonable percentage of the time.  I don’t want to be replacing second-rate 19th century hymns with second-rate contemporary songs - anything “new” needs to be the very best available.

Thanks for the welcome,

Caroline

Hi Caroline,

I hope you will continue with your work to move your church’s music free of “cultural baggage”.....8-)
especially for the sake of your younger attenders.

One modern hymn/song you could try is:
“In Christ Alone” by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend.

It is a modern classic.

The lyrics are available here and there is also a vocal performance of it on that page.

The Christian rock band Newsboys does a version of the song and there are other performances on Youtube.

Grace & peace,
Terry
(Another “non-conformist")

Thanks Terry,

Caroline

Hello to all brothers and sisters!!

I guess being new to the forums here, I should introduce myself :) .

As you can probably guess, my name is Kenny.  I live in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, in Donvale, and my home church is Evangelical Community Church in Blackburn South, although I do visit Holy Trinity Anglican Doncaster quite often in the mornings. 

I’m in my late 20s ie I’m 27, and have committed to following Jesus as my Lord, or became a Christian at the age of about nine years old.  I was born in England, and came to Australia in 1987, where I grew up.  I have lived in Sydney before, living there for eight years before moving down to Melbourne in November 1995.

I’m just working a couple of casual jobs at the moment, looking for another in-between job.  I also finished a B.Engineering (Mechanical) at RMIT University in February 2006.

Ministry wise, I’m serving as a leader of a small group, and am taking up Religious Education in a primary school.

In terms of plans for the future, I hope to one day be in full-time ministry of the word, and my church pastor is working with me to develop a “ministry portfolio”, if you can call it that, so that it would make it easier for him to recommend me to the other pastors for church support for Bible College; I’m aiming to study at Ridley College hopefully at the start of 2009.  I’m not exactly sure specifically what I’ll be doing after college except that I expect it will involve preaching and teaching God’s Word, which I have a strong passion for, motivated by seeing peoples’ lives changed by it, and God’s kingdom being extended as more people place their trust in Jesus’ death for forgiveness of sins.

What else should I say?  Ah yeah, I have two younger brothers, and my mum; Dad has gone home to be with the Lord in May 2002.

I hope that this is a sufficient introduction, and I look forward to making many comments, hopefully helpful and encouraging, on this forum.

Your fellow brother in Christ, Kenny :) .

Welcome Kenny!

Say hello to my friends at Holy Trinity Doncaster when you drop in! We were there from 1996-1999.

Kenny Hon Meng Ngai - 19 September 2007 10:17 AM

I hope that this is a sufficient introduction, and I look forward to making many comments, hopefully helpful and encouraging, on this forum.

Mission accomplished. You’ve already encouraged me to try and post less unhelpful and discouraging comments.

Thank you :-)

Geoff

Gordon Cheng - 19 September 2007 01:44 PM

Welcome Kenny!

Say hello to my friends at Holy Trinity Doncaster when you drop in! We were there from 1996-1999.

Hello Gordan!!  That’s pretty cool.  Paul Barker is still serving faithfully over there and is still delivering excellent sermons.  He really uses his gifts well to serve the body of Christ, and is such a great encouragement.  I will try to mention you to him next time I go there :) .

You may not remember me, but I was at NTE 2000 and during that year, I did my mission somewhere up in Pymble, Sydney; I was with the RMIT Christian Union.  I can’t remember the name of the Anglican parish up there, St Swithen’s or something like that?

Kenny :) .

Geoff, I’m glad that I can be of help in some way.  I may at some stage say something out of place unintentionally.  I hope and pray that we can encourage each other to make edifying comments.

Thanks :-) !!

Kenny.

Hi Kenny,

Kenny Hon Meng Ngai - 19 September 2007 10:17 AM

Ministry wise, I’m serving as a leader of a small group, and am taking up Religious Education in a primary school.

Got much teaching experience?  Even if you have, be ready for the ride of your life...especially if you have kids with special education needs.....hehehe.....

(Speaking as a primary teacher, now Years K-2 Music, earlier Years 3-6 everything - mainly mathematics & literacy - once Years 7-10 Religious Studies, hehehe.....)

Kenny Hon Meng Ngai - 20 September 2007 11:28 AM

You may not remember me, but I was at NTE 2000 and during that year, I did my mission somewhere up in Pymble, Sydney; I was with the RMIT Christian Union.  I can’t remember the name of the Anglican parish up there, St Swithen’s or something like that?

St Swithun’s in Pymble.  I was with the Sydney University EU at Wahroonga that year, just down the road.

Ah, NTE...and the memories…

TZ.

Hello Tia!!

No, I don’t actually have much teaching experience with primary school kids, perhaps none to be honest.  So it will definitely be a challenge for me to teach R.E to them, and like you said, have to be ready for the ride of my life.  I believe it will be interesting, and that it would certainly be different to teaching senior high school students (did that while I was a youth leader) and university students (doing that now as a small group Bible study leader).

Yeah, NTE for me are good memories!!  So you were just down the road in Wahroonga?  Cool!!

Anyway, nice to hear from you Tia.  Sorry I took a while to reply. 

Kenny :) .

Greetings to our newest members, if you haven’t introduced yourselves here then please do so here at your convenience!

I suppose I should summarise where I’ve been & where I’m up to.  As a teacher, I think I’ll put it in terms of “educational history”.  (This because I’ve referred to my experiences a lot this year...)

Infant dedication at Milson’s Point church, 1977
(commenced Sunday School from about that time)

Went part-time to Aberfeldy Prep. School Wahroonga (small Christian independent school at the time), 1980-1983

Kindy to Y6 Wahroonga Public School, 1983-1989

Started Y7 at what is commonly known as the top girls’ selective high school in NSW (and was an underachieving black sheep right through), 1990

Made proper confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ & was baptised at Milson’s Point church, 1990

Was suspended from school for 3 days after punching Y7 student in face during a heated discussion (just so you know I’m as humanly sinful as the next person.....hehe.....told you I was a black sheep in high school!), 1993

Started studying Music composition at the University of Sydney, 1996

Joined Asian Christian group ACES in its formation years at Sydney University, 1997

Became active in the Evangelical Union (SUEU) 2 years after ACES merged with it, 2000

After finishing Music degree, changed from teaching degree at Macquarie back to Sydney, 2001

Sunday School teacher at Sydney Anglican church, 2003-2007 (ongoing)
Public school teacher, Y5/Y6 O.C. (GAT) class in southwest Sydney, majority of class students from Vietnamese backgrounds, 2003

Independent school teacher at Christian school in western Sydney, 2004

Public school teacher, Y6 O.C (GAT) class on Sydney’s northern beaches,
and THEN independent school Religious Studies teacher at Anglican school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs for Y7, Y9 & Y10, 2005

Public school teacher, Y3 and Y6 classes in western Sydney, significant minority of students from Muslim backgrounds, 2006-7

Independent school Music teacher at Jewish school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs for Y2 & younger students (where I am at the moment, and have been recently told by my principal and deputies that my work is much appreciated, so am very thankful!).

As you can see I’m growing in my understanding of teaching kids from different cultural and religious backgrounds in both state & independent schools!

And hopefully growing in more spiritually important ways too…

TZ.

Greetings to my fellow monotheists!

My name is Sean McNulty, a 30 something yo revert to Islam.  Husband and Father of six beautiful children, thanks to God.  Originally from Great Britain of Irish Catholic stock.  Despite being in the midst of a sizeable Pakistani community, grew up entirely ignorant of Islam.  Spent an embarrassing number of years convinced Muslims worshipped someone called Allan due to an unfortunate typo in an annual of Ripley’s Did You Know?  :D

Ah but I’ll save my embarassing stories for another time.

Am now firmly ensconced in Sydney and can’t think of a better place for me or my family to be right now in our lives.  It’s a blessed country for sure, and blimey, can think of far far worse places to be stranded…

Like I said elsewhere, it’s good to see some Christians who are as passionate about their religion as people in my own community.  I look forward to exploring your forum here, God willing.

Hi Sean,

As 100 kindergarten aged Jewish kids have put it (at my place of employment in the past week):

”Shalom alechem, we welcome you.”

TZ.

Hi all
I am Eddie a 50s something year old. Catholic background ( iould recite the catechism from front to back by 10yo) I came into relationship with Jesus on my 21st birthday (some present huh?). Baptised as a believer ( I was impressed to see Tia I think also shared this experience)
My life changed in many ways. Served for three months with a Christian aid agency as a volunteer in a Cambodian refugee camp in 1980, moved from Sydney in 1984 and travelled around NSW in my job with Corrective Services where I worked amongst indigenous communities for over fifteen years.
Currently attend St Peter’s Campbelltown (my first experience as an Anglican) where the preaching is great.
Married, four kids just about grown up and only one at home. Assist with the Introducing God course at church and trying to get guys going as a group.

G’day Eddie,
May I be the first to welcome you. You seem to have riches in experience and hope you enjoy your stay.