It is a pleasure to be the "new boy on the block" at the Living Faith Church. I am finding that it a great place to belong, very welcoming, a community that is keen to effectively engage in our local neighbourhood. I have the privilege of working with a great team of people as we explore together what it means to be a follower of Jesus today. At LFC we value community, relationship and serving God. We also believe that the message of Jesus is one that is filled with genuine hope and that God’s mercy and compassion are available to people at all times.
We are pleased to advise that LFC will be conducting worship both in the church, as well as live streaming the service online, at 10:00am every Sunday. However, in order to maintain COVID safety, a number of rules will need to be followed.
The number of people who will be able to attend worship in the church building will be restricted.
We will have a booking system, so if you wish to attend, you will need to email Bruce Hill.Your booking needs to be made by 5:00pm on the day prior to the service for every service that you wish to attend. Bookings cannot be made for more than one service at a time.
If you are unwell you must not attend.
We will have hand sanitiser available at the entry door. Please use the back entrance to the church, at the top of the hill, accessed via the gate from the carpark.
All visitors should scan the QR code displayed at the church by opening up their smartphone’s camera or QR reader app and focusing on the code. Your phone will display a link. Following the link will take you to a page explaining what to do next, which will include entering name and telephone number. You are encouraged to download the Service Victoria QR app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store prior to attending. An LFC member will be at the door to help those who may be unfamiliar with QR code technology. For those of you who don’t have phones with QR scanning capability, the LFC member at the door will use their phone to scan the QR code for you.
You will need to either bring your own communion elements to the church with you, or instead pray silently during the communion time.
Other than your communion elements, no other food or drink are allowed to be consumed on the premises until further notice.
You are requested to ensure social distancing is maintained at all times, before, during and after the service.
Masks must be worn at all times, except whilst partaking of communion. Soft congregational singing is allowed while masked.
When leaving the church, you may drop your offering into the bowl provided, but please do not touch the bowl.
People are encouraged to catch up in small groups after the service at various locations in the vicinity of the church.
It is important that these procedures be followed to ensure a COVID-safe environment for all.
Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at worship!
We will be live-streaming church starting next Sunday 28 March.
Sunday services will be streamed live on the Living Faith Church YouTube channel. Please feel free to subscribe, or bookmark the link. We will be sending out notifications detailing the service, including the starting time, closer to the 28th. If you haven't already, please download the Church Central app from the App Store, and add Living Faith Church to receive notifications directly,
In the meantime, radio station 89.9 TheLight, is going to be offering two special live radio programs this Sunday and every Sunday during this time the pandemic:
- Experience Church with live interactions
- In Conversation with Clayton with live interactions
Experience Church 6-10am and then extended live from 10am exclusively on 89.9 TheLight.
The first speaker this week is Tim Douglass, State Pastor of Hillsong Church for Victoria and Tasmania. He will be with you from 10am. At the end of his talk, you can phone in to our hotline and ask Tim any questions. Our very own Mj will be hosting the experience.
Sunday nights will now be ‘In CommunityConversation with Clayton’.
Each week Clayton will be taking your calls live with experts in the field of infectious disease, mental health, theology and much more. In Community Conversation with Clayton 7pm Sunday nights on your 89.9 TheLight.
Dear Church Family,
In the midst of the health crisis confronting us we remember who we are; people committed to love others as Christ has loved us. It is in this spirit of love that the Church Council has decided to close our worship services until further notice.
Options to run smaller services (less than 100) were considered and dismissed at this stage because our over-riding concern is to keep all vulnerable people safe as we follow the Government strategy to reduce face to face contact and prevent the virus spreading.
With the same concern for everyone’s safety, most of our programs have closed for the foreseeable future including Friendship Centre, Playgroups, Men’s Café Group and others. Life Groups may continue to meet but with Government endorsed protocols in place; no sharing of food and drink and ensuring members stay 1.5m apart. Each group will make up its own mind about meeting.
It is important that we stay connected in the months ahead both with each other and with God. Nurturing our faith will help us to be loving and faithful in the face of the anxiety that is causing social harm. We seek to be among those who bring blessing to others and look out for those in need.
Therefore, we will provide a regular ‘breath of fresh air’ through:
- Emails, including through Getting Connected
- the website https://www.livingfaithchurch.org.au/ and
- the app (download Church Central for iPhone or iPad from the Apple app store only). Install the app and then search for Living Faith Church
- phone calls to those who with limited ability to socially connect by the Pastoral Care team
We will introduce daily prayers and readings to the website and app. I would also like to collect prayers and stories of kindness from you to share in these daily spots. I have already heard many encouraging stories. Email them in to me at graeme.harrison@livingfaithchurch.org.au
We will find interesting links on the internet to help you grow your faith.
We hope to have the ability to live-stream worship and will let you know how to access that. In the meantime, audio recording will be available on our website and app.
Remember that the prayer chain is always available. No-one need bear their burdens alone.
Feel free to call me on 0422 490323.
Finally, I invite you to commit with me to be people who will not merely survive this time but will seek to be Christlike.
The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us and the whole community,
Graeme Harrison
For 18 years, Living Faith Church has supported Don and Meg MacRaild develop the Vanuatu Prevention of Blindness Program (VPBP). Vanuatu is the poorest nation in the pacific, and the people just don't have access to the level of medical care and diagnosis that we do in Australia. VPBP helps in identifying and treating preventable and treatable blindness, and has been doing so since it's inception. Through our support of this project, among other trips and connections, our relationship with the Church in Vanuatu has grown deeper and deeper.
This year, we learned that the aid money that provided the wages for the eight trained workers employed by VPBP was cut completely by the Australian Government. Aussie Aid is now at its lowest since World War 2!
Because of this, a number of Australian churches, including ours, have been invited to provide a month’s income for all eight specialists. This is only $5,000 Australian dollars! LFC Church Council was delighted to provide one months’s support on behalf of it’s members. It is hoped that new glasses making machinery will make this health service self-sufficient within 6-8 months.
To date, another church has provided another month. We will keep you informed about developments.
You can find out more about the Vanuatu Prevention of Blindness Program here!
Here at Living Faith Church, we are keen to find ways to help our children and our families experience what it looks like to follow Jesus. While it is important to learn about Jesus, we recognise that his own disciples developed their faith not only by listening to Jesus and his Godly wisdom, but by watching and copying the things He did.
Right now, we're looking at Here 2 Stay, and using their framework and resources to inform our process. Here 2 Stay is aware of how the world has changed, and continues to change, and looks to provide us with ways to keep engaging with young people and young families. Our hope is that we can use these ideas and resources to make our Church a place where young families and young people can find support, mentorship, community, and above all, God.
Just like the disciples, we are all a work in progress. We discover new ways in which to walk in Jesus' footsteps as we go along. There are a number of important aspects to this – learning to love and know God, learning to love and know one another, learning to serve the world in his name. We do this through active participation and worship. We do this through spending time together as families. We do this through finding ways to love our neighbours, our community, and the world.