Posts by Kirk Mackenzie

Kid’s Night || 5:30pm || 23rd August

G’day Parents! We’re excited to announce our first kids night is coming this Sunday. It’s a short and simple event that we will hope will provide a fun and valuable space for our kids and their families to interact during this time of, well, not much interaction! Here’s a quick summary video I made outlining what we’re planning: We’ve tried to keep it short and sweet so it’s easy for kids of all ages to get involved. Please do feel…

Baptism and Confirmation Info this Sunday (Nov 3)

Hi everyone. On Nov 24, Sunday@6 will be having a special Baptism and Confirmation Service. Should be great!   THIS Sunday (Nov 3) we are having an info/prepartion meeting in Kirk’s office at 4pm. If you’d like to get baptised or confirmed, or you’d like to know more with the possibility of getting baptised and confirmed, please come along. We will finish around 5:30.   Sometimes kids need a bit of a prompting encouragement from a trusted adult in their…

Apps that help you parent

G’day Parents, There are a variety of applications that allow you to monitor and control the technology use of your kids. I haven’t used any particular app enough to recommend a “best app” but I have had Our Pact reliably recommended to me. You can learn more about it by clicking here. Hope it’s helpful in navigating the increasingly complex online part of life. Kirk

4 Mistakes Parents Make With Technology

G’day parents, Today I’m linking you to some really helpful holiday reading. It’s an article by Jeff Henderson. You can read it by clicking here. In the article he outlines four mistakes parents make with technology (as it relates to their families). The 4 mistakes are: 1. ALLOWING KIDS TO TAKE PHONES INTO THEIR ROOMS 2. NOT KEEPING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY 3. PARENTS DON’T MODEL THE WAY 4. FORGETTING THAT YOU ARE THE PARENT As a parent myself, it was…

Who is the Good Friday Experience for?

G’day Parents, This year, we are trying something new on Good Friday; an evening event we’re calling the Good Friday Experience. We’ve given a mature content warning for this event so I thought I’d write and explain what to expect so that you can choose which of your kids might attend. Our aim is to tell the story of Good Friday in a creative way. This will include video, music, drama and design. If you’re familiar with the story, you’ll…

You can help bless our Youth Leaders

Dear Parents, This year our Youth Unite team have planned an extra event just for youth leaders. Leaders volunteer so much of their time and energy to serve our young people and their families, that we wanted to do something special to thank them. We also want to help churches better equip their leaders for ministry and to provide opportunities for them to interact with leaders from other churches. So, on April 5th we will be holding a Leadership Dinner…

Extended Q&A – February 24

  G’day parents, This Sunday (24th Feb) we have extended QandA after the Sunday@6 service. Stick around for some interesting discussion. Future dates for QandA, 5pm Dinner and Extended Worship here: https://stjohnsdc.org.au/card/sunday6-dinner/ Extended Q&A and Worship both start about ten minutes after the end of the Sunday@6 service (approximately 7:20pm) and go to about 8pm. Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash

Camp Crave Second Early Bird

G’day Parents, We’ve opened a second early bird window for Camp Crave! It’s not quite as good a deal as the first window but it’s still cheaper than the normal rate. Closes Monday Feb 11. Click here to see what Camps all about and book yourself a spot. Don’t forget to sign up for a Life Group if you haven’t already. Youth Ministry Team.

Youth Life Group Rego Link

G’day Parents, This blog gets emailed to those who sign up (see below). I’m aware that an embedded form we sent round yesterday might not have worked with every email application so here is a link if that was the case 🙂 https://stjohnsdc.elvanto.com.au/form/71581da6-c805-4c07-827d-6607bca83bf1 Sorry for the inconvenience. Youth Ministry Team [mc4wp_form id=”5448″]  

Where do we get our images?

We like to put a nice image with each of our posts to help grab your attention. There are many great images out there where the artists allow you to use the image for free. This post is a tribute to those who help make our website look great. As an example, our bonfire image last year was from a photographer called Marco Verch. He’s taken some spectacular shots of a huge variety of things. You can check out his…

Are you in our Parent Facebook group?

G’day Parents, If you have a Facebook account, I recommend joining a group that is attached to our church Facebook page called ‘St John’s Parents’. Some of what we post here is re-posted there but the main reason to join that group is the possibility of discussion and parents sharing tips and resources with each other. Last year there were several posts from other parents that we directly applied in our family to great effect. Check it out. Also, You…

Camp Crave 2019

G’day Parents, You may be wondering about Camp Crave next year. Me too! Well, good news, you can register for our 2019 camp right now! Just click here and you’ll see everything you need to know and sign up. We’ll post more about the camp in the coming weeks but if you’re already committed to coming, you might was well sign up now and take advantage of our early bird rates! Kirk

Community Carols this Sunday

G’day Parents, This weekend (Dec 16) Sunday@6 will not be at the St John’s buildling. Instead we’ll be at the Community Carols down at Coventry Oval. You can read about it at our info hub or check out the Facebook event. See you there for a sausage and some singing. Finishes with fireworks! We’ll have one more Sunday@6 service on Dec 23. There will be no evening service on Dec 30. Kirk

Grade 6s welcome at Youth Unite

G’day Parents, Just a quick note to say we’d love to have grade 6s with us at Youth Unite this Friday (as well as year 7-12s). It’s a great chance for them to get a taste of youth ministry and they’re generally excellent events. Click here for more info and RSVP. Kirk

Meet Andi

G’day Parents, Our senior minister, Tim Johnson, is about to go on long service leave. I will be acting senior minister while he is away. This if course creates a little bit more work for me so for term 3, I have someone helping me out with youth stuff. Her name is Andi Fidock. She is a current Youth Life Group Leader and former Sunday@6 Core Team member and an excellent addition to our staff team (albeit for only 12…

Still looking for some help on June 29

G’day Parents, Recently I wrote asking if you might be able to help bless some local youth leaders on the night of June 29. If you missed it, or want to help but haven’t let us know, please click here to get the details and fill in the online form. Any help you can offer will help make it a great night for our hard working volunteers. Text messages went out today to those who have registered for this Friday’s…

RSVP needed for Youth Event

G’day Parents Multiplayer Video Game sessions are good times. Movie nights are great. Why not put them together and maximise the fun? Good thought. Read on… This event will run from 6-10pm on Friday the 22nd of June. We’ll confirm the location closer to the date when we have a good idea of numbers. It will be in Diamond Creek or very close to Diamond Creek. We’ll contact you with details once the location is locked in. $10 2 hours…

Sunday@6 timing changes

G’day Parents, We’ve made a few structural changes to our Sunday@6 services that I wanted to let you know about. Previously we aimed to finish at 7:30pm. Starting now and going till at least the end of term 3 (when we’ll review) we’re aiming to finish our services between 7pm and 7:10. Here’s a few quick reasons we’re trying this out: Slightly shorter services may be a bit more accessible for visitors who have limited church experience. Earlier finish makes…

Can you help bless a youth leader?

G’day Parents, This year our Youth Unite team have planned an extra event just for youth leaders. Leaders volunteer so much of their time and energy to serve our young people and their families, that we wanted to do something special to thank them. We also want to help churches better equip their leaders for ministry and to provide opportunities for them to interact with leaders from other churches. So, on June 29 we will be holding a Leadership Dinner…

Four Free Things This Sunday – May 20

G’day parents, So much free stuff this Sunday arvo/evening! Here’s what’s on offer. 3:30 Free maths tutoring! 5pm Free dinner (well, sort of, donations help us cover costs) 6pm Free Church service (as usual) 7:45pm Free screening of Star Wars: Rogue One Point four is not a regular free thing. The next Star Wars movie is out in just over a week so we’re showing the previous “Star Wars Story” in preparation. It’s mainly a chance just to hang out…

Youth Unite this Friday (May 11)

G’day Parents, I’ve written about Youth Unite already on this blog so this is really just a reminder. We’ve got a number of youth ready to help us out before, during and after the event which is great but there is always room for more. If you can help out in some capacity, please indicate that with the RSVP form below. Kirk  

A big Sunday is coming – May 6

G’day Parents, This coming Sunday (May 6) is chockas with good stuff. Here’s a quick run down: The 9:30 and Sunday@6 services are both Come and See themed. This means they’re excellent for inviting friends to as we’ll focus both services on being friendly to non-church people, especially in our teaching. There is Free Maths Tutoring at 3:30pm in Meeting Room 2. Please do take advantage of this generous offer. It goes till 5pm which is the start time for……

What’s on for Youth in Term 2?

With so many churches struggling to engage young people and with increasing pressure on young people to reject Christianity completely, it’s encouraging to be a part of our church where young people are both present and growing in their relationship with Jesus. As the Youth Minister at our church, I love seeing our young people step up to serve, share their faith with their friends and seek to apply God’s word to every part of their lives. It was a…

Youth Unite – May 11

G’day Parents, Three times a year we meet up with other youth groups in the Northern Suburbs for an all-in event called Youth Unite. They are a great  example of people from all different backgrounds getting together because of Jesus. Here’s the details. Date: Friday 11th May Start time: 7pm drop off at St. John’s (we’re hosting) End time: 9:30pm pick up Food: Supper provided Cost: $5 Grade 6s welcome. It should be a great night, we hope as many St.…