Spending some time downtown in our beautiful city last week, you can't help but notice the amount of homeless men and women who make their beds on the streets of Sydney. Many of them hold cardboard signs reading, "Homeless…Hungry, please help".

As I watched many corporate men and women, shoppers and families walk past these precious people each morning, I couldn't help but wonder how many times I had done the same. And I wondered, if I held up a cardboard sign…what would it read?

Just a few years ago at our 25th anniversary, we did just that. Congregation members who had been saved at Hillsong over our 25 years, stood up on the platform with cardboard signs. On one side wrote words that described their past; honest revelations such as: drug addict, liar, gambler. And yet on the other side were words of redemption, words that described the hope they had in their new life with Christ.

Yes, it's true - At Hillsong Church, we have begun plans towards planting a church in MELBOURNE.
 
After allowing this possibility to stir in my heart for several months and after some vigorous vision planning and discussions with key members of our team, we have decided that the time is right for us to make some serious plans to plant Hillsong Melbourne. We are VERY excited about the possibility of building from the ground up; I really believe that Hillsong Melbourne will be a thriving representation of our church right in the heart of this growing city.

Why Melbourne? Obviously it is a great city; reputed to soon become Australia's largest. There are so many areas of Australian life and culture that are synonymous with Melbourne and like any large and cosmopolitan city, there are so many people to reach and so much potential to be realised. I believe it is the right time for us to do our part to see God's great Church flourish in this world-class metropolis.

I see it as a great blessing in my life to have a rich Christian heritage, and amongst my greatest memories of growing up are at summer camps and youth camps. At church camps there were rules, there were dorms, there were bunks and sometimes even tents. They were rough, they were raw, but NOTHING defined my destiny more than those summer camps.

I will never forget the time that the guest speaker called me out of the crowd as a 17-year-old and spoke things over my life which I simply didn't have the confidence to believe, (and yet which have been proven time and again to be true.) The ministry time, the ‘old school’ sing-songs around the bonfire, the crazy antics and the intense God-encounters in which His presence was so real to me. I have no doubt whatsoever that the life-transforming atmospheres of those camps have set my course for life.

It’s 4am, January 2nd. The second new morning in another brand new year. And I find myself awake and praying for my children. Nothing intense, just mindful of them as I often am lately.

I used to sleep soundly from the moment my head hit the pillow till it was time to arise, but these days I often find myself awake in the early hours of what is the new day. The words in my spirit this morning ... "GRACE NEVER GOES OUT OF FASHION".

GRACE... it was PREPARED for us before the foundations of the world, it watches over us HERE AND NOW (ever ready to be drawn upon) and it WAITS FOR US IN OUR FUTURE.

Where is the peace on earth?

I think if we're being honest, many of us may have asked ourselves this question last year as we watched our country ravaged by floodwaters just after a season that proclaimed 'The Prince of Peace has come!'

The unforeseen events of last Christmas left so many Australians with little to celebrate as they began a year filled with loss and the prospect of little hope. Such tragedies are often a potent reminder of the reality of God in our lives...our need for a Saviour, for hope and for peace here on earth.

But it is my experience (and in fact recorded in history over and over again) that it is for those very times; times when chaos reigns and fear is prevalent, that God himself shows up.

Hey friends,

I'm sitting at breakfast reading my bible and the pure simplicity of truth in these passages is breathtaking. There is no condemnation, only truth and rescue. Jesus came solely to show us the way home. I read a book recently about a little boy who had a visitation to heaven. He recounted that when it came to Jesus' death on the Cross, this is what Jesus told him ... "I died so people could see my Father".

It is what it is friends, and my prayer is that those "yet" to discover this, will simply open their heart and let truth redeem. Brian has named this November in our church "SOULvember". Our prayer is that many will find salvation because of heightened prayer and focus. These verses make sharing the truth "beautifully simple".

Walked past this building recently. It's the Auckland Town Hall and it's where I got SAVED almost forty years ago!!

I still remember walking in and sensing an "atmosphere" I had never experienced before. I still remember feeling amazed by the people around me, the songs, and the singing. I still remember the message spoken, and that although I didn't really understand all that was being said, it still resonated within ... and I still remember a simple "appeal" being made towards the end ... An appeal to know God!

"HOW DO YOU STAY SANE ON THE JOURNEY?"

Ha! This is a great question, cos some might seriously argue that we aren't sane! In fact, I have been heard to say (on occasion) to either myself or anyone within hearing distance - "we must be INSANE” in trying to pull off what we sometimes pull off. 

I realized a long time ago that "my life, the man I married, our church and ministry, the pace of life we live at, and the responsibility we carry" is not normal ... and that it is going to require A DIFFERENT KIND OF SANITY to fulfill what we need to fulfill.

This is possibly the third and last blog (for now) on the question of "balance". I asked a bunch of girls in our Hillsong world for ONE TIP. These women are all in ministry and as you can see are responding from a broad spectrum of life, journey and experience. I asked them to share their age, age of their children and their "current" role in ministry. They didn't have space for too much detail, but most of these girls juggle many roles and some have faced enormous challenges with grace and wisdom. I stand in awe of them all. I listed them in order of how I received them ... and there's still a handful that we can save for another day. Love always, Bobbie

It's the little things in life that say a lot ... like when you are in a hotel setting and jet-lag gets the better of you ...so you sneak down to breakfast real early ...and then bring back a cappuccino for your slumbering wife, especially when you are NOT the kind of person to be voted "least clumsy" in a cup & saucer carrying competition.

I love my husband for a lot of reasons. He stole my heart more than 37 years ago on a sand dune back in Kiwi-land-NZ. He has an inquisitive side that makes him "have" to follow a siren or crane to see what a commotion is about. It also makes him a profound leader who observes life and people like no one I know.