Have you been baptised?

At the end of the Gospel of Matthew is one of the most well-known passages of text in the bible.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 18-20)

Later on in Acts, Philip comes across an Ethiopian and tells him the good news about Jesus. The Ethiopian responds immediately and says “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptised?” Both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him. [more]

Have you been baptised?

At the end of the Gospel of Matthew is one of the most well-known passages of text in the bible.


Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 18-20)


Later on in Acts, Philip comes across an Ethiopian and tells him the good news about Jesus. The Ethiopian responds immediately and says “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptised?” Both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him.


The pattern is simple, but profound. Once you believe. Be baptised. The Ethiopian understood the concept and acted.


I want to encourage you that if you are a follower of Jesus and haven’t yet been baptised, go to the Foyer after the service and sign up to be baptised. Don’t wait. Don’t put it off. Now is the time. We will be having baptisms on Easter Sunday which we would love for you to be a part of, but if you can’t make that we’ll organise your baptism for another time.


I am really looking forward to celebrating your baptism with you.

Why Christians are like Labradors

The last chapter of Matthew recounts Jesus’ resurrection and concludes with the Great Commission – Jesus’ call for His followers to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”


The Great Commission retains every bit of its power and clarity for us today. As His disciples, we are to live in loving obedience to Him, calling others to commit to Jesus by going, baptising and teaching them the good news. Because our obedience to God is an act of love, fulfilling His command unlocks our deepest joy. [more]

Why Christians are like Labradors

The last chapter of Matthew recounts Jesus’ resurrection and concludes with the Great Commission – Jesus’ call for His followers to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

The Great Commission retains every bit of its power and clarity for us today. As His disciples, we are to live in loving obedience to Him, calling others to commit to Jesus by going, baptising and teaching them the good news. Because our obedience to God is an act of love, fulfilling His command unlocks our deepest joy. You could say that God’s love language is obedience: we delight in Him and experience the greatest intimacy with Him when we recklessly surrender our lives to His will. This joyous abandonment to God’s will was beautifully illustrated by an atheist in the extended Crossway family, who complained that telling a Christian to stop evangelising is like telling a Labrador to stop wagging its tail!

Introducing the Crossway App

This week we are really excited to announce the launch of our brand new Crossway App.

These days we travel and jump from one environment to the next faster than ever, and technology surges on like a digital king tide.

The best innovations open up new opportunities for the spread of the gospel, and we’re excited to see that in the last year alone, we’ve had an increase of over 100% in the number of people watching Crossway sermons online. Another trend we’ve noticed is a huge increase in the number of people trying to access our sermons from tablets and mobile phones. But until now, we haven’t been set up to serve Crossway content to mobile devices.

As from today, you can download the shiny new Crossway App directly from your iPhone, iPad or Android device.

The App lets you watch and listen to Crossway sermons, read regular blogposts, hear about what God’s doing at Crossway and keep up to date with the church calendar.

You can download the App now for your iPad, iPhone or Android phone here.

LifeCare update

Our vision is to see people in tough places flourish

Since the start of the year, it’s been a very busy and exciting time for LifeCare. We’ve been formulating plans to reach the Whitehorse and Monash communities throughout 2012 and beyond. 

Welcome to My Place – a Good News Story

Following the Welcome to My Place training, a number of people have been reaching out to asylum seekers and refugees.

For example, along with their LifeGroup, Dave, Katharine and Liz organised an event in the Springvale/Noble Park community, which led to 40 women turning up to a barbecue on Australia Day. Their aim was to offer unconditional hospitality through friendship and a meal. The unconditional nature of the Welcome to My Place initiative is important – it is faith-based and not faith-biased. Liz got talking to one woman who explained that she had had a dream about a man telling her to read the Bible. She was from Asia and had come to Australia as a refugee. Subsequently they have spent some time together and Liz has given her a copy of the Bible. To me, this is very exciting and is a great example of a Crossway LifeGroup and Crossway LifeCare working together to reach a very vulnerable community with the love of God. Please pray for Dave, Katharine and Liz as they continue to reach out to people in tough places.

For more information on Welcome to My Place and similar compassion projects, please contact Debbie Uy.

New Programme - B–Empowered

We are currently piloting a new programme called B-Empowered. This aims to empower people to gain control of their finances and break cycles of poverty, addiction and dependency. Stay tuned for more information and in the meantime, please contact Christina Lim for any enquiries or referrals.

New Building Name

Please note that we have changed the name of the Counselling Centre to the LifeCare Centre. 

Engaging with Orange: reaching our young people

No parent or church leader wants to see a young person walk away from the church, but it happens far too often.

We know that both home and church have significant influence in the life of a young person, however, on average, young people spend just forty hours per year at church compared to 3000 hours at home. What if we, as church leaders and parents, got together and embraced a strategy to maximise our combined influence? What if we synchronised our efforts to incite wonder, provoke discovery and fuel passion in the next generation?

Together we can achieve what neither of us can do alone. “Engaging with Orange” is a Crossway conference focused on leveraging our combined strengths and forging connections between church and home.

This important event will give voice to key influencers and strategic thinkers, getting church leaders and parents around the same table in order combine our influence to help our young people see God for who he is and see themselves the way God sees them – so they can love others the way God does.

Lead pastor of Connexus Community Church in Toronto and co-author of Parenting Beyond Your Capacity, our keynote speaker will be Carey Neiuwhof, who will share his experience as a pastor and parent alongside Crossway Pastors Margaret Spicer, Mike Stevens and Leanne Hill.

The Engaging with Orange conference will take place across two days on 1-2 June 2012. Church leaders and volunteers working with children, youth and young adult ministries are strongly urged to attend the Friday session, whilst the Saturday session will be geared towards equipping and engaging parents and volunteers. Click here to find out more and register now for Engaging with Orange.