Southside Community Church - Milton

January 7, 2018 Speaker: Ian Campbell Proverbs 29.18 (msg) As we enter 2018 we do so with great excitement looking forward to a move to Main Street. In a different setting with different surroundings, different facilities and many different opportunities some of us will feel tremendously empowered and some will feel quite daunted! For all of us there needs to be a grounding in our understanding of who we are as a church and a movement. So we will spend the last teaching series here on Derry to be reminded of our calling as a church as we review and embed our vision, mission and discipleship values. This Sunday we will take counsel from the book of Proverbs where we are guided by the principle of vision directed activity. This will be important as we select ministry approaches in the near future through the lens of our vision. And it should warm our spiritual hearts to long towards the opportunity to join God in HIs great mission.

January 21, 2018 Speaker: Ian Campbell Mark 1:15-17 As we enter 2018 we do so with great excitement looking forward to a move to Main Street. In a different setting with different surroundings, different facilities and many different opportunities some of us will feel tremendously empowered and some will feel quite daunted! For all of us there needs to be a grounding in our understanding of who we are as a church and a movement. So we will spend the last teaching series here on Derry to be reminded of our calling as a church as we review and embed our vision, mission and discipleship values. This Sunday we will explore the meaning of the semi-circle - the vine and branches lesson apart from which Jesus says we can do nothing! It seems quite obvious then, that we must understand this dynamic in our lives or we'll be bound to "do nothing" effectively as his followers.

January 14 2018 Speaker : Ian Campbell Mark 1:15-17 As we enter 2018 we do so with great excitement looking forward to a move to Main Street. In a different setting with different surroundings, different facilities and many different opportunities some of us will feel tremendously empowered and some will feel quite daunted! For all of us there needs to be a grounding in our understanding of who we are as a church and a movement. So we will spend the last teaching series here on Derry to be reminded of our calling as a church as we review and embed our vision, mission and discipleship values. This Sunday we will camp on the Kingdom Call of Jesus as we recall Mark's account of fishermen leaving their chronos nets to go "person" fishing. What is my version of the circle, kairos opportunities and seasons?

January 28, 2018 Speaker: Ian Campbell As we enter 2018 we do so with great excitement looking forward to a move to Main Street. In a different setting with different surroundings, different facilities and many different opportunities some of us will feel tremendously empowered and some will feel quite daunted! For all of us there needs to be a grounding in our understanding of who we are as a church and a movement. So we will spend the last teaching series here on Derry to be reminded of our calling as a church as we review and embed our vision, mission and discipleship values. This Sunday we will consider the triangle which represents "deeper relationships" At any given point in our Christian journey we may explore how we are balanced in three areas of priority. The "up" is our relationship with God; the "in" our relationships with one another in our networks of family and friends and the "out" our relationships with our "neighbours" - those we don't yet know as friends.

August 18, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalms 107 & 145 Are we ever beyond hope? Does anyone ever reach the limit and is found to be a write-off? If so it is a self imposed state and never can be ascribed to God. He is always ready to rescue.

August 11, 2019 Speaker: Mike Burns The wrath of God is not a popular subject these days. Though prominent in both the Old and New Testament, even Christians seem to want to play this subject down a little. Perhaps we find it difficult to reconcile God’s anger when we consider His message of love. Can the two be one in the same? Can a loving God also be angry? And how do we apply this to both ourselves and others?

August 4, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 5:22-24 Packer wonders if we believe in God as Judge and says “speak to people of God as a Father, a friend, a helper, one who loves us despite all our weakness and folly and sin, and their faces light up.. but speak to them of God as Judge and they frown and shake their heads.” What are our thoughts on this matter?

July 28, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell 2 Samuel 9 Perhaps the two most staggering doctrines of the Bible are the Love of God and then the Grace of God. Our journey is into a deeper experience of both. We may more easily grasp our need for the love of God than that for His grace. But we are in desperate need for this incredible provision in our lives and relationships.

July 21st 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Ephesians 3.14-19 When the Apostle Paul thinks of his friends and what to pray for he is powerfully drawn to the matter of God's love. In fact he calls it Christ's love making it even more personal and experiential. He prays that they will explore the dimensions of Christ's love and will know it although it is beyond knowledge. How do we experience God's love in our daily lives?

July 14 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell 2 Timothy 3:16 The Holy Bible is the most popular, most read, most purchased book in the world. What an amazing fact this is. What is there about this book that has gained it such notoriety? Let's have a fresh look at its value in our lives and faith with a look back at what an early apostle said about its source and effect for us.

June 30, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Hebrews 11.8-12 What is the role of faith in Knowing God? Perhaps a different take on this subject would be that faith is believing that only God knows, understands and works out the backstory to our lives. Hebrews 11 gives us a whole cast of characters, not many of whom got the e-mail that explained everything God was organizing and arranging! Have you received yours yet?

June 23, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalm 8.1 & Psalm 93.1-5 Have you ever been "lost in wonder, love and praise" as Charles Wesley penned in his hymn "Love Divine"? Against our attempts to understand and explain God we are often much more suited for admiration and awe than grasping. In the words of the Band Sleeping at Last "The universe was made just to be seen by my eyes." Is that the end purpose of our existence perhaps?

Sunday, June 16, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalm 102.26-27 Here is a profound idea - that God does not ever change. So the One presented in the Old Testament and New Testament is still as described. What does that mean for us? We have some theological questions and some practical questions about this. Is the Old Testament God really still the same? Today there is a great rejection of that God as characterized in the Scriptures. So do we have the accurate caricature or does it need updating?

June 9, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 14.26 A recent author has titled his book The Forgotten God, referring to the Holy Spirit. We cannot get very far on the path of knowing God if we don't develop our balcony and traveler knowledge of the Holy Spirit. This Sunday we will focus on the third person of the Trinity.

June 2, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Corinthians 15.47 Charles Wesley wonders "Tis mystery all! The Immortal Dies" in his hymn. As we gaze upon the Person of God and grasp that He is enormously beyond understanding or comparing but that He has indeed come close to His creation and creations so that the corrupting infection can be excised. Thus the incarnation is the most amazing of all theological notions.

May 26, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Isaiah 40.18 This chapter is a powerful expression of the incomparable Being that God is. We are left agreeing that God may not be compared, or explained by any human mind or attempt. Our failure is that we try to make a comparison or an image and thus insult our Creator. Rather we should find ourselves gazing with awe on His glorious works.

May 19, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 17.3; Jeremiah 9.23-24 Knowing God involves a two way relationship (or actually four plus ways - answer that riddle!) We will focus this weekend on the reality that God knows us. What does that mean for us? What does He think of us? What does He do with what He knows? What do we want Him to know, what would we rather He didn't know? Let's explore that.

May 12, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Daniel 11.32 On Mother's Day our thoughts are drawn to matters of the family. How many are the stories of those who look back upon the influence of moms who have raised, supported, prayed for and encouraged them over the distance of a lifetime. The Old Testament gives us the caricature of a young man who would be the envy of any prayerful, faithful mom. This young man was taken from his home and displaced into a whole new world. But he had been raised well and thus we have the story of heroic Daniel. Tucked away in the middle of the book is a verse that may well be his life motto: "the people who know their God will be strong and carry out great exploits"

May 5 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Proverbs 1:1-7 For many of us formal education consisted of classes, exams and required reading. We put aside reading for leisure in favour of the hundreds of pages that needed to be mastered in keeping with the calendar. We avoided our interest being captured by subjects and topics of interest that were calling to us like Odysseus' sirens because they would detract us from staying on course towards the completion of a diploma or degree or certification. But when the program was completed we were free to engage as we chose in matters of more interest! So a class taken for audit for pleasure was a treat. If you could choose a subject for study that was for personal profit and enjoyment - would you think of studying God? What would that be like? What would it yield? That's what's on offer for us in this study.

April 28, 2019, Speaker - Ian Campbell Knowing God This Sunday we commence a new study series called "Knowing God," based on the J.I. Packer book with the same title. We will track with the chapters and also encourage you to acquire the book and use the study questions personally or with some friends as weekly follow up discussions. Packer begins the book with the distinction between those on the path of life who are "balconeers" and those who are "travelers." The first are content with theory and observer status while the second - what we hope to be - are on the journey, needing to know what they need to know as a matter of daily direction and indeed survival. Let's join the journey. Knowing God: J. I. Packer is available for Kindle and as a published book, available from Amazon.ca Talking with God Exodus 33.11 In all of our study about who and how God is, one of the most startling statements of Scripture concerns the Ancient Moses that the Lord would talk to Moses face to face as a person does with a frie