Pastor's Pen Archives - Glasshouse Christian College

Pastor’s Pen

How Do You Lead With Adaptability?

This week, I’m on year five camp. One of our main teaching points for the students centres around developing leadership skills. The focus of my graduate studies has been on spiritual leadership, so I’ve spent considerable time thinking about what makes a great leader. One of the lesser-mentioned leadership skills in my experience is adaptability. …

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Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!

Who’s excited about the FIFA Women’s World Cup? If you’re any bit like me you are watching every bit of footage that you can. It is just permanently on in my house.  I’m a dual citizen of Australia and the United States so I have two squads to cheer for. However, with Australia and New …

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The Green-Eyed Monster

Once upon a time in the Glassy-Valleys lived Lucinda, an imaginative schoolgirl with a passion for painting. As she approached the end of her primary school years, Lucinda’s parents were delighted by her enthusiasm for art. One day, on her way home from school, Lucinda stumbled upon a small creature nestled in the bushes near …

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“Promises”

I’ve got two children. A daughter in year four at GCC and a son that is three years old that has pre-enrolled. Our children are approximately six years apart. As you can imagine they do not always see eye to eye, especially about what goes on the television. However, they both agree on one show: …

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This Changes Everything

It’s terrible to assume something is impossible because it’s extraordinary.  The first heart transplant is a milestone in the history of medicine that took place on December 3, 1967. The groundbreaking surgery was performed by Dr Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The recipient was a 55-year-old grocer, Louis Washkansky, …

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You Are Loved

At lunchtime, on Wednesdays, a group of Middle School students gather in the pastor’s Lifehouse to learn more about God and his love for them.  This term we’ve been looking at a series called Reckless Love by Next Step Ministries.   Throughout this study, we have heard the testimonies of people who have had their …

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Enjoy your kids!

When I look back on my time as the College Pastor in the Primary school, I am reminded of a few key things: Firstly, how fast time flies! I am constantly reminded of this when I bump into Secondary students and see how much they have grown since I knew them in Primary, and I …

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Mouldy bread or ice cream?

I have two kids. JJ is six months old and puts everything in his mouth. Sienna is two and let’s just say she can be a picky eater. If we try to feed her something that she hasn’t tried before it is an absolute mission to get her to try it. We’re talking tears and …

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Portraits of Jesus

A Year five student drew me a portrait of what she thought Jesus might look like. Perhaps it was her way of starting a conversation about Jesus. Maybe she needed to gauge my reaction to see if I recognised Jesus in her drawing. Would I scrunch up my nose and say, ‘That’s not Jesus’? Or, …

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Mission Trip 2022

Go into all the world and preach the Gospel (Mk 16:15)  In the first week of this term, the College Pastors took a team of 8 students ranging from years 10,11 &12 to Agnes Water on a Mission Trip. We did not choose Agnes because we think we are any better than the people who …

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Can we find real life online?

Is this the real life?Is this just fantasy?Caught in a landslide,No escape from realityOpen your eyes,Look up to the skies and see… Once your brain is finished singing, let’s discuss something important, it’s ok I’ll wait…. These lyrics hit home hard for many of us. Maybe it’s because it’s a really catchy tune. Maybe it’s …

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Jesus’s best joke

I laughed out loud reading my Bible recently. Matthew 7:3-5 is Jesus’s best joke. Jesus is something of a comedian at this moment. Every comedian has a manifesto for the type of comedy they perform. The likes of Stephen Colbert often have something to say about politics through comedy. Jerry Seinfeld makes a big deal …

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Who controls who?

Have you ever wondered if you control your phone or if your phone controls you?   …some researchers have estimated that an average person will have scrolled the equivalent height of the Burj Khalifa (i.e., the tallest building in the world) in a week, and Mount Everest in a year.  …an average person will likely perform …

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Like worshipping logs

The thing that does everything History won’t forget the Apple Keynote event of 2007 when the first iPhone was unveiled. Steve Jobs teases the world with promises of, ‘Three revolutionary products.’ The first is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. The third is a breakthrough internet communications device. …

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Rescuing children

On Tuesday, 16 August all of the Senior and Middle School took a stand against human trafficking. In both Chapel services, students stood rather sitting to recognise those around the world that face this horrible situation every day.  Students and staff also purchased t-shirts and gave monetary donations in order to rescue one girl.  The …

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Students taking a stand to save lives

Following a recent visit from Destiny Rescue, our faith and community leaders decided they wanted to help.    Established in 2001, Destiny Rescue is a not-for-profit charity that is dedicated to rescuing children from sexual exploitation and trafficking.  Children from poor families are being taken from their parents with the promise of a better life …

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Student collapses while VAPING in school toilets due to massive nicotine dose

This headline recently appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald after a Blue Mountains Grammar school student collapsed and had a seizure in the school toilets while vaping.  The occurrence happened as a result of inhaling a massive dose of nicotine. What is Vaping? For those who don’t know, Vaping is the term used when aerosol …

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Is your child addicted to gaming?

Parents often approach me with the problem, “My child is addicted to gaming, how do I make it stop?”  First off, what is gaming addiction? Is it a real thing? In 2018, Gaming disorder whether online or offline was included in the latest edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a clinically significant …

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Youth Alpha

I wonder how many of you have considered questions like: why am I here, is there more to life than this, who is Jesus and what evidence is there that he really existed? These are just a few of the questions that are explored throughout the Youth Alpha series.  Over the past few weeks, the …

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Can we have hope?

It seems like we have had quite the year so far, haven’t we? It seems like just as we have been slowly emerging from ongoing COVID restrictions, there were the impacts of the floods on communities in Queensland and NSW, which led to more school closures. On top of all of this, we see the …

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Welcome back to chapel

There was much excitement in Chapel this week as we celebrated both having the ability to meet together for the first time this year and Harmony week.  Every student was given a glow stick before entering a darkened auditorium as the Chapel band played the song Let the light in.     Some of the elements incorporated …

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A message from isolation

After a couple of tours of isolation, once for flying overseas and once for contracting the virus that I tried my best to avoid for the last two years, it is easy to see why we’re designed to do life in community. I dislike shopping for food online, everything is delivered in unfamiliar brands, sizes …

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Blocks for bibles

In Book Week, the College Pastors wanted to raise the profile of the most important book of all in our College community. Partnering with our Student Voice body and the Bible Society, we raised money to fund Bibles going overseas.  We were inspired by the story of Brother Andrew, a Polish Christian who smuggled Bibles …

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2021 Ministry Trip to 1770

How do bush dancing, magic tricks, snorkelling and God bringing down city walls by trumpet blasts and people’s shouts go together?  These are just a few of the things this year’s team got to do on our recent ministry trip to 1770.  Last week, 11 of our Senior students Pastor Syd, his wife Terry, Pastor …

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Pastor Fi’s farewell

Isaiah Chapter 43 has been a bible passage I have been reading for some time. Sometimes you find a gem in God’s word that really seems to nail what you are thinking or experiencing, and this has been the case for me. In it God reminds us that no matter what we face in life …

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The power of movies!

Are you fed up with the amount of screen time your child engages with? Are they constantly on Netflix? Have you ever stopped to think about the power in some of this screen time as a powerful teaching tool? Children rarely appreciate being lectured in life lessons. But they are far more likely to absorb …

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Harmony Day 2021

Kay-od mee-leh foyle-cha!  [céad míle fáilte] Mine Croyceo y bawb! [Mae ‘na groeso i bawb] Welcome to Harmony Day! I just welcomed you here in three different languages [the first version is a phonetic version to help you pronounce it] because they all represent cultures that are part of my identity. I have an English …

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The Joy of Christmas

Have you heard the grumbling about Christmas yet? How much it costs! Whether to invite Auntie so and so to Christmas lunch or not, because last year she upset so many people! How on earth you can fit in all the extra Christmas events into your already busy schedule! I want to revisit the first Christmas …

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Christmas Chapel

This past week at GCC we had a very special Chapel centering on Jesus’ birth found in the Gospel of Matthew 1:18-2:12. The Chapel will probably be forever remembered as the ‘Camel Chapel’. You see three real-live camels and their handlers (wise men) led all Middle and Senior School students into a very special outdoor …

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