The Upper Room

The Upper Room 22 November 09 - Dying to be born (Mick Martin)

In John 16:16-22, Jesus anticipates his death and resurrection and compares it to a woman giving birth, a rather unexpected analogy to say the least…

The Upper Room 15 November 09 - Pointillism, Fractals & the Gospel of John (Mick Martin)

This week as we move into chapter 16 of John’s gospel, we bring together a number of themes we have been considering in recent weeks and ask the question, what might it look like to bear witness to the truth of who Jesus is as we anticipate celebrating the Incarnation during the Christmas season.

The Upper Room 8 November 09 - Experiencing God (Mick Martin)

Perhaps the major overarching theme of the whole narrative of Scripture, from Eden to the new Jerusalem, is that of “God with us”. God’s ‘here-ness’ is not merely a theological concept to which we choose to give mental assent. God wants us actually to experience him in our day-to-day lives.

“For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom … And the Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more and more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Cor 3:17-18 NLT)

The Upper Room 25 October 09 - Holy Spirit (Mick Martin)

What does it mean to be ‘baptised with the Holy Spirit’?

Related link NOOMA Breathe | 014 Rob Bell

The Upper Room 18 October 09 - When Worlds Collide (Mick Martin)

This week’s text is John 15 in which Jesus juxtaposes the love that flows from God to the world with the “hate” that the world has for God. What does it mean for those of us who live in the tension of being in the space where these two opposing forces collide?

The Upper Room 11 October 09 - On Poverty (Meredith Downey)

At our gathering this week, coinciding with the start of Anti-Poverty Week, Meredith Downey reflects on her personal journey of engagement with the issue of extreme poverty. Her story begins with her experiences living in Manilla for a number of years as a young child to her current role as a program manager with the microfinance organisation Opportunity International.

Listen to this message and let your heart and mind be challenged by the call of Jesus to be involved in bringing good news to the poor of our world.

The Upper Room 4 October 09 - True Vine (Mick Martin)

In the first part of John 15, Jesus takes us to the very essence of what it means to call ourselves his disciples.

The Upper Room 27 September 09

Unfortunately, the recording of this week’s gathering failed so we are unable to post the report made by Mick Martin and Julian Martin on their recent trip to West Timor with Opportunity International Australia. We apologise to those who were hoping to listen to this podcast.

The Upper Room 20 September 09 - This Is Our Call (TUR band)

This week we launch our first album of home grown worship songs entitled This Is Our Call and Mick Martin discusses music, corporate worship, songwriting and the album with the Upper Room music team (Chris Bradley, Julia Schmidt, Pete Downey, Dominique Maurice and Dee Teal).

The album can be downloaded via iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=331392059&s=143460

The Upper Room 13 September 09 - Conversation: Part 2 (Mick Martin)

Picking up where we left off last week, we look at how the six conversation types discussed in Peter Block’s book Community: The Structure of Belonging relate to the development of a church community.

The Upper Room 6 September 09 - Conversation: Part 1 (Mick Martin)

What if, instead of reading the utterances of God in Genesis chapter 1 as declarations of a divine singularity into a pre-cosmic void, we read them as conversations among the persons of the triune God?

This week we consider the creative power of “Let there be…” conversations.

LINKS

Video - ‘A Small Group’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGB0ZFceebw

Booklet - ‘Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community: Changing the Nature of the Conversation’ by Peter Block

http://www.asmallgroup.net/pages/images/pages/CES_jan2007.pdf

The Upper Room 30 Aug 09 - Working in his name (Mick Martin, Andrew Baartz & Clive Dale)

Continuing with our discussion of John 14, this week we look at verses 12-14.

The Upper Room 23 August 09 - The one you didn’t see coming (Marg Martin)

What do you do when crisis or tragedy comes your way and God is nowhere to be found?

(The video clip played at the start of this message can be seen on YouTube: http://bit.ly/Wl5FO )

The Upper Room 16 August 09 - Father & Son (Mick Martin)

Much of what Jesus has to say in the ‘Upper Room discourse’ in John’s gospel (chapters 13-17) provides us with insight into God’s triune nature. This week we focus on one particular facet of the Trinity - the relationship between the Father and the Son.

The Upper Room 9 August 09 - John 14:1-6 (Mick Martin, Andrew Baartz & Clive Dale)

This week, we experiment with a new format (a ‘polyhomily’) where three speakers share their thoughts on the first six verses of John 14.

The Upper Room 2 August 09 - Sacred Meals (Mick Martin)

Human beings were created by God to eat food. We consider the implications of this fact for our spirituality.

The Upper Room 19 July 09 - Follow (2) (Mick Martin)

Sometimes we can be more caught up in the idea of being a follower of Jesus than in the actual business of following him. Peter’s story of denying Jesus sheds light on this distinction and shows how Jesus makes up whatever might be lacking in our discipleship, as long as we stay in the light of his presence.

The Upper Room 26 July 09 - Living Stones (Mick Martin)

1 Peter 2:5 tells us that we are “like living stones…being built into a spiritual house” in which God himself dwells. (See also Ephesians 2:22.)

At our gathering this week, we watched a segment of the documentary ‘Rivers and Tides’ as a kind of audiovisual parable of this scriptural metaphor.

(The film is available on DVD, but a low quality version can be viewed online at http://bit.ly/Iwg3u. The segment we watched was from about 17 minutes in to about 32 minutes. It shows Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy constructing a cone-shaped sculpture out of rocks on a tidal foreshore.)

The Upper Room 12 July 09 - The Silence of Adam (Andrew Baartz)

Andrew Baartz revisits the first three chapters of Genesis and poses the question, what was Adam doing when Eve was deceived into taking the fruit from the tree?

The Upper Room 5 July 09 - Betrayal (Mick Martin)

Whenever we experience any kind of betrayal or breach of trust, our natural response is to want justice or revenge and to see the person who betrayed us exposed. In John 13, however, Jesus gives us a radically different and hugely challenging alternative pattern for dealing with betrayal.

Check out the trailer for Laura Waters Hinson’s acclaimed documentary As We Forgive at http://www.asweforgivemovie.com.

Rob Bell’s session on forgiveness at the 2009 National Pastors Convention in San Diego is available for purchase on CD from http://tinyurl.com/ogrym4