Gungahlin Uniting Church

Welcoming of the stranger. Inclusive of all people. Sharing the faith journey together. Informal and friendly Christian community..

Sharing the faith journey together. Informal and friendly Christian community.

Job Bible Study

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Bruce Stevens is offering another Bible Study, this time focusing on the book of Job. It will commence at 7pm on Wednesday 1st June and run for four weeks over Zoom.

The Old Testament Book of Job asks the big questions. Does it provide any answers? This is less clear… certainly not the trite responses we so often hear in church circles. This Bible study series examines pastoral care themes in Job. It is a great work of literature expressing the anguish of belief.

Week 1– “Between Heaven and Hell” Introduction to the form of the book [prose and poetic dialogues], evidence of great literature, is it Jewish black humour? Irony. The invitation to ‘curse God and die’. Or to wrestle with God like Jacob?

Week 2– “Taking God to Court: Integrity at What Cost?” The forensic structure of the book with a central theme of issuing a subpoena to God to show up in court and justify his actions. The anger of Job against the injustice of his treatment by God. The path of integrity. What are the implications for us?

Week 3– “The Risk of Transgressing Orthodoxy” Job challenged the established orthodoxy of the Old Testament based on a covenant relationship with God. We will look at Job’s ‘four counsellors’ Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, with the late addition of Elihu. What was their message to Job and why did he reject it?

Week 4– “Why do the Innocent Suffer?” The question of innocent suffering is different for us. We have a post-enlightenment view of pain where the ancient Hebrews saw it in relational terms: a breach of the covenant. How is the New Testament, with the centrality of Jesus, different?

If you are interested in attending this study, please fill out the following Google Form so Bruce can make contact with you.

Attachments

The Happiness Trap

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Publisher: Exisle Publishing (1 March 2007)
Language: English
Paperback: 284 pages
ISBN-10: 0908988907

A guide to ACT: the revolutionary mindfulness-based program for reducing stress, overcoming fear, and finding fulfilment.

Popular ideas about happiness are misleading, inaccurate, and are directly contributing to our current epidemic of stress, anxiety and depression. And, unfortunately, popular psychological approaches are making it even worse!
In this controversial but empowering self-help book, Dr Russ Harris reveals how millions of people are unwittingly caught in ‘The Happiness Trap’! He then provides an effective means to escape, through a revolutionary new approach which is shaking the very foundations of western psychology.

This book is for everyone, from CEOs to sales staff, from astronauts to housewives. Whether you’re lacking confidence, facing illness, coping with loss, working in a high-stress job, suffering from anxiety or depression, or preparing for the performance of your life – within these pages you will learn scientifically proven techniques to:

  • reduce stress and worry
  • rise above fear, doubt and insecurity
  • handle painful thoughts and feelings far more effectively
  • break self-defeating habits
  • improve performance and find fulfilment in your work
  • build more satisfying relationships and, above all,
  • create a rich, full and meaningful life.

‘Dr Harris shines a powerful beacon forward into the night. enjoy the journey. You are in excellent hands.’ Steven Hayes – bestselling author of Get Out of Your Mind And Into Your Life

About the Author
Dr Russ Harris is a medical practitioner with a passion for life, health and healing. A leading authority on stress management, Russ regularly travels all over Australia, and internationally, training coaches, psychologists, doctors, and other health professionals in the use of ‘mindfulness’.

God Attachment: Why You Believe, Act, and Feel the Way You Do About God

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Title: God Attachment: Why You Believe, ACT, and Feel the Way You Do about God
By: Tim Clinton, Ed.D.; Joshua Straub, Ph.D
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 256
Publisher: Howard Books; Reprint edition (November 29, 2014)

God. Whether one loves him, hates him, denies or defies him, it is hard to deny the worldwide fascination with God. This book explores why and suggests a personal response to the God Attachment in all of us.

Why has the human race, the world over, been so fascinated with…some might say obsessed with…God? This built-in attachment to God crosses religious, political, ethnic, cultural, and generational barriers.

Drs. Clinton and Straub reveal fascinating research about this worldwide phenomenon. From avoidant, anxious, and fearful to secure and personal, the range of responses to our internal attachment to God has a profound influence on the way we do relationships, intimacy, and life choices.

With helpful self-assessments, intriguing questions, and surprising revelations, this book moves from worldwide statistics to personal challenge, offering the means to become securely attached to God in a way that can have positive effects on our attitudes, approach to life, and overall life satisfaction.

Author Bio

Tim Clinton, Ed.D. (The College of William and Mary) is President of the nearly 50,000-member American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), the largest and most diverse Christian counseling association in the world. He is Professor of Counseling and Pastoral Care, and Executive Director of the Center for Counseling and Family Studies at Liberty University. Licensed in Virginia as both a Professional Counselor (LPC) and Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Tim now spends a majority of his time working with Christian leaders and professional athletes. He has been married 30 years to his wife Julie and together they have two children, Megan and Zach.

Joshua Straub, Ph.D. has served on the executive staff for the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) for the past five years and is an adjunct professor at Liberty University. Having served either as a counselor, professor, or pastor since 2000, Josh now spends his time training and speaking to Christian counselors, pastors, and lay leaders across America for the AACC, Acquire the Fire conferences, and local churches. He specializes in attachment research, crisis and trauma, the Millennial Generation, and on cultivating healthy relationships both with God and others. Josh is married to his beautiful wife, Christi.

The Divine Dance with Richard Rohr

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What if changing our perception of God has the potential to change everything? God is not what you think. Visions of an angry, distant, moral scorekeeper or a supernatural Santa Claus handing out cosmic lottery tickets to those who attend the right church or say the right prayer dominate our culture. For many others, God has become irrelevant or simply unbelievable. In The Divine Dance, Richard Rohr points readers to an unlikely opening beyond this divinity impasse: the at–times forgotten, ancient mystery of the Trinity?God as utterly one, yet three.

In The Divine Dance (and some of the TWOTP films below) Rohr presents a compelling alternative to aloof and fairytale versions of God: One God, belovedly in communion, as All–Vulnerable, All–Embracing, and All–Given to you and me.

The series includes 15 sessions with a discussion guide, written by Kelly Ann Hall.

SESSION TITLES AND FILMS

  1. SESSION ONE // God has to be Three
  2. SESSION TWO // Participatory Identity
  3. SESSION THREE / Trinitarian Love
  4. SESSION FOUR // Sitting Inside the Divine Dance
  5. SESSION FIVE // The Momentary Satisfaction of Inerrancy
  6. SESSION SIX // Praying Always
  7. SESSION SEVEN // Power is Powerlessness
  8. SESSION EIGHT // Re-Spect
  9. SESSION NINE // Trinitarian Spirituality
  10. SESSION TEN // The Divine Flow and Resurrection
  11. SESSION ELEVEN // Living in God
  12. SESSION TWELVE // The Dynamic of Salvation
  13. SESSION THIRTEEN // Undoing the Good News
  14. SESSION FOURTEEN// The Self-Limiting God
  15. SESSION FIFTEEN // A Transformed Cross

The Transfiguration

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Mark 9:7

NOUN
“a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state.”

I don’t often think about Jesus. And it feels like a like a long since I’ve sat and thought about the things He did when He was on earth.

When it comes to personal prayer and reflection, I always find myself talking to God, asking for His guidance, filling Him in on my worries and concerns, and thanking Him for the good things in my life. I don’t feel the need to acknowledge Jesus, or even be conscious of addressing the different contexts – God and Jesus.

Mark 9:7
Then a cloud over-shadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

In preparing for Easter however, it is quite hard not to think about Jesus, when it is all about the sacrifice He made for us. In the transfiguration story, directly in front of Peter, James and John, Jesus is glorified with realms of bright white light! God speaks and we are clearly told to listen to “my Son”, God’s son… Jesus…

It is a reminder for me to read the stories, reflect on their meaning, learn from them, and be more like Jesus, more like God’s child, in my daily activities, with everything I say and do. And by doing this, like the transfiguration, I can continue to change. Of course, not as dramatically, but consciously and faithfully with commitment and love.

Rachael Hogan

RSS Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day

  • Romans 10:9-10
    “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

About GUC

We are a community on a journey. We’ve grown from a small faith community planted in Ngunnawal in the early years of Gungahlin’s development to a thriving intergenerational and multicultural community located near the Gungahlin town centre.

Gungahlin Uniting Church is an open and inclusive community.  You are welcome to join us and participate in the life of our community as we experience life, God and seek to follow the way of Christ.

Find out more…

Worship With Us

Every Sunday, 9:30am
Gungahlin Uniting Church and Community Centre
108 The Valley Avenue
Gungahlin, ACT, 2913

Worship is for all ages, (0 to 93!) and seeks to be meaningful in different ways for us all.

In Jesus Christ we see how he drew near to each and all and so we hope our worship expresses this nearness too.

Finding us

We worship at the Gungahlin Uniting Church & Community Centre.
Find us on Google Maps here

Car
Free parking is available in our on-site car park.

Light Rail
We are less than a 5 minute walk from the Gungahlin Place Light Rail Station.

Bus
The ACT has a number of bus options for people travelling around, or to Gungahlin. Timetables available here.