God’s relational promise. The Easter story is the culmination of God’s restoration of humans to the possibility and potential of friendship with God. It can be argued that God’s redemptive plan is all about the restoration of friendship and relationship. The challenge of the Christian message – the wonder of Easter- is that Christ died so that we no longer live for ourselves, we live for something bigger. He gives us a new focus as we live for him and his principles. As we take on that new focus, it will help us not to be as selfish; not to live for ourselves as perhaps, we have done. Philippians 3:10-11 also provides an opportunity for us to focus on the power of the resurrection and the reality of embracing that in the context of relationship: to know him and the power of his resurrection, recognising that within the pain that we engage with in life both gives us the power to do it. C. S. Lewis reflected that:

“The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the dying God without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens – at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences… By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle. I suspect that men have sometimes derived more spiritual sustenance from myths they did not believe than from the religion they professed. To be truly Christian we must both assent to the historical fact and also receive the myth (fact though it has become) with the same imaginative embrace which we accord to all myths. The one is hardly more necessary than the other is.” C. S. Lewis

Christian Outreach College Toowoomba (COCT) has proudly announced their own Mr Michael Bray as their new College Principal - see attachment for more information.

 Photo:  Ken Woottoon and Michael Bray

Attachments:

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COCT_New Principal.pdf		162 Kb

Within the changing context in the Australian education climate, amidst global change, innovations and accountability pressures, the challenge for Christian schools is to remain vigilant to ensure their culture, values and beliefs remain aligned with the Vision of their founders amidst the current cultural environment of postmodernism. The document attached, may provide a resource in this journey.

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The Core Values of our schools.pdf		87 Kb

In What's So Amazing About Grace? author Phillip Yancey recounts:

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."

Lewis was not asserting that other faiths did not value or extol mercy or kindness, but that they each posit steps to earning a deity’s approval (or at least placating divine anger), rather than declare the love of God as a gift to be received.

Read more of this Christmas Reflection from The Trinity Forum here: http://ttf.org/blog-post/singularity-grace

Please find attached a Program and Registration form for the ACS One Day Conference on Workplace Relations - “Strategies for Managing Workplace Issues at the School” (Targeting Board Members and Senior School Leaders). It is scheduled to be held on Friday, 7th March 2014, at John Paul College, John Paul Drive, Daisy Hill, Qld.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
ACS 2014 One Day Conference on Workplace Relations Registration.pdf		228 Kb