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Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Pastor
Nathan Nettleton
Nathan Nettleton has served as pastor of this congregation since 1994. He was ordained as a Baptist pastor that same year and completed an honours degree in theology at Whitley College in 1995, followed by a Master of Theology in Liturgical Studies from the University of Divinity in 2001. In our church, he carries particular responsibilities for the preaching, teaching, and ordering of worship and prayer, and for pastoral care. He also writes liturgical resources for a global audience through LaughingBird.net, and serves as a board member of Open Baptists. Nathan is married to Margie, and they have an adult daughter, Acacia, and two dogs.
Sermons by Nathan Nettleton
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24 December, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Christmas, Hospitality, Humility, Incarnation, Jesus
Scripture: Luke
The nativity story proclaims the basic themes of the gospel message; God enters into our suffering world as a victim of our violence, and is rejected by most but recognised by the nobodies.
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17 December, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Scripture: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Isaiah, John, Psalms
As God’s people, we celebrate life in the face of death, because we know that the victory of life has been secured.
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10 December, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Scripture: 1 & 2 Peter, Mark
For both God and us, time can drag when waiting for change, but patience is salvation when forgiveness is offered as a means of change rather than as a reward for change.
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26 November, 2017
God has created a world that becomes healthy, free and full of life when its nations honour and care for the most vulnerable. Nations that fail to build cultures of compassion and care are doomed to destroy themselves.
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12 November, 2017
While we are called to be a sharing community and thus to have no need of worry for tomorrow, you can’t look to others to provide you with the fruits of a life lived in generosity and prayerfulness.
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5 November, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Humility, Jesus, judgement, Reconciliation, Temptation, Virtues
Scripture: Matthew
Jesus’s quest for reconciliation is far wider and more discomfortingly radical than our tendency to jump on the bandwagon of popular justice causes.
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29 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Grace, Incarnation, Jesus, judgement, Law, Love
Scripture: Matthew
Today, as in Jesus’s day, two fundamentally different visions of God and God’s expectations compete. Jesus calls us to side with the one that centres on love rather than the one that centres on concerns for holiness.
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22 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Faithfulness, Jesus
Scripture: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Exodus, Matthew
Modelling ourselves on those who model themselves on Jesus is a healthy pathway to fulfilling the image of God within us.
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15 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Authority, Faith, Fear, Forgiveness, Grace, judgement, Law, Temptation
Scripture: Exodus
God invites us to live joyously, boldly and freely in the midst of mystery, but we are frequently tempted to grasp for something more tangible and certain.
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8 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Grace, Jesus, judgement, Law, Reconciliation
Scripture: Exodus, Matthew, Philippians
When we use the biblical law to reinforce a worldview of sin and punishment, we doom ourselves to live in a judgemental world, a world from which Jesus offers to break us free.
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1 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Authority, Discernment, Faithfulness, Jesus, Law, Love
Scripture: Matthew
The marriage equality debate raises questions about authority, but prophetic authority is not proved by fidelity to past rules, but by its power to produce a harvest of new life and love among the people.
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24 September, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Scripture: Matthew
When Jesus exposes our aversion to having others recognised as our equals, he calls us to repent and celebrate God’s generosity to all. The marriage equality debate exposes another frontier of his challenge to us.
