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baptist church
baptist church
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
At Open Icon Baptist Church, we value great preaching — preaching that engages deeply, humbly and honestly with Jesus, the Bible, and the pain and joy of living in the real world. And since going permanently online, we have been able to welcome great preachers from all over the world without having to wait for them to visit our shores. Click here to meet the inspirational preachers depicted in the gallery above, none of whom have preached for us!
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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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4 September, 2016
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Faithfulness, Jesus, Love, Reconciliation
The culture of God is so radical in its loving embrace of everyone that mainstream society will see it as a dangerous rejection of all it holds dear.
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28 August, 2016
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Abundance, Discipleship, Grace, Humility, Jesus
If we construct our identity around a pursuit of social esteem, we will degrade our true selves, but if we model ourselves on the generosity of God, we will find true life where few look for it.
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14 August, 2016
The people who blame Jesus for increasing violence may be right. He has kicked out the foundations of our peace-keeping strategies, and now violent chaos will grow unless we learn the ways of love and mercy.
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7 August, 2016
There are numerous competing claims about what a faithful Christian life looks like, and sometimes the truth about following Jesus may be the least palatable of them all.
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24 July, 2016
If we delight in shaming and punishing wrongdoers, we will not recognise the scandalous love and mercy revealed in Jesus, but instead find ourselves being harshly judged by an outraged condemning god who we have created in our own image.
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3 July, 2016
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Evil, Faithfulness, Grace, Jesus, Mission
Scripture: Luke
Election week sheds new light on how we can participate with Jesus in bringing satanic principalities and powers crashing down.
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5 June, 2016
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Scripture: 1 & 2 Kings, Galatians, Luke
Sometimes God has to kill off our hopes and destroy our faith structures in order to create space for new life and truth to arise among us.
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29 May, 2016
The gospel of love and grace revealed by Jesus is always at risk of being distorted into a false gospel of ‘holy’ hostility.
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22 May, 2016
The self-giving love of the Trinity, contrasted with the experience of a toxic love triangle, calls us to a new non-possessive love that always seeks the glory and delight of the other.
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15 May, 2016
God’s Holy Spirit gathers us into one body where our differences are not erased or downplayed, but boldly offered in love and service of one another.
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1 May, 2016
The Revelation’s surprising image of the absence of church buildings in the fulfilled holy city is a helpful reminder that they have always been a risky concession and that their dangers need to be carefully avoided.
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24 April, 2016
The love of God seeks us out, even when we least deserve it, and then calls us to love others similarly.
