Gary s Story Gary leads an evangelical Anglican church in a multicultural community with a rapidly growing population.

Transcription

1 Gary s Story Gary leads an evangelical Anglican church in a multicultural community with a rapidly growing population. Who comes to your church? We ve got 70 different cultures in a multicultural and multi-faith community, so for example our Music and Movement Ministry had a Buddhist, a Muslim and a Hindu turning up last week. It s very exciting. How many services do you run? We have five services on a Sunday. A small traditional 8am one and they are happy to be training fodder for up and coming preachers. And then we ve got 9am and 10:30 family services, a 6pm young adults and then there s an Arabic service at the same time in a different location. Do you have ministry pathways that help to move people to Christ and maturity? At a structural level, there s a pathway that the congregation knows how to journey a person through. There s a sense that we are helping people to think, this is the trajectory. The entry point is our Newish welcome meals. This is followed by either a four- week Explaining Christianity (EC) course for non-christians or others joining our church or some people will go straight into a Growth Group. You can t serve in most ministries unless they take part in a three-week On Board membership course where they meet other people like themselves. There is Bible teaching about the glory of God and our place in His mission. We have a yearlong discipleship course that we call Firm Foundations. Everyone is encouraged into Growth Groups and new leaders go through our year long Leadership Training Module in a group run by a Pastor (every full time pastor runs a leadership course). Then we offer mentoring to the men in the congregation. Hoping to have the women follow suit. Explaining Christianity >> On Board >> Firm Foundations >> Growth Groups >>Leadership Training << Mentoring >> How does Firm Foundations work? After four weeks of EC we slowly cover the basics of the Christian life in Terms 1 and 2 followed by an overview of the Bible in Term 3 and the book of Philippians in Term 4. We are revisiting grace all the time because our religious hearts want to revert back to a work righteousness motivation. You think they ve got it, and they have intellectually, but then it only takes the last sin to bring them down again. So we decided that journey takes at least 12 months (and the rest of life). To be honest in that first year, sometimes you actually want to keep the newbies from other Christians who will dampen their enthusiasm, plus they are newish to the church and they re more able to forge relationships with each other. At the moment, this is the outline of content. Getting Started looks at some of the basics of the Christian life. Saved by God Trusting in God Living God s Way Reading the Bible Praying Going to Church Telling others about Jesus Living by the Holy Spirit Holiness Giving The Whole Story of God explains the story of the whole bible from Genesis to Revelation and how it fits together. 1

2 Creation The Fall The Promise The Exodus & The Law The Land & The Kings Exile & Prophetic Hope The Life and Death of Jesus The gospel proclaimed Jesus' Return and the New Creation Partners for Life works through the book of Philippians looking at what it means to be a partner in the gospel. Philippians 1:1-8 - Partners in the Gospel Philippians 1: Praying for partners Philippians 1: Finding Freedom Philippians 1:27-2:11 - Praying for partners Philippians 2: Jesus on Unity Philippians 3: True Confidence Philippians 3:10-4:1 - Going for Glory Philippians 4: Standing Firm How does mentoring work for leaders? The mentoring is not just for leaders but for any of the men wanting to grow. I realize that the one-on-one stuff needs to keep happening in people s lives. But not so much the kind of weekly discipling that might have happened earlier on - more working on two or three issues that they want to be proactive on, whether it s an issue to do with some recurring sin in their life or some area that they want to go forward in. So it s light on, in the sense that it s open hearts open bible, one and a half hours every month. We ve got about 50 or 60 men involved in that. Do you do Explaining Christianity (EC) with those who transfer from other churches? Yes because we want them to know how we evangelise so they will invite others. And the classic mistake is wrongly assuming where people are at. Just when you think they ve got the gospel you realise they can t articulate it. So recently a Cook Islander lady, the daughter of a pastor, made herself available for children s ministry and one of our staff asked her the diagnostic question, If you were to die tonight and Jesus were ask why should I let you into my heaven what would you say? And she said, I m not sure I know how to answer that. So she came to EC and actually now sees it as the point where she got converted. That question was the beginning of the journey for her, and now her husband has done the course, and he got saved. Sometimes it s an assurance issue, sometimes it s that they haven t understood penal substitution or justification by faith alone. What are some of the other engaging or catchment ministries? You mentioned a Music and Movement Ministry. We have ESL (English as a Second Language) classes and Play Time that is basically for mums with kids before they go to school. They are about to do an EC course at 8.30am before Play Time starts. I thought, gee that s a healthy sign, it just came from them and they re initiating it themselves. Okay, so you ve got these catchment ministries, how do you get into the gospel with people? Obviously EC is a major gateway for many. Sometimes church is their first port of call but sometimes if for example, we meet a Muslim woman we may need to meet one-on-one. Connect is a collection of growth groups for women which attract some with English as a second language. So we run an EC course running parallel with the rest of the Bible study groups In ESL, it s easy there because they use the Bible as the textbook and they work their way through the Jesus story. With Play Time it is a little bit harder because there s kids everywhere. We realised the mums 2

3 who are coordinating cant run the ministry and think about evangelism, because they have no space. So we sent an evangelist in there, so her job was just to evangelise. It helps that she is an ex- missionary! So how do you make these decisions? It sounds like you see potential work being built around particular people, both members and staff. Do you have a grand plan of new ministries to start? No grand plan just the Great Commission! A ministry idea can come from anyone. The critical issue is the quality of the leader and the gospel mindedness of that person. A good ministry idea with the wrong leader is not likely to work or quickly lose their way. By good leader I mean one who ticks the character, competence and gospel heartedness boxes. It s a mindset, and it s a confidence in the gospel and a passion that others are saved. There s a confidence in EC as a method of evangelising for all those people who have had contact with that ministry, especially some who have been converted through it. Some of our people give a personal witness to Christ and are able to do one-on-one discipleship. Others just invite to church or the next outreach event or EC or ask a staff member to organise a person to follow up someone they know. Is that the culture generally? Because of the way people have been evangelised they tend to continue on and do some themselves. Would most of your members be good inviters and have a way of sharing the gospel with somebody? I m highlighting some people, but it would be wrong to think that this proactive mission mindset would be the typical church member. We re talking about people who, whether they ve got the gift of evangelism or are good inviters, they are in that 10% group that are hungry for opportunities and are prepared for it. And then I think you ve got a large group that basically love church, love Jesus, give some form of witness in their work and home context and think the next step is either bring them to church or to EC and that s their mindset. I don t want to give you a false view because I ve told you some lovely stories. The bread and butter stuff is still people who are converted but not overly proactive. And yet our last church wide survey said that 76% of our church has witnessed to a family or friend in the previous last six months. What s your expectation on everyone evangelising? Are there some blockages that are just hard to get through? I just think that there is a percentage that will just do it well more independently. For everyone, I want them to forge good relationships where they witness and tell their story, do the best they can, but recognise they are really part of a broader team in helping their friends and family draw near to our Lord. So I want them to come with their friend to EC and journey with them and bounce off them as they are thinking stuff through. But a number of them just aren t that great at doing it and feel intimidated by being the person and they are so afraid of getting it wrong. You give them training units but you know what it s like, if you aren t doing it regularly, it s hard and people are so fearful of getting it wrong or they think that if they don t have all the answers, they are letting the side down, or letting Jesus down. We also need to recognize that in a multi-faith and multicultural world there are so many competing worldviews they often don't feel they can engage in deep gospel conversations. I m thinking of introducing phone a friend evangelism. One of our church members was talking to a Muslim co-worker in a lunchroom. He got out of his depth so called his friend who is an effective evangelist. They put the conversation on speakerphone, which allowed the pressure to come off the church member. What was interesting is that another guy listening in at the next table heard the conversation and has now become a Christian. So part of it is to do with their education or background and how they perceive themselves as being leaders or influencers of others? That s certainly a factor, and yet I know that with some of them, Jesus so changed their life that you can t shut them up about Jesus. What helps people invite others to church? A warm and friendly church is key. You can t underestimate a smile. You only get one chance for first impressions. However, I still do hear of new people at morning tea standing on their own surrounded by Christians who are not intentional enough to invite them into their conversations. That s exasperating! 3

4 Children s ministry has to be done very well and appear to be done well. People entrust their little darlings to you, and so often it can be the kids who get the parents come to church. We ve also found it important to have consistently good preaching that is clear, engaging, faithful and Jesus-focused, and that is mindful of the non-christians, who are addressed with gentleness and respect. We take it that the church is first for the believer but we must always have the eye on the outsider so that hopefully their questions are being addressed. We want to be an inclusive church, but on God s terms. What are some other ways you ve built that culture of the nations coming in and people inviting others, so that when they bring their friends and neighbours it s a positive, challenging engagement, and not cringey? Nowadays music has to be good. I think you can t get around that, for whatever reason. I can t work out if it s because Hillsong 1 has raised the bar or because everyone is getting more specialized in their own experiences of music. We try to make sure that our facilities are clean and presentable. Especially with certain ethnic groups, if you have a messy place it s a real put-off. I have this idea that I want my people to feel comfortable in their own skin, and at the same time I want them to sit tight with Jesus and loose with culture so that they can be all things to all people. 2 So we try to celebrate their diversity as well. We have a little quota system so that there is a minimum level of ethnic and gender diversity up the front. We also have three translation booths so that at least the sermon is in their mother tongue. We have one plain English translator as well because I m not very good for people with English as a second language I talk too fast, I m too Aussie, my idioms don t work for them. Clarity is of high value for us, and so if someone isn t clear, they know they will get a strong reaction from me because we have enough people who have had a bad experience in formal education and who feel dumb. So we constantly say, If you don t understand, it s our fault. We take the blame off them, and then we make it clear. With preaching, I don t care if you re funny; I care that you re faithful and clear that s what matters to me. How do you keep setting the vision and culture you want? I m really big on the principle that vision rides on stories that capture our vision and values. So whenever I hear a story of someone witnessing to someone, or someone making a big call for Jesus, I either it out or interview the person in church. For example, just recently one woman told me a story about getting her growth group to hold her accountable about going to visit an Afghani lady in her street. The two women are now meeting up regularly with their respective husbands, having Jesus talk. It was just a really lovely story. So (with her permission) I ll shoot that out in an to everyone. Most weeks there are stories going out. And personal interviews just getting ordinary people to tell of opportunities they have. We use the phrase Making heroes out of ordinary people. As a pastor they kind of expect me to evangelize, you know I m paid to, and I went to Bible college. But I m forever trying to find that person who s not going to be the classic show pony, to bring them up the front and let them tell their story of evangelizing. What about one-to-one Bible reading, is that part of the culture at all? I knew you would ask this question. It s the absolute right question and I wouldn t say that s the DNA of our people. There s a small percentage who can and will do it but it will be a small percentage. One of the tensions I feel with the bigger churches is that the Christian ministry becomes bring your friends to us and we ll evangelise them, rather than I can tell someone the gospel. I think you re right. The ideal model is both - it s institutional and personal. And it was in Peter Adam s book on preaching where there was a paragraph that stayed with me and that talked about the ministry of the word. Some churches just reduce that to the pulpit or the small group, but it actually covers the whole house-to-house, one-to- one context. 1 A large Pentecostal church in Sydney, famous for its music ministry. 2 1 Cor 9:22 4

5 How do you encourage your people to feed on the word? In trying to get people to grow their devotional life, we do a thing called Undivided Attention. It s a Bible reading and prayer journal, using the SOAP method: Scripture Observation Application Prayer. At the beginning of last year staff members went to different parts of our region, to coffee shops, McDonalds etc, and we met up with people and did our Quiet Times together using the SOAP method. It s read a section, hone in on a verse, write it in your own words and pray. (If I get people to try to write it in their own words they implicitly have to draw on a whole set of exegetical skills to comprehend what s going on). Afterwards we would share what we wrote. That was good to empower people to open the word, reflect on it for themselves and share with others what they had learnt and then pray together. Tell me about the Leadership Course I ll be honest with you - the course begins with our version of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. We start off with a gospel framework and then try to get them to think through being proactive and starting with end in mind and that kind of thinking. We then do Steve Timmis s, Gospel-Centred Leadership. It s a great course. We also have a term on doctrine that we call Hinges, focusing on how one doctrine turns on another, for example: faith and works, God s sovereignty and human responsibility. Plus we teach them Manuscript Discovery on Philippians. We want to make sure the leadership course is not just for people who are going to be formal Bible teachers. We want to address broader issues of leadership as well as the basics of how to share their faith and open the word with others. For example, we include a team building workshop, which is to equip people to know how to run a team that s pastorally-centred and vision-oriented, with skills in vision casting, giving feedback, celebrating... the things that tend to get missed in a lot of ministries. And some of them wouldn t have led much before in anything? Given our demographic many of our people don't have much experience of leadership in any context. As a result we re finding it tends to take a little longer to get them on board. It s funny, but doing this course has actually helped some of them to get jobs or promotions because they have a new language and new insights. We also work through ministry papers such as Ministry of the Pew 3 and then follow up each week for a term on how they went, serving before and after church. It s amazing but sometimes it's a simple as training people to smile! My wife has a little course on smiling for her children s ministry leaders because if those kids don t see a leader smile, they think they are upset with them. Are there concerns you have at the moment about changing the culture? The reason I joked about the question that I knew you were going to ask me (about one-to-one Bible reading) is because I actually believe it. My litmus test is if a ministry method can t work in Corinth in a room of thirty people, then we are leaning on something other than his word and the core elements of fellowship and ministry. So it s my little rule of thumb that whatever model you are doing, in the end you ve got to be able to strip it back to some core elements that are non-negotiable. And so in the consumer oriented model of a big church, I worry about the loss of sacrificial ministry for the sake of others. You think so much about how to package things that in the end it feels like spoon feeding and not letting them learn for themselves. If church is too packaged, you lose the messiness of life in ministry. So partly it s taking away a sacrificial element to the Christian life, partly it s taking away their confidence in being able to read the word and read it with others. I know that s a big burden for you and I think that s a legitimate concern. I think in the women s ministry they have tried to do some of that along the way, to get them opening the Bible with people, but I don t think it s sufficiently the norm in our congregation. 3 Colin Marshall, Ministry of the Pew 5

6 Is that something you guys talk about, how to avoid the consumer culture as you get bigger? In some ways, bigger churches ask more of their people, but you tend to get them to slip into roles rather than be disciplers. That s what I worry about with those models. Oh, you ve got a right to worry because you know when you take that person out of a church that s got that model and clear pathways, I think they re going to flounder, because they don t know how to do unstructured ministry in a messy context within less than ideal conditions. How have you personally had to change since you got bigger? (I mean, as the ministry got bigger.) What have been some of the challenges for you in your gifts and personality? Well, I m highly intuitive and relational, and I can t afford to be that intuitive any more. I need to make more evidence-based conclusions whenever I make a decision! I need to think structure more; I need to know where I m weak and let others step in. There s a phrase that comes to mind: There s not a well-rounded leader, there s only a well-rounded church. So it s about using the gifts of the church rather than trying to be the jack of all trades, which is what our heroes were, and then realizing you know, I m only good at three or four things so I ought to spend more of my time there. So I don t run staff meetings now the executive pastor does that. When I started the church plant, my philosophy was to teach Jesus from the Bible in the context of loving relationships. But as things grew they became more complicated, and I had less time to do what is my first love. Part of having a growing staff team is that you have to spend more time with them. I always remember you (Col) saying, You think putting on a staff worker is going to save you time, but it actually takes more time. Obviously you ve got to still meet up with people around the word otherwise you lose integrity but you don t do it in the way you did when you had 40 people. Do you do a few things like that, where you just dive in and do a Bible study with someone? I still run an EC each year, I m part of a team that does that. And if there s a guy at church, especially if he has what I call the short road to leadership then I ll start him off with EC and we ll go through to see if he s grounded in the gospel and then work through firm foundation. And then we ll see where he s going to minister. I like to have one or two men I m doing it with, for their sake and my sake really. How many are on the staff? Ten people mostly full time. We ve got a new guy for next year who is going to be a church planter for us the year after that. So the model of growth is to do some church planting? We have goals for the next ten years, and one is to church plant every two years. Each plant will be a satellite ministry for five years and then they will get to decide if they want to go independent or not. But we want to make sure they get our DNA. And also we want to plant with a minimum of 70, because there has been a lot of burnout in churches that are small and are trying to do everything. In a way, we re doing it slower. The old me would have jumped at moving more quickly! And sometimes you ve got to do that, but maybe I m getting too old or I just want things to last, survive and thrive. What s your church vision statement? To see lives transformed through Jesus Christ, to the glory of God. 6