Minister
I have always been blessed with a number of key laymen who taught me how to be a minister. What I had learned in theological college and university were only the tools for the job. The real teaching came at the hands of the mentors around me.
The earliest man of great influence was my first church secretary, Basil Sterling. My student churches were two adjacent wooden churches in the inner slum areas of Melbourne. For seven years during the 1950’s and 1960’s the people of those inner slum areas were my parish. I had started preaching in those two little inner area churches before I even went to theological college. My first sermon in a church was just after my 18th birthday. Before I even commenced university studies and theological college studies I was already preaching every week. It was most unusual for someone so young to be appointed as a student minister. In fact I was consistently reminded that I was the youngest ever to be so appointed and that if I did not perform consistently well in my studies then the church work would be withdrawn from me.
However I was totally committed to the idea of being a minister and therefore worked very hard both at studies and at being a student minister. I had won a scholarship to Melbourne University and I was committed to studying full time at the College of The Bible in Glen Iris. The College regulations prohibited me from taking any further studies but I wanted to get as much completed in as little time as possible. So, without telling the College authorities, undertook additional subjects in classical Greek, a language I had never previously studied. I hoped my six years of Latin would help me.
In one year I attended a private coaching college plus evenings with a private tutor and decided to sit both for Year 11 and Year 12 exams at the one time. Commencing without knowing one word of Greek and passing at the matriculation level of Year 12 all in one go was going to demand a lot of effort. I carried Greek verb endings around on pieces of paper in every pocket and made translations of the simplest speeches of Plato and Socrates in the back of other books.
I wrestled with the reading of the history of Heroditus and the marvellous wars and marches of Thyucides and Xenophon. At the same time I was heavily involved in athletics and playing several sports. My girlfriend Beverley with whom I had been going steady since we were 13, used to ring me faithfully every day during my lunch hour and I would slip away from lunch to spend a delightful 15 minutes in the telephone box away from the prying ears of the 60 other students in the College.
We only saw each other on weekends and she helped me by typing up sermons, essays, and long university dissertations. At age 19 we were engaged and planned to get married just after our 21st birthdays. Our birthdays came within one week of each other. The four weeks at the end of 1959 were probably the most hectic in our lives. I was completing my final year at theological college and desperately trying to beat a record – of receiving honours in every single subject. Although I would not be Dux of the College in my theological subjects, my aim was to attain first class honours in every subject, which was something that no other had ever achieved.
That was accomplished at the same time I was doing university exams in classical Greek. These were the exams that the College did not know I was sitting for. I sat for Year 11 and Year 12 simultaneously and the results caused a great deal of mirth among my two tutors for I failed Year 11, but passed the much more difficult Year 12 for which obviously I had done more work.
In the middle of these 1959 exams we celebrated our 21st birthdays; I was ordained in a most moving ceremony attended by about 700 people, and we had a hectic round of parties and kitchen teas, which culminated in our marriage. If any series of activities were designed to cause a breakdown that series of exams, marriage preparations, 21st birthdays, ordinations and the like would be it.
Yet what happened immediately after our wedding was to surprise us all. I became seriously ill on my honeymoon and returned to hospital and surgery! Being a full time student I had very little money. In fact, as I was to discover a few weeks later, I possessed absolutely nothing at all except for a car, a new bride, a host of kitchen tea and wedding presents, a theological certificate, a university scholarship not yet fully taken, an ordination certificate and a marriage certificate. We started with absolutely nothing else except boxes of books. The hospital wiped the debt by describing me officially as “pauper”.
Our two student churches at Ascot Vale and Newmarket were excited for their young couple and people showered us with good wishes and gifts. A coffee table made by the Church Secretary, Basil Sterling, survived 20 years in our home until four children later, the legs eventually gave way under the onslaught of childhood frolicking and shifts into four manses.
I was now an ordained minister and was continuing in part time ministry with the two little churches. I had enrolled in an intensive university course in the Summer School during January and February to increase my proficiency both in New Testament Greek and in classical Greek and to take up the rest of my university scholarship until graduation.
One of the hard lessons I learnt in those early days before ordination when I was a student preacher aged only 18, was that my bright ideas for church development and growth were not well received by older people in the church. The fact is that the churches in these areas had been there for decades and so had the people.
The church was an important part of their life. It was the one stable thing that did not change in a world that saw slum reclamation programmes, the bulldozing of nearby homes and the building of huge concrete State Government housing projects. In that world of change and decay it was important that in the church things did not change. On the other hand coming in as a very idealistic and enthusiastic 18-year-old first year Bible College student, I wanted to see change, growth, development, and new people coming to the Lord and joining our church.
I did not realise that every new person that came into the church was a threat to many of the older people already there. They did want to change but did not want their positions of authority to be challenged by new people, particularly the younger people and university students we were beginning to attract.
The point of this tension always arose in the Church Board Meetings. These were the half dozen people elected by the congregation year after year to provide the oversight of the church. These deacons and elders had the responsibility of the leadership of the church and they were sure nothing was going to change.
At our Bible College our theological studies had not yet included any lessons on church administration and without any training I was thrown into the fray of trying to lead innovation and change a church that was declining and refusing to change.
The most powerful man on our Church Board was the Church Secretary, Basil Sterling. He was a good-hearted fellow with a good sense of humour, but he was completely immovable on matters of church policy. He had married the Church Secretary’s daughter 35 years earlier, had spent his life in the welfare of the church and the Sunday School and was our most dedicated layman. His work was merely the opportunity to earn money to enable him to give more into the work of his church. He knew precisely what he wanted in the church’s life and ministry and change was not on his agenda. All of the others opposed change, were suspicious of new youth programmes, did not like outreach for new people and enjoyed their positions. Over the years they had seen student ministers come and go, all of them having come with enthusiasm but sent on their way with their enthusiasm dampened and with their tails between their legs knowing well that theological students were the lowest form of church life.
The Church Board was dedicated to the slogan “Come weal, come woe, the status is quo!”
At 18, I decided early in the piece that the way to go was to change the structure of church administration. What we needed was additional people forming the Board with fresh insights and new ideas. I did not want to throw the older people out because they were faithful, but I wanted to have their conservatism mixed with the new ideas of youth and with the attitudes of people who had recently come to Christ from outside the church.
I wanted more young people involved in church administration and more women and more people from the edge of the church. I discussed this with the love of my life, my 18-year-old girlfriend Beverley. She took an active part in everything I did and we discussed long into the night before I left to go back to College, how we should handle the problem. Eventually I came up with a new programme of church administration.
It was going to be called the Functional Church Board. We took the major functions of the church: its worship life, evangelism, stewardship, social activities, education, youth ministries, finance, missionary outreach and the like, and created a separate committee for each function. One member of the Officers’ Board would be on each committee and each committee would appoint three representatives to a central committee that would meet monthly. Each committee would be totally responsible for its area of work.
The Missionary Committee, for example, would promote the interests of missions in the life of the church, publicise the mission fields, encourage prayer for missionaries, letter writing and parcel sending and invite visiting missionaries to be speakers at special meetings.
The Education Committee, for example, would run the Sunday School, adult classes, teenage groups, develop curriculum, promote its group activities, enrol teachers and conduct teacher training programmes, organise its own budget and work out a master plan for educational facilities.
The old Board would not meet at all but would be dissolved among the membership of all of these other functional committees. When we came together three representatives from each committee would compose a much larger board and would include more women, younger people and the enthusiastic new Christians who were joining us.
I shared this vision with Beverley. I knew the Board would be totally resistant but Beverley encouraged me to go ahead with the planning. So we called a special church meeting to discuss the new system of Functional Church Government for a Sunday afternoon. This I was sure would capture the imagination of the large number of people who would attend and break the monopoly of the small group who resisted every change.
But God was on their side. The Saturday morning before the Sunday church meeting I felt an agonising pain in my right side. It grew so bad that I had to limp off to our family doctor, Dr. W.A. Kemp. His broad and strong fingers probed into my side causing excruciating agony. He looked up at me over his glasses, “You have a burst appendix there, my lad. It has to come out straight away. You haven’t even got time to go home. I want you in hospital immediately and I will operate within an hour.”
Before I knew what was happening I was being wheeled into the little surgery of the house that served as our local hospital. It only had three or four rooms and probably could not cater for more than eight or ten patients at any one time. The old matron had been there for years and had delivered almost every baby in the community, including myself eighteen years earlier. I remember Dr. Kemp switching on a movable lamp above the operating table, placing a wire mask over my face, then pieces of gauze and cotton wool, and then dripping ether onto the gauze. He asked me to repeat my name and address and count backwards and very soon I was unconscious.
My next impression was waking up and round the bed stood my widowed mother, my girlfriend Beverley, and Dr. Kemp. He was waxing enthusiastically about how successful the surgery had been and how I had been saved in the very nick of time. Dr. Kemp leant over me and in my hazy mind I could hear him saying, “Don’t you worry about your church services tomorrow morning. I will come and see you early in the morning and then I will go out and preach for you.” And the doctor who took out my appendix went the following morning and filled the pulpit for me.
“But what about the church meeting? Who can explain my ideas?” There was only one person who knew all that I had in mind – my 18-year-old girlfriend, Beverley. “Will you? You know it. You can do it.” Beverley looked askance. It was one thing for me to take on the entire Church Board in a public meeting but it was really asking too much for her to do it. But her love and loyalty in that emergency overcame her reticence.
That morning at church Dr. Kemp explained my predicament and absence, preached a good sermon and encouraged everybody to stay for lunch and for the public meeting in the hall that afternoon. The hall was filled with enthusiastic people. There was one group, however, who were less enthusiastic. In my absence the meeting was chaired by Basil, the Church Secretary. He opened with what must have been the deciding statement of the entire meeting, “You all know why this meeting has been called – to discuss some new hair-brained scheme of church government. I want you all to know I do not agree with that suggestion. There is nothing wrong with our Board as it is. We have the right system, but Mr. Moyes wants you to discuss it. His girlfriend Beverley will now explain it all to us.”
Beverley read the letter that I had sent to all the members outlining the plan of participation. She then expounded the various functional committees and explained how each one would work, each under a chairman with a committee of new people round about the chairman.
After a long and careful explanation Basil said, “Are there any questions?” And then, without pausing to wait for any said, “Is there anyone in favour?” And then, without pausing to wait for anybody to comment, indicated it would be put to the vote. I have no doubt that the people there that day felt intimidated. Basil continued relentlessly on. Beverley felt defeated, humiliated, rejected. She sat down in tears. Basil was triumphant; there would be no change to the Board.
The taking of the vote was a mere formality. However, immediately the meeting was closed a number of old people who had been around for a long time and not so much intimidated by the Church Secretary came up to Beverley and were quite defiant, “It is a good idea. It is time we had some changes in this church.” And of course many of the younger people stood around in groups talking to each other in quiet tones.
Gradually the people drifted out. The Board was in control. Nothing would change.
But then the greatest surprise of all occurred. Basil was not happy with his victory. His victory over an 18-year-old girl seemed quite empty. He went over to Beverley and said, “How are you going home? Are you going home by train as usual? You are not going to travel 15 miles by yourself. You can’t do that. I’ll drive you home.” Basil had never driven Beverley home before. He only knew that she travelled every Sunday to come to worship with me by train those 15 miles from the other side of Melbourne. Beverley protested, “But it will take you a couple of hours to travel out to Mount Albert.”
“No”, said Basil, “let me do it. I owe it you. You are a good girl. And a brave one. I admire you.”
Beverley visited me later that night in hospital. She was in tears. It had been the worst experience of her life. She had tried to present faithfully what was a good idea but ran into the opposition of the years, which were determined not to move.
That idea of Functional Church Government died forever. But something was born in the church through that meeting that day. The people believed in us, and what we were trying to do. Beverley had actually won the day although not the vote. For Basil changed. He realised our sense of commitment and desire to help their church grow. He started to support us.
Not long afterwards Beverley and I became engaged and Basil led the church in celebrating our engagement. Three years later we married and he and Dorothy came to our wedding as proud guests bearing a most beautiful hand made coffee table as their gift for us.
It was not long after the Functional Church Government programme was defeated that Basil moved a motion at the Annual Meeting of the church that they make a special appeal to the Federal College of The Bible to allow me to continue ministering in that church for another two years. Then after another year, he moved another motion asking if we could be appointed after ordination for another two years, and then another two years. We remained more than seven years and the part time student church became a part time preaching appointment of an ordained man, then a full time appointment with students assisting, and behind that development and growth was Basil. We never did implement the Functional Church Government programme. We did not change the church government structures at all, but we did change the church. And leading the church was the man who had opposed it for so long.
We now saw growth and development, the purchase of new properties and the renovation of old. We raised more money than ever before and appointed new people to positions of authority. In fact we saw something of a revival of life that the church had not seen for decades and it went from decline and certain death to renewal and continues to this day as a healthy, vigorous church in that community.
And I think the most telling feature was the change that occurred when Basil won the vote but lost his heart to a courageous 18-year-old girl.
God had funny ways of bringing about change. Perhaps if we had won the vote that day we would have had Basil as an opposition member to everything that we did. As it was we lost the vote but we won all of the people.
Basil became our most stalwart supporter, not just while we ministered there, but ever since. When I started the national television program, “Turn ‘Round Australia”, Basil became a monthly financial supporter, which he continued for the next twenty-seven years. Now close to one hundred years, Basil lives in retirement in Queensland. I regularly write and telephone him. He proudly tells everyone that he taught me everything I know. And he is right. He was a great mentor.
My second mentor was Charlie Ferris. The Cheltenham Church of Christ, where I ministered from 1966 to 1979 grew to become one of the largest congregations in Australia and Ice Cream Charlie was the ideal man for a period of growth and development. He was the State Manager of a large Electrical firm, and used to making sound business decisions. It was one of our children who called him ‘Ice Cream Charlie’.
But in those thirteen years of ministry the real mark lay in the number of buildings that were built around the Cheltenham Church of Christ. A new manse was constructed; a new office for the church, a twenty-three unit Christian retirement centre was constructed and opened in the presence of fourteen hundred people. We then built Greenways Village, which went on to have ninety seven units and a nursing home, and then the Christian Retirement Centre stage 2 of thirty six new units plus two new tennis courts, then Pine Lodge with sixteen more retirement units, three houses to be demolished for car parking, and another to be built as a centre for administration. The church was developing and growing, adding to its properties, and going out in faith in multi-million dollar developments. When the time came to announce my retirement I indicated that I wanted to stay for one more year – our thirteenth – so that in that year we could completely clear any debts on the entire property, leaving the multi-million dollar campus in pristine order with new buildings, a regular maintenance program and no debt.
During all of this time my wife Beverley was active in four different women’s organisations, and as pianist for two choirs. Our children were engaged in Sunday School activities, girls clubs, boys clubs, Christian Endeavour, Christian Youth Fellowship, Teens Club, tennis and netball teams.
Looking around on the final service after thirteen years of ministry I invited more than four hundred people present whom I had welcomed into membership of the church to stand. Many hundreds had been baptised over that thirteen years, and one thousand people had been buried. I had united in marriage more than two thousand individuals and seven out of every eight members of the church had joined during my ministry. The church was throbbing with life and was in good heart.
Together we bought houses, many of them around the church in order to get land for new developments. We built $5 million worth of buildings and paid for all of our debts. By this time the income of that church had the highest weekly offering of any church known in Australia and Ice Cream Charlie was the most competent treasurer you could imagine.
He had his finger on the pulse of church finances. He was able to talk in round figures with positive vision: “This is going to cost us $750,000 but I move we go ahead. We have a vision for growth. We will have to lift our income by 15% next year but we can raise it. The people here have got the capacity to give. We have a good programme going that is bringing honour to God. Do not worry about the money. Fulfil the mission of the church and the money will come.”
His speeches convinced many a special business meeting called to discuss some new project. What an absolute delight to have a Treasurer with a vision like that! Charlie not only kept the books for what had come in and gone out with accuracy, but he had a vision of where we ought to go in the future.
It was one of Charlie’s regular visits to come to our home on the night before Christmas and personally thank my wife and myself and our children for the year’s ministry. He always had our holiday pay made up in advance and always a bonus for last year’s service and, as well, an additional week’s payment as he said, “To buy the kids an ice cream.”
It was always his favourite saying and that extra week’s salary to buy the kids an ice cream was something that meant more to us as a touch of his love and concern than almost anything else.
Often during a hot summer’s January day he would stop one of our kids in the street and say, “Has your dad bought you that ice cream yet?” The kids could always reply with enthusiasm that we had a special treat at the end of each year knowing that it came from the church in appreciation of our ministry as a family. What a mentor Charlie Ferris was, and although our young children did not realise it, they were being encouraged in positive attitudes to the church, and discovering how their parents were appreciated.
My Third Mentor is Dr Jim Pendlebury. Jim was born in Cessnock. He was educated in primary schools in Cessnock and Griffith and attended Cessnock High School where he won an exhibition to Sydney University and a Teacher’s College scholarship.
Over the next years he graduated Bachelor of Science with Honours, Diploma in Education, Master of Science with Honours at Macquarie University, and then later Doctor of Philosophy at Macquarie University. He was amongst the first Master of Science graduates and the first Ph. D. in Chemistry to graduate from Macquarie University. All the time he was studying in post graduate work, he never gave up his Christian commitment to his home Church at Bexley or to Wesley Mission. He declined an opportunity to do academic research in America in order to continue his service in the Churches of Sydney.
He has won many awards and scholarships including an International Teacher Development Program scholarship that led to him travelling to study in the United States. He has been made a life member of the New South Wales Science Teachers Association, and was granted the meritorious Service Medal from the Sydney College of Advanced Education. He was honoured by the Queen with the Medal of the Order of Australia, and has been recognised both by the community, professional associations, and church associations with their highest honours.
Dr. Pendlebury has written many scientific, educational and research science articles and is the author of several books.
Dr. Pendlebury has provided leadership within the Methodist and Uniting Churches for more than 50 years. With his wife Thelma, he has held all the leading official positions within their home congregation at Bexley Uniting Church.
In 1968 he became a member of the executive Board of Wesley Mission, and has continued for almost forty years. For over 34 years he has been the Honorary Treasurer of Wesley Mission, and has seen the Budget grow under his oversight from $1 million to $150 million per annum, all while he worked with us in an honorary capacity.
He has held many positions within the Uniting Church Presbyteries and Synod, and for the past fifteen years has been Chairman of the Council of Wesley Institute for Ministry and the Arts. He has also served as a Board Member for the Alan Walker College for Evangelism.
For the past 27 years of my leadership, he has been a close colleague, mentor, and advisor on every aspect of Wesley Mission’s growth and development, and with his wife, Thelma, have become our closest friends.
The fourth mentor was Professor Alf Pollard. Professor Pollard was an actuary and regarded as one of the world’s leaders in that field. He was born in Melbourne, grew up on Norfolk Island, and educated in Sydney. He was the most brilliant student in NSW in the Leaving Certificate in his year. At Sydney University he won 12 scholarships and prizes and the University medal as the best student of all facilities. He graduated Bachelor of Arts, Master of Economics and Doctor of Philosophy. He then graduated as Master of Science and Doctor of Science. He held many Fellowships. He was at various times an expert in technological science, mathematics, acoustics, astronomy and statistics. He became expert in psychology, demography, divinity, economics and actuarial studies. He was the foundation professor of actuarial studies and economics at Macquarie University. He was the author of ten books and over 50 research papers, and the editor of Economic Trends published monthly from 1966 – 2002. He was an Officer in the Order of Australia and consultant to the Federal Government on matters of economics and superannuation.
Alf was granted nine international awards and honours. He was a doyen in the insurance industry.
He loved sport and played tennis for seventy years on a daily basis, playing over 12,000 sets against the same singles opponent, and like any statistician, has kept every result. He was a fully committed Christian, active all his life in the Methodist and then Uniting Churches. In 1979, at my request, he became Honorary Secretary of Wesley Mission Sydney. He served the Wesley Mission Board and Parish Council faithfully as an Officer of the Mission, taking part in making every key decision. He was responsible for taking Wesley Mission from a financially shaky Church, to probably Australia’s strongest and most endowed charity.
Alf deeply loved music, and all his life sang in choirs. For some years he was the conductor of the Wesley Mission choir and the choir at Lane Cove Uniting Church. He was Chairman of the Radio Community Chest, which produced the Messiah in Sydney Town Hall every year, the Sydney Cultural Council which ran the Sydney Eisteddfod, and the Lane Cove Musical Society. He was not only a singer, but also a pianist and composer. He was trustee to many important trusts. I learnt many of my management skills at his feet as well as the more formal instruction from three of the best management colleges in the nation.
My fifth mentor is Dr David Greatorex. Professor Greatorex like Professor Pollard and Dr Pendlebury was an academic. Like Professor Pollard he was an officer in the Order of Australia. He had graduated from Sydney University with BA honours and a Masters degree in Commerce and Administration. He was charted accountant who went on in his business studies and completed a PhD. He worked for many years with IBM in Australia New Zealand and the United States of America being fast tracked for senior advancement.
He had been director of a number of very important Australian companies and financial institutions but after his time as a senior manager with IBM became the Managing Director of Capita Finance Group Australia, the Chairman of the State Bank of NSW and visiting professor over many years of Business Studies at Macquarie University. He was also the financial backer of a significant number of start-up companies in medical and computer equipment. His voluntary service to the community included the Sydney Dance Company, The Centennial Park Trust, The NSW Cancer Council, The Girl Guides Foundation and the Salvation Army. He became Chairman of the Westmead Millennium Research Institute to develop facilities and research functions on the cutting edge of medical technology and has been a director over many years of the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. He is a fellow of many significant associations including The Australian Institute of Management and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
I got to know David well in 1987 when Professor Pollard brought together a cross section of people to have Friday lunch together at the Australia Club. This included a significant number of academics and outstanding businessmen. David was a member of that group and I immediately developed a good friendship with him. He was a member of my Rotary Club and so we had another area of close association. David had been an outstanding sportsman in his youth to national standard and had a strong Christian background. After a while I invited him to join the Wesley Mission Board, which he did so enthusiastically. His business expertise was outstanding and helped us immensely.
Although I had in Professor Pollard and Dr Pendlebury two of the most outstanding honourary leaders any Church could have as Mission secretary and Mission treasurer I always believed that we should look to the future in terms of risk management and have someone standing in the wings in the event that either of the other two should become incapacitated or die. I brought to my to colleagues Dr Greatorex as a possible replacement for either of them and David received their unanimous support. later when Professor Pollard did unexpectedly collapse following one of his usual vigorous tennis matches, I asked David Greatorex to become Wesley Mission Honorary Secretary a post which he accepted with enthusiasm. Since that time David and his wife Deirdre have become very dear friends on a personal level and David has become a very astute advisor to me in financial and managerial matters. In 2000, Prime Minister John Howard presented his firm SecureNet with the 1999 Australian Exporter of the Year award, capping a remarkable 12 months for the three-year-old company.
He is chairman of six emerging companies, of which SecureNet is the most advanced, one is an outsourcing consultancy, another is in telecommunications and yet another is health insurance. This outstanding businessman and academic like Alf and Jim, has not only become one of my three closest personal friends but an outstanding mentor and advisor. With my wife Beverley we enjoy the company of these three men and their outstanding wives. With their support I could withstand any social pressure and with their guidance achieve beyond my natural capacity.
I would encourage every minister to build a long-term network of mentors, to whom they are absolutely accountable, to whom they owe transparency of conduct and thinking and from whom they are prepared to learn. My three friends know everything about my life. I have listened to them. I am accountable to them. I am indebted to them.
The life of a minister can have some real highlights. I was always interested in playing sport and meeting with athletes. From the early 1980’s, I supported a Baptist Minister Dr Mark Tronson, in developing chaplains in all the major sports. I was too involved in ministering to Wesley Mission to become involved in being a chaplain to a sporting team, and as the chaplains were appointed to all the major sporting teams across Australia, I hung back, knowing that was not part of my own core ministry.
But Mark then came up with another idea. He asked if I would be their appointed chaplain to the national Olympic team. It was short term, and to the Winter Olympics in Calgary Canada, 1988. It was right at the time of us moving from our Pitt Street premises into the new George Street premises, but I jumped at the chance. I discovered how young most Olympians were and how devastating it was for them when after carrying the hopes of the family, friends and country, they became part of the 96% of all Olympians who would win no medal. I was thrilled to be a part of the experience, meeting some fabulous people within the Olympic Family, and helping others in various ways. Whilst in Calgary I addressed a number of Christian organisations and Christian youth organisations.
Incidentally, this gave me some ideas that I took to the Premier of Victoria to help in the Sydney 2000 Olympic bid. He insisted on absolute secrecy so other cities would not copy the idea. Then at Monte-Carlo, the Sydney team announced their surprise. A committee had been established of which I was the Chair, to find home hospitality for 10,000 parents of athletes. We also made specials fare arrangements for those parents and tickets for the events. We would supply bed and breakfast for them all free of cost. I used all of my Rotary and Church contacts, with some amazing organisation by outstanding Rotarians. It was this, said Premier Fahey, which tipped the balance in favour of Sydney among the Olympic voters.
During those same Sydney Olympics of 2000, we hosted 200 American Christians who helped us in our daily street outreach, and our evening rallies that featured some of the world’s greatest athletes in Wesley theatre. Every night Gold medal winning athletes gave testimony to the power of Jesus Christ in their lives. My special addresses each night, have been continuously accessed on the Internet ever since.
However, that led to another interesting expansion of my ministry. Would I be willing to be nominated as Chaplain to the Office of the Prime Minister? I would be available to meet with the Prime Minister at his request for any personal ministry, undertake to specifically pray for him and his family, and be willing to attend those functions where a chaplain might be required. Then nomination was made and I was accepted by Prime Minister Bob Hawke as his Chaplain. That led to a remarkable expansion of ministry with some amazing people.
Prime Minister Bob Hawke, had been a deeply committed Christian as a youth but his adult behaviour did not measure up to Christian standards. I got the feeling that he wished it did. Beverley and I suddenly found ourselves on the Commonwealth Government’s VIP List for all sorts of functions. I was invited to say grace at dinners attended by the Royal Family, to meet and have discussions with the Queen and Prince Phillip, The Prince of Wales and Diana, and to be guest at important functions in Sydney and Canberra. I would drop the Prime Minister a private note from time to time telling him that I was praying for certain difficult decisions he was facing.
Once while walking with Prime Minister Hawke down a passage, he drew me aside into an office of some other person and waved his minders away. He told me of some concerns he had with two of his children and gave me details that should not be included here. Then he was weeping. He was to weep openly on television later, but this was the first time I think he wept in public. I held his arm, and I prayed for him and each member of the family by name. He was not then the Prime Minister, but a father, overwhelmed with family cares. He was utterly sincere and concerned for them. The tears were real.
This special chaplaincy seemed to be so well received, that I was asked to expand my ministry to the person of the Governor General. Governor General Bill Hayden accepted the appointment enthusiastically, and I discovered that in the highest office of the nation was a man with spiritual hunger. He responded to me with great warmth and extended invitations to dine at Admiralty House. On one occasion he and I were walking ahead of security men following his opening of the next stage of the Alan Walker Village. We got into a lift, and he waved the security men back. He wanted a moment of private conversation. A great storm had enveloped Carlingford, and at that moment as we were in the lift, lighting struck and took out the main supply station for the whole area. Our lift stopped mid-floor. The security men yell at us not to panic. We stood for a while, and as the time dragged on, sat on the lift floor. “I want to talk to you about Jesus” said the Governor General. We had a long and pointed discussion that led to me presenting the claim of Jesus on his life. I urged a public announcement of his commitment to Jesus. He indicated that was not possible while he was in office, but could occur afterwards. He later rang and asked me to bring the videos I had made in the Holy Land on the life of Jesus, and to talk further. I did so.
He and Dallas then decided to quietly and without announcement go to a church near their private home in Queensland. That visit was a disaster. He rang me to ask why the church members behaved as they did. An over enthusiastic Pentecostal group stressing “being slain in the Spirit” was too much for a seeker of Christ. A gentler approach by someone he trusted would have made all the difference.
I had known Prime Minister John Howard for many years. He is a committed Christian. One of the most amazing things I have witnessed was the Prime Minister kneeling down at an Aboriginal Praise Corroboree, being surrounded by Aboriginal ministers who laid hands upon him and prayed for his leadership. I have prayed for him through his tenure. He always greets me most warmly and has suggested Federal Government help for a number of our ministries such as our suicide prevention service, our drug and rehabilitation services, and a special donation of $10 million to update all of life Line’s telephone equipment. He has attended many services in which I have been the preacher. When two to three thousand people attended a dinner to celebrate his thirty years in Parliament, I was asked to be one of those making a tribute to his leadership. That made the local liberal politicians who sat with me in the Legislative Council sit up and take notice!
Dr Peter Hollingworth had a depressing and degrading time until he was forced out of office as Governor General, the first ever to do so. Since that time, we have spoken and I continue to pray for him. He was the one who invested me as a Companion of the Order of Australia, our highest national honour. We have been invited to dinner at Yarralumla, and he has called me since. General Michael Jeffreys A.C., and his wife Marlene are outstanding Christian people and I appreciate their friendship.
General Douglas MacArthur in World War 2 had an objective: to expand the area of the allies’ occupation, and to push back the forces of Japanese expansionism until victory brought peace. He achieved this by island hopping developing beachheads on small islands throughout the northern Pacific, building landing strips and ancillary services, establishing partnerships with local communities to strengthen the offensive and pushing on towards his goal, the defeat of Japan.
None of the islands of itself could accomplish this. But together, the movement would win a permanent development and a spread of democratic governments. MacArthur was Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific. In 1943, MacArthur’s forces drove the Japanese from New Guinea, western New Britain, and the Admiralty Islands. By September 1944, MacArthur had also recaptured western New Guinea and Morotai. On Oct. 20, 1944, MacArthur and his forces landed on the Philippine island of Leyte. His troops landed on Mindoro in the central Philippines, then invaded Luzon. He retook the southern Philippines and Borneo before Japan surrendered in August 1945. The process of island hopping and beachhead penetration followed by rapid support with ancillary forces and partnerships with the local community was a successful strategy of penetration and goal achievement. It is this military tactic, that provides Wesley Mission Sydney with its strategy, which will enable the fulfilment of its vision throughout Australia and beyond.
Wesley Mission has goals as outlined in our Vision Statement and in the sixty or more performance indicators our industry groups have identified. ” Wesley Mission Sydney is a strategic city church committed to the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a ministry of word and deed throughout Australia, ministering to human need, utilising the media and providing personal and family care.” That is a big vision. Some would say it is an impossible task. How can one city church achieve such penetration and growth?
The strategy I suggest of beachhead partnerships is similar to that used by General Douglas MacArthur. One area of our work will expand into a rural or regional community, establish partnership with the local churches there, bring in reinforcements while we have a brief occupancy with an employment service or disability service, or other government funded operation. Then quickly, with our new local partners, we introduce other ministries, suicide prevention, credit counselling, prison ministries, mental health services, eating disorders programs, student ministry, evangelism visits, homes for hope, homeless people, street youth programs, drug education, foster families, home care programs and so on.
We are already well known in every area. For the past 21 years we have telecast into every community in Australia, mentioning week by week, various parts of our work. I have written twice to every church in every community in NSW where we plan to work. They know us. They have heard of what we do elsewhere.
Now, in about 80 communities we had a beachhead opening up. We moved quickly to establish relationships and start bringing in other services.
Some examples come quickly to mind. We established Serenity Farm at Horsley Park and established good relationships with nearby Fairfield Uniting Church. Their members became a support group for our staff and for the recovering alcoholics we were helping. They continued even when the farm turned into our various lodges.
From that Credit Line leased some of their vacant premises. We have been providing preachers for their services. Fairfield Employment services opened just around the corner. They began a meal service to the poor and we used our media to promote them. The Fairfield Uniting Church now has Presbytery approval to sell a property, redevelop their church hall, and formally link with Wesley Mission. Staff members Noreen Towers, Nerida Dunkerley, Keith Suter, Wayne Koivu and Graham Towle have been part of this process. The story could be repeated with other staff in many other places: the Central Coast, West Wyalong, Castle Hill, Richmond, Penrith, and so on.
To influence a whole country is a large vision, but through our media: videos, internet, radio, television and our travel, we discover we are now influencing areas far from our shores. Our books and Bibles by the tens of thousands are distributed in Siberia and China. Our work-parties have built houses in Fiji and later this year, the first library and community centre in Rotuma.
Some of us may wonder what we can do to help considering the vastness of the problems facing our state, our country and our world. Hunger in Ethiopia and the sub-Saharan area is such a vast international problem that many people think it can never be solved. We grow pessimistic due to the size of the problem.
Our pessimism leads to paralysis. Because we cannot do everything we cease to do even the something we can do. One does not need to travel overseas to come face to face with hunger and homelessness, disability and unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse. But can one church and one person achieve much? Who can forget that nameless Chinese man clutching his plastic shopping bag running out before the row of lumbering tanks in Beijing, forcing the front one to turn aside and then to stop? He waved his plastic shopping bag and forced the whole menacing row of mighty tanks to halt. Defeated by courage and a plastic bag!
In this lucky country we are sick of people suffering from cold homelessness and grinding poverty. The only thing that prevents our significant economic problems being cured and the poor being helped is that politicians are paralysed by the size of the problem. It appears too much so nothing is done. Rural problems in Australia are large. The Uniting Church is doing little or nothing. Corporate Australia is withdrawing, but rural and regional Australia is Wesley Mission’s biggest opportunity for growth, as we exercised the strategy of beachhead partnerships.
In 1979, I preached to the growing numbers of Chinese people in a Chinese service I had started in Wesley Mission on the theme: ” It’s God’s Time In Asia.” Later, I was to put Rev James Mau and Rev Fu Cain Chen onto the staff to minister to the growing number of Chinese we had in our congregation. Later when we began the International Congregation with Dr Tony Chi most of the Chinese attending came from Singapore. More than 1000 Asians were attending by 1990.
But when I asked Rev Wilfred Chee to join us it was with the intention of better serving the Mandarin and Cantonese speaking Chinese. Because I have always had a burden in my heart for the Chinese people hearing the Gospel, especially those who were poor and unable to speak English, in 1979 I announced I would be starting a worship service for Chinese people. I had completed some research, which indicated there were approximately 40,000 Chinese living in Sydney. By ringing all of the major churches and denominational headquarters in the city I established that a total of about 38,000 Chinese did not go to any church. This I regarded as a mission field.
So I established a ministry of outreach to the Chinese, started services where my preaching was translated in Mandarin and Cantonese and then sought these two outstanding Chinese Ministers to take over.
I was admiring the fact that these Chinese in Dr Wilfred Chee’s service are affluent, educated and professional in their outlook and qualifications. The numbers of doctors, teachers, lawyers, accountants, professors, – is really outstanding. Mercedes cars crowd our car park. They are Chinese of competence and ability who have really established themselves in this country but I knew there were many poor Chinese here. So not long after Rev Dr Wilfred Chee, joined our staff I said to him: “Are there any poor Chinese in Sydney?” Wilfred replied, “Yes, there are many poor Chinese” I asked him “How many? Where do they live? Where do they work?” Wilfred replied, “We do not know many but they probably work in the kitchens of Chinese restaurants.”
I thought for a moment and then said. “Wilfred, I want you to lay aside for the next 2 months or for however long it will take you, all your regular responsibilities. We will get other people to cover for you on those but I want you to visit every Chinese Restaurant in Central Sydney. Visit every Chinese laundry and any other places of business, which might employ Chinese. Do not go in the front entrance and do not speak to the proprietor. Instead go up the back lanes. I want you to meet the poor Chinese who do not speak English. I want you to enter the restaurant by the back door and speak directly to the workers. Find out who they are and what their needs are.”
Dr. Chee undertook a backdoor, back lane visitation program throughout the Central Business District. He reported that most of the people he met were illegal immigrants. They were mostly illiterate and frequently financially exploited. He estimated there might be upwards of two thousand such illegal, illiterate and exploited Chinese.
We had discovered a hidden people group where our normal methods of reaching Chinese would not work. We decided upon a strategy and Wilfred personally visited and invited many of these kitchen hands to an evangelistic mission. We conducted the evangelistic mission in our George Street complex near China Town, used only Chinese musical instruments and old well-known Chinese hymns and conducted the mission commencing at 12 a. m. (midnight) to 2 a.m. The reason why we ran the mission in the early hours of the morning was that this was the only time when the kitchen hands were free from work. 26 men made commitments to Christ in that evangelistic mission.
We established a church fellowship and worship service for them. Sundays were not suitable for worship for them because they worked long hours on Sundays in order to feed wealthy Chinese Christians who love to go to restaurant after the service. Our worship service for kitchen hands were held on Wednesday afternoon at 3.30 p.m. – the time most were free. We then discovered we had to establish English-speaking language classes and these were held early Saturday morning.
We then realised that most kitchen hands were locked into very boring and mundane work with no chance of improving themselves or their income. So we established with suitable translators work skill programs training these Chinese as specialised chefs and as front of the house waiters. We established also The Evangelical Chinese Library to provide elementary Christian books on theology and very soon we had scores of Chinese learning the language, learning new work skills and visiting our Church library often staying for hours. 4 or 5 mature Chinese Christians developed the library as a ministry, talking with them, providing literature and a telephone ministry seeking better employment.
While working with this hidden “peoples group” we found there was a sub group of illegal workers. These were far from illiterate. They were mainly University Students who had overstayed their government approvals. They were illegal immigrants without work permits they were also working in positions where they were easily exploited. That group of students were likewise encouraged to attend special services for them at a time suitable and in a format that was close to their traditional culture. English speaking classes were established, work skill programs were commenced, books at their advanced level of understanding were purchased and the government was approached seeking amnesty for all of these over stayers so they would be free from prosecution. I approached the Immigration Department to regularise their stay upon their admission of over-staying. This was done.
To help students feel at home, important cultural festivals like “the Moon Festival” were held except on these occasions all the normal cultural emphases were made with a Christian message.
At the first Moon Festival attended by more than 800 Chinese students I preached on the theme that Christians do not look to the Moon – but to the Son of God. The audience grasped the difference instantly. The quality of musical performing skills, of singing and dance were absolutely outstanding.
We followed this up with a number of “Love China” programs to support the students who had been rejected by China’s Government because of their association with Tiananmen Square. On the first anniversary of commencing this work among illegal students we had a new congregation with more than 120 baptised members. At the second anniversary we had 250 baptised members present.
The development of these Chinese congregations from the hidden peoples group is a classic example of how a city church can minister to sub groups within the heart of the city. Most have since gone on their way, to other places, have graduated from the University and the restaurant kitchens. We need to find others whom we can serve, including new arrivals from Hong Kong.
God is preparing people for us to meet. He prepared my first close Chinese friend when I was three years of age. She was a three-year-old girl named Rosemary Woo. Her parents ran a Chinese laundry. Thirty years later, a member of a Chinese family knocked on my door and said, “Mr. Minister. Would you come and bury my sister. She is a Buddhist and we have no Buddhist priest.” Of course I would. That family have remained friends with us to this day. I conducted the wedding service for their daughter. In their inter family, many members are now active Christians.
When I stepped as a little boy through the doorway into the Chinese laundry I was beginning a journey that has made it possible for our family to step into a wonderful friendship that is rich to this day with hundreds of Chinese Families.
God prepares others for us, but we have to step over the threshold. The Chinese congregations are very important to Wesley Mission.
Ministers in the Uniting Church are not all happy with their experiences as a minister. I recently rang ministers across Australia who have been in public conflict with denominational officials. Most felt forced out of ministry and deprived of their livelihood and calling. None of these ministers were guilty of any moral lapse or public offence. Every single one complained of the denominational process, of what they defined as lack of justice, of indifference, callous treatment, secret trials and unfair process. John Mark Ministries states there are now up to 10,000 former ministers in Australia, the majority of whom feel they have been failed by the denomination, which they served. This is a scandal of wasted resources, officious bureaucracy and a lack of mediation skills. To be a minister of religion today is to be an endangered species. Denominational officials seem to delight in targeting any minister who gathers large numbers of people to worship.
The church was given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19). This includes reconciliation within marriage and between fellow believers who have deep disagreement. (1 Corinthians 7:10f and Matt 5:23f.) The qualities that should be found in the reconciliation process include conflict mediation that is biblically based, open, affirming, inclusive, accepting, personal and non-judgmental.
The way forward will involve at least five steps:
1. There must be a recovery of doctrinal integrity. Mainline Church members must pray and dedicate themselves to the renewal of their denominations. Within the Uniting Church a group called The Covenanters have committed themselves to daily prayer for the denomination. There is a need to recover core New Testament values and reconsider the role and authority of the Scriptures.
2. There needs to be an accountability of church officials within the ecclesiastical bureaucracy, not within their own circle, but in the accountability process that includes outside observers and parish participants. Church officials should receive training in conflict resolution and management training before their appointment.
3. There needs to be a commitment to restructure top-heavy administration with a downsizing of expensive bureaucracy. Many denominations have brought in outside experts to make recommendations to solve such issues but then keep the implementing of the recommendations to themselves. Hence no real changes are made. Within the Uniting Church thousands of dollars have been spent on outside mediators, without the results of the mediation ever being reported or implemented.
4. There needs to a fresh approach to the management of church resources. Within the Uniting Church there is not one official known to me, with post- graduate qualifications in management. There is little concept of benchmarking and achieving world best practise. Many of the tasks fulfilled by people trained in pastoral responsibilities would be better out-sourced to appropriate organisations outside the church. There is a role for church administration, and it is best kept to areas of policy making, setting standards of service delivery, research, setting visions, creating flexible regulations, overseeing ministry training and quality assurance.
5. There needs to be an emphasis on the kingdom of God not just denominationalism. Para-Church organisations are not to be feared or snobbishly rejected, but incorporated into the denomination’s evangelistic and service thrust.
There is probably no greater waste of the resources provided by faithful members in the pews, than what occurs within the church structures themselves. There is no greater denial of the doctrine of reconciliation than that evidenced by church officials who cannot cope with conflict. When we get our doctrine of reconciliation right, our practice will improve. Ministry is the highest profession open to a Christian. It is a pity that those so called and ordained should, find in such large numbers, that there is no place for them in the congregations of the Church due to the interference by those who do not have accountability to any congregation.
Many people have little idea what a minister does apart from conducting services on a Sunday. I was visiting a member of the Cheltenham Church of Christ at his work many years ago as had become my custom and I was intrigued to see Ray Verity an accountant and efficiency expert completing a time and motion study on people who worked in his particular industry. Over lunch I asked him if he would be interested in doing a time and motion study on myself. He researched the papers on the subject and declared later that a time and motion study had never been conducted on a clergyman. So we set up a program where over a period of 36 days I carried a time book with me and noted every 15 minutes exactly what I was doing the distance travelled if in the car, the people met, the type of work I was undertaking and so on. I thought this would be relatively easy but it was a huge task and a travelling alarm clock going off every 15 minutes in my pocket kept me up to the task. At the end he analysed on a huge matrix all of the activities undertaken the amount of time spent over the 36 days and then analysed what I was doing in the light of expectations drawn up from a survey by ordinary members attending the Church, other people in the community selected at random, and the Elders and the Deacons of the church who had the responsibility of oversight of ministry.
Then he asked 30 penetrating questions. In answering some of those questions I changed the practices of my life entirely. For example, he had indicated that I had spent 17 hours over the 36 days on writing letters, producing Church papers, orders of service, printing, folding new sheets and the like. His question was penetrating. Are you paid to do this work? Have you been trained in the efficient use of such equipment and so on. I decided from that time on I would quote “stick to my knitting”. That is, I would do the work of ministry and I would raise funds to employ people with gifts and expertise in all of these other support activities. I would encourage every minister to do the same kind of analysis. It made me a much more effective and efficient person and built up significantly the staff who would work with me. When Ray Verity completed that time and motion study on my life I was the only employed person in that Church. Within seven years of that date we were employing fifteen staff, had increased dramatically the numbers of people attending by five fold and had increased our Church income many more time than this.
Basically my diary has followed the same pattern. I try to keep Monday free for recovery after six non-stop days including all day Saturday and Sunday. We have had for more than thirty years our own home which required gardening, building and maintenance on this day as well. Although our children were at school for most of this time, this was a time when Beverley and I were able to do those things about our home which all married couples do. However, since being at Wesley Mission, one in every four Mondays has been taken up making television programs which involved the preaching of four sermons, conducting four interviews and hosting a very demanding television schedule. The days off have always also been the time when I started my sermon preparation for the following Sunday, wrote the manuscripts for books, radio and television programs and other extra activities. On the mornings of each week day my primary responsibility was teaching school classes. Throughout most of my life I have taught secondary school children with over 900 being taught every week for 15 years. During my rural ministry I also taught an additional five classes in primary schools each week. School classes commenced at 8.30 in the morning and ran till 12.30pm and also involved the lugging of heavy projector equipment from classroom to classroom. At Cheltenham I was unable to do primary school teaching and my wife, Beverley, taught in my place teaching many classes in the primary school. This was another voluntary task she did in the life of the Church apart from playing for the choir, church services, weddings and funerals and raising funds for our work. She was never paid for any of this activity yet worked more than 80 hours a week in an unpaid capacity. Today many minister’s wives have to go to work and the Church misses out on the tremendous contribution that is then made over the generations by the wives of ministers, using their skills and abilities in running meetings, auxiliaries, clubs and activities in a voluntary capacity.
Each week day morning began early mostly before 6.00am with Bible study and the writing into a wide margined Bible insights into the scripture passages that would be used the following week. We would also use this time for prayer for church members and people suffering from illness or family crisis. In more recent years Beverley has had her own special prayer time where she kept a daily diary of those people for whom she prayed and the consequential results of those prayers. In our first three ministries I had the advantage of mostly having lunch with my wife – the most private time in the entire week. But usually during this period of time I would also be dashing off orders of service, selecting hymns and writing paragraphs for the weekly newssheet.
At Wesley Mission three mornings a week would be taken up with conducting meetings of Management committees, Aged Care committees, Senior Staff meetings and the like.
Week day afternoons are always spent in pastoral visitation. As early in the week as possible, I would always visit everybody that we knew who was in hospital or a nursing home or in some specialised Aged Care facility to remind them of the love and concern we had for them. I would conduct communion services with frail and shut in people taking some of the bread and wine from the previous Sunday’s services. I would always visit every day about 5 homes to meet with members who are home at that time. These were always made by appointment unless I had some spare time in which I would call into the nearest available to the last person I had visited.
With over a thousand funerals during thirteen years at Cheltenham most afternoons also had at least one funeral. Every home I visited was listed in a large ledger carried in my car which included the name of every member and contact of the church and then running across the page the dates of every visit I made to that family home. Listed were also the names of children and any other person who might be in that home to jog my memory. I can tell you now for any given year even thirty years ago who I visited in which week. The names of people visited were listed for each monthly meeting of my Elders and people who needed further support from Elders and Church carers would be mentioned. It was always my aim to visit one hundred homes each month and to be able to report to the elders the names of every home visited. It was important with this pastoral visitation to also visit the homes where death had come or those persons who were frail and sick.
I tried to keep every Friday morning clear for sermon preparation and with Monday, Friday and some time on Saturday night, I would always see that at least 20 hours had been spent on those sermons. Evenings were always filled with activities. Tuesday and Thursdays before evening meal I would be training with the church sporting teams. Other days I would be counselling people who came in after their work. Evening meal was a good family time but unfortunately always interrupted by telephone calls from people who knew that we would be there at that time. Most mid-week evenings saw home group studies, elders and deacons meetings, and every Tuesday night was spent visiting the homes of non-members. Even after the auxiliary activities were completed late at night the minister is usually the last person to check that the church is secured, that all the halls are locked, that the chairs are stacked properly, the floors are swept and things made ready for the next day. At Wesley Mission on more than three hundred days, I opened a new office or a new building and on three hundred days attended a fete or fundraising event.
Saturdays are inevitably full of activities. Most of my Saturday mornings throughout my life have been spent on maintaining the church gardens, working in church working bees, doing maintenance on the church and manse properties, working with various fetes and fairs and, of course, conducting weddings. Having married more than two thousand individuals, I had lots of Saturdays taken up with wedding services and receptions. This inevitably clashed with sporting matches. I was frequently having to leave a sporting match halfway through to drive furiously home where my wife will have laid out my clothes on the bed and after a quick change run into the Church with gown flapping and church registers under my arm to arrive before the bride arrived. In spite of hundreds of weddings I was only beaten to the church by a bride on one occasion when an astute taxi driver kept driving around the block until I arrived. At many a wedding, if a guest had walked onto the platform and lifted up the leg of my trousers, red, yellow and black football socks would have come into view. Saturday nights throughout my whole life have always been spent in the final typing and printing of sermons for Sunday. Some time during the week time had to be found for letter writing, producing church papers or magazines and doing all of the other administrative tasks such as writing reports that are required by a church.
Ray Verity’s time and motion study showed that I was working 116 hours each week on the job. But even going to bed late at night when Beverley and I finished our day by having our Bible reading, devotional time and prayers for church members and the wider community, our work did not stop. Frequently during the night particularly in our early years, sleep would be interrupted by a telephone call to tell us that some member of a family had been taken to hospital or was close to death and a visit was immediately required. I used to get out of bed and put some day clothes on over my pyjamas particularly in the winter. I would return home after spending an hour or maybe more in a hospital or a home, hang up my clothes and be back into bed in pyjamas that were still warm. Ray Verity’s 116 hours a week outline forced me to face more effective and efficient ways of using my time and I have always appreciated that assessment.
Why do people come to Church? My basic answer is because of the pastoral care given to the people who associate with that particular church. Recently in 2002, the elders asked all people attending the Sunday evening services at Wesley Mission why they attended the 7pm services. There were some suggested answers and then people were invited to give other reasons. There were 26 reasons given in total with eight of the reasons receiving multiple votes. People were attracted to our evening service primarily because they were invited by someone else who always attended, but others came because of our radio and television programs. However most people indicated they continued to come “The uncompromising Word of God is preached in an interesting, inspiring and different manner by Rev. Dr. Gordon Moyes.” The second reason given by most was “The praise of the Lord in a Christian atmosphere of love and acceptance of all people regardless of colour, social status and friendship.” And the third reason given was “Interesting, enjoyable worship style, with different approaches to church services than what you usually find in a Church.” The role of ministry is one of the most exciting and varied lifestyles that can ever be undertaken and I’m thrilled to see that the same major emphasis are being made by my son and son-in-law as they continue their ministry today.
Recently, our minister son David, pastor of Belconnen Baptist Church, one of the largest Baptist churches in the nation, was leading a seminar of senior pastor’s in Sydney on developing churches. They were using as a resource a book called: “Breakout Churches” by Thom Rainer (Zondervan).
In the words of the author, “This book is the story of churches and leaders that broke from the shackles of mediocrity to become great churches and great leaders”. The Rainer Research Team conducted surveys of 50,000 churches and leaders, drawing on analogies from the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, and recommends the type of leader needed to move churches from stagnancy to growth and from mediocrity to greatness.
Here is a summary from “Breakout Churches” (p44) of the various levels of leadership.
Those ministers who could be described as a Called Leader, who know of God’s call to ministry and who have responded to that call: 98% of people surveyed. Those ministers who could be described as a Contributing Leader, who take time to do well the basics of Christian ministry such as preaching, teaching and prayer: 22% of all surveyed. The Outwardly-Focussed Leader who seeks to lead church and self to ministry beyond the walls of the church: 14% of all surveyed. The Passionate Leader who exudes a contagious enthusiasm for ministry; so others gladly follow: 6% of all surveyed. The Bold Leader who is willing to take risks, where success is only possible in God’s power: 3% of all surveyed. The Legacy Leader who has a burden for a successful ministry beyond his own lifetime: less than 1% of all surveyed.
The study group of senior pastors reflected on the 1% of church leaders that have made an impact on Australian Churches over the past decade. Only a few names came to mind among the group.
David sent me some comments from the group and wrote, “You are certainly in that 1%. Proud of you Dad.”
