ministry

At the last gathering, Jeff shared his dream for his ministry at the school. Here’s my notes.

Four years ago he felt the call to the local community. So in turn, he offered his services as a youth worker to the local secondary school in Noble Park. It was for three days, no pay and was accepted by the school - despite concerns about religion, which were worked through to the satisfaction of both sides.

I preached my first sermon when I was 15 years old. It was at Bendigo CRC a country town in rural Victoria. I was incredibly nervous and I can’t even remember what I said. I do remember buying sunglasses that had clear lens underneath and the shaded sunglasses part flipped up, I broke the sunglass bit off and wore the clear glasses, probably hoping I would look older, wiser and permeate integrity and Godliness.

Measuring success in church has become a professional business. George Barna in his book ‘Marketing the Church’ states that the purpose of his book is to ‘more effectively reach people with the good news (Barna 1988: 13).’

Furthermore he states that ‘the average pastor has been trained in religious matters. Yet upon assuming church leadership, he is asked to run a business…The church is in the business of ministry…in essence he is judged as a businessman (Barna 1988:14).’ This is one of the characteristics of the western modern church.