Regional Snapshot

From Rod and Ruth Matthews
Australia and New Zealand

National churches
continue development

By Aub Warren

BURLEIGH HEADS, Australia—The result of more than two years of preparatory work has seen both the Australian and New Zealand churches establish national boards to take responsibility for governance issues in each country. In Australia a national board was established in April 2001, while in New Zealand a new board of trustees was established at a meeting in Auckland March 2 and 3, 2002. Regional director Rod Matthews sits on both boards, as an executive member in Australia and a nonvoting member in New Zealand.

The members of the church board in Australia conducted their first meeting for the year Jan. 26 to 28. Because of the various commitments of board members the meeting took place in Melbourne, Victoria, after a combined service in Dandenong, Jan. 26. Several board members were at the service and participated in a discussion session after the service and lunch.

The board agreed that it was important that its operating premise needed to be "looking ahead" not "looking to the past." This is a reasonable and responsible approach to our stewardship of the work of the gospel.

The board also agreed that the focus of central church administrative effort must clearly be expressed in an overt and intentional commitment to the spiritual development of the church and the development of genuine Christian spiritual community.

This means that while some of the church’s central administrative services must be immediately reduced to be within available income, Christian ministry education and church development resources must be not only protected but enhanced as a tool for the church’s growth and development.

The church established Pacific College at the end of 2000 to deliver Christian ministry training, including a qualification in Christian Ministry. Classes can be delivered through distance education (print and e-mail correspondence), intensive weekend classes, or at the college premises on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Flexible learning options mean that, after July, students may negotiate a starting time that suits their own schedule. Students can choose to study one or more classes at a time, and audit (not for credit) classes are also available.

Pacific’s current classes include: the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ, Spiritual Formation, Pastoral Care, Basic Pastoral Counselling, Christian Leadership, and Worship.

"The emphasis is on practical involvement in ministry," said college director John McLean.

Pacific’s classes have been received enthusiastically by students in Australia and New Zealand. Intensive weekend classes have been delivered in many church areas, and the college welcomes inquiries from students anywhere in the world.

For more information, contact the registrar at info@pacific.qld.edu.au, telephone 011 61 7 5593 4343, fax 011 61 7 5593 4662, or write to P.O. Box 2420, Burleigh MDC, Queensland, Australia, 4220.

At the end of 2001, the Australian Worldwide News published the following summaries from a selection of congregations around the country.

Wollongong, with an average attendance of 17 adults, is a developing congregation in which people enjoy coming together in a relaxed style. Their income has increased significantly over the last three years, and the congregation supports Ken and Joy Slade’s work in Papua New Guinea, the Summer Educational Program (SEP) and increased pastoral services from Sydney.

One of the major developments of the year was increasing the speaking list from one to nine people. We assigned sections of the book of Acts to different speakers. This encouraged the use of commentaries, resources on the web and understanding the historical context in order to do a proper exegesis. The results were encouraging with several speakers ready to choose their own messages. Peter McLean, a minister from Sydney, often has meetings after church to go through principles of exegesis and presentation. Rod Dean.

The activities of the past year for the Perth congregation have seen an increasing energy and focus on the work of evangelism.

This focus has included:

The continued development and improvement of the Internet video ministry Message of the Week. Statistics hover at around 2,000 visitors to the website per month, with more than a third coming from Asia.

The launch of a free Christian magazine, Life Today... A Perspective. The magazine aims to present the message of Jesus Christ as it is relevant to life today.

During two days of the festival, the community was invited to Open Church 2001 by radio advertising and the letterbox delivery of 2,000 information packs and personal invitations. The topic explored during both worship services looked at the "Great Hope for All People," from a local and global perspective. Fifteen new people attended, with several follow-up visit requests.

Numerous other ministries have served community needs during the year, including the supply of overseas clothing packages, the sponsorship of three children through World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, and the support of two women refugees.

Pastor Mohan Jayasekera commented that congregational life has improved immensely, with many members supporting and driving the new initiatives. John Klassek.

Unity and peace is characteristic of the Brisbane East congregation with a continuing focus on developing the characteristics of a healthy congregation. A congregational survey based on Christian Schwartz’s Natural Church Development organized late last year formed the basis for this direction. Monthly themes include the eight characteristics of healthy churches and have enabled members to focus more deeply on these spiritual themes. Increasing member participation and ownership of various ministries is evident.

Brisbane has continued development of worship services with two worship bands and several groups of worship leaders and singers. B1 (the youth band) and B2 (parents band) alternate each week in providing the music.

The youth council has played an active part in assisting with church activities, and in helping to organize and run our annual winter camp for the youths. Bob Regazzoli.

The Flagstaff Community Church set up fund-raising stalls and worked with the community center for the Flagstaff Community Fair. Members distributed church information through flyers and public announcements.

Pacific College personnel John McLean and Kerry Gubb ran a congregational training day on team ministry in April and on June 13 members signed up for the Pacific College intensive weekend on the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ.

Fifteen to 20 participants attended the women’s retreat weekend in the Adelaide Hills. The retreat focused on building bridges between Christian denominations, nations, races, divided families, unbelievers and Jesus Christ. Bharat Naker.

The Hobart church has endeavored to lift its evangelistic efforts. This began with the Tasmanian churches annual weekend retreat at Sheffield in July to focus on evangelism. Using Peter Bolt’s Mission Minded material (Matthias Press) as an underpinning for the weekend, we looked at being in mission mode rather than maintenance mode, and examined the two areas of mission that Jesus has given us—that of evangelism and nurturing the church.

We looked at the steps involved, including contact, pre-evangelism, follow-up, nurture and training in ministry, and analyzed what we are and are not doing, and what we can do to do better. The area of weakness was, no surprise, evangelism—the actual communication of the gospel to others.

We have made contact and built relationships with lots of people, and have done a lot of pre-evangelism as well as nurturing and training ourselves. We have been inviting friends to church social activities, and are planning evangelistic services two or three times a year. Overall we believe personal evangelism, including giving appropriate literature to people that fits their life situation, is most effective.

With the last issues of Living Today, the magazine formerly published by the Australian Office, we offered a free Jesus video. We have had about eight responses, and have delivered them personally, which has led to some good conversations.

Hobart member Kath Reid runs a Share a Care small group, which we have advertised, and a few new people have come. It is designed to help lonely people who need companionship, a willing ear and encouragement. Phil Hopwood.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2002