Over the Australia Day weekend I attended the Anglican Provincial Mission Convention in Canberra.

There was a great spirit of cooperation as Anglicans from all over NSW and the ACT gathered for a conference on mission. There were some great Bible studies from Mike Raiter, and Phil Potter from the Diocese of Liverpool in the UK challenged us to be bold in mission. There were some great workshops, and, as always, the best part of the conference was the time spent talking with lots of different people during the breaks.

What really impressed me was the amazing ministries so many people are doing around the state. I didn’t get to speak to everyone or get to all the workshops and I would have liked more time to do that, but what I did hear greatly encouraged me. One workshop I did get to was run by Tim Scheuer of the Church Army. What got me in was the workshop title, “Mobilising the Marginalised”.

Since the early 1990’s I’ve worked with the “marginalised”, firstly as a volunteer in “P.J.’s” cafe in the parish of East Sydney and then as a prison chaplain between 2004 and 2011. I have found it easy to connect with people on the margins of our society. They’re a very responsive group when they’re treated as fellow human beings. What I, and most others who work with marginalised people, have failed in is creating pathways that bring people from the margins to being valuable members of our society and, more especially, our churches. I can tell you story after story of men who have been genuinely converted in prison. But for every ten I can tell you about, once they get out of prison, nine go missing and are nowhere to be seen in our churches. So I was interested. How do you “Mobilise the Marginalised”?

This is what Tim says,

I started the ministry in Airds in May 2009. Initially I was working in Airds three days per week assisted by a few Church Army students and local Anglicans. Bob Slockee was one of those who stepped up in the early days. After the Kihilla Restoration programme Bob completed Church Army’s Certificate IV in Local Mission. It has been a joy to see Bob grow closer to Jesus and to see his ministry skills develop and blossom. Bob and I have seen over 100 people make decisions to follow Jesus. Making mature disciples continues to be our greatest challenge. Bob has commenced full time with Church Army as of 1 January and from 1 February Bob will be taking over from me as leader of the Airds team. I am very excited about this and want to commend Bob to you for prayer and support. My role will change. I will be spending one day per week in Airds to provide ongoing mentoring and coaching for Bob and help with leadership development. This will free me up to help start similar ministries in similar areas in South western and Western Sydney.

Bob has been sober for three years, so when I heard that he was taking over the ministry at Airds I thought, “Wow. What a big risk!” But then I realised that appointing anyone to lead Christian ministry is a big risk. All of us in ministry need support and encouragement to keep on being faithful.

To mobilise the marginalised, to even accept the marginalised into our churches I would love to see us making some big shifts in our thinking. I would love to see us taking some risks, seeing our fellow human beings as people for whom Christ died, people who make mistakes, like you and me, people we’re willing to take risks with.