Up until the age of 15, Mormonism was the only life Andrew Southerton had ever known. His parents had met as teenagers in the Mormon community and were committed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has over 115,000 members Australia-wide.
"Growing up, I always felt like I had friends and people to look up to in the Church " it wasn't necessarily authoritarian," Andrew recalls. Yet he also says Mormon life was "very busy and very moral".
Sundays were largely spent at church and in Sabbath mode, which meant no TV, sport or Saturday night parties beforehand. The Word of Wisdom " the Mormon code of living " specified no alcohol or caffeine, and reverent dress at all times. Practices like baptisms for the dead were common. "We would talk about Jesus the Saviour as" the one who makes salvation possible, but it was still up to me to earn it," Andrew explains.
When Andrew's family first subscribed to the internet, his father, who had been a Mormon bishop, already had doubts about the church's claim that if someone questioned the Book of Mormon, God was hiding the truth from them to test their faith. "My dad had this deep-seated feeling in him that God was a God who loved him and wanted to know him."
When Andrew's father became increasingly dissatisfied by what he felt was the Mormon Church's "genuine lack of engagement" with his questions, he turned to this new world of information that lay at his fingertips. "This was quite a big step as the Church generally doesn't trust the opinions of those outside it about its history and theology," Andrew explains. "But after a while, the cumulative evidence that was leading him to believe that the Church wasn't the only true Church just became too much and he had to make a call."
When Andrew's parents told their five children of their decision to leave, Andrew said he was initially determined to change their minds. But only weeks later, Andrew left himself after his father explained his reasons in more detail. "The moment that you disagree with the Church's teaching on one thing, you find yourself in a situation where you can't hold onto the Church at all, because of its absolute claims," he says.
An amazing journey
What followed was a feeling of "nothingness" and a "shunning process" by the Church, which led Andrew towards Christian schoolfriends. "They were the ones who were willing to accept people who were a bit different, like us," he says.
Andrew was "outrageously offended" at the "thongs and boardies" the teens were wearing when he first went to the youth group at St Paul's, Carlingford.
Yet it was on one of these Friday nights that the penny of salvation by grace dropped. "That was the first time I really realised "I've been flogging my guts out trying to make God happy, but that's not what God is going to accept me for, but only through what Jesus has done'." One by one and in different ways, Andrew's parents and siblings also became Christians.
Today, the desire for Mormons to experience the same "moment of truth' is spurring him on through his second year of full-time study at Moore College. "One of the "scars' that I carry" is a real passion for the truth of the gospel because" people" are having the grace of Jesus taken out of their hands and being lumped with the guilt of works and obedience."
This desire has taken Andrew predominantly to the medium that helped his family find the gospel. Through the Mormon Outreach Ministries (MOM) website, Andrew posts material about Mormonism and Christianity, and answers questions from Mormons, and Christians with Mormon friends. "A lot of Mormons do walk around with questions in their heads and in their hearts and the internet means there's somewhere they can go that the other members of their church don't know about."
Just Start Talking resources Christians
Qualitative research conducted for Connect09 has shown that fear of being exposed as "lacking knowledge' is a major reason ordinary Sydney Anglicans eschew door-knocking and cold contact evangelism.
To some extent this fear is understandable. Many Christians who have engaged in doorknocking will have their war stories about a pre-prepared spiel that flopped. Perhaps you met a well-prepared critic of Christianity. Or you came across a devout believer from another religion, and as your spiel didn't connect with their worldview, you were left floundering.
How do we find the right help in presenting the gospel to our God-fearing neighbour " whether Mormon or Muslim, Christadelphian or Zoroastrian " who knows far more about Protestant Christianity than the average Anglican does about their religion?
The answer, says the Rev Andrew Nixon, Executive Director of Connect09, is not to become an instant expert in every world religion, but to help local churches equip their members with better skills in listening and dialogue, as well as training ordinary Christians in how to turn ordinary conversations to Jesus.
As part of Connect09's response, Evangelism Ministries has launched a new training resource called Just Start Talking. The kit includes enough workbooks for 10 people and a DVD presented by well-known children's entertainer Colin Buchanan in his usual cheeky larrikin style, along with Samantha Boog from Christians in the Media.
The aim of the kit is to give lay Christians the courage to pepper ordinary conversations with natural references to the gospel. Over time it is hoped these conversations will help point their friends and neighbours to Jesus.
The DVD features three training sessions including the one which encourages people "to practise telling their own story', which was road-tested at Sylvania Anglican Church.
"It's not about preparing a testimony speech," explains the Rev Jim Ramsay, who conceived the idea of the kit. "It's not content-driven. It's relationship-driven. How do I put Jesus into an ordinary conversation?"
The Rev Paul Sampson, rector of Sylvania Anglican Church, says his congregation "were really encouraged" by Jim's challenge to prepare their own story.
"It was a fresh idea and it created a real buzz," he said. "We watched a section from the DVD where [biker] Steve House explains that "I'm just an ordinary person but I have a powerful story because Jesus changed me'" He didn't go into details but you could see in his eyes that God had saved him from the "wrong side of the tracks'" it was very powerful."
