As Katoomba Christian Convention celebrates 100 years of Bible teaching, the future may lie in helping to train Christians for ministry in the local church, found Geoff Robson

David Cook still remembers his first contact with Katoomba Christian Convention. The year was 1969; he had become a Christian less than two years before, and as he prepared to study for full-time ministry, his first Convention proved to be an eye-opening experience.

“I was attending a Presbyterian Church which wasn’t particularly strong on the Bible after I was first converted,” he says. “When I went to Katoomba, what struck me was the tremendous Bible teaching.”

More than 30 years later, he looks back on that first experience of Katoomba as a defining moment in his Christian life. “It set me on the path to see that if ever I was going to be in ministry, I had to make sure that the explanation of the Bible was central to all that ministry. Katoomba was an important part of forming that conviction,” he says.

Since then, his involvement with KCC has come full circle. Invited to Katoomba Youth Convention as a speaker in 1983, he has spoken at countless conventions and has served as chairman of the KCC Council since 1992.

This month, he will join thousands of others whose lives have been affected by this unique ministry to celebrate KCC’s 100th birthday. Celebrations will include a three-day preaching conference with overseas visitors Frank Retief and Don Carson at locations around Sydney.

Back in 1903, a group of Christians gathered for simple after dinner Bible readings in the home of the Young family in Katoomba Street. From those humble beginnings, the ministry grew to see hundreds of people gathering to hear the Bible taught. While attendance declined to a few hundred people during the 1970s, the ministry was revitalised around the Youth Convention in the mid-80s. Current KCC Vice Chairman Graham Conway says this period gave the ministry ‘a new lease of life’ that saw several new conventions launched. Today the convention calendar includes seven events with a total attendance last year of around 28,000 people.

In the last 100 years, David Cook’s is just one of countless lives that have been impacted by the ministry of KCC. And the new century has begun with many reasons for optimism. Along with the growing conventions, the recent acquisition of the ‘Clairvaux’ site, adjoining the current property and including several buildings plus parking, opens the way for a major expansion in the ministry.

But Mr Cook says the team is still looking for more effective ways to contribute to the wider church. “We maintain our commitment to see the Bible taught faithfully, emphasising the exposition of Scripture so that people will grow in godliness and recognise the need to take the gospel to the world. That’s what we’re about,” he says.

“But we need to remain flexible in the form that our conventions take. In the early 80s, the catalyst for change was the Youth Convention. In the 90s, the catalyst became the single-sex conventions. Now, in the early 21st century, is our formatting of conventions still appropriate? Particularly with our young people’s conventions, we need to be working on that.”

Following the growth of recent years, Graham Conway believes there is great potential for a fresh focus on providing ministry training. One of the success stories of recent years has been Katoomba Youth Leadership Convention (KYLC), a week-long conference for youth leaders. A three-year cycle of training aims at teaching both methods of leadership and how to interpret and teach the Bible.

Mr Conway said the Council is hoping to introduce a similar conference for adults. “We’re thinking about how we can help lay people in churches throughout Sydney to take their place within their congregations as effective leaders,” he said.

Next year, KCC will launch its own Bible reading guides, a resource to help people in their personal or family Bible study.

And David Cook is hoping this month’s preaching conference may be the forerunner of regular training for preachers. “We’re thinking that when we develop the Clairvaux site we might develop one of the buildings as a place where we can take young preachers away and sponsor preaching conferences for them,” he said.

“When we look for speakers, we want people that will clearly explain the Bible and apply it to their hearers. If that’s what we’re looking for in preachers, then we ought to be part of the movement that encourages that sort of preaching.”