Last month I began to explain the four Mission policies. The first concerns spiritual renewal, and the evidence that it is being put into practice will be the preaching of the word of God followed by offering prayer and intercession for those who don’t know Christ.

The second policy involves the multiplication of fellowships, congregations and parish churches.

It is the gospel itself, blessed by the Spirit of God, that makes new Christians, but people usually hear the gospel best in the company of Christians. This provides the listening context, not least because other members of the same group are clearly listening to, and obeying, the word of God. Also, it means that people in such a group are praying for one another. However, when a person becomes a Christian, membership of a fellowship, congregation or church is God’s appointed way for them to be nurtured and to begin to be a blessing to others.

The policy calls upon our parish churches to consider ways in which new groups may be begun. It may be a significant expansion of Bible study or small fellowship groups. Perhaps we ought to plan for such groups to divide and multiply frequently.  Perhaps we should look at our suburb. Can we have a Bible study group on every street in the next ten years?

Likewise, the churches are being challenged to begin new congregations. Some of our churches now have as many as five congregations meeting on a Sunday and others meet during the week. This will not be appropriate for all churches, and may be very difficult for our smaller ones. This Mission policy is not intended to dictate how the multiplication of fellowships should occur, but to act as a motivation towards that end.

The second part of the policy speaks of the penetration of society beyond the parish church. It is obvious that many people will never join a local church, but they still need to hear the gospel. The policy asks Christian leaders to think about the ordinary networks of life in our society – businesses, sporting groups, hobby groups, families, ethnic groups. Do we have, in our existing fellowship, persons who will be able to set up a Christian fellowship group within a network of people where there is little present activity?

We have done this in the past by making sure that major professions (such as law, medicine and teaching) each contain an appropriate Christian fellowship. We need to ask now where are the opportunities that we should be taking.

Clearly, in order to take advantage of this policy we will need more and better trained agents of the gospel. That brings us to the third policy, which I will explain next month. In the meantime, however, let me finish by asking whether your church has any plans to create new groups or to expand the ones that already exist?

Peter Jensen
Archbishop of Sydney
August 2003