by Madeleine Collins
With the majority of churches in South Sydney region having less than 150 members, the struggle is often to stretch resources to maintain ministry to the ageing Australian-born congregation.
However, St Martin’s, Kensington has found that launching a cross-cultural ministry team is not only an effective way to reach out to newcomers, but has enthused existing members to commit to ministry.
Emma Dowling was not actively involved in evangelism at St Martin’s before she joined her church’s new cross-cultural ministry team.
“It’s easy for Christians from Anglo-Saxon backgrounds to fall into the trap of not looking beyond our comfort zone for ministry opportunities,” she said.
Joining Emma in the team is Barbara Howe, who says her local area has changed so much that she has stepped back from her ten-year administrative role in the church office. Instead, she is now channelling her energy into cross-cultural evangelism.
“There are a lot more people who don’t speak English and are housebound, particularly young mothers and the elderly,” says Mrs Howe. “There are some lonely women out there who would appreciate coffee and fellowship.”
Together with their branch church at Eastlakes, the parish recently ran Anglicare’s ‘Living in Harmony’ series of three cross-cultural ministry training workshops. The Rev John Woo, formerly of St John’s, Campsie and St Andrew’s, Strathfield – both of which have strong cross-cultural ministries – has been employed as assistant minister to spearhead evangelism.
Mr Woo and his wife Yuke Lan were glad to share their cross-cultural ministry experience with this Eastern Suburbs parish, ministering in an area with a 40 per cent NESB population.
Mr Woo said various strategies for community outreach were implemented at St Martin’s following the Living in Harmony workshops, including the formation of the cross-cultural ministry team, as well as plans for English as a second language (ESL) classes.
Across the Diocese, twelve churches and two schools have conducted the Living in Harmony workshops, with five of these churches setting up cross-cultural ministries.
The Rev Jeremy Tonks, rector of St Martin’s, explains that all ministry should be seen as ‘cross-cultural’. “We are not talking about just ethnicity. As Christians we are called to be relational people – to understand where people are at from different socio-economic and faith backgrounds,” Mr Tonks said.
Mr Woo believes it is a mistake for Christians to think cross-cultural ministry is only for specific ethnic groups, or that putting it into practice is just ‘for the experts’.
“Jesus was a cross-cultural evangelist. He related to people where their needs were. Sydney is very multicultural but the Anglican Church is predomin-antly Anglo-Saxon.
“If we are going to achieve the diocesan Mission of ten per cent of Sydney in Bible-based churches, we must make disciples of all nations. Whoever is in the community should also be in church.
“You don’t have be huge in resources to be effective. We have a limited resource base here but it’s really encouraging to see the commitment. It’s easy to think, ‘we’re too small, we’re just surviving,’ but you have to confront that, and people will see opportunities to get involved.”
