BLAST " the Bankstown Local Area Scripture Team " is succeeding with students in a way that single churches could previously only envy.
The Christian education association is a partnership between a number of local Bankstown churches aimed at funding better religious education programs for the area.
Anglican Youthworks Special Religious Education (SRE) advisors James Fong and Andy Stevenson saw the potential for a more cooperative approach and arranged the equivalent of an education summit for local congregations.
"We met with youth workers who were running Scripture seminars at Bass High School twice a term," Mr Fong says.
"We all felt it was important to give students more access to the gospel. So we set up a board to employ an SRE teacher who would provide links between the school and local churches."
BLAST came into being and set about raising the money to put scripture teacher Josh Carmichael into Bass High for two days a week.
The school has a high proportion of Muslim students, so Mr Carmichael meets with only 86 students from years seven to ten.
But Christian studies are booming.
"He teaches on a fortnightly with Years Seven and Eight on odd weeks and Years Nine and Ten on even weeks," Mr Fong says.
"There's also the possibility of starting a group for Year 11s."
Add to this Mr Carmichael's oversight of a lunchtime ISCF group and his hope to run holiday study camps for years 11 and 12.
Mr Fong says the success of the association is a testimony to the generosity and mission-mindedness of local churches.
"We've almost reached our financial target for this year and BLAST now wants to place an employed SRE teacher in another high school," he says.
Mr Fong and his associates are not into small dreams.
With Bass High scripture up and running, BLAST is eyeing off the district's entire public education system.
"The desire is to have a paid SRE Schools' worker faithfully proclaiming and living the gospel in all 16 local high schools," Mr Fong says.
Regular updates and prayer points are available by emailing James Fong at Youthworks.
