This summer, over 800 Anglicans were part of beach mission teams up and down the NSW coast. Since 1888, Christians from their teens to their fifties and sixties have happily packed their tents and togs for a week-and-a-half of outreach activities, following those who are normally their neighbours to the seaside. And they keep coming back year after year. But are these missions still an effective way of reaching holidaymakers?
The first Scripture Union Family Mission (SUFM) was run on Manly beach 120 years ago, and by the 1920s, Children’s Special Service Mission (CSSM) as it was known then, had become firmly established along the NSW coast.
Since then, the popularity of beach missions among Sydney Anglicans " who make up over half of SUFM teams " has grown to over 50 teams.
Many undoubtedly remember with affection the familiar chant of "Who are we? SUFM", as the daily "scooping' brings children from their tents and caravans to the "big marquee' for games, singing, and Bible talks.
Ministry to children is SUFM's strong point, says Scripture Union's missions coordinator Steve Windsor, with over 1800 children in NSW attending programs this summer.
400 adults came along to trivia and bingo nights, jazz evenings and bush dances, often through contacts made with their children, or daily visits by SUFM team members.
However, one of SUFM's biggest challenges comes when the mission team, and the campers they have been striving to reach, head home.
Follow-up is hard to do
Seasoned beach-missioner and member of West Ryde Anglican Church, Joel Atwood says good follow-up strategies are a vital part of SUFM.
"Follow-up is essential! Some of these kids we'll never see in a park again, and if we are serious about seeing them come to Christ we need to be prepared to go way out of our way to keep friendships going with them."
Steve Windsor continues to wrestle with how to effectively follow up campers.
"In some cases, we could do a much much better job of following up in my opinion," he says.
Currently the strategy is informal, and involves team members taking contact details from the campers they have had conversations with, writing letters or inviting them to church.
"We find it's so important when we follow up that it's done in a very sincere way and it's done with a personal touch " we very rarely do it as a system " we want it to be more ad lib and natural," says Steve.
However Steve stresses that follow-up is naturally going to be difficult, especially when campers have built relationships with children, whose parents may not want them to correspond.
Another significant difficulty is that both team members and campers live side-by-side for only a matter of days, and return to homes that are scattered across the state.
"It's a community of mixed people from mixed places " it's not our local drag " but we do our best to build relationships but it's a constant struggle not to overstep the boundaries," says Steve.
Joel indicates that when follow-up is simply contact between team members and children or teens, especially those living a long distance apart, it is often shortlived.
"I still keep in touch with one of the boys I saw come to Christ on my second ever mission," he says.
"However, despite my best and repeated efforts, not many of the other teens I've gotten to know are very good at regular contact."
Another contributing factor, Joel adds, is the relatively short space of time beach missions afford to build relationships.
"Ten days is not a long time to build trust with Australians and follow-up is traditionally very poor so even those that are interested rarely get established in a local church or small group."
For this reason, one of Harrington SUFM's team directors, Jen Khoo, 21, of St Paul's Castle Hill, asks whether the community of Harrington might have been a better mission field than the holiday park.
"Urban missions are probably much more effective as you're living with people in the same area," she reflects.
"I wonder is there any reason we couldn't do this where people actually live rather than a caravan park where people are just holidaying."
Steve says he is constantly considering possibilities for future follow-up strategies, one of which is podcasts of 15-minute Bible talks, in order to encourage people to "meet with God daily through the Bible".
Another more prominent strategy is returning to the days when there was a Scripture Union representative in every church.
"Then if there was a camper who wanted to go to church in Canberra, we'd identify an SU person in Canberra and link them up," he says.
However this links to another challenge Scripture Union faces: finding mature leaders who are willing and/or able to commit.
"Finding good solid leaders is always my main challenge, because without the leaders, there is no mission," he says.
Summer break brings deeper thoughts
Ironically, while the holiday park make-up of different people who are not from the local area is one of the biggest difficulties SUFM faces, Steve Windsor says it is precisely because campers are away from their usual surroundings that makes beach missions worthwhile.
"When people go on holidays, they're somewhat disarmed, the troubles of the world are left behind and they switch their brain off from the day-to-day grind and they can think about the deeper things, about eternity and what it's all about," he says.
"What makes us unique is that we're a bunch of Australian people going to minister to our own people, people who would otherwise be our neighbours, who are now on holidays, have an open tent and are willing to talk."
Joel adds that the people who spend their summers in holiday parks around the country are often those who are slipping through the fingers of local church ministry.
"Thousands of people set up in campsites and caravan parks over summer " and importantly, they tend to be people who we see least in our churches, the people we need to reach out to rather than expect to come to us."
Gains for the gospel?
While beach missions may involve intense programs over a short period of time, conversations with team members indicate beach missions have yielded their harvest over the years.
"I have personally seen three young men become Christians, many more be confronted with Christ, I've had bikers cry on my shoulder, tipsy old men fall silent as they realise their own sin," says Joel.
Steve agrees, reflecting on the number of children who have heard the gospel through Minimites, Keenites and teen programs.
"We teach kids memory verses and songs and tell them there's this man who died on a cross, and I've noticed a lot of kids come to Christ at mission and I've overheard them sitting in their caravan saying, "I love Jesus' and their parents saying, "you'll get over it'."
However measuring the fruit of these missions, especially considering the challenges in follow-up, is difficult.
Indeed Steve concedes the number who make a commitment on missions is "not jaw-dropping" " but much of the gains may be happening below the surface.
"We plant the seed, and maybe podcasts will water and grow the seed, but I still believe the Holy Spirit can intervene in that person's life if He wants that person to know Him - we sense that a great deal of mission people coming to Christ is unseen."
Jen Khoo indicates this can cause teams to question whether many gospel benefits come from their SUFM programs, even when attendance levels are good.
"I do think we make a difference with the campers, particularly the ones that say "we come every year' " but have we actually really made a difference in their relationship with God?" she asks.
"The benefits are hard to measure because it seems we're planting seeds and we don't necessarily know what has become of those seeds, but we do the best we can."
Mission brings ministry lessons
While beach mission teams are made up of a variety of ages, Steve says the age of the average camper is 21, a prime age for learning about ministry and gospel work.
21-year-old Jen Khoo, of St Paul's Castle Hill, spent her second beach mission as team director, and says her mission experience has opened her eyes to new ways she could be involved in ministry, such as songleading or giving talks.
"Beach mission was a chance for me to step up and do things I'd otherwise never dreamed of doing" she says.
"It challenged me to push the boundaries and see what God could use me for."
Joel Atwood, 21, adds that the spiritual "exercise' he has had on his four beach missions taught him significant lessons about service and faith.
"It teaches you to seize every opportunity to meet, strike up friendships with, and preach the Word to anyone and everyone," he says.
"And it taught me to pray " to pray earnestly, and at great length, and at times in great desperation."
