CMS NSW must play an educative role in Sydney churches in order to confront the attitudes underlying the Cronulla riots, says the newly appointed head of the missionary organisation.
"The events in Cronulla demonstrate that we need to help Christians focus on what God's Word says about people from other countries," says the Rev John Bales, adding that too many Sydney Anglicans have an unhealthy parochialism.
"We have too much of a parochial attitude. That's human. It's quite threatening to have a global perspective. The comfort I have as a Christian needs to be challenged. It's the role of a missionary society to challenge that parochial attitude and bring people back to God's Word and the mission of taking the gospel to all nations."
Significantly Mr Bales, who spent 13 years as a Bible teacher in Pakistan and worked for the Diocese of Hyderabad, brings a deep understanding of Islam to the position.
"Part of CMS' mandate is to have an educative role on world mission and more generally an educative role in churches," he says. "The gut reaction is to fear and isolate ourselves into ghettos. We actually need to do the hard work of talking to one another. Unless we are talking to one another we are just going to cause more problems. The vast majority of Muslims in Australia are here because they like this kind of open society rather than their societies in the Middle East. If we box people, we push them into the image we create for them, which is not helpful."
Mr Bales will be commissioned as General Secretary of CMS NSW on Sunday, January 8 at CMS Summer School, Katoomba. After five weeks leave in Pakistan for his daughter's wedding, he will formally take up the role in March.
Ethnic church challenge
Mr Bales says that one of CMS' biggest challenges is to raise up support from within Sydney's ethnic congregations.
"CMS has a very good relationship with Sydney Diocese and churches throughout NSW generally," he says. "But the great need is to raise up more missionaries."
"Some of the ethnic congregations we have do support CMS missionaries, yet many do not. Because they are struggling they don't have the same vision for world mission."
Another strategic issue is discovering how the wide network of independent evangelical churches can be encouraged in their vision for world mission.
"The stress on denominations isn't what it used to be. People are not necessarily coming to us from an Anglican church," he says.
Prayer
Mr Bales, who spent the past three years as CMS NSW Mission Education Secretary, says that while he very familiar with the key issues confronting the State branch, he still needs prayer as he takes on the new role.
Apart from the ongoing budget issues, he asks for prayer for "time management'
"Pray that I will work out the balance between time for administration, and time for pastoral care of missionaries, and time to talk to candidates," he says. "Pray that I will always have time for God's Word and am growing in godliness."
