A new ministry couple in the Georges River region has supplemented their ministry training by spending three months with the Church Missionary Society, paving the way for future ministers in the multicultural area to similarly receive cross-cultural training.

The Rev Phillip Lui – who is an assistant minister at Riverwood-Punchbowl Anglican Church – and his wife Rebecca spent the time at St Andrew’s Hall in Melbourne at the request of the regional bishop, the Rt Rev Peter Lin. This was to help them prepare for parish work in an area where, as of the last census, more than half the people were born overseas, and roughly two-thirds spoke another language in addition to, or instead of, English.

“They went to CMS not to be missionaries overseas, but actually to be missionaries among the different cultures and people we have here in Sydney,” Bishop Lin says. “The idea is to have that cross-cultural training and to be better prepared to do ministry where they are at Riverwood. In a region like this one, even working in a parish ministry role involves cross-cultural ministry, and I think it’s important that people be prepared for that and feel confident in that, which is what this training was intended to accomplish.”

Mr Lui says his early ministry career gave him an appreciation for the task of multicultural ministry and the needs of people on our own doorstep and that was, in part, what drew him to work in a parish in the Georges River region.

“What had the most impact was spending time in student ministry in Sydney’s south-west, among multicultural communities with many people who had never even heard about Jesus or who had no Christian friends,” he says. “We’d thought about going overseas, but that’s really scary! This was right at our door and many of the nations here with us had heard just as little about Jesus as [those] overseas. This was where we wanted to be.”

Bishop Lin says he hopes to see more ministers in the Georges River area, and particularly new ministers entering into ministry locally, go through similar training.

“It’s not a policy of ours but I want to strongly encourage it for people looking to minister in this area,” he says. “This is something we want to develop and see more people do. It’s an invaluable opportunity, as not only are they getting training at CMS, they are also spending time in the same courses with people who are actually preparing to go overseas into other national cultures. The only difference for the Luis is they’re not going overseas, but in every other respect they’re most likely going to be using the same skills in their work.”

Mr Lui says his time at St Andrew’s Hall has already benefited him in terms of thinking about his own ministry, and he hopes to see it bear greater fruit as time goes on.
“I think that understanding cross-cultural ministry helps you understand yourself and your own culture, and it helps to understand how you see things and engage with things differently to other people,” he says. “Biblically speaking, Paul becomes all things to all people so that he might win some. There are lots of things we can’t change about our message, but there are lot’s of things we can change about ourselves and about how we view other people’s cultures.”

Bishop Lin says he is thankful for the role CMS is playing in his region in preparing people for cross- cultural ministry.

“I’m excited that we can have this close connection with St Andrew’s Hall in training ministers and missionaries in our region,” he says.

“I think this is a very significant development in the effective work of the gospel. The region is now over 50 percent made up of people from non-English speaking backgrounds, so that’s cross-cultural ministry if ever there was such a thing. Having CMS helping us train people in our own local context is important for that work, and will probably become increasingly so.”