I understand Vision to be "a compelling word picture of desired future state'. On that reading, the ministry vision for Ross River Anglican Church (RRAC) in Townsville, Diocese of North Queensland is just brilliant: "We dream that by the end of June 2008, we will be a community of 500 gathering together each week'. To make this dream a reality the church are prayerfully designing ministries that target children, youth, young mothers, men, women and the elderly.

RRAC began last year and is under the leadership of bi-vocational church planters Tim Adkins and Haydn Swinbourn. You can click here to read their profiles.

The following interview with Tim is intended to make readers aware of the work at RRAC and to give us a sense of what the Lord is doing in other parts of the Communion.

Tim, how did you yourself come to faith in Christ?

I grew up with parents who loved the Lord Jesus, and they brought us up to know him from an early age. When I left high school, I was encouraged by some Christian friends who pointed out that if Jesus was God and died for me, I had better get serious with living my life for him.

Tell us about your family and why you decided on full-time Christian ministry

As a kid, our family prayed a lot for missionary friends in the Middle East.  I had thought that I might end up working overseas, so studied a couple of foreign languages at university. That has not yet eventuated for a number of reasons, but it was part of the conversation Kath and I had when we were dating. A big influence on us both was the ministry we received at Christ Church, Gladesville, where we were loved, fed from God’s word and trained to do ministry.  The move to full-time ministry came with prayer and the encouragement of trusted friends to do more of what we were doing at church. 

So how then did you come to be working in the Diocese of North Queensland?

Kath and I never considered ourselves as “city people”, although with great friends and terrific churches, we stayed a long time.  After five fantastic years in ministry at St James Carlton, we started to get “itchy feet” and began looking. I arranged to visit Townsville and meet up with the then Bishop, John Noble, to talk about ministry opportunities.  He was the one who suggested School Chaplaincy and, after a lot of prayer, I applied to work at The Cathedral School, here in Townsville. This is our fourth year in town.

Can you explain how the idea for a church plant came about?

Sure. Believe it or not, the School Principal first raised the possibility of starting a service at the school at my first job interview! Soon after we arrived, our Bishop published a vision document called “A Future with Hope” in which he encouraged the Diocese to take stock of where we had been going, and to consider changes in the way we were doing things. When the time came for us to talk seriously about a plant, Bishop John was very supportive of us having a go at starting a church with a focus on Bible-teaching, and with a style that might be different to other Anglican Churches in town.

Tim, how large was your initial core team and whom did it comprise?

Our initial core was three families: ours and two army families, including a Padre. While we would have liked a bigger core group, it was a bit difficult to invite people into a church which did not yet exist, and was going to be different from most other churches in Town, not least the Anglican ones.  So while we were graciously supported by the Minster at our old church at Heatley, Trevor Adams, it was not realistic or fair to ask folk from there to join us in something new.
Did you start with public worship?

Yes. Apart from our planning meetings, our first gathering was a church service on May 21, 2006.  Because of factors outlined above, we felt that people who were going to join us were going to have to know what they were getting themselves into, and the best way to do that was to let them be part of our weekly services from the start.

How do you reach and disciple people?

People hear about us through word of mouth, the School newsletter, and some have even come through our web page. At the moment, disciple-making happens slowly, as we hear the word of Christ in sermons, we chat over morning tea (we have the best church coffee in Australia!) and as we meet together in home-groups.  A few of our members have started meeting up one-on-one during the week.

How are you funded?

I am the full time chaplain at the School. We do not yet have paid staff, although we are working hard as a congregation towards that goal.
What is your vision for the ministry?

We have published a vision statement [some of which is quoted above] to help folk know what we are on about and to help us stay on track. In one sense, it is really quite inadequate: with the way Townsville is growing, the potential for ministry is boundless. However, it would be easy to get ahead of ourselves, so what we need to do is focus on doing the fundamental things well - proclaiming Christ’s death and resurrection, loving people and seeking to be better disciples for our Lord. We would love to be a church where our members are happy to invite their friends on any and every week. And we want to do it in fellowship with our North Queensland Diocese.
What are the greatest challenges you currently face?

Time is by far the biggest one.  There are so many opportunities for ministry that we can barely touch the surface. Allied with that and having started with a small core, the need for workers for children’s ministry, youth ministry, home-group leaders and so on is real. But having said that, God has been answering our prayers for workers in some awesome ways! 
Tim, how might we pray for you?

"¢ Do pray that we will to be faithful to our Lord in our lives and ministry, and that Jesus would continue to grow his church.

"¢ Please also pray for workers to join the harvest in this corner of his field.

"¢ Give thanks to God for the encouragement his people have given us.
"¢ Praise God for the support of our new bishop, The Right Reverend Bill Ray.

"¢ Thank God for the support of folks who have been praying for us and have even sent gifts. It reminds us that the Lord is the one who builds his church. 

Stuart’s action points

Having read this piece, can I urge you to take action?

Here are some suggestions.

"¢ Take a moment now to briefly work through the prayer points above.

"¢ Use some of this information during intercessions in your service(s) one Sunday

"¢ Send the ministry team an encouraging email. Simply click here

"¢ Link this article to your site or blog.

"¢ Link the RRAC URL to your site or blog.

"¢ Visit RRAC when you're passing through.

"¢ Contact the ministry team and ask how your church or small group might serve in more specific ways.

Stuart Robinson is the National Mission Facilitator for the Anglican Church of Australia and the rector of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Chatswood.