“I pray that people would have larger hearts for the people who God has put around us. I don’t care where they come from – have a heart for people.”
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel preached these words to a room where more than 350 people had gathered to think cross-culturally about ministry and sharing Jesus.
The One For All conference was a collaboration of the SATYA Network (which functions as the Archbishop’s South Asian Advisory Board) and the Chinese Ministry Advisory Board. It brought together many people from a variety of East and South Asian backgrounds, as well people who care deeply about ministry to and with East and South Asians.
The goal? To see believers not only focus on ministry within their own culture, but go beyond their cultures for the sake of the gospel.
“It really is a mobilising, equipping conference, with stories, ministry spotlights and opportunities to do practical and contextual thinking,” said Ms Jeri Jones Sparks, who works for the SATYA Network.
“We want to press on people’s hearts a sense of responsibility and bold expectation that they can be part of God’s mission in a multicultural context, and we want to raise the bar on our local church to be more intercultural.”
Noticing the previously unnoticed
In his talk, Peter Lin, the Bishop of South Western Sydney, continued with the theme of looking out towards other cultures. “Today is about taking notice of who we may not have been taking notice of before,” he said.
“Jesus tells us to reach all nations, that’s for all Christians. Our culturally focused ministries have been just that, focusing on just one culture. But Sydney now is full of hundreds of cultures and languages.
“Gone are the days where all of the Chinese lived in one area, and the Italians in another and the Greeks in another. People are spread and mixed everywhere now. The idea is, we want to be encouraging everyone to be reaching everyone, so let’s work together in that, think together. Let’s know each other so that we can help reach everyone.”
A heart for all
For Sandeep Reddy, who attends MBM Parramatta, attending the conference built his confidence to reach his local community: “Especially people from different countries and backgrounds, how to integrate with them and share the gospel”.
Seeing the changing landscape of her hometown, Jess Kristianto flew up from Melbourne to attend the conference, eager to hear from South Asian Christians and learn more about serving and ministering to the growing South Asian community in Victoria’s capital.
“I came here because this is the first conference that talks about reaching out to South Asians that I’ve heard of… so I thought I’d better be here,” she said. “What I have loved is hearing everyone lighting up with their hearts to reach across cultures. It’s so true what the Archbishop said [in his talk]: the gospel is crosscultural.”
Seeing so many grasp the importance of reaching all cultures has been a big answer to prayer for Ms Jones Sparks. “We really want people’s hearts to be stirred for multicultural Sydney. We want everyone to feel equipped in character and have learned a few things that help them love their neighbours.”
Mr Lin’s hope was that people would continue to embrace the call of the day – the call of Jesus “to reach all nations with the gospel, which we have the perfect opportunity to do here in Sydney. I want people to pray that we work together as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ on this. And of course, that many people from any and every nation will hear the gospel and repent and believe.”
