Cross-cultural ministry is becoming ever more important in our multi-cultural society. Cross-cultural church planting will be one of the topics discussed at a conference on church planting to be held in Sydney on Friday, July 30.
As part of the 2010 Federal election campaign, Prime Minister Julia Gillard recently addressed the topic of Australia's rising population. It is no secret that Sydney is extremely multi-cultural and with the number of people from different parts of the world calling Sydney home, constantly rising, churches need to be ready and able to minister to different cultures.
Rev Bruce Hall, rector of St Pauls, Carlingford, will be speaking at the conference. He believes that Sydneysiders have been given an amazing opportunity by God to reach other cultures and need to make the most it.
"It starts with the person or the people with the vision" who can see that the gospel is for all nations and praying about that, and seeing the particular opportunities that are available here in Sydney. God has bought many of the nations of the world to our city," he said
Mr Hall has been involved with planting 15 new churches and congregations throughout Sydney. He believes that while some churches are doing cross-cultural ministry well there are others that haven't thought about it at all.
"Over the next 40 years, more that 9 million immigrants from Southern Asia will come to Australia, there is no one who won't have an Asian neighbour," he said. "Some churches do cross-cultural ministry really well but there are others that only have thriving white anglo ministries. That needs to change" There are some impediments that we need to address, like the fact that we all have a somewhat racist heart" we need use our passion for evangelism to minister to our whole communities."
Martin Morgan, rector at Rouse Hill Anglican Church will also be speaking at the July 30 conference. He has planted a number of churches in north-western Sydney and western NSW. He believes that Sydney Anglicans need to embrace church planting to cater to our rapidly growing population.
"I think that there is much more potential in Sydney Anglican churches to think about planting new congregations. I've been [in Rouse Hill], since 2004, and I haven't seen too many new Anglican congregations being started. The population has grown massively. There have been five new public schools built and filled with people, there have been whole new suburbs built, but I have only seen one or two new congregations start," he said.
Mr Hall believes that church planning is a vital part of ministry in Sydney and encourages clergy and church workers who have a passion for evangelism to attend the conference
"Church planting isn't rocket science, it just takes a heart for evangelism, a bit of wisdom and the support of other brothers seeking to grow God's kingdom. The Rectors Day can help you with these things," he said.
The "Rectors Day' conference is being run by New Churches, the newly rebranded Evangelism Ministries (see June Southern Cross), at the Wesley Centre in Sydney. As well as cross-cultural church planting, topics that will be discussed include: finding planters, growing the team and raising the money.
Those wishing to attend the conference or find out more about church planting should call (02) 9235 1120
