He started off reading Scripture Union (SU) Bible notes and now, almost 30 years later, the Rev Simon Flinders is the NSW branch’s new chairman.
Mr Flinders, who was appointed chairman last month, says Scripture Union ministry has played an enormous role in his own Christian growth.
His journey with SU began at age five with the "Simon and Sarah' Bible study notes.
"I was Simon and my sister's name was Sarah, so we assumed the notes were made for us," Simon laughs.
The St Thomas', North Sydney assistant minister says his SU leadership training throughout high school and his involvement in beach missions as a young adult were formative in his Christian growth.
"It was good running Bible studies and having the opportunity for leadership and ministry," he says.
"Scripture Union activities often throw people in the deep end a little earlier than the church context, which is helpful."
Sydney Anglicans can do more
The new chairman is calling on Sydney Anglicans to do more to support Special Religious Education.
Simon says churches can increase ministry to young people by employing full-time SRE teachers.
He says SU's work in organising ISCF (Inter-School Christian Fellowship) lunchtime groups is greatly assisted by having a full-time SRE teacher in a school.
"Promoting SRE is a new area for us and we are keen to keep working hard at doing that," Simon says.
"ISCF and SRE really complement one another. Sydney Anglican churches should help employ full -time SRE teachers in schools, especially while NSW legislation allows for it."
After five years as a Scripture Union board member, Mr Flinders replaces previous chairman, the Rev Peter Adamson who was chairman for six years and is now Executive Officer for "GENR8 Ministries', the NSW High Schools SRE Association.
SU NSW has 17 full or part-time employees as well as over 2000 volunteers throughout NSW.
"We are a movement reliant on the commitment of volunteers," Simon says.
SU has over 50 beach mission teams operating every year. Simon says there are also a handful of urban missions and he is interested in talking to people who want to get more urban missions going.
"We want to keep encouraging churches to send people off to missions, because people come back to their home churches better equipped and more motivated for ministry."
