Richard Coekin, senior minister of the Co-Mission Initiative in London, has urged Sydney churches to work together at a recent conference for ministry workers.
During a question and answer session at the "Trailblazing "” Ministry with Purpose' conference held on August 23 and 24, Coekin drew on his church planting experience and challenged leaders to not be selfish and competitive but to work together and embrace the skills and resources of surrounding churches.
"Can I urge you to work together "” we're all sinful and competitive but we need to be in partnership with each other," he said. "If you don't have the resources for a certain ministry, invite another evangelical church into your area to undertake that ministry."
Nigel Webb, senior minister at Denham Court Anglican Church attended the conference, which he described as "brilliant'. He believes that there is a competitiveness between churches, but that there is an easy fix.
"There really is an issue [with competitiveness]," he said. "It comes from our own insecurities as people. We see other people doing a great job and we think, "I wish I could be like that', but we can't, God has given us all different gifts.
"When you start networking together on a regular basis it breaks down barriers. You can see that the people around you aren't trying to steal sheep or put me down, they're working to grow God's kingdom."
Denham Court is part of a group of five churches in Sydney's south-west that have been working together for the past three years. Webb advocates team work as a crucial part of ministry.
"The previous minister [at Denham Court] had set up a network of Anglican churches when I started here two and a half years ago," he said. "We meet on a monthly basis to explore ways to do ministry together. Most of us are small parishes, with limited resources so it's really helpful to work together. We can pool our resources, and we all have a knowledge of the area and the needs of the people, so it makes doing ministry so much easier."
The Sydney diocese has recently embraced the idea of churches working together in their ministries, through "mission areas'. The Bishop of Western Sydney, Ivan Lee, is coordinating this new ministry initiative which he hopes will allow Sydney churches to reach new people.
"‘Mission areas’ are about working together and training together. It's not just about starting new things but learning from each other so we can improve our practice of reaching out to different groups," he said. "There was an element of competitiveness but that has ebbed away. Knowledge [of what other ministers are doing] reduces competitiveness."
The success of the Co-Mission Initiative is a great example of the benefits that come from working together, however Coekin was quick to pass credit.
"God is giving us the growth," Coekin said. "We are to be faithful, but any success comes from God."
Conference attendees also heard from Paul Harrington, Senior Minister, Holy Trinity, Adelaide, who spoke on "Enabling Christ's Church', Kanishka Raffel, Rector, St Matthew's Shenton Park, Perth who spoke on "Preaching to Christ's Church' and Phillip Jensen, Dean of Sydney who spoke on "Ministry with Purpose'.
Paul Harrington spoke to sydneyanglicans.net after the conference outlining what, in his opinion, are the three biggest challenges facing people in full-time ministry.
He said burnout, materialism and keeping ‘an evangelistic edge’ were among the key challenges.
