Anglican churches around Sydney are following up new contacts after an intense week of Start the Ultimate Relationship mission, which ran from August 2-9.
One of these churches is Rooty Hill Multicultural Bible Ministry, which saw over 100 visitors come along to events run under the Start the Ultimate Relationship banner.
These included a men's event on physical and spiritual health (which included talks by Moore College vice principal Bill Salier, along with two physicians), two women's events, youth outreach events, a young adults event at the local pub, and an Elvis night, featuring an Elvis Presley impersonator.
"The theme was "Let the king tell you about the king of kings'," Mr Galea smiles.
While some came along after being invited by their Rooty Hill MBM friends, others responded to advertising on radio station 103.2, while others came along as a result of "lots of doorknocking", which Mr Galea says was fruitful and encouraging.
"We all found people who were hungry to talk about God," he says, adding that two people made Christian commitments through doorknocking.
"Some people got to share the gospel with people who don't understand who Jesus is and why he came to die, while others could just help people better understand Christianity.
"Most people realised that people are more eager to talk about God than we are to speak to them."
Mr Galea adds that this contact has helped "put our church on people's radar”, even though he suspects much of the fruit from doorknocking might not be seen for another 6-to-12 months.
Members of MBM had distributed leaflets promoting the mission in the month beforehand, while three pre-evangelistic talks on "Relationship Wreckers' " grief, anger and changing habits " were held as a warm-up.
As the church continues to follow up the contacts made during that week, Mr Galea says the excitement flowing from the mission is adding to the church's enthusiasm for Connect09.
"This is the best thing we could have done," he says.
"That week was one of the best weeks of my life, and in the life of the church, because the mission was not done for us, it was done by us."
Getting in before the bulldozers
With their church building now out of action, Annandale Community Church are running five Introducing God courses in members’ lounge rooms after their Start the Ultimate Relationship mission week.
Annandale and Naremburn-Cammeray Anglican Church " both recipients of grants through the April appropriation of $20 million from the Diocesan Endowment " carried out their missions days before major building work began on their church properties.
In fact, Annandale’s rector, the Rev Dominic Steele says the bulldozers moved in on both parish properties on the same day.
As over 20 people took a whole week off work for Annandale’s mission, Mr Steele says the pending temporary move to Annandale Neighbourhood Centre gave the week a different focus.
"Our focus was less on holding events in our building" and more on connecting and building a relationship with people and bringing them into the Introducing God course," he says.
"Next year when we open our building, we'll probably do the exact opposite."
Meanwhile a team of 42 " not including staff " took one or more days off work to help out with Start the Ultimate Relationship at Naremburn-Cammeray Anglican Church, and assistant minister, the Rev Nigel Fortescue says the week was "beyond what we'd hoped for".
The parish is currently following up over 50 people, who are both contacts from doorknocking and visitors who came along to events.
Ultimate Relationship set to last
Mr Steele " who has spearheaded Start the Ultimate Relationship " reflects that the reality has been different to the expectations when the idea was first discussed at a meeting of 12 Sydney Anglican ministers in August last year.
"We originally began the discussion for some sort of united mission that would work to capitalise on the increase in ‘God talk’ we anticipated would come as a result of World Catholic Youth Day," he says.
"I think the importance of World Catholic Youh Day was not as great as expected."
Mr Steele asserts however that the benefits of churches working together under a common brand, with congregations taking a week off work to get involved, has made Start the Ultimate Relationship an important beginning.
"Without wanting to prejudge, I think it's likely that we and other churches will do this together in future, with common branding and shared resources.
