American Bible experts have arrived in Sydney to show Vietnamese churches how to coach their own culture.
St Luke's, Regents Park has played host to the American-led "Easter Seminars' which have drawn in Church pastors and lay leaders from Anglican, Baptist and Vietnamese Evangelical Churches across Sydney.
St Luke's rector, The Rev Vinh Pham, believes the need for training in Vietnamese in Sydney is essential.
"Many Vietnamese people would like to study theology but are not able to attend colleges in Sydney because of their English," he says.
"The Easter Seminars are good opportunity for them to do some intensive courses."
Dr Nhien Pham and Dr Duc Nguyen from the Union College of California (UCC) have taught classes in Old Testament and Church History to help equip leaders from the 18 evangelical Vietnamese congregations throughout Sydney.
The UCC is the first and only approved theological college in the world offering courses in Vietnamese. Lecturers from the college have been travelling to Australia since 2001 to teach theological courses to Sydney's Vietnamese ministers.
Many of these church leaders are part of the Vietnamese minister's fellowship. The group has been meeting together weekly for planning and prayer sessions in the lead up to two combined outreach events to be held in Sydney in May.
"The Vietnamese ministers of different denominations get together," Mr Pham says.
"We have an hour of prayer the organisers and for people working together to reach out to the Vietnamese in Sydney."
Pastor William Lau from the US-based "Elijah Challenge' will be running a pair of evangelistic crusades at the Jesus Family Centre, Saturday May 7 and the Bankstown Town Hall on Sunday May 8 to outreach to Vietnamese in Sydney.
Mr Pham has also planted a new Vietnamese congregation at St Paul's, Bankstown in February. The 5pm congregation has a core group of 15 people meeting.
The Archdeacon of the Georges River Region and Acting Rector of St Paul's, Geoff Huard says the church plant is strategic given that Vietnamese is the most common language spoken in the Bankstown area after English.
"His congregation is looking to reach the highest non-English speaking language group in the Bankstown area," he says.
"In the Georges River Region the Vietnamese are one of the people groups we want to increase our ministry to. We want to support Vinh's ministry with resources, finance and encouragement as he does that."
