Two weeks ago, Sydney parishes and schools welcomed 16 Moore College student teams for a week of outreach in their local communities. But are these weeks the best outreach strategy for churches? How do churches keep mission on the boil when student teams have gone home? Should Sydney churches be thinking more creatively about how they use these missions?
Sylvania Anglican Church is already experiencing some benefits from the intensive eight-day missions.
The Rev Paul Sampson says the mission team at Sylvania motivated the congregation to try new outreach initiatives.
"It's encouraging for us to have a team of young, capable people to give an injection of energy to do things we can't normally do," he says.
"We've been buoyed by that and the energy of that will continue on."
The Rev Rick Miller of St Stephen's, Penrith says the example of the student team at his church was a great encouragement.
"These students have often given up a well-paid job to proclaim the gospel," he says.
"As they mingle with people, it stimulates conversations, usually about ministry, church and God."
During the mission week, students took part in outreach activities ranging from kids clubs to soccer clinics, to card-making nights.
Mission teams also visited schools, hospitals, nursing homes, universities, and even a juvenile detention centre.
Students gave testimonies and talks at church services and events, and tried their hand at doorknocking and walk-up evangelism in the local communities of their designated churches.
Keeping mission on the mind
In his article, "How to run a "love your church' mission", youth mission expert Jodie McNeill argues that special evangelistic events can convey a sense of embarrassment about regular Sunday gatherings as a place for effective evangelism.
"By running a plethora of evangelistic events we often infer that we consider our normal Sunday church to be unsuitable for non-Christians."
Is this the case in Sydney churches?
As rector at Sylvania, Paul says he wanted to introduce people in the local community to church as it normally happens.
"We didn't want it to be simply an event-driven mission " we wanted people to come to church and "taste and see'," he says.
The Head of Moore College's Ministry Department, Archie Poulos, says established preparation and follow-up processes are the key to running effective missions.
"Ideally, churches have done preparation for mission and we're just adding momentum to the mission that the church is engaged in," he explains.
"There's a difference between the process and the event " the real benefit comes when the mission is part of the process of what the church is doing."
Paul says it was important for Sylvania to have ownership of its mission week, so that it was working in partnership with student teams, rather than relying on them to make the impact.
"The strategic focus was for these to be our events," he says.
"So it was not just a group of folk from Moore College that gets wheeled in, and all the energy and focus gets wheeled out when they leave."
Sylvania church members went out doorknocking with the students, and one parishioner, recognising the talent of a soccer player on the student team, organised a soccer clinic, which 65 local children attended.
"That was a great example of a grassroots initiative " it wasn't something I worked out," Paul says.
Evangelise or equip?
Should a mission be focused primarily on sharing the gospel with the surrounding community, or training church members to do their own evangelism?
Jodie says mission teams should pray with the church, help the church to lead scripture in schools, work alongside the church to raise its profile in the community, and give the church helpful feedback as "outsiders'.
Above all, he says missions should focus on training churches to do their own evangelism, as the effects will be more lasting.
"If the mission team does the fishing for you, then your church will only have new fish for a week," he says. "But if the mission team teaches your church to fish, then you will have fish for a lifetime!"
Archie says Moore College says training and evangelism are both essential in running effective missions.
"The goal for mission is to train and excite the congregation members, to make contact with people that haven't had much contact with the church in a while, and to make contact with people who have never had contact before," he says. "The second two factors depend on the first."
In the weeks leading up to the mission, small group leaders at Sylvania were trained in running Introducing God. During mission week, some of the students trained church members in evangelism and giving their testimonies.
"The team did some of this alongside of our people and also trained them in doing it," Paul says.
Sylvania is already in its second week of Introducing God, with five women who had come to mission activities now doing the course. A jazz night is also planned in the coming weeks.
"This is another event to keep outreach in people's minds," Paul says. "It's having activities that have a tail at the back of mission week, so that when the guys pack up on Sunday night, our mission doesn't end."
Paul says training congregation members is important, because they can combine evangelism with the relationships they have with people in the community.
"The difficulty with Moore College students is that they aren't the people with the relationships," he says.
"People who don't know us might walk up and have a nice chat, but in terms of seeing people come to church… if you invite the woman next door to come to the women's breakfast, then to church, that'll work."
Mission through student eyes
As they look towards a future of ministry, fourth-year student Ed Loane and second-year student Sonja Graml are enthusiastic about the benefits of Moore College's mission weeks bring to their learning.
"These missions are extremely helpful," says Ed. "They ground us in reality. You come to college to leave, and to better equip yourself to share Jesus' love with people."
Ed adds that mission gives students valuable opportunities to see God in action.
"Seeing God work through his people is just a really encouraging thing," he says. "It refreshes your passion for God and for being a minister of the gospel."
Sonja says it was often in the times of weakness or rushed preparation during the week that she saw God most at work.
"God worked with what little time and resources we had " and even though we were not always as prepared as we would like, it was good to see that the gospel was still put across," she said.
Reflecting on the week has given her encouragement as she returns to her studies.
One of the highlights of the week was "seeing that things I'm learning are helping me to answer people's questions and understand people better and encourage them," she says.
"Study is hard slog but mission helps me to remember what it's all about."
