You’d be hard pressed to find a church anywhere in our Diocese – and there are more than 300 of them – that don’t want to reach their community with the message of Jesus. And you would be hard pressed to find any church in our Diocese that is not engaged in some way with sharing Jesus in its community. Some will do it better than others, but everyone’s trying and everyone thinks we should do it. 

We are trying to share Jesus in the community because Jesus says to us, in Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of your own nation.

Satya exists to reach people from South Asia. Now I know that’s broader than just Indian but, just for the sake of some numbers, I’m going to talk about people from India for a moment. 

I think you would already know that there are now more people in Australia who were born in India than were born in China. In Australia now we have about 850,000 people born in India to about 670,000 born in China (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2023). 

there are more than 300 ethnicities in Australia from over 200 countries.

In Sydney, in the area that the Diocese covers, there are actually still more Chinese than Indian people but, on current trajectories, people from India will overtake in the not-too-distant future. So, the Satya network must reach all these people from India. There are other countries, of course, but because the command of Jesus is to go and make disciples of your own nation, you must do it.

Hopefully, you’re feeling a little bit uncomfortable about my Bible teaching ability – or at least my ability to read – because Jesus does not say go and make disciples of your own nation, does he? No, Jesus says go and make disciples of all nations. 

So, the question is, who is that directed towards? Who is supposed to reach all nations? Is that command just for the Anglo Aussies? Is it saying, all the other nationalities, you just reach your own people but you Aussies go and reach all nations, because that’s your responsibility? Is that command that Jesus gives just to Bolivians, Koreans, Vietnamese or Chileans, or is that command directed at all Christian people to make disciples of all nations? 

Here in our Diocese we collectively want to reach all nations because pretty much all the nations are here. Again, according to the ABS, there are more than 300 ethnicities in Australia from over 200 countries.

We know, don’t we, from the book of Acts, that God determines the times and places of people that they might seek God. I take it, then, that God has brought all these people from around the world here so that they might know Jesus. 

They might not know they’re here to know Jesus but God has brought them here so that they might know Jesus. So, the question is, who is supposed to tell them? Is someone else supposed to tell them? We are all given the responsibility as Christian people to reach all nations, and guess what? We don’t even have to go anywhere to do that. We can stay here and reach all nations!

Neighbours from across the globe

Now, I am not saying Satya should not reach South Asian people nor am I saying it shouldn’t have a focus on South Asian people. Please keep doing it. They are coming and they are coming faster than anybody else. 

I am the chairman of what we call the Archbishop’s Chinese Ministry Advisory Board. We want to reach the Chinese here in Sydney. However, Matthew 28 compels us to reach out to more than just those we are focusing on. It compels us to reach all nations who live and work and study around us and, as a Diocese, that is what we want. We want all people to reach all people. 

Furthermore, for you as South Asian Christians, God has spread you all around the Diocese. That means God has spread you out among all the nations. Now, it is true that there are concentrations of Indian people and South Asian people. But if you look at the interactive maps showing where these concentrations are, you will see that Indian and Chinese people like to live next to each other! 

We know that wherever you live, God has put all these nations around you because he wants someone to tell them about the Lord Jesus. I figure if God wanted someone else to tell them about Jesus, he would have sent them to somebody else. But no, he sent them to you and he has sent them to me. 

The fact is, our “Anglo” Anglican churches have not done well in reaching the nations that are here. Of course, there are a few exceptions but on the whole that is the case. I say the Anglo church has failed not as a judgement or a condemnation but actually as a challenge to us. You, as Satya, or us as the Chinese Ministry Advisory Board, haven’t even come close to reaching our own nations. So before we judge or condemn the Anglo church for failing, we’ve got to look at ourselves. 

There could be an argument that we just go out there and try to reach our own nation. Satya, you just worry about preaching Jesus to South Asians and I just worry about preaching to the Chinese, the Vietnamese focus on reaching the Vietnamese, and so forth. But no, that’s not Jesus’ command to reach all nations. 

So, the question is, what are we doing to reach all nations? Because Matthew 28 is as much for us as it is for the “Aussie” churches and the Aussie Christians. They may have failed but maybe we need to take up the responsibility. 

It’s already happening

I think perhaps we are more well placed to reach the nations than our Anglo brothers and sisters. We, as Chinese and South Asians, “get” each other in a way that Westerners just don’t understand. That’s not a criticism, but it is a challenge for us. Maybe our responsibility is greater to reach all the nations, not just our own? If you think about it, if Chinese are also reaching South Asians and South Asians are also reaching Chinese and we’re both helping each other reach each other, isn’t that wonderful? 

This is already happening. Hurstville Anglican Church, which is mainly Chinese, has just begun a Nepalese ministry. That’s just a picture of how we can work together for the sake of Christ in this Diocese. 

For those of you who are Australian-born Indian or Australian-born Sri Lankan, Australian-born South Asian – or you might have come when you were very young and have done most of your education here in Australia – you’re similar to me. I’m what they call an ABC, an Australian-born-Chinese. The Asians call me an Aussie and the Aussies call me an Asian, and I used to hate that because as I grew up I never fit in anywhere.

But now I love it because, as people who straddle both cultures, we are best placed to bridge not just the two cultures that we inhabit but all cultures. We swap in and out every day and don’t even think about it.

Do we as South Asians and Asians bear greater responsibility to reach not only our nations but all the nations here? We reach all nations because that’s God’s intention for the Church. The all-nations Church is what brings him glory. That is what the Church is to be and will be. 

That beautiful picture in Revelation is a picture of God’s people gathered around him and gathered around his Son. This is the heavenly, final, eternal Church and you see people from every tribe, language, people and nation. It does not say some nations. It does not say most nations. It says all nations, tribes, languages and peoples.

This talk was originally presented at the Satya conference in September 2024. The Rt Rev Peter Lin is Bishop of the South Western Region in the Sydney Diocese.