Church Leadership

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Written by: Ben Wong

Created: 01 March 2026

The Story of TIMA: Planting New Life in Old Pots — The Vision and Practice of "Church Repotting"

In Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, there is a developing Anglican parish — TIMA Anglican Parish. TIMA is composed of three churches: St Timothy’s Bulleen, St Mark’s Templestowe Lower, and St Stephen’s Greythorn. Across three locations and five services (two English, two Mandarin, and one Cantonese), congregants of different languages and generations are being reconnected under a single vision: not to give up on traditional churches, but to replant the "new life" of the Gospel mission within the "old pots" of existing churches.

I. BACKGROUND: WHEN ANGLICAN CHURCHES FACE DECLINE, IS "CLOSING DOWN" THE ONLY OPTION?

Over a decade ago, God began to show Ben Wong and a small team of coworkers a clear reality: many traditional local churches were facing structural dilemmas. This was not a problem unique to a single site, but a widespread phenomenon.

Observed Realities:

• Continuous decline in attendance.
• Lack of outreach ministries and adult baptisms.
• An ageing congregation.
• A lack of next-generation church leaders.
• Difficulty in developing the small local church model: Churches are bogged down by a heavy load of non- Gospel tasks (compliance, governance, OHS, child safety, property management, etc.). In small churches, a single pastor often handles administration, management, and pastoring alone. Consequently, they can at most "maintain services," making it difficult to refresh children’s and youth ministries, let alone talk about church planting or missions.

The most heart-wrenching result is that when a church can no longer sustain itself, it often moves toward being sold. Many church sites are actually located in dense residential areas; once the land is lost, even if God revives the city in the future, it will be very difficult for the church to return to that community because the location no longer exists.

This is not just a reduction in the number of churches, but also:

• The permanent loss of land and Gospel outposts in residential areas.
• A continuous decline in the church's influence on society.

In this situation, we began to ask a question: Does God really want us to watch churches disappear one by one?

II. VISION: CHURCH REPOTTING — STARTING NEW MINISTRY IN OLD CHURCHES

The core vision God gave TIMA is: Church Repotting.

"Repotting" is a very relatable image from daily life: when a plant stops growing and loses its vitality, we don’t necessarily throw it away. Instead, we can keep the same pot, refresh the soil, and plant a new plant inside so that life can grow again.

Similarly, we believe:

• God is not looking to discard His church, but to renew His church.
• He is bringing new life, new missions, and a new generation of people into places that seem dry and weary, making them Gospel centres in the community once more.

TIMA’s articulation of "Church Repotting" is:

"A dynamic network of flourishing churches, energised by the innovative initiative of 'Church Repotting'—a platform dedicated to fostering and nurturing new ministries within established yet declining churches.

Through the process of 'repotting,' these churches are envisioned to not only survive but thrive, evolving into vibrant centres of faith and service."

III. THE STORY: FROM A SMALL CHURCH OF 20+ PEOPLE, GOD LEADS THE WAY TO UNITY

1) 2014: The Starting Point at St Timothy’s

A Small Site, a New Beginning In 2014, Ben Wong was appointed as the Vicar of St Timothy’s Bulleen. At the time, the church had only one elderly English congregation of about 20 people. The site was small, with a maximum capacity of about 100 people.

While maintaining the original English service, Ben and a small team of about six people started a new Mandarin ministry. It was a beginning of faith: without resources or scale, they relied on God’s calling and vision, hoping to launch new pastoring and mission work within the old church.

2) 2019–2022: Two Churches Move Toward Partnership, then Merger

By 2019, St Timothy’s began to face limitations in space and ministry development. God also led us to begin communicating with nearby St Mark’s Templestowe Lower (the two churches are a four-minute drive apart).

At the time, St Mark’s was still financially healthy but faced the same challenges of an ageing congregation and a lack of a new generation. The two sites began to wonder: could working together make each other stronger? We gradually saw an important direction: If two small churches could unite to become a multi-staff parish, they would be more powerful than two churches fighting alone. The 2020 pandemic was an opportunity. The two churches collaborated on live-streaming services. The young people from St Timothy’s were able to use the equipment for the livestream, which was very important for elderly Christians during the lockdown. The congregants got to know each other better, and the partnership deepened as a result.

In 2021, the two churches officially entered a three-year Partnership Agreement, originally planning to blend slowly. However, after only one year, the congregants clearly saw the benefits of unity and even proactively suggested that there was no need to wait three years—they could merge immediately.

In 2022, both churches passed the merger with a 100% vote, officially establishing TIMA Anglican Parish. The name includes the "Ti" from St Timothy’s and the "Ma" from St Mark’s. More importantly, TIMA is an ancient Greek word meaning "honour." We hope to be a church that honours God.

3) 2022: A Third Church Joins — Seemingly Unwise, but Like a Calling Placed at the Door

Shortly after the merger, nearby St Stephen’s Greythorn entered a stage of "possible closure." From a human perspective, it seemed unwise to merge another church within three months of just completing one merger.

But we also asked: Why has God placed this at our doorstep? Is this directly related to the "Repotting" vision?

After prayer and discussion, the entire church passed the merger with "only one dissenting vote," and St Stephen’s joined TIMA. Today, TIMA has become a parish of three locations and five services, learning to move forward under the same vision across different sites and language groups.

IV. STRATEGY: RESPONDING TO NEW ERA CHALLENGES WITH "MERGE–INTEGRATE–SEND"

TIMA’s repotting strategy is not simply about "getting big," but about establishing a model that can be healthy long-term and capable of continuous sending.

1) Establishing a Multi-staff Parish: Centralising Administration to Release Pastors for Gospel Work

Many ageing small churches today face a common dilemma: they can often only afford to hire one pastor. However, besides Sunday services and daily pastoring, the pastor must spend a huge amount of time handling increasingly complex compliance and governance requirements that are updated annually. With an elderly and limited congregation, it is also difficult to find enough suitable volunteers to share the load. As a result, the church can barely maintain itself, making it hard to launch new Gospel ministries.

Therefore, the direction we are trying is merging nearby sites to establish a multi-staff parish. The Vicar centralises the primary administration and overall governance, while the other pastors can focus more on pastoring specific services and groups. Meanwhile, each service still retains its own characteristics and culture, continuing to serve people of different languages, cultures, and backgrounds.

Under this structure, we also face a very practical pastoral issue: how to integrate existing ageing services. Many ageing services do not have many people, yet they are scattered across different locations. Congregants' resistance to merging is often not out of rational calculation, but out of emotion and belonging—the fear of losing the church building that has accompanied them for many years, especially when relatives or spouses are buried in the church’s memorial garden; this connection is deep and hard to sever.

"Church Repotting" is not simply about "moving" the old members away; they have not lost their original church building. Nor is it just to maintain things for a few more years. The original church becomes part of a larger church; the elderly congregants still "own" it and have not "lost" it. When several originally scattered and weak ageing services are integrated, the numbers increase, relationships become closer, and more resources and vitality are naturally generated.

After merging the existing ageing services, the ideal service time slots can be reserved for the newly "replanted" services to better connect with the community.

2) Integrating Next-Generation Ministry: One Team Serving Multiple Service Groups

• Children’s Sunday School: Each service still retains children's ministry, but teaching resources and training can be centrally coordinated, making quality and continuity more stable.
• Youth Ministry: TIMA’s Friday youth ministry is composed of young people from the English, Cantonese, and Mandarin services. If the previous three churches were still operating independently, they would need three sets of youth cultivation systems; now, one youth ministry can serve the groups from all three locations.
• The Rise of the Fifth Service: The fifth service TIMA started this year is composed of teenagers from different services who have grown up into young adults. This group mostly comes from first generation immigrant families but possesses Australian culture and a local English context. The service they have established in the parish serves the next generation (not limited to immigrant groups), where issues of language, race, and culture will no longer exist. Consequently, even if certain services age or even need to close due to changes in migration waves or other reasons, this young adult community will quickly become the main force of TIMA, supporting the long-term development of the parish.

3) Not Pursuing Megachurch Services, but Using "100 People" as a Healthy Unit

The goal of repotting is to establish new services within old churches so the church can maintain, renew, and reconnect with the community. Therefore, our ideal is not to concentrate everyone into one super-large service, but rather:

• Each service develops to about 100 people: This fits the site capacity of most local churches and keeps community relationships close.
• If it reaches about 120 people: We begin to prepare to send and repot new ministries, giving the original service room to continue growing while extending the mission of church repotting.
• This ensures growth doesn’t get stuck in the painful transition of "moving from small to medium," but instead continues the mission and renewal through sending.

V. CHALLENGES: REPOTTING IS NOT A SLOGAN, BUT A PATH REQUIRING FAITH AND SACRIFICE

We are very clear that church repotting is not an easy path. The challenges TIMA currently faces include:

1) The Challenge of Vision Communication

Because TIMA has multiple services led by different pastors, the overall church vision and methods must be very clear to ensure that although congregants are scattered across different sites, they are still moving in the same direction. This means that the ministry team must first be united in their vision for the church.

2) The Difficulty of "Early Establishment"

Many ageing churches are unwilling to change or accept new management or merger models as long as they can barely maintain themselves. The result is often waiting until resources are exhausted and being forced to let go, which means new ministries require greater cost and energy to be re-established. TIMA’s first two churches are a positive example of two healthy small churches coming together to become a healthier church.

3) Lack of Training and Workers

Repotting needs new church planters and leaders, which requires:

• Recruiting the right people.
• Providing theological and practical training.
• Building healthy spiritual character and team culture.

Therefore, within TIMA, there is a ministry called the Neoshoot Network, whose main work is church planting and training church planters.

4) Need for Resources and Support

Church planting and repotting require money, manpower, administrative support, and long-term companionship. This also means we need more cross-site and cross-parish cooperation and support.

VI. THE FUTURE: FROM "ONE PARISH" TOWARD A "RESOURCING CHURCH," SUPPORTING MORE REPOTTING

TIMA has completed the first phase of repotting: establishing a three-site parish structure. Currently, while each service is self-sustaining, there is still room for growth.

In the next step, our goal is not to endlessly expand the number of TIMA locations. Conversely, as the ministries at the three sites gradually expand healthily, we hope TIMA becomes a resourcing church, sharing the models, structures, and experiences God has built among us with other struggling small churches.

We look forward to being able to do the following outside the TIMA parish in the future:

• Assist other churches in establishing similar multistaff parish structures.
• Provide feasible models for governance and administrative support.
• Release pastors and congregants back to the core of the Gospel mission.
• Ensure more "old pots" are not discarded but renewed, becoming Gospel outposts once again.

Although TIMA itself is still in a stage of exploration and has much room for growth, this does not affect our practice of the vision God gave us: church repotting. We have already prepared a church planting team and will launch repotting ministries outside of TIMA in 2026, expecting TIMA and the churches about to be replanted to grow healthily at the same time.

CONCLUSION: GOD IS NOT ENDING HIS CHURCH, HE IS RENEWING HIS CHURCH

The story of TIMA cannot yet be considered a "success case," but is a journey still in progress: we see the reality of decline, and we also see the hope of God’s renewal; we face resource constraints and the tension of change, and time and again we experience God’s leading in unity and sending.

We believe: Church repotting is not just a strategy, but God’s calling to His church in this generation.

May the Lord raise up more sites and coworkers across Australia willing to respond to this calling, so that those places that seem weary may once again sprout, grow, and bear fruit because of the Gospel.

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1)

Revd. Canon Ben Wong is senior minister at TIMA.

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Written by: Richard Harvey

Created: 01 September 2024

Spiritual Stress in Ministry

I must apologise that it has taken me 2 years to respond to the important issue in Essentials, Summer 2022 on stress in ministry. The emphases on supervision (Preston, Kettleton), a supportive community (Morse) and looking to Jesus (King) were very helpful. However, I was surprised by a glaring omission. No-one noted that we do not minister in a spiritually neutral environment. Comer quotes Willard that ‘Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life…’ (p 17). By contrast, the NT would affirm that spiritual evil is. Consider the following.

1. In the OT, there are less than 10 references to spiritual evil such as unclean spirits. By contrast, most books in the NT contain references to evil spirits. The exceptions would appear to be Titus, Philemon and 2 and 3 John.
2. In Mt 6:13, we ask God to deliver us not from some sort of generalised evil but from ‘the evil one’, Satan.
3. In the OT, spiritual evil can still appear in God’s presence in heaven eg. Job 1-2 and Zech 3. In the NT, all recorded interactions between deity and spiritual evil happen on earth; the most obvious being Satan tempting Jesus (Mt 4 etc). Despite Revelatrion being filled with scenes of heaven, there is nothing similar, most likely because evil has been expelled from heaven (Lk 10:18, Rev 12:9). While the timing of this is heavily disputed, I believe that it happened around the time of the Massacre of the Innocents (Mt 2).
4. While Satan is called ‘the accuser of the brethren’ (Rev 12:10), his accusations in Job and Zechariah are unsuccessful and he makes no recorded accusations in the NT. As though an all-knowing God needs the prince of evil to accuse God’s own people! There may be some irony in calling Satan an accuser: a prosecutor who cannot make a charge stick.
5. While the OT is filled with warnings against idolatry and the NT does warn against idolatry (1 Cor 10, 1 Jn 5:21, etc), the most severe warnings are against evil itself (1 Pet 5:8 ‘Resist him [the devil]…).
6. In summary, there has been a big change from the OT to the NT. Evil is still very real and malicious but can no longer access heaven so all its fury is directed against God’s people. This is a particular problem for evangelicals as we want to help people move from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (Col 1:13, 1 Pet 2:9, etc). Evil does not take this at all well and if we are not obedient to what the NT says about resisting evil then our marriage partners, our families and ourselves will be targets.

What should we then do?

1. A necessary first step is to remove our cultural blinkers which say that this sort of thing does not exist in Australia. It most certainly does. Or, that evil was so decisively defeated at the cross that it is no longer a threat. The NT reached its final written form decades after the first Easter and still includes the most graphic warnings about evil. The cross provides the tools for dealing with evil and we have a responsibility to use them.

2. Our theology must be Biblical, in particular our belief in Jesus’ redemptive death and bodily resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you have a face to face confrontation in the early hours of the morning with an unclean spirit, you cannot say to them, ‘Liberal theology says that you don’t exist.’!

3. Unconfessed sin and unforgiveness weaken our spiritual authority and thus our ability to resist evil. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to us and then deal with them.

4. We must check our obedience to the fourth commandment to honour parents, which is the first one with a promise (Eph 6). This requires honouring parents, repenting of any sin against them and renouncing their sins. I have seen this lead to visible, overnight healing without that healing even being prayed for. This is vital where parents and other ancestors have been involved in activities inconsistent with the gospel.

5. I am also concerned that accounts of defeating evil in Jesus’ name are derided as ‘war stories’ (thankfully not in Essentials). When I started as an aged care chaplain, we had a couple of apparitions which made one corridor unusable by staff at night. Answering residents’ buzzers then required a much longer route, where any delay could have serious even fatal consequences. The other chaplain and I sat in the chapel and said that these things could either come to us and explain their right to be there or go straight to Jesus, never to return. We never saw them again. This was a valuable demonstration of Jesus’ authority over evil, Arranging supervision and supportive communities must never take the place of obeying the NT’s clear instructions on resisting evil. We can do both and a good place to start is to write down every NT command about resisting evil and make sure that we are being obedient. It is also vital that we ask God to guide us to someone with experience in this area as mistakes can be costly. CS Lewis warned us many years ago of two equal but opposite dangers – either being obsessed with evil or completely ignoring it. Neither is helpful but if we are willing, God can open our eyes to this whole realm and show us his authority over evil.

Revd Dr Richard Harvey.
Associate minister Holy Trinity, Terrigal 

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Written by: Kanishka Raffel

Created: 01 September 2024

The Challenge EFAC Exists to Address

(Presidential address at the 2024 EFAC National Conference)

What a joy it is to be together in this way. As President of EFAC Australia it’s my privilege and pleasure to welcome you to Sydney, and to this National EFAC Conference – Recharge Refresh Renew

I have been asked to welcome you, which I am most happy to do, and to speak about something close to my heart. I think the program says something like ‘ministry challenges and opportunities in Sydney’, which is close to my heart indeed, but I have chosen instead to speak about the challenge that EFAC exists to address. Having served outside of the diocese of Sydney in local church ministry for twenty years, I can testify to the crucial significance of gospel fellowship – or ‘Evangelical Fellowship’ – in sustaining, encouraging and equipping me for the ministry to which God had called me.

In the early 1960s John Stott was convicted about the necessity of an international fellowship of Evangelical Anglicans because his global travels alerted him to the threat to ministry that was posed by the widespread experience of isolation.

In Australia, this includes geographical isolation which is not inconsiderable - and we have gathered from the four corners of our island continent - but in particular no doubt, Stott had in mind the reality then as now that convictions about the trustworthiness and authority of Scripture, the centrality of the Cross, the urgency of evangelism and the necessity of personal Spirit-empowered

growth in godly living were essential and everywhere evident in the Bible, but frequently peripheral or absent from Anglican ministry in some places. Added to this ‘theological isolation’ was a pattern of excluding or marginalising such perspectives from the institutional structures of diocesan life in ways that discouraged or opposed evangelical ministry.

Faithful Anglican ministry can be found just about anywhere and everywhere, but often those who are preaching the gospel, winning the lost, building up believers, equipping the saints for works of ministry are doing so in circumstances where they have little encouragement from the local leadership and often little fellowship with likeminded others. EFAC was established to connect gospel-minded Anglicans; to provide mutual encouragement and foster gospel partnership. And we ought to see clearly that such evangelical or ‘gospel’ fellowship is a means of grace. And I think it can be said that it finds its origins in the very beginnings of global, gospel mission.

I’ve read to you from the end of Colossians because these lists of names and greetings give us a window on the fellowship that is formed by the gospel. The community that is formed around the Jesus whom this letter proclaims: Jesus – the image of the invisible God, firstborn in creation, firstborn from the dead so that he might have the supremacy in everything, the Head of his body which is the church. The gospel that is proclaimed to every creature under heaven, proclaims this Jesus, and as people believe in Him, a fellowship is formed around him.

So I want to consider three aspects of the fellowship formed around Christ that we can glean from these closing, personal greetings.

First, the fellowship of Christ is a fellowship without barriers.

In 3:11 Paul had said, ‘here - that is, in the church - there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all.’

(As you know, Paul says something similar elsewhere including ‘male and female’.) And to this day, this remains the most stunning affirmation of inclusivity the world has ever known.

Those whom Paul mentions in these closing verses are Jews like Aristarchus, Mark and Justus; and there are gentiles like Tychicus, Onesimus and Epaphras. But Paul regards them all with the same affection. He calls Tychicus ‘faithful minister and fellow servant’, Onesimus a ‘dear brother’, Epaphras, a ‘fellow servant’; Aristarchus, Mark and Justus he calls ‘fellow workers’ who ‘brought him comfort’.

The gospel has come into the lives of these people with very different backgrounds - ethnic backgrounds, religious backgrounds - and they were not only different, but their backgrounds required that they had nothing to do with one another. Whole communities of people who avoided, mistrusted and despised each other. But these are people who have received Christ Jesus as Lord. He is Lord of all and reconciler of all; and as he has reconciled them to himself and God the Father, he has reconciled them to each other as well.

Now there is a new community - there is a community of Christ in which the barriers count for nothing; because Christ has united what was divided. Paul seemingly makes a few casual introductions and conveys some courteous greetings - but he reveals the power of the gospel to break down barriers between people.

Paul sends greetings from Luke the Gentile doctor, and Paul greets a wealthy woman and landholder Nympha who offers hospitality to one of the churches in the area.

These greetings are not just Paul tidying up his letter. He is continuing to minister to this new and immature congregation and he is continuing to minister to us, as God applies these words to our own situation today.

I hope as we draw aside for these few days you will be renewed and refreshed in this powerful truth of the gospel that breaks down barriers and unites people to Christ and to each other.

The church that receives Christ Jesus as Lord is one where ethnic, economic, social and personal barriers take second place to unity in Christ. Christ is all and Christ is in all.

Second, these greetings and personal remarks show us a fellowship of Christ that serves Christ. 

Paul describes himself at the beginning of the letter as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Later, as a servant of the gospel. Apostle and servant. But what we learn from these greetings is that the gospel draws people into a fellowship around Jesus who entrusts and commissions and enlists all those who are his, into his mission.

The work of the gospel is carried on by a great partnership of co-workers who are not seeking to promote themselves but to serve others and proclaim Jesus. Paul says that he is sending Tychicus and Onesimus so that they may ‘encourage their hearts’ and ‘tell them everything that is happening’.

Paul has just said to them that they should pray with devotion and watchfulness and thanksgiving and it’s clear that Paul wants the Colossians to be informed about everything happening to him so that they can pray about it. He exhorts them to pray, and then he sends them a living prayer letter so that they can pray.

Those whom he sends serve the mission by taking the letter; those who receive the letter serve the mission by praying in response to it. To belong to the fellowship that the gospel of Jesus creates is to serve the mission of that gospel and be enlisted in that work.

Tychicus and Onesimus are going to the Colossians with the letter, but others are remaining with Paul and wrestling in prayer for those who are in Colossae. Epaphras is remaining with Paul and v12 says ‘he is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.’ And I take it, his ‘hard work’ is the work of prayer.

Archippus is described as Paul’s fellow soldier in the letter to Philemon. Possibly, because he is mentioned after the church in Laodicea, he has a ministry in Laodicea. That is all we know about him. Just a name at the end of this part of scripture you might think - but in reality a wonderful work of God. Not an apostle, not an eyewitness of Jesus - just a man who in God’s mercy heard of the Lord and his work on the cross, repented and put his faith in him and became a servant in the Lord’s mission field. An ordinary believer. But that’s so valuable isn’t it? Because we’re ordinary believers.

Though we are distributed across the full breadth of this amazing country – some in cities, some in remote towns and regional centres, some in universities or prisons or hospitals or schools or universities or military bases – we are in fact a vast fellowship of coworkers in the Lord’s harvest field. I think that is both glorious and beautiful. Men and women, lay and ordained, theologically trained and those with a long obedience in the same, Spirit-led direction. Fellow workers and servants of the Lord, at work in the Lord’s harvest field.

It’s worth seeing, isn’t it, what it is like to labour in the Lord’s service. It’s not without its hardship clearly. Paul is in chains. Remember my chains he says in v 18. And even as Paul speaks of three fellow Jewish countrymen who support him, he makes the point that they are the only three - there is for Paul in his service always the sadness that more of his own people have not responded.

So there is physical hardship and emotional hardship in the work. But these greetings are laced with affection aren’t they? There is a great spirit of kindness and mutual support and encouragement and common participation in a common cause.

Tychicus, ‘fellow servant’; Aristarchus, ‘fellow prisoner’, fellow workers in the kingdom of God who have proved a comfort to me; he calls Onesimus, who was a slave, his ‘dear brother’, and the gentile physician Luke, he calls his ‘dear friend’. Bonds of affection, sharing in service and suffering, working hard - the fellowship of Christ that serves the mission of Christ.

Third, Christian fellowship is fellowship in the grace of Christ.

Paul ends his letter with this brief farewell – Grace be with you. He began the letter in the same way – 1:2 Grace and peace be with you. For Paul, there is only one source of grace and peace in the world: ‘the true message of the gospel that has come to you is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.’ (1:5) They heard and understood and believed the gospel of God’s grace – they heard it from Epaphras, and the gospel of grace gave birth to this Christian community in Colossae. What is this gospel of grace? ‘God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ and through him to reconcile to himself all things by making peace through his blood shed on the cross’ (1:19), and in v23 ‘This is the gospel that you heard’.

By faith in this gospel they are united with Christ in his death and raised with him in glorious resurrection. By this gospel of God’s grace and peace, they are seated with Christ in heaven and will appear with him when he appears in glory.

By faith in this gospel they are transformed into the likeness of Christ; putting off what is evil; being clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, patience and gentleness.

John Stott said in defending the vision of EFAC, ‘Anglicanism is a largely historical phenomenon. Its death in any particular region or nation is not therefore to be regretted, provided that it is followed by a resurrection in a united church which preserves a Biblical Faith ...

Evangelicalism on the other hand, is a theological heritage. … The Evangelical has no wish to be a party man (sic). He desires, if he is true to his own Evangelical principles, to witness to Biblical truth as unchanging divine revelation.’^[i]

We are a fellowship gripped by the divine revelation of the grace and peace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified for sin, raised in victory, ascended to the Father’s right hand, and soon returning to judge the living and the dead. It is a fellowship in Christ; it is a fellowship in the service of Christ, and it is a fellowship in the grace of Christ. Our fellowship is the gospel work of God and our fellowship serves the gospel plan of God; the gospel that all over the world is growing and bearing fruit.

My dear brothers and sisters, as we encourage one another in these short days to persevere with trust and joy in the glorious task which the Lord has entrusted to us – in a world desperate for hope and facing God’s just judgement – may the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus be with you, in every way.

Kanishka Raffel
Archbishop of Sydney and President of EFAC Australia

^[i] 1 T Dudley-Smith, John Stott – A Global Ministry, (IVP, London 2001) p 52.

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Written by: Richard Trist

Created: 01 June 2024

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).

Intentional time spent reflecting on past actions for more effective future actions is vital for gospel ministry. Deep learning occurs when we are able to regularly slow down and consider in fresh ways issues that have impacted us. To do this with another trusted person can enable us to see past personal blind spots and lead to new possibilities.

In the light of dioceses across Australia rolling out programs of professional supervision or coaching/supervision^[i] for clergy and lay workers, what are we to make of such programs? What benefits might emerge from them? How can we make them work for us and our own ministry situation?

WHAT IS PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION?

In many occupations the term supervision is synonymous with line-management. However, in the so-called helping professions the term is used to speak of a consultative relationship between an external supervisor and a worker, where the supervisee consults with their supervisor who is neither their trainer nor manager. This is not what someone has called “snooper-vision” but rather an intentional time for reflection on work practice for the purpose of pastoral support and better ministry outcomes for the worker and for the people they serve.Accountability is not to a boss such as a Bishop or Board of Management, but rather to the ethical framework in which the work or ministry is being undertaken (eg Faithfulness in Service).

As professional supervision becomes more of a norm for Christian ministers, there is a need for clarity as to how it is different from other activities such as counselling, spiritual direction, mentoring and coaching. The following table may help to clarify these differences. 2 Each of these different modes of support are important and useful. It is likely that we will all utilise them in different seasons of our ministry careers. ^[ii]

THE BENEFIT OF PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION

The benefit of professional supervision lies in its ability to bring clarity and focus upon the complex nature of parish or chaplaincy ministry. Authors Jane Leach and Michael Paterson utilise a three-legged stool model to explain its three tasks:

1. The formative task – an educative aspect where the supervisor helps the supervisee come to a clearer knowledge of the issues they are facing leading to equipping and resourcing.

2. The restorative task – a supportive function which understands the challenges of the supervisee’s work and provides a place for the “recharging” of emotional and spiritual energy.

3. The normative task – assisting the supervisee to attend to issues of wellbeing, boundaries, and professional expectations.^[iii]

In a pilot study of clergy in the Diocese of Sydney, over 90% agreed that professional supervision (either one-toone or in a group) was helpful for their ministry and personal well-being, leading to a greater ability to be reflective and self-aware. 75% of participants indicated that it developed their ability to be resilient. ^[iv]

Although initially mandated by dioceses as a result of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse^[v], the adoption of supervision is having a far-reaching impact for the good of the church, leading to growth, learning, support and healthier ministers and ministries.

PREPARING FOR SUPERVISION

It is important to remember that a supervision session is always for the benefit of the supervisee not the supervisor! It is important to spend time prior to a session thinking about what you want to talk about. This includes anything that arises from actual experiences which is affecting the quality of our ministry. Examples could be our role in a particular situation, our current priorities,  issues of time management and boundaries, new ideas and insights, people we are finding it hard to work with, changes that are happening within our system, general pressures or needs.

The following may be helpful prompts:

• I am feeling [tired, miserable, elated, inspired, challenged, worried] ...
• This concern keeps pushing into my mind…
• I seem to keep putting off...
• I want help to clarify where I stand on this issue…
• I feel torn between these priorities…
• When [this] happens, it seems to be a pattern repeating itself...
• I want to stop something like [this] happening again...
• I want to get something like [this] to happen more often...

FINDING A GOOD SUPERVISOR

The key issue in finding a good supervisor is to find someone who is not only well trained, but someone we can trust. Someone with whom we are willing to speak about the ups and downs of ministry. A person who will enable us to grow and to learn.

Supervision used to be the sole domain of clinical practitioners such as psychologists or those trained in CPE, but more and more people with pastoral and church experience are undertaking this work. It has a rich theological and pastoral undergirding and many theological colleges including Ridley College, Moore College, and St Marks National Theological Centre offer training in this field.

Look out for trusted people on your diocesan lists, or check out the following:

• Red Sheep Supervision – a ministry that equips ministry leaders from different organisations and denominations.
• Pastoral Supervision Alliance – a collective of supervisors mostly from Sydney and Melbourne.
• Partners in Ministry – offers consulting, training, as well as coaching and supervision.
• Envisager Supervision – provides professional reflective supervision, coaching, and consulting services to teachers, school leaders, school chaplains, and pastors.

When you find someone contact them to arrange an initial meeting. Such meetings usually involve a discussion about the areas of your ministry that you are keen to explore, the ethical framework that will undergird the conversations, and mutual expectations such as frequency of meetings (four to eight times a year), mode of meeting (face to face or zoom), fees, etc. This will lead to a contract/agreement that will likely be sent into the diocese to inform them of the arrangement. Having done this you are set and ready to go.

IN CONCLUSION

Despite being yet another thing to add to our busy diaries, my hope is that we will find professional supervision as not just something we ‘have-to-do’. Rather may it be a space for refreshment, restoration and the re-forming of ourselves to enable us to fulfil the great calling God has

given us “…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ...and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ “(Eph 4:12-13).

Richard Trist is the Chaplain to the Anglican Institute and Adjunct Lecturer in Professional Pastoral Supervision at Ridley College. He runs his own supervision practice as well as being a member of the Pastoral Supervision Alliance and Chair of the Pastoral Supervision Network. He enjoys occasional preaching at his local church in West Brunswick, and trying to work out what semi-retirement really means!

Footnotes

^[i] In the Diocese of Melbourne there has been a temporary blending of its successful coaching program to enable a faster roll out of professional supervision – hence the term coaching/supervision.

^[ii] Adapted from a table in the St Marks National Theological Centre Graduate Certificate in Professional Supervision Students Manual.

^[iii] See Pastoral Supervision: A Handbook (Second Ed), pp 20-23.

^[iv] Southern Cross, Nov-Dec 2023, p.4

^[v] 5 See https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/final_report_-_recommendations.pdf

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Written by: Anonymous

Created: 01 June 2024

What is it like to be the part-time minister of a church that was filled with children and families fifty years ago, with two Sunday school sittings per Sunday, Mother’s Union and much more, but as COVID plunged us into new territory in 2020, had an average of 20 attendees on a Sunday?

Where do you start?

There’s a story of three decades of decline with lightness and deep shadows. The current worship comprises four hymns, four Bible readings, a ten-minute reflection and Holy Communion. There are the faithful who have remained well, faithful, and are an inspiring ‘treasured possession’, ‘oaks of righteousness’.

Yet, everything I pray will happen, with the eyes of faith and imagination, seems so fragile and experimental. Then one Sunday morning when ten masked people are allowed to gather at some point in the twilight of lockdowns, I hear myself confidently say through my mask, ‘A church re-grows through small steps, micro actions’. This sounded comforting and manageable to me, in the first weeks, which became months.

I’d already found a puppet and as we live-streamed the second service I’d ever taken as the ‘priest-in-charge’, with a phone and laptop, I did a very average ‘kidult talk’ (kid+adult) in front of the phone, to set a tone of hope.

I bravely believed that somehow, our God was going to begin a new chapter and that a small suburban church could be a bright light for the kingdom. My missionary childhood had given me a love for people, challenge, and confidence that the gospel can do unexpectedly creative things.

So throughout lockdowns, I rang people, dropped off little parcels of cake if it was their birthday, and newsletters. That’s right – the old parish newsletter came into it’s own and was read! It kept us together! It was emailed to most and printed and mailed to the non-techy elderly.

We used a zoom option where you could dial in from your landline! One lovely senior told me, ‘I’m in my dressing gown in my comfy chair, listening on speaker phone, but when I close my eyes, I’m there, in church!’

As lockdowns ended, my garden produced roses in amazing abundance, so I picked them, removed thorns, wrapped them in wet cotton wool and foil (yes, micro actions speak) and presented each returning person with a rose and ‘Welcome back to church!’ I had not met them in person, though I picked quite a few from their voices!

The following list in no particular order, gives a snapshot of the variety of ministries in a small church that’s kept us focussed, joyful and yes, hopeful, over the past three years:

• Ministry to ageing saints, as their lives end and they go Home. This has become a ministry I cherish, both with them and their families, many of whom have lost faith. The care of the dying and their funerals, have grown me. I hope I’ve also sown lots of seeds in family and friends or thrown compost on the soil of dry hearts.
• Ministry to very competent and mature people as they retire and are the core volunteers.
• Re-starting church morning teas by baking cakes, especially for each birthday!
• Ministry to a small number of new members who have joined our worshipping congregation, including parents and families, mainly from Asia, and their preschoolers, children and young people.
• The start of ministries to young people on Sunday.
• Ministry to grow people who are gifted to lead these groups.
• Ministry to grow young people’s faith practice, through being on appropriate rosters: Bible reading, tech desk, welcoming-sides person, helping cook sausages after church for a simple lunch.
• Ministry to make every Sunday service a time of spiritual refreshment, through song, the Scriptures and the Sacraments.
• Ministry through weddings and baptisms.
• Ministry to the church building and gardens, needing repairs and refreshing – so fundraising and hard yakka.
• Ministry to the local community through fortnightly iGen (intergenerational) ‘Play’ Group, loosely based on the ABC’s TV series, ‘Old People’s Home for Four year olds’.
• Ministry to university students as an honorary chaplain at a nearby University.
• Ministry to two local retirement villages.
• Ministry to colleagues through Deanery.
• Ministry to become financially viable.
• Ministry to grow a paid lay leader to begin local missional activities.
• Ministry to pray for and financially support a missionary family as they travel overseas.

Caroline is Priest in Charge of a Melbourne Parish (name changed due to pastoral sensitivity).

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Written by: Stephen Hale

Created: 01 June 2023

Keeping Faith: How Christian Organisations can stay true to the way of Jesus
Stephen Judd, John Swinton, Kara Martin
Acorn Press, 2023
Reviewed by Stephen Hale

This recently published book is an excellent resource for any who lead or serve on the Board of a Christian not for profit organisation or entity. The book is only 140 pages, but it is remarkably comprehensive and covers most of the ground you would want it to cover.

We all know of the organisations that started off Christian and are now very distant from the founding vision. So how do we ensure that doesn’t happen again? And even if you want to remain Christian, what does that mean and how do you make it a reality. None of these are easy questions to answer and the authors offer a very healthy perspective on what this might mean. This is especially important in the Australian context where a surprisingly large percentage of children go to faith-based schools and much of the welfare that governments fund is delivered by faith based organisations.

If you’re a Board member at some point you will be dealing with most of the issues covered in the book. At some point you with have to appoint a CEO and that will have significant on-going implications for the values of the organisation and whether it can stay true to the way of Jesus. A good friend of mine had a key role in a large health organisation which had thousands of staff. She worked with the Board to ensure that there was annual training for all staff (most of whom were not church goers) to enable alignment between their values and their practices. The outcomes were remarkable.

I strongly commend this book. It should be read and studied by all Board members as well key staff teams. It is a very useful resource to think thorough the hard questions that will enable the organisation to stay true to the way of Jesus. The book is thoughtful and challenging but also remarkably practical.

Stephen Hale

Bishop Stephen Hale is the Acting Vicar of St Mark’s Camberwell and Chair of EFAC Australia and EFAC Global