ACL Synod Dinner 2002
“How
Youthworks is like your right hand”
Alan
Stewart, CEO of Anglican Youthworks
14 October 2002
I would like to thank the ACL for inviting me to speak at this dinner. Having been in my position at Anglican Youthworks for about four months now, when I was invited to speak at this dinner I immediately thought – “what a great opportunity for promoting Youthworks”. What I had planned to say was something along the lines of... “I wonder if you might raise your hands if you came to faith in the Lord Jesus by the age of 20”. The most recent National Church Life Survey tells us that 71% of Sydney Anglicans came to faith in Christ before they turned 20.
I had planned to speak about the importance of youth and children’s ministry and the fact that the church is only ever one generation from extinction and youth and children’s ministry is about investing in the future.
I had planned to talk to you about “why Youthworks is like your right hand”, and to help remember – there are five main things that Youthworks is involved in.
The first being PROCLAMATION – that we proclaim the gospel of Christ to children and youth – e.g. there are 17,000 kids a year from all different kinds of schools that go to Horizon Camps run by Youthworks at our sites and each of these kids has at least a one hour Christian discovery or gospel explanation time. We proclaim the gospel but we don’t do it alone.
I had planned to say there are four other points related to how we work with churches within the diocese. I was going to tell you that Youthworks aims be to work together with churches in the diocese to raise up an army of people who will preach the gospel to youth and children. Youthworks should be on about four other things in raising up this army. The second, RECRUITING – working with the churches in the diocese to find people who can be involved in ministry to children – full time, part time, voluntary and so on. The third thing is TRAINING – to equip people to use the gifts that God has given them and make the most of the opportunities they have. Training for accreditation courses for Scripture, children’s ministry, day courses, or full time study at the Youthworks College.
The fourth thing that Youthworks should be involved in is RESOURCING – i.e. providing resources that gospel preachers to youth and children need. Resources for Scripture, Sunday School, Youth Ministry and so on. Since I’ve started I found out that 300,000 kids every week use our Scripture material.
The fifth thing is working with churches in the PLACEMENT of people; to work with churches to place people where they can be most effective.
PROCLAIMING, RECRUITING, TRAINING, RESOURCING AND PLACING.
Now that is what I had planned to tell you, but I don’t want to tell you those things. What I want to do is talk to you about something more important than that and the “AH, HA” experience that I had on Friday. Here’s the point. As I was wading through the Synod papers I was sent, it struck me that our diocese is about to make some very big decisions about the mission, the goal of which is to see “10% of the population of the diocese in Bible based Christian churches in 10 years”. Among Sydney evangelicals, this 10% vision is really motherhood and apple pie - who could argue against it? However, the question I would like to ask you tonight is “are we fair dinkum? Are we really fair dinkum about putting this vision into effect or are we just going to appear to do it”? Will we really make the most of this opportunity or will we just go through the motions? The Lord Jesus told a parable about the importance of making the most of opportunities. It’s a parable about the kingdom of God from Luke 19:11-27.
11 While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. 12 He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’
14 "But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’
15 "He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
16 "The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
17 " ‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
18 "The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
19 "His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’
20 "Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
22 "His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’
24 "Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
25 " ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
26 "He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. 27But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’ “ (NIV)Those who are given the Minas (money) are not the Lord’s enemies but are those who claimed to follow him. This parable show us that the Lord expects his people to make the most of the opportunities that they have. That those who have many gospel opportunities and greater abilities, must make the most of them and will be judged for what they have done. Ironically, the servant who did nothing was worried that his master was a hard man and took the results of other people’s labour. So, he did nothing because he thought his labour would see no personal reward.
What’s the relevance of this to tonight’s gathering? My question is, will we truly have a go or will we be able to say to the Lord, “here are the opportunities and resources that you have given us carefully wrapped in a napkin?”
I trust you have all had opportunity to read the Synod Appropriations & Allocations Ordinance 2002. (AKA “The Money Bill” according to Robert Tong’s Synod Survival Guide.) The Ordinance summarises the fundamental aim of our diocesan mission as:To multiply Bible-based Christian fellowships and congregations which both nurture their members and expand themselves, both in the Diocese and in all the world.
To achieve this, there is a four-fold strategy. Let me list the four-fold strategy and summarise each point, if I may.
The first element is:“to call upon God for such outpouring of his Spirit that his people will be assured of his love through his word, seek to please the Saviour in all things, manifest the godly life and be filled with prayerful and sacrificial compassion for the lost in all the world.”
We may summarise this as “spiritual renewal inside and outside the diocese” or “to pray that God would make us, and all other people love Jesus and put that love into practice”.
The second element is:“To enable parish churches to expand numerically, nurture their members, and also become the mother-churches of as many fellowships and congregations as possible and also to take further initiatives to create fellowships by penetrating structures of society beyond the reach of the parish church with the gospel.”
This could be summarised as “grow our churches and particularly grow more Christian fellowships or congregations wherever and whenever possible”.
The third element is:“To multiply the number of well-trained persons (ordained, lay, full time, part time, voluntary) dedicated to the creation and development of such parishes, congregations and fellowships by proclaiming the gospel.”
This may be summarised as “train up an army of gospel workers needed to plant and grow these new congregations”.
The fourth element is:“To reform the life of the diocese (including its culture, ordinances, customs, use of resources and deployment of ministry) to encourage and enable the fulfilment of the fundamental aim.”
This may be summarised as “change the culture of our diocese so we are more cooperative and lean and hungry for the gospel”.
Youthworks is one of the organisations that receive funding from Synod. So, when I saw these points a few weeks ago, my immediate thought was “how can we show that what we are doing fits in with this plan?” OR perhaps the cynical might think this meant “how can we dress up our current programs to receive the most possible money from Synod”?
Last Friday morning I had a radical thought, in fact, it was a Copernican revolution of my thinking about this issue. The question struck me “what if we really embraced this mission and its strategy and got serious about it”? “What if I stopped worrying about my part of the empire and decided to really try to change things to get on board with the vision, regardless of the cost to our organisation?” I told you it was a radical thought!
Now, I’ve only had a day or two, and I have not talked this over with the team at Youthworks yet, but I’ve been thinking “what might the ministry of Youthworks look like if we really embraced the four points: spiritual renewal, congregational planting, training people for ministry and reforming the diocese.
With regard to “spiritual renewal inside and outside the diocese” – it would mean regular and fervent prayer throughout our organisation for the mission and God’s blessing. It may mean supporting the youth ministries in other dioceses and working through the relationships already built, supporting them with resources and training. This may mean supporting church plants outside the Sydney diocese with resources and with Sunday school, Scripture and youth leadership training.
“The planting of churches and fellowships” – this will mean that Youthworks must actively support youth and children’s ministry in new fellowships or new congregations. We may deal with churches directly or perhaps through the regional Bishop or regional council, asking for a list of priority ‘new ministries’ beginning in different churches over the next 1, 2 and 3 years and working hard with these people.
It will mean that we should give priority to training Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders in these new fellowships or perhaps new groups starting in existing churches.
With regard to published resources – it will no doubt mean special deals to those who are getting started – discounts on Sunday school material, discounts on Scripture material for new ventures in teaching SRE in schools. Maybe Youthworks should be prepared to give new congregations big discounts for the first couple of years of operation.
With regard to camping and conferencing – we should have discounts for these new fellowships using our facilities, and perhaps we should run weekends set up for smaller groups to be able to go away together. We could run special weekends where two or three groups can book a site and so cover minimum numbers together, organise a program so that they can have time individually in their smaller groups to build that group identity they are seeking.
Youthworks may be able to assist by booking the quality speakers for these weekends, which small groups may have trouble getting individually.
“Training people in ministry” – the Youthworks College already trains people for youth and children’s ministry. The students study half time and work half time in various churches. It may be that we need to find funding for our students so that for some of their training, they are able to work in churches planning new ministries - maybe in the year prior to the ministry commencing. We could try to match a church dollar for dollar to pray for a youth or children’s worker.
Our youth, children’s and Scripture advisers already run accreditation courses in training for youth and children’s ministry and Scripture teaching. We may need to develop units particularly targeted at how to start these different ministries from scratch.
“Reforming the diocese” – cutting the red tape will be vital for the success of the mission. I think it’s about changing a culture– to be honest, I’m not sure what this will mean exactly for Youthworks. Perhaps it will be a combination of the three points above and making sure that the culture of our organisation is that we really do exist to preach the gospel and to serve churches and work with them to recruit, train, resource and place gospel preachers for youth and children. What we must make sure of is that Youthworks does not exist to serve itself and the comfort of its employees.
God willing, that is what we plan to do.
What would the diocesan vision look like for your church? I mean, if you were really going to embrace it. It may mean praying for the vision, real and substantial prayer meetings. It may mean taking the risk and pain of starting a new congregation. OR it may mean giving money to someone who is ready to start a new venture. It may mean being gracious and encouraging to some other church not too far from you who is having a go at doing something new. It may mean increasing your giving and taking generosity seriously so that you are able to employ the evangelist, youth minister or children’s worker who can start the new venture.
Over the last 20 years in ministry, I have worked in Liverpool, Gladesville, Mt Druitt and the Eastern Suburbs and from what I can see, the biggest single human factor effecting growth is being prepared to change, and to accept the associated risk and pain involved. Everyone talks about wanting their church to grow, not everyone is prepared to take the pain and the risk to see this happen.
The trouble with being completely serious about achieving something is that it will inevitably upset people and it seems a little unsophisticated. You may remember the movie Chariots of Fire in which Harold Abrams sets out to win the 100 metres at the 1924 Olympic Games. Abrams is unpopular with the heads of his university college. He is seen to be somewhat uncouth or ungentlemanly, in his dedication to winning. For example, he hires a professional coach and trains perhaps a little too hard. Other athletes were seen to train but not become obsessive about things.
I’d simply ask you tonight, whether you are representing a church as a Synod representative, or a rector, or representing a diocesan organisation – will you really embrace the diocesan vision, sacrificially preaching Christ to our city, will you take risks and make whatever changes are necessary in order to truly see this happen OR will you just give the appearance of getting on board? There is an enormous difference between the two. It’s the difference between smoke and mirrors and hearts and minds. It may not be immediately obvious to a human audience, but it will be very obvious to our Lord when he asks us if we really used our opportunities or did we wrap them in a napkin because we wouldn’t take a risk.
Alan Stewart
14 October 2002
The Rev. Alan Stewart is the CEO of Anglican Youthworks in Sydney Diocese.
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