Brothers and Sisters,
Like many of you we are not able to ‘go to church’ in the sense of physically gathering with the Lord’s people in public – whether in a church building or not – we are doing church through the Internet. As part of last Sunday’s service, in the church we now belong to – St Thomas’s Anglican in North Sydney – I gave this short presentation explaining a new role I have in the congregation.
Like many others I have found my work affected by the Covid 19 crisis. Staff with City Bible Forum have had their hours cut by 20% (one day) but yours truly is here as a religious worker so that was not really an option for me – so I have been seconded to St Thomas’s (on behalf of CBF) for one day per week. As the video above explains my aim is to encourage this large congregation in doing evangelism now. There is a great opportunity because of the bad news from Covid to be able to proclaim the good news from Christ. That’s why I call myself the Covid evangelist. If we wait until this crisis is over we may lose the opportunity. But most churches are too busy just surviving – getting services on line and trying to do pastoral care. I have a number of ideas of how we can do this – but I really wanted to do them within a local church – because I believe the local church is the best place to do evangelism.
I would really value prayer for this – we will look at providing resources, setting up a cyber cafe and helping youth, men’s and women groups in their outreach. I hope that individuals will feel free to contact me and in confidence be able to ask whatever questions they wish.
There are a number of other opportunities arising through my work and I hope to keep you in touch with these as they develop. Suffice it to say that the ‘lockdown’ that many people are experiencing means as much work for me, if not more! And I say this with joy – because these are opportunities to share the good news of Christ – which is why we came here! Please remember Annabel as well – she has a great ministry in the church and also hopes to be starting a new part time job in the community soon – once all the paperwork gets done (if there was an Olympic event for bureaucracy Australia would always be in the medals!)..
One question I have been asked is why are you as a Presbyterian minister, working as an evangelist in an Anglican church? For me it is a disappointing if understandable question. I am happy to work with any biblical church, whatever the denomination. We need more evangelical co-operation and less denominationalism. I still don’t want to be a bishop! But now especially is the time for those who truly love the Lord and believe his word to work together…
I will keep you in touch with how things go…
Meanwhile if you pray can I ask you to pray about this and my other work with Third Space. And if you are not yet a Christian can I ask you to consider why it is so important to communicate the good news of Christ? I am not a salesman. I don’t have a product to sell, or a club for you to join. I believe that Christ is the vaccine to our most deepest needs – and much, much more than that. As yet you don’t believe that, but can I plead with you to consider the possibility that it may be true…
For all of us – seek the Lord while he may be found…
See you next week,
Yours in Christ
David
Letter from Australia 41 – Blessed are the Dead……i
All the best in your new venture, may you have the joy of being the “midwife” to people getting “born again”! 😀
Glad to hear that your keeping the Lord’s path in your heart and your not afraid to try ways of evangelising during these times.
Thanks David and Annabel for showing the true church has no walls.