Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb Ministry multiplication

Ministry multiplication

Sunday 31 July, 2005 · Posted by Philip Bassett

The Church Plant Task Group has recently submitted its report to the Parish Council. In line with conclusions presented by the Ministry Strategy Group and foreshadowed by �A Way Forward� and �Maintaining Mission Momentum� the CPTG was the Formed in September 2004 to investigate the possibility of planting another congregation either off site e.g. at Pendle hill High School or on site at a different day or time than the existing congregations.

The Parish Council and I wish to thank each of them for their contribution and particularly for their conclusions and recommendations presented in their report. Full copies of the report are available BOC.

No we are not going to plant a new congregation just yet. The group determined that we are not ready at this point to do this for the following reasons:

  • Insufficient core people to seed a plant.
  • Insufficient material resources to create and maintain a planted church.
  • Lack of unifying vision: There does not appear to be consensus within the congregations about the type or target group of a church plant.
  • No unifying movement of prayer to back such an initiative. Regular prayer gatherings to pray specifically for such a venture are very poorly attended.
  • Concern that a church plant would cause a loss of momentum in the mother church ministries.

Some no doubt will greet these recommendations with disap-pointment, others with relief. Whether your personal feelings are at one extreme or somewhere in between the Parish Council has decided to adopt the recommendation of no church plant just yet.

However the group also opened up for us a new concept well worth considering, namely �MINISTRY MULTIPLICATION.� This is not the replication or duplication of existing ministries, nor is it something we do primarily because there are gaps in our current activities. It is the creation, spawning or re-creation of activities where the gospel can or will be proclaimed, and those activities are driven by that imperative.

The primary focus of ministry multiplication needs to be reaching unbelievers. Many of our existing ministries (including Growth Groups) need to develop an intentional outward focus.

The good news is that ministry multiplication is already underway in a number of areas of ministry at TAC for which we are very grateful to God.

Examples of the intentional outward focus that healthy ministry multiplication shows are:

  • One80 and the links it is cultivating to the work being done at Pendle Hill High.
  • The fledgling ESL group.
  • The short-term mission trips by Ben & Lorien Atwood and Graham Schabel.
  • The BCA mission work undertaken by Ian & Judy Neal.
  • The employment of Tim Adams as MTS Apprentice.
  • The expansion of SRE and influx of SRE helpers.
  • Kids@Play.
  • Lifeworks.
  • Carols at Pendle Hill High.
  • "Super" Club (ISCF for primary) at Girraween Public.

But we need to press on as a church, building on how (and where) the Holy Spirit has already shown Himself to be at work in people, and developing further strategies to allow us to respond to His work within people�s lives.

The MSG will be reconstituted to direct the future thrust and we hope that people will be looking for how they can help our church to be intentional in reaching our community with the gospel. This needs to happen at all levels, the leadership of the church, the leadership of the existing groups, our financial commitment growth, and perhaps most importantly, more work be done to engender a culture of outward-focused prayer in our church.

I recommend that you read the full report and commit yourself to being part of the future of Toongabbie Anglican Church not just a relic of our past.

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