URGENT
The theme was 'URGENT' - establishing a gospel priority for your church. Over 25 CRCA pastors, church members, and leaders gathered at the Geneva Push Multiply conference in Melbourne 14-16 May. The main speakers were Greg Lee, lead pastor at Hunter Bible Church, and Sam Chan from the City Bible Forum Sydney. There were people from over 100 churches in Australia, including many CRCA churches.
As a denomination we recognise the urgency of evangelism and outreach. This urgency is rooted in our vision to be 'a church reforming to reach the lost for Christ.' With over 21 million people in Australia who never attend church, this urgency cannot be overstated. In one of the final talks at Multiply we were all challenged to do five things: Pray for it. Normalize it. Help everyone do it. Spend money on it. Talk about the city, not the room.
Reflect on these five things for a moment. As the CRCA we know that our number one task is prayer. We need to pray for the lost, for an ourpouring of God's Spirit on our land, for revival to happen in our day. This is first.
But evangelism needs to become part of our everyday life. We need to normalize it. In our lives, in our families, and in our churches. Outreach is not something we do. It is not a program. It is not something additional. Evangelism is something we do naturally and something we do intentionally. It is part of every aspect of church life and our individual lives. For this to become a reality ...
We need to help everyone do it. Evangelism is not reserved for the clergy or the professionals. The church needs to equip people to do evangelism -- and to do it naturally, organically. For this reason we have been encouraging churches to engage in 'Organic Outreach'. Organic Outreach is not a program on evangelism but a strategy to change the operating system of the church so that everybody in the church engages in evangelism.
Churches need to spend money on evangelism. You can quickly tell if a church sees the urgency of evangelism. You just need to look at their budget. How much money has been designated to reach the lost for Christ? Is there a gospel priority reflected in the annual financial records? And finally ...
As Christians we need to talk about the city and not just the church. So much of our focus can be on the people inside the four walls of the church. If evangelism is going to be a priority among us we need to focus on the city around us. Once we leave the 'sanctuary' we enter the mission field.
Check out The Geneva Push for all the talks from the Multiply18 event and all previous events.
About the author
Jack De Vries was hired on by the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia and began his work as Ministry Training Coordinator in January 2008. In 2012 this role shifted to that of Ministry Development Coach.
Jack came from Canada where he pastored three Christian Reformed churches: Alliston CRC, Alliston, Ontario(1983-87), a church plant: New Life Community Church, Pickering, Ontario(1987-95), and Bethel CRC, Listowel, Ontario (1995-2007). Jack is a graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity - 1983) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Doctor of Ministry - 2003) Jack and his wife Jeannie currently live in Petrie, a northern suburb of Brisbane in Queensland. They attend and are members of Bray Park Community Church. They have four adult children and seven grandchildren living in the USA and Canada.
In Isaiah 58:11 we read: "The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Australia has seen times of drought and floods. There is another type of drought in Australia; there is a spiritual drought. But God promises to provide refreshing rain, a never ending supply of refreshing water. The water he provides will satisfy the needs of all Australians. As we take up the missional vision God has given us we extend the life changing invitation of Jesus: "Come! Whoever is thirsty, come, and take the free gift of the water of life!" (Revelation 22:17)
