Workers for the harvest

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Hosted by: Lower Mountains Anglican Parish (Glenbrook)

On 20 May 2023

For people considering the possibility of full-time ministry

Ministry Training & Development (MT&D) is partnering with local churches in the western region hosting another event for people to consider full-time ministry in the Anglican Church called WORKERS FOR THE HARVEST.

It will involve considering God’s call to us all as well as hearing and talking with people young and old who are training for or involved in full-time Anglican ministry. This will include a testimonies on “why I love Anglican ministry,” an interview with people on “why they left my job to study for full-time for ministry” and an outline of “the pathway to ministry”. There will be lots of time for questions and discussion. This event is runs once a term and moves through each region of the Diocese.

The next event is being held at Lower Mountains Anglican Parish, 1 Wascoe St, Glenbrook on 20 May from 4.00 – 6.00pm.

This would be an ideal event for church staff to come along with some keen ministry minded people who might consider full-time ministry. You could even go out for dinner and talk more with them after the event finishes at 6.00pm.

For more details and to register go to the MT&D website (www.mtd.org.au)

Westcon23 Coming Soon!

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For the first time in many years the Western Regional Conference will be an overnight event in 2023!

Staying in the iconic Deer Park/Chaldercot site, there will be time spent in the Bible and presentations from a number of diocesan groups and organisation – all designed to resource and encouragement your ministry.

Of course, the overnight nature of the event will also mean lots of time to catch up with friends and colleagues – and not just from the west – South Sydney Region will be having their conference next door at the same time.

Details and bookings available very soon.

Church AV resources

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During the extended lockdowns in 2020 and 21, many churches found their AV resources lacking.
The now-recognised need to have streaming of church services during lockdowns – and continuing even when out of lockdown – has pushed lots of churches to upgrade or plan to upgrade their AV gear.

The following couple of companies have repeatedly served churches across the Diocese well, and would be well worth contacting if your church is considering an upgrade:

Open Box Technology

Audio Advice

If you have other good AV resources to share, leave a comment below.

Free financial advice for churches

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Thesauros Consulting is a small company committed to serving churches with quality financial services.

With the complex financial situation that the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown our churches into, Thesauros have made this generous offer to our churches:

“The world is currently going through some real turmoil and as the treasurer of our local church, I understand the challenges that your church may be facing over the months ahead, especially financially. What’s the likely effect on your congregation, on offertories, the ministries you do or have planned? What’s the effect on your staff? What’s the effect on you?

We don’t have all the answers to all of these problems, but we are here to help and we want to help you.

As we have always said, our passion is for the local church to grow and expand the Kingdom. We want the local church to thrive through this and to be stronger when this crisis passes. Indeed, what a wonderful opportunity for Christians individually and the church institution to model and proclaim the sufficiency of Christ when worldly things that have been held so dear are crumbling away.

To show our commitment to this, we invite you to have an initial online consultation with us at no cost until 30 June 2020.

A phone call or video conference with us will cost you nothing, but it just might offer the support you need during this time or lay the platform for a more financially stable ministry platform in the years ahead.  We can discuss church budget strategies, messaging for your congregations, and using this crisis as an opportunity for their maturity. 

Please use this link to book an online appointment: https://thesauros.com.au/for-churches“

Tips for speaking to a camera

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With the sudden need to move our church meetings and ministries online in March 2020 when COVID-19 hit, we suddenly found ourselves speaking to cameras rather than crowds.

Here are two short videos to help you sharpen up your skills when speaking to a camera:

 

First is Karl Faase of Olive Tree Media offers this short, sharp video with 7 hints for when we find ourselves speaking to a camera instead of a live audience:

https://vimeo.com/401232380/a868a0e4c0

The second is Glen Scrivener from Speak Life a UK church resources group:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyLeB6VtFVE

COVID-19 Pandemic – Safe Ministry Resources

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The COVID-19 pandemic has bought unusual and significant challenges as we seek to do ministry in these new circumstances.

So the PSU has assembled some articles and how-to guides focussed on doing ministry safely while vulnerable people like children and young people use video tools such as Zoom in order to meet online.

These are great tools and we thank God for them, but they need to be used wisely and carefully – hence these guides and other information.

You can find the new COVID-19 section of safeministry.org.au here:

COVID-19 and Safe Ministry

10 Tips for leading church better

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I get to move around t he churches in our region a fair bit, and I find that the quality of leading varies a lot.

This can be regardless of whether the leader is a paid staff member or a lay leader from the congregation.
Often it is a collection of small things that combine to produce the impression that it just hasn’t been thought through well.

So I found this article on the Gotherefor web site a real encouragement. Hope you do too.