A fire in my belly

As as a Christian Pastor and church leader I get to attend conferences throughout the year. I do need to be disciplined in what I register for - it is so easy to get sidetracked by talk-fests that promise the world and only provide, at best mutual back-slpping and at worst, distractions from the real stuff. The CROSSWAY CONFERENCE I have just attended with Maz, was way more than a talk-fest. As I reflect on the experience, I realise that what makes this yearly event so strategically significant is that the speakers are not simply theoreticians communcating knowledge that is the result of hours of study that is removed from the real world of grass-roots ministry; the speakers at Crossway conference are are people who have something to say because they have actually done something significant for the cause of the gospel.

I have come away from the conference with not only renewed passion for world evangelisation but also with a strong conviction that God wants to use Maz and me to plant churches in Melbourne and beyond through our leadership at Glen Waverely Anglican Church. Over the last two years God has been fashioning a special work for us to be a church that plants churches. 30 years ago as Maz and I prayed about future ministry and what it would mean for us, we sensed God was asking us to lay down our personal desires for cross-cultural mission and commit ourselves to evangelistic ministry and leadership here in Australia. Our interest in global mission has never lessened but focus of ministry was to be, for the most part, on local mission.

In our call to GWAC, we sensed a growing awareness of God's leading into something new and God continues to move us forward in this new direction - a ministry focused on evangelism - local and global - and one which takes seriously the importance of community transformation.

Well, the fire in the belly just got well and truely fanned into flame. God is opening doors and inviting us to respond - LETS PUSH THESE DOORS OPEN AND WALK ON THORUGH