Two years ago we asked Mothers Union Sydney for a special grant for an all-new position of ‘Mother’s Minister’, and they graciously supplied us with the funds to employ Gemma Bartlett for the part-time role.

At the time, I described the role in this way:

We wish to employ a mature and experienced Christian mother to help strengthen and support new and younger mothers in our church to be godly wives who serve their husbands as they bring up their children in the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. 

They will teach how to develop Christian homes as a place for nurturing children, which will then be a natural environment to invite unbelievers in their networks to witness the outworking of the Word of God in the lives of their families and homes.

This will involve one-to-one discipleship of mothers in our church; the opportunity to train, resource and empower other experienced Christian mothers and grandmothers to share this ministry; and to prayerfully gather all members of our parish to seek to make disciples of all nations, one mother and family at a time. 

We also long to be a parish that learns and then shares from its ministry experience, in order to equip other, similar churches in rural and regional churches with this important, specialised ministry. 

I’m delighted to share that Gemma and all the Bartletts will remain with us as members of our church into the future, and will keep helping mothers and everyone grow in our ministry.

We recognise with great thanks the special contribution Gemma has made to the life of our church whilst serving in this 24-month role, and we thank God for the vision and resources of Mothers Union Sydney in providing us with the grant.

We’re also thankful for how our intergenerational focus has been fanned into flame under her leadership, and for the ongoing impact this has on everyone in our church.

JODIE McNEILL

(image credit: Kurt Stocker via Flickr)

Our church loves having people of every age and stage together in church, actively participating and serving each other, to the glory of God.

At the same time, we’re also committed to teaching people in ways that most-effectively communicate according to their developmental stages.

To try and achieve both goals, we run kids’ programs during a part of our Sunday services, so that the younger people can have teaching that’s best for their learning.

Plus, now we’re introducing our all-new midweek kids’ program, Spark, we think it’s possible to keep the K to 6 kids in church a bit more than before, because they can now benefit from a 90-minute program each Friday from 4:30pm.

So, this year we’re trialling a change that sees the Joeys (babies to preschool) kids go out a little earlier (around the ten-minute mark) and have the Roos (Kindy to Year 6) kids stay in a little longer (around the 45-minute mark).

This will mean that the K to 6 kids can be in church to participate with the prayers, as well as hear the answers to the weekly questions—some of which they’ve been asking but not hearing the answers!

This will encourage our church to be even more intergenerational, as it will help us try and get older and younger people together to lead us in prayers, Bible readings, and other things upfront.

Of course, if younger kids want to stay in church with their parents or carers, we’re totally fine with that, and we’ll keep working hard to make the Bible talks as clear as possible for the widest audience.

When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, he directly addressed the children (Ephesians 6:1-2) so we know that what we’re trying to do is pretty normal, at least for the early church.

But above all, we just love the picture of all ages and stages together… a slice of heaven!

JODIE McNEILL 

(Photo credit: toptenalternatives.co)

As I gathered with thousands of believers at the recent Church Missionary Society (CMS) Summer School in Katoomba, I experience afresh the joy of looking beyond ourselves with a global, gospel focus.

Missionaries from all over the world were sharing about the triumphs and the tragedies of bringing the message of Jesus to peoples from significantly different cultures and languages.

And even as they paid the personal price of proclaiming Christ in faraway lands, we heard the wonderful news of how the message of Jesus continues to bring genuine hope to a world that is in darkness.

Yet, our mission focus is not only to the nations beyond our shores: for we also partner with and support churches doing ministry in Australia.

Some of the missionaries with CMS are based in Northern and North-West Australia working in ministry with and to Aboriginal Christians from Broome across to Groote Eylandt.

But in Australia we also have a long-standing partnership with Bush Church Aid (BCA), which seeks to bring the gospel of Christ to the outermost parts of Australia.

Their vision is to develop a new generation of culturally-diverse Christian leaders, both young and old, and to support ministry by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as they, “are committed to working with our first peoples so they can serve Christ in ways that are Biblically faithful and culturally appropriate.”

Plus, they seek to plant and renew sustainable churches, like their support of Roger and Amanda Kyngdon in Newman, Western Australia, with whom our church partners.

As we consider ministry near and far, it is a joy to hear of how the gospel of Jesus is bringing real change to the lives of people who live far away from the main population areas of our land, and who have the same need to know Jesus as every Australian.

JODIE McNEILL