We believe that knowing Jesus changes everything. He alone can deal with our sins and failures. He is our saviour who rescued us and our friend who loves us. He is our Lord who graciously and powerfully rules all things. He is the source of our hope in life and in death. He is living and active and he is coming again as judge of all. Why wouldn’t we want other people to meet Jesus?
Across Australia a campaign is unfolding this year so that many more people might have the opportunity to meet Jesus. To prime the pump for this effort in Victoria, some 400 people gathered on Wednesday night the 24th April at CrossCulture Church building in the centre of Melbourne. They came from many uni campuses, parachurch ministries and theological colleges; from churches large and small, across different denominations.
It wasn’t an evangelistic event—that’s coming later. It was a night designed to encourage Christians to be confident and courageous in sharing their faith so that many more people might meet Jesus. The evening was significant because it centred on two things many of us are not so good at. After over thirty years in ministry, I can personally testify to finding these two things hard, and I know I am not alone in that.
Encouraging Evangelism
We love the gospel but we’re not so confident, bold, or skilled in sharing it with other people. We find it hard or scary; churches and ministries easily become inward looking. We would rather look after the sheep already in the flock than search for those who have not yet been brought in.
Our post-Christian culture easily makes us feel we are on the back foot. Many of our views, far from being seen as good for society, are regarded as dangerous. There can be a cost to being open about our faith with friends or in the workplace. So more than ever, we might want to make ourselves small targets.
Yet the urgent need for people to meet Jesus only grows. Communities are fractured by violence (including violence against women), political division, racial tension, and economic strain. People are searching in all sorts of places for identity, hope, community, and security. We would love people to meet Jesus, who alone can satisfy these deepest soul thirsts.
The evening was wonderfully designed to give us encouragement in our evangelism. We sang great gospel songs; heard encouraging stories of people reaching out to friends on campuses, in churches, and in workplaces; prayed in pairs for friends we’d love to reach; and heard inspiring preaching about Jesus, the Bread of Life from Rory Shiner.
It was significant that so many people came from across churches and ministries to be encouraged together in evangelism.
Working Together
To be honest, Melbourne Christians are particularly good at doing our own thing our own way. We have a bit of a reputation for sticking to our tribes, running our own events, praying for our own ministries, developing our own resources, doing our own missions.
But the work of the gospel and the needs of this city and State, not to mention the rest of Australia and the world, are far beyond the resources of any one ministry or church. We need to be working together for a cause far greater than our own. The work of the gospel is not about your group or mine, it is about the “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:5–6).
The gathering in Melbourne last week was a wonderful expression of this oneness in Jesus and in his mission. AFES launched the Meet Jesus campaign to encourage evangelism in Australia’s universities. In a spirit of cooperation and gospel generosity, they reached out to churches and other ministries to say, “Do you want to join us? Use our resources however you like. Let’s pray together and cooperate on combined events to advance the mission.” Many said, “yes please”.
Here in Melbourne, City Bible Forum worked wonderfully alongside AFES to put the night together. And TGCA gladly became part of the mission, because we are committed to ‘gospelling and ‘coalitioning’. In the same spirit of gospel generosity, Rory Shiner, Chair of TGCA National Council, offered to travel across from Perth to preach at the event. His compelling message pointed us to Christ as the one who alone satisfies our souls. The choice of a message from John chapter 6 was deliberate, dovetailing with AFES’s Uncover John resource that is at the heart of the mission.
God is greatly honoured as his people work together to spread the good news of Jesus. It’s worth working hard, then, to make sure that these two things are not just part of our mission work in 2024, but an ongoing part of our gospel vision: a vision for more and more people meeting Jesus, and a vision for more and more people who have already met Jesus, working together in the cause of the gospel.
