Westserve

MTS Challenge Conference

Last weekend was spent at Meroo on my third MTS Challenge Conference (formerly known as ‘Club 5’).
As I’ve mentioned before, MTS Challenge is unashamedly about challenging (mainly young) people to consider how they should be serving God. In particular, the challenge is clearly made to consider full-time vocational Christian ministry.

Nine of us went from Toongabbie Anglican, which in itself, was really encouraging. And there was another 230 or so people from all over Sydney. The two main speakers were Philip Jensen (who, as one of the architects of MTS, always speaks at the Sydney conferences), and John (Chappo, the legend) Chapman.
Philip spoke from 1 Peter 4, and Chappo did a variety of talks including ‘The first 50 years are the hardest’, and (preparing) ‘The Bible Talk’.

The Bible teaching never fails to encourage and challenge me. Philip is gifted and godly teacher of the Word, and remarkably consistent. And Chappo was just inspirational. For a ‘retired’ person, Chappo’s list of speaking commitments makes me feel tired, and yet he is as sharp and witty as ever.
The focus on Bible teaching is, of course, quite deliberate. Bible teaching is at the core of all true biblical ministry, and so it’s vital to model it at events like Challenge.

Personally, I had two main roles on the weekend.

One was as a Strand group leader.
Candidates to the conference are divided into Strand One (first time at MTS Challenge), Strand Two (Returning candidates) and Strand Three (for those about to embark on an MTS Apprenticeship or Bible College).

I had a group of ten Strand One candidates, and we spent two blocks of time together working through some material designed to help them think through various ways to make Bible teaching at the core of whatever ministry they are – or could be – involved in.
It was a pretty mixed group, and it was a little hard to get them talking, but we did get somewhere in terms of challenging each other to work harder at the Bible teaching parts of our ministry, and again, it was encouraging just see how God was at work in these people’s lives.

The other role was interviewing candidates.
This is a unique part of MTS Challenge. Every candidate has an interview with an experienced MTS Trainer. The purpose of the interview is to get an overall picture of where the candidate is in their Christian life, and where they are thinking of heading. Or if they don’t know where they are/should be heading, gently but firmly challenge them to begin working that out, and set some goals for their Christian growth.

This year, I interviewed the people from Toongabbie, which was really good. Because I knew them reasonably well, we could skip to the significant stuff quickly. It was really good to have the opportunity to encourage and challenge them, and be able to follow through when I’m back at church in a couple of weeks.
One of the Toonie people I didn’t interview though, was my son Joel.
As a sidenote, it was a huge thrill for me to have Joel on the weekend. There is something very special about seeing your own kids grow up into Christ and have such a powerful desire to serve Him. God has been very gracious to Rob and I with all our boys.
I didn’t interview Joel, for what should be obvious reasons, but was able to set him up with Dudley Foord – another legend in Christian ministry in Sydney. Dudley and Elizabeth are both of ‘senior years’ but, like Chappo, still powering on in ministry. I think Joel was pretty tickled to have Dudley for the big chat.
So the interviews were good (for me, at least), and I have plenty of things to follow up with the team when I’m back from holiday.

I always come away from MTS Challenge feeling pretty pumped. But I don’t think this is just a emotional high. It really is very exciting to see the marvellous things that God is doing in the lives of so many of people. It’s great to see and hear first rate Bible teachers open themselves up to scrutiny, and make themselves available to talk and encourage people who are just starting out on the journey to work out how they can best serve the gospel.
But I’ve also come away deeply challenged. In particular, I’ve been challenged to work much harder at serving the people that God has placed with me at TAC. Not just those who came on the conference, but they do deserve special time and energy from me. I’m not far from completing the Art Of Ministry Training course, designed to train MTS Trainers, and I have found that a deeply humbling experience that has revealed how poorly I’ve considered my training role up to now.
A major priority for me is to up the ante in terms of my effort and performance in training, and in particular with our MTS Apprentices at Toonie.

So… please pray:

• For the eight people from TAC who came to Challenge Conference. They are all at different stages of their walk with God and thinking about gospel service, so pray that they would all continue to grow in Christ and continue moving ahead in their desire to serve Him.

• For the other 230 people at the weekend (and the hundreds others at the other Challenge Conferences being held in Sydney and around the country).

• And finally please pray for me in my role as Trainer and Pastor, that I would work harder and wiser in helping to equip people for ministry.