4 minute read
The urgent need for gospel workers
Dr Mark Thompson
It is thrilling and humbling to think that this small theological college on the edge of the world, located in the middle of one of the most secular and God-denying cities on the planet, is being used by God on such a wide scale. For a long time we have been committed to a global vision and it is clear that God has been realizing it.
Not only are our graduates spread across the globe, the variety of ministries in which they serve is remarkable as well. Many serve in local churches, others serve in schools, others still on university campuses. Some of our graduates serve in hospitals and prisons and in more general chaplaincy work. At last count, 50 of our graduates (I might have missed one or two) currently serve on the faculties of 18 theological colleges around the world (not including the 16 who serve on the faculty at Moore). 14 active Anglican bishops in Australia are graduates of Moore.
Seeing this impact of the work done at Moore College is one of the best encouragements to keep at it. It is why our graduations are such wonderful events of celebration and thanksgiving but also of a renewed determination to prepare people as well as we know how for this great work. We know it is all the Lord’s doing. It is only under his blessing that this spread of gospel passion and biblical theology has taken place. Yet we are determined to be found faithful in the part he has given us to play in his great plan.
Nevertheless, we know this is just the tip of the iceberg. The need in Sydney alone keeps growing with every year. Millions of men and women do not know the gospel in our city. They do not know they are lost and they do not know of the gift of life which Jesus came to bring. An alarming number do not know who Jesus is and they do not know anyone else who does. The need in the rest of Australia keeps growing too, and every year I receive requests from all over the world to send our graduates so that they can share in the benefits the Lord has so richly given to us. We are just not keeping pace with the need. We pray with great urgency that the Lord would raise up labourers for his harvest. Would you pray that too?
The need is for men and women who are thoroughly prepared for ministry in a challenging environment. The challenges of this moment are tough enough, with new fronts of opposition to gospel ministry opening up all the time. We do not know what the challenges of tomorrow will be. So we need gospel workers who deeply understand the teaching of the Bible and the world with whom we share it. We need people who are able to think outwards from the gospel, with lives and ministries shaped by the word which God has spoken. We need people who will speak the truth with clarity, conviction and compassion and who will have the courage to speak out against error. We need people whose love for people—the lost people in the world and the redeemed people in the churches—is demonstrated in sustained sacrificial service. We need people who will go anywhere and do anything just so that others can be introduced to Jesus.
It is the gospel and the need for the gospel which drives us to prepare people as thoroughly as we seek to do at Moore. We cannot afford to skimp on what we give to our students, and through them, the churches in which they will serve. Our academic earnestness does not exist for its own sake. We take our academic work so seriously because we take the gospel seriously. We want to prepare ministers of the gospel (whatever specific form that ministry will take) who will stay the course and weather whatever storms lie ahead. They need a character shaped by the gospel, convictions anchored in the gospel, skill in communicating the gospel. That kind of training can’t be done around the edges of life or in your spare time. It takes deliberate, uninterrupted immersion in the word of God.
One particular challenge of the moment is a general reluctance among many Christians to think of the world outside of Christ as lost. Yet it was a term that Jesus used: “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Lk 19:10). Not just those a little less than they could be, not just slightly confused—lost. In an effort to gain a hearing, some Christian writers, speakers and leaders affirm too much, or concede too much, to the world around us, and in doing so this fundamental biblical perspective on the world and its need is obscured. One practical consequence of this is that there is no call to repentance, the critical corollary of faith. But Luke reminds us that “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” is to be proclaimed in Jesus’ name to all nations (Lk 24:47). Another practical consequence is that a sense of gospel urgency is absent in our message, in our living, and in our churches. We begin to pursue a comfortable détente with the world around us and forget that Jesus said “I chose you out of the world” (Jn 15:19).
The graduates I mentioned at the beginning of this piece stand in stark contrast to this trend. I know of a couple who sold everything they had and travelled half-way around the world because they knew that sharing the gospel and building people up in the gospel matters, and so getting the best training they could find matters too. I know of those who faced the disappointment and even anger of parents whose ambitions they were thwarting, but bore it because of the urgent need for gospel ministry. I know of people who persevered, though they did not find study easy, because they knew they needed precisely these resources if they were going to go the distance in faithful gospel ministry. None of them would say it was easy, but they wouldn’t call it sacrifice, rather a privilege. They want to spend their lives finding the lost, nurturing them and building them up as those who have been found.
The next generation of such gospel-shaped and directed men and women is urgently needed. Are you one of them? Do you know those who might be? Will you pray?
Mark D Thompson, Principal
