Be encouraged –God is at work!

John Lavender

Irecently preached at a church from Luke 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son and the lost brother – a great chapter of the Bible for you to read and reread. It’s one of the great joys of my role with Evangelism and New Churches (ENC) that I get to speak at many churches in this way. I invited people to come back home to God, made possible through Jesus; to be found by our loving God, who has not given up on searching for them no matter how far away from him they may feel.

In Luke 15:10 Jesus says, “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”. What joy there was on that Sunday as seven people became Christians. Seven people who were, as Luke 15 says, lost but now found, and dead but now alive. Seven people who have been transformed by God. No wonder heaven rejoices over even one sinner who repents!

Be encouraged – God is at work, bringing lost people to himself. It is happening in many churches all over the Sydney Diocese and beyond as Christians pray for those who aren’t yet Christian; as they invite people to come to church with them; as they share with people about the difference Jesus has made to their lives; and as faithful churches keep preaching the good news of Jesus, Sunday by Sunday and at special outreach evangelistic events, inviting people to become Christians. Heaven is rejoicing every day!

Last week I met with a group of ministers to talk about evangelism. It was so encouraging to hear about what churches are doing to bring the good news of Jesus to their community. One church had already seen 20 people become Christians this year! How wonderfully encouraging that is. Twenty people transformed by God and brought from death to life, from being lost to being found.

At another church I have been visiting in the past few weeks, people have been actively involved in reaching out and connecting with their local community, resulting in many conversations about Jesus and people looking to discover more about what it means to become a Christian and to follow Jesus.

Mrs Rosemary Bradford died on May 4, 2023 aged 73.

Born Rosemary Anne Shellard on February 5, 1950 in Sydney, her parents became CMS missionaries and moved the family to Tanzania when she was three. Young Rosemary would attend school in Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Kenya before undertaking her final year in Sydney after the family returned home. She would also, from her childhood in Africa, be exposed to a debilitating parasite that would affect her health for the rest of her life.

She married Philip Bradford in 1971 and, some years later, encouraged him to train for fulltime ministry. While he studied at Moore College in the mid1980s, they became members of the Wednesday healing service at St Andrew’s Cathedral –continuing to attend after Mr Bradford was ordained and they were in ministry elsewhere in Sydney.

The leader of the Cathedral’s healing ministry, family friend and Sub-Dean the Rev Canon Chris Allan, said of Mrs Bradford: “You would never have known that she was sick. Her maturity and her servantheartedness were incredible.

“The week before she died, she attended two prayer meetings, the healing service, organised the prayer list for the healing service, followed people up, went to someone’s funeral... she just had this motor that was in fifth gear all the time, and it was a spiritual motor.”

Her funeral last month filled the Cathedral to the brim with those whose lives she had touched.

In his eulogy, Mrs Bradford’s son Andrew said, “Mum’s life story isn’t one of struggling against the odds – a struggle against her misbehaving body. And Mum’s story isn’t one of her being irrepressible – although she certainly was. Mum’s story isn’t really a story at all, because Mum’s story is instead a song of praise.

“The healing service was and is a place where people who are facing difficult struggles can come and find welcome and Mum was good at that kind of welcome. She listened, she talked, and she prayed with people, and always with cheerfulness – never wallowing in the struggle or feigning sombre concern. She knew that God loved us and that he offers hope and healing.”

In his sermon, Canon Allan recalled that, throughout COVID lockdowns, “Every week in this empty cavernous space she and Philip were here, praying on camera for the over 1000 people who watched our online services – her voice soothing in its nature, firm in its confidence, compassionate as one who knew Jesus’ love. I learnt quickly that people joined us around the world to hear and pray with Rosemary and to let her minister to them.”

People around us are hungry to hear about Jesus – whether they know it yet or not.

We can easily become discouraged as we listen to the media and social media and think that those who aren’t yet Christian don’t want to hear about Jesus and don’t want to be invited to church. But this is not the case. Of course, there will always be people who will reject Jesus and reject our invitations to find out more about him. But every day people are becoming Christians. Lives are being transformed by God every day. God is at work.

Our world is lost and in darkness and needs Jesus. Our God is a loving God who doesn’t give up on people and doesn’t give up searching for people to bring them home to him. He is a searching God, passionate to see lost people found, and is at work in our world, bringing lost people to himself.

He added that, “If you knew Rosemary only in passing, only through seeing her praying on the screen, you missed out on one of the real great ones. But, of course, it all pales when you consider who and what motivated Rosemary, and that was her precious Saviour... Rosemary was certain of where she was going, who was calling her home and who would be there to welcome her.”

Philip Bradford summed it up in his own eulogy by adapting the final line of The Pilgrim ’s Progress, saying: “So she passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for her on the other side”.

The Rev Barry Schofield died on April 20, aged 94.

Born John Barry Schofield on April 8, 1929, he grew up in the northwestern suburbs of Sydney and attended Parramatta High School. After graduating in 1945, he began a science degree at the University of Sydney.

At Mr Schofield’s funeral, his daughter Lois Cooper-White said that a particular Bible talk amid her father’s social church activities changed his life, creating “a heartfelt zeal to follow Jesus”. This overcame his interest in science and geology, and he deferred his university degree in order to study for the ministry at Moore College.

Upon completing his theological studies Mr Schofield set aside his interest in ministry with Bush Church Aid to marry Shirley George in early 1952 –although he later undertook BCA locums in Coober Pedy and the Diocese of North West Australia.

Ordained in 1953, Mr Schofield became curate at St Luke’s, Liverpool, taking on the provisional district of Hammondville and Moorebank

So I want to encourage you: do not give up, just as our God does not give up. Keep praying. Keep inviting. Keep sharing Jesus. Prayerfully look for opportunities to speak of the hope that he brings. Of the joy and peace you have in knowing that you are forgiven, that nothing will separate you from his love, and that they, too, can know this for themselves. Offer to read one of the gospels with them. And invite them to take the step of putting their faith and trust in him.

Be encouraged – God is at work, bringing lost people to himself. Let that knowledge spur you on to bring lost people to him. SC the following year. In 1956 he became rector of the parish of Picton – which at the time included eight branch churches scattered between Campbelltown and the Southern Highlands – and remained there for 44 years, until his retirement in 2000.

Said Mrs Cooper-White: “Dad was energetic and inventive with his church work. He began annual week-long missionary conventions in the Agricultural Hall that took a team to produce and drew crowds from Sydney as well as locally.

“He organised camps, taught primary SRE weekly, high school SRE seminars monthly, co-ordinated working bees on all the church properties, held combined parish services to bring the congregations together, performed hundreds of weddings and funerals without charge and counselled scores of people.

“He was well known locally for the old black-and-white Leyland double-decker bus St Mark’s, Picton purchased from the NSW Government and used strategically in a variety of church and outreach activities.”

She added that her father knew with certainty that his body was “just a disposable tent for his life here on Earth and that physical death would free him to a fresh new life for eternity in God’s presence.

“He also knew that our eternal destination can’t be earnt and has nothing to do with good works, a good life, going to church or being a nice person but rather on that one question God is going to ask us all: ‘What did you do about my Son Jesus?’”

Mr Schofield also wrote a paraphrase of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “Requiem” to be read at his funeral:

Under a wide and starry sky

Dump my bones and let them lie

These are the lines to pen for me

He’s gone off to Eternity.

Home is the preacher, home from the herd

And the teacher is home with the Word.

Clergy Moves

The acting rector of Yagoona, the Rev Cam Phong, was inducted as rector of the parish on May 1.

The Rev Christopher Waterhouse will become rector of St James’, King Street on June 20, moving from a role as Precentor and chaplain for the arts at St David’s Cathedral, Hobart. He is also a previous director of the St James’ Institute.

Following 5½ years in Melbourne as an assistant minister at St Jude’s, Carlton, the Rev Alex Zunica begins a new role in the Sydney Diocese on July 17 as rector of St Mark’s, West Wollongong

After 15 years as rector of Belmore with McCallums Hill and Clemton Park, the Rev David Wallace will retire on August 6.

Vacant Parishes

List of parishes and provisional parishes, vacant or becoming vacant, as at June 13, 2023:

The Reluctant Missionary

We got the old tub all shipshape and ready for the sea, with everything as tidy as it could ever be. For we was off to Tarsus for business and for trade to bring back things as pretty as they were ever made. But just before we cast ’er off and took ’er out to sea, a bloke came running up to us, as anxious as could be. ’is brow was creased with worry – ’e was a scary bloke –if life is full of fun then ’ed have never seen the joke!

“Where to, old mate?” we said, when ’e ’ad paid ’is fare, “So long as it’s not Nineveh, just take me anywhere.”

We’d ’ardly got in motion when a storm whipped up the seas and we were all so panicked that it drove us to our knees. Us blokes are not that pious but when you are in trouble, you start to call upon the gods and do it at the double. The skipper went to Gloomy Joe and roused ’im from ’is sleep. “You better call on your god, too, or we’ll be in the deep!

“Perhaps it’s you that’s in the wrong and windin’ up this storm You’d better say, then, if it is, ‘cos things are gettin’ warm.”

“O yes, it’s me alright,” Joe said, “I am the proper cause. I’m running off from God, you see, and breakin’ ’oly laws. He wants me off in Nineveh to preach to evil men and I’m afraid they’ll listen and they’ll turn to ’im again. For ’e is full of mercy and is bound to let ’em go and I will sit there fumin’ ’cos that isn’t right, yer know.

“I think that such a rotten lot should absolutely cop it, not turn to God, ’cos when they do, then every time he’ll stop it.” Us sailor boys was really scared – our tough and godless crew –but we was at a loss just then at what we ought to do and how to save ourselves, well now, we simply couldn’t think. But Gloomy Joe spoke up and said, “Just throw me in the drink!” Now that’s a thing we’ve never done and don’t intend to start, to drown a bloke like that – well now, you’d need a stony ’eart.

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But Gloomy Joe insisted that it wasn’t just ’is notion, so in ’e went, ’ead over ’eels into the stormy ocean. And as we watched ’im go, well, quick as you might wish ’e disappeared into the mouth of this great monstrous fish! Then, as Joe said, the sea grew still – a mighty, blissful calm –and we old salts gave praise to God for savin’ us from ’arm. Well, years went by and then, one day, it was a great surprise, I saw in town that same old Joe – could not believe me eyes! I said to ’im, “How come you’re ’ere? You was a fish’s tucker!” “Indeed I was,” he said to me. “I felt a proper sucker. But that great beast transported me and didn’t ’urt a ’air – got me all the way to Nineveh and didn’t charge a fare.

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“I preached to that most awful crowd and they put evil down – but I had hoped that God would roar and spiflicate their town, so I just grumped and sat aside; I was a lump of lard till God spoke up and said to me, ‘O Joe, you’re pretty ’ard! just think of them poor souls back there who do not know what’s true.

Why should I not show mercy – just as I have done with you?’”

David Hewetson