The Christ we Proclaim

Tassie Crew at NTE

Last week, I had the joy of joining in for the biggest National Training Event yet, with over 2,100 students from all over Australia and the world coming to be trained, transformed and sent with the gospel.

But before I talk more about that I'm excited to share with you that our friend who has been coming to Bible Groups this semester has accepted Christ! It has been such a joy seeing God work in her as she has carefully counted the cost to follow Jesus. She was baptised this past Sunday at the church she has been attending this year. Unfortunately, she will be moving to Hobart next year, but we will make sure to connect her to a loving church family that will continue to disciple her.

During a pre-conference session with Peter Adam, senior staff considered the "sins of leadership". I appreciated his intentional long pauses which allowed for much time to think. I found these sessions valuable in reflecting on my own sin and how the people I lead might perceive this. Working largely alone and with a lot of freedom in what I do, I need to have accountability. I am thankful to be able to regularly meet with a local pastor and it would be good for us to discuss this more often.

We also spent time considering corporate sin. This is something we all struggle to see because many of these sins are integrated into the culture of our groups and we are likely blind to them. Over the past few months, I have been pondering the best way to do corporate confession, and this session partly revealed why it is so hard to do so.

Strand Group

It was great to lead strand 1 (Prayerful Bible Reading) again. This time with a big group of guys, mostly engineers. This is my favourite strand to teach, particularly with students who haven't read much of the Bible before. I was very impressed by their talks at the end of the week, which demonstrated their understanding and learning.

One of the students mentioned, "I'm often very quick to use commentaries, but I'm thankful this strand has helped me understand how to read the Bible myself."

A personal benefit for me at NTE was all the major Bible colleges that were there. As I'm considering theological education for 2025, it has been a blessing to chat with a few of them and ask questions about the distinctions between them. For those interested, I am currently discerning between Moore and SMBC. I may visit Sydney next year to explore and sit in on some classes. I'm also encouraged by a few of my AFES friends who are going to college next year, so it has been great to chat with them about their plans too.

Praying 2 for 2

I mentioned in my last update about the National Mission that AFES will embark on next year. This was officially launched during the conference and students attended electives to help them think about how to help others meet Jesus. One element of this is encouraging all the students to pray 2 for 2 — for two unbelievers, two minutes each day. Maybe that's something you might want to commit to as well.

Check out the new website to learn more and watch a few encouraging videos of students who meet Jesus for the first time this year!

Next year NTE will look slightly different as it will be done regionally (similar to 2020 and 2021). Details are still being worked out but our hope in Tassie is to use this as an opportunity to particularly serve the FOCUS ministry in Hobart.