The life of a sacred agent can take many twists and turns. Meeting Jesus is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and following Him the most challenging and exhilarating.
Anyone who thinks Christianity is boring – well, they might just be on the steady, slow climb which begins all rollercoasters.
Many of you know I have now taken up a new role as Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries. In short, I’ve joined the Feds. It’s been a rush, and I’d love to give you an update. (Don’t worry, Sacred Agents will return to its usual format and not become a newsletter. This is a one-off.)
What even is Crossover? We’re a national Baptist ministry focused on ‘Helping Australian Baptists Share Jesus’. We provide encouragement, training and resources for outreach and evangelism.
Crossover needs an urgent boost. Crossover relies entirely on donations from churches and individuals, which in the past has centred on an annual Easter Offering. COVID-19 has massively interrupted the last two Easters and we find ourselves $90,000 behind budget. So, we’re having a Spring Appeal, and if you weren’t able to support us at Easter we’d love some support now. See crossover.org.au to give – and promoting this in your local church would be awesome. Please help outreach and evangelism have the level of priority and importance in our movement that it has in God’s heart.
A special Christmas resource: “Good News for a Change” is a whole Advent and Christmas series for churches that includes sermon outlines, service elements, themed artwork for promotion and invitation, and more. And it’s all designed especially to be highly invite-able and graspable for guests and visitors (Jason Hoet & Miranda Dixon from Unley Park have put a lot of heart and brains into this so you know it’ll be good!). We hope it’s a real gift for hardworking pastors and leaders who might not have the time and energy right now to plan a big creative Christmas.
An evangelism training resource: “Plan A” is a great short course that churches can run to upskill on outreach and evangelism. Developed and presented by Belinda Lakelin in Wollongong, it’s been really well received by pilot churches and we’re quite excited about it.
And really, that just scratches the surface. We’re always on the hunt for creative and useful resources to serve our movement well. PRAC magazine will continue for pastors and leaders and Sacred Agents will be for anyone and everyone who’s saying, ‘Here am I, send me’ to God and jumping on the ultimate rollercoaster. As ever, I find you inspiring and am so keen to bless and boost you along.
Andrew Turner the Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries. Read more articles on crossover.org.au or send Andrew an email on andrew.turner@baptist.org.au
