Funnily enough, throughout my childhood I believe that I was a rather introverted boy —although, now that I think about it, that may not be entirely true! There certainly was a lot happening in my life, which would have caused most children to retreat into themselves. However, I seemed to have gotten into a lot of mischief, so I must have been at least a little bit willing to ‘mix it up’.
While I had ‘given my heart to Jesus’ as an 9-10 year old, this decision didn’t root itself deeply until year 11 of high school. And when it did, I was ‘all in’. I mixed and mingled with Christian young people from a variety of churches and schools, and many of them reported to me that they had fellowship groups in their high schools. So I began asking around at mine why we didn’t have one. No one could give me a good answer, so I started one.
In the beginning I simply led the group in reflecting on a passage from a daily devotional book and finished with prayer —I really had no idea what I was doing and really had nothing to offer, as I was quite new to this ‘Christian thing’. That summer I took a job at a Christian camp-ground as a cook’s assistant. Some of the children’s counsellors got themselves sent home due to bad behaviour and the program was then desperate for people to fill in for them. Probably mostly because of the raise in pay, but also because I wanted to be involved in something more interesting than helping out in the kitchen, I stepped forward and asked to be considered. The camp directors were great guys that a young person like me could really look up to. They took me on and I began a life of ministry.
While looking after the kids of the camp and learning how to lead a Christian program, I sought out advice on how to better lead my school fellowship group. Thus, in my final year of high school, I started to develop a pastor’s heart and a desire to be involved in church leadership and to share the good news of Jesus with young people. A defining moment came when my friends and I hatched a plan to hold a Christian concert at our school, with hard rock music and a multimedia gospel presentation. The teacher advisor —an older, ‘square’, Baptist gentleman— said “No” and that was that … not on your life, mister, because I then had a cause to fight for and my ministry has been defined by that opposition ever since.
In my second year of university, my first year at Queen’s, I discovered that I could volunteer and host a radio show on the university’s community radio station, CFRC-FM. Thus began the four year run of Against The Grain, an “Alternative & Progressive Gospel Music” program. From the radio program, I hosted a similarly themed video show on the Channel 13 community television station called Sound & Vision, and ventured into local Christian concerts.
While a member of the Salvation Army Kingston Citadel church, I was very involved in youth leadership and the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at Queen’s. It was through these that I experienced healthy Christian community and have sought for, and to lead, such ever since.
As I paid my own way through university, with the help of some government grants, I for Christian Horizons group homes for the developmentally disabled (or whatever the politically-correct term is now; I can never keep up) and also took a job with the Salvation Army as a Prison Chaplain. Also during this period of my life, I served the Kingston Korean Church as a part-time youth pastor. It was from this experience that I was inspired, out of necessity, to learn how to play the guitar.
I moved to Australia in 1994 to take up a full-time Youth Pastor position with the Salvation Army Parramatta Church. After 6 months, the pastor who brought me out was moved on and the new senior pastor and I did not get along so well. So, at the end of my two year contract, I took up a position with the Uniting Church at Wahroonge, another St John’s. Another change in supervisor led to another less-than-ideal situation. At the end of another two year contract, Marcia and I packed up and moved to Canada (which we had been planning for some time).
In moving to Canada, we moved back to my hometown of Hamilton and I took up a position as a regional youth ministry consultant with the Salvation Army. My supervisor, Norman Garcia, and his wife were both excellent mentors; but, alas, they too were moved on after a year. We had been quite disgruntled with living in Hamilton anyway, so we agreed that when the first of us landed a job in Ottawa, we would move. Thus, Marcia scored first, so to Ottawa we went!
We loved Ottawa, but it took me a little too much time to find an appropriate ministry. I was eventually hired by Parkwood Presbyterian Church. While they did not ask me any theological questions in my interview, this did in fact turn out to be a very good position, even though the gentleman who hired me, Floyd McPhee, retired after a year. I then got to work under James Hurd, and he and his family are very fine people indeed.
Some notable features of my ministry in Ottawa include driving our youth group 10 hours to the Creation Festival at Mount Union, Pennsylvania; setting up an indoor sports outreach in a local public school gym; running a summer outreach at the local sports field; leading our youth group in serving street people in downtown Ottawa by providing a program of entertainment at a church café; leading the Ottawa regional youth minister’s fraternal Exousia; and, becoming a focus group facilitator with Youthnet identifying youth at risk for suicide. After finishing my M.A. at Saint Paul University, Marcia and I decided to settle in Australia.
In returning to Australia, I intended to continue in youth ministry, but started to think that perhaps it was time to get out of church-based ministry. I thus applied for school chaplaincy in Victoria and SRE teaching in New South Wales. However, I also sent out my résumé to various denominations in VIC and NSW, just to be fair. Just as I had received notice for a chaplaincy position in Gisborn, VIC, the Hurstville Church of Christ contacted me. They were looking for a youth minister, but also a senior minister; so, they asked me to consider interviewing for the senior position. While this was not ‘on my radar’, so to speak, I had to admit to myself that when I dreamed of my future ministry, I was always engaged in the broader issues of church leadership generally, rather than specifically. So, I interviewed and was offered the position.
Hurstville was, in all honesty, a bittersweet experience. While I had all the tools for the job, I had never applied them broadly before. I was a ministry specialist, but now I was expected to speak into the lives of children and the elderly. That congregation was so patient with my experiments, but they could not offer me much in the way of resources. For instance, when I asked, “So, what does a typical worship service look like?”, no one could answer me, nor could the denomination offer any advice. Let me tell you, they could certainly tell me when I was doing it wrong!
I learned an awful lot at Hurstville; I can only hope that they benefited as much from my time there. Governance issues came up time and again. That was very frustrating. Nevertheless, some highlights of my ministry at Hurstville include developing a very successful weekly playgroup; running Christmas picnic events in a local park; promoting the church’s activities in local markets; running a public seminar series; and, establishing Renovaré-style small groups.
From Hurstville, I took up a part-time position with Austral Church of Christ, who were a wonderful fellowship. Unfortunately, they really were in need of a more maintenance-oriented minister than mission-minded as I am. Thus I didn’t stay past my probationary period.
At this time, I was looking for a part-time ministry because I wanted to start research towards a PhD. Scanning the classifieds I came across an advertisement for St John’s Sutherland. My wife had recently reminded me that I seem to have been happiest when I was in youth ministry. The position at St John’s was for a part-time associate pastor —I would be responsible for developing their youth ministries and be responsible for the evening congregation— plus, Rod Harding was the senior pastor. Rod is well-known for his work with the Blackstump Festival and came highly recommended. Unfortunately, Rod retires at the end of June 2011, so we’ll see what the future holds for me from then …
