News - Melbourne Bible workers

Bible workers are already studying in the homes of 62 people in the lead up to the “Discoveries” program

Youth Bible workers target Melbourne
Melbourne, Victoria

In an outreach initiative of the Victorian Conference, 16 young people have been equipped as full-time, volunteer Bible workers to make contacts and reach people across Melbourne in the build up to the “Discoveries” evangelistic series (see “Melbourne outreach goes Pacific-wide,” News, March 24).
Many of the group have left careers, homes and families to come to work in Melbourne, with students, doctors, IT professionals and people of various backgrounds making up the group.
“I want to take people to heaven with me,” says Geoffrey Lomas, one of the student Bible workers, originally from Port Macquarie, NSW. “I want to learn how to reach my friends.”
The conference is funding the Bible workers for the six-month period between January and June. “It’s great to see the church backing the young people in their ministry,” says director of youth ministries for the Victorian Conference, Pastor Wayne Boehm.
The group began in January with a three-week intensive training program. Roy Kim, who is the team leader of the project, has been a Bible worker at Gateway church for over three years. Originally from the United States, Mr Kim is responsible for helping to train, coordinate and mentor the team, along with Johnny Wong, head elder at Gateway church. “I want young people here to have a vision that will inspire other young people to do the work,” says Mr Kim.
Divided into teams of between two and five people, the Bible workers are focusing on distinct territories around Melbourne, including Nunawading, Ringwood, Auburn/Springburn, central Melbourne, Northpoint and Preston. Their work includes knocking on doors and conducting religious surveys that seek to identify whether people have an interest in learning more about the gospel.
The result of their work is already being seen, with figures after two months showing 62 in-home Bible studies and more than 120 contacts, who are being supplied with DVDs and correspondence materials. The hope is that these people will be ready to attend the “Discoveries” programs, having already encountered the gospel message.
Young people around the conference are also supporting the Bible workers, who lead a church youth group in doorknocking every Sabbath afternoon. The workers also plan to visit and support country churches in an effort to bring as many people to the “Discoveries” seminars as possible.
Church members demonstrated their support at the recent “Discoveries” launch, when an offering raised $A40,000. The Bible workers will work up to the end of the “Discoveries” programs, when the responsibility for nuturing those people the Bible workers are in contact with will pass to local churches.
Mr Kim hopes other churches will replicate the model these workers are using. Expressions of interest are already being made for Bible work in Sydney in 2008.—Jarrod Stackelroth