NEW SEASONS CONFERENCE: Australia’s God Story

Part 1 of 5

We had our first Gathering since September 2019.  So great to be in the same room again.  On screen is okay, but around 80 “out-of-towners” joined with a stack of passionate His Story church members and more than thirty young people from Agapao Ministries (Seoul Korea) with their pastors, Joshua Kim and his wife, MK.  It turned out to be a potent brew.

The Conference started after lunch on January 26th.  Despite the much-publicised controversies associated with Australia Day, we celebrated God’s story for Australia. 

• Faith of people involved in the planning, people like William Wilberforce and Charles Middleton

• Faith invested to see a new community built on equality and responsible freedom like Rev. Richard Johnson, chaplain to the first fleet and the 800 plus Britons who settled in Sydney Cove.

• Faith of many hundreds of Methodists who didn’t come to make their fortune, but came as missionaries wanting to build a base for missions to the island nations of the south Pacific.

• And many more.

While secularism has become a new form of fundamental religion for some in our nation, we were able to join in prayer for the vision of a unified, redeemed nation being enabled by God to fulfill its part in God’s loving plan.  Our Korean brothers and sisters laid hands on us and prayed as we represented all the churches of the nation.

The record of godly men and women coming to this nation in order to serve God’s purposes in the colony and the nation has been well documented in the two volumes written by Professor Stuart Piggin and Robert Linder:  The Fountain of Public Prosperity (1740-1914) and Attending to the National Soul (1914-2014). 

May the next phase of God’s story for this nation tell of his glory, honour and praise being experienced as the lives of Aussies get caught up in transforming love.

COMING UP NEXT:                 A Heart for Revival (?)