During my seminar at Pre-Season Conference 2021 on Being Organised and Priorities, I introduced returning students and student leaders to the first year students and let them tell their own wisdom. I was delighted when so many of them stated that Fellowship Groups are worth arranging your week around!
1/2 Year in Review
Thanks for your prayer and continued support through 2021. Thanks to YOU I’ve been able to:
Teach our students Jonah 3, Biblical Theology of Prayer, Being Organised and Priorities, how to evangelise westerners (international students) and The Big Story of the Gospel
Meet up with new students at the beginning of the year to get to know them and invite them to consider themselves one of us at Uni Fellowship.
Coordinate Fellowship Groups including a new City group in Semester 2, hopefully the first of many new City groups as the University moves out of Sandy Bay and into the City.
Train local ministry apprentices and leaders on how ministry impacts our relationships, social media for church admin, and cultural engagement
Coach an oversees potential apprentice on how to raise up a network of ministry partners to support her through prayer, encouragement and finances. Mel Henning will, Lord willing, join us in 2022 from Germany and I will oversee her 2 years of training.
Plan a YouTube video content campaign helping our students to express their faith in meaningful ways to their peers. Pending grant approval.
Lead a training seminar for Tasmanian Women’s Bible Conference on Deconstruction and Reconstruction.
Work alongside local ministry leaders at a working retreat to develop a plan for a ministry leadership pipeline for local churches beginning with Sunday School. At Uni Fellowship, we see ourselves as an important part of that pipeline as there is a big gap between youth group/youth leading and ministry apprenticeship/Bible college. Uni Fellowship gives school leavers a broad range of ministry experience, participation, networking and leadership opportunities.
Co-host a podcast debrief for local men and women in-person who have been listening to the podcast series The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. It proved to be an important step to come together in person. We were no longer typing AT names on a screen. But we were in a room with real people, with real regrets, real hurts, real concerns and in the end real hope moving forward. I’m open to doing a similar online debrief if there is interested.
Share resources and ideas with you in Christine: Behind the Scenes to benefit your own personal ministries.
If you would like to find out more about any of the above, send me a message any time. Or better yet we can meet up in person over a cuppa or chat on Zoom/Facetime, etc. Email: christine@ufcutas.org
I’d also love to visit with your church via video or in person to share about our work here in Tasmania.
Talking with Tasmanian ministry apprentices and church leaders about how ministry impacts our relationships at MTS Training Day in Ross, Tasmania.
Mel Henning: 2022 Ministry Apprentice
In the beginning of 2020, Mel Henning joined us at Uni Fellowship doing a semester abroad from Germany for her Masters thesis. She immediately jumped right in and participated in our mission to help students at the University know Jesus. Before she returned home, we invited her to consider returning to Tasmania when her thesis was complete to train with us as a campus gospel worker. She said, “Yes!”
Over the past year, Mel and I have been catching up monthly so I could coach her on the process of raising up a network of ministry partners to support her in prayer, encouragement and finances. This week she sent out her first ministry email newsletter to let her friends and family know her plans and inviting them to prayerfully consider partnering with her. Please pray for people in Germany and abroad to enthusiastically partner with her. I’m so excited to be her supervisor next year. I’ve already begun collecting resources for us to work through as part of her training, like Peter Adam’s part 1 and part 2 Secret Sins article.
Gospel Giving
Please prayerfully consider partnering with my mission on campus to proclaim Jesus and raise up the next leaders of the church and world mission.
Your contribution to my ministry covers
my pay,
personal and family living expenses,
ministry work expenses,
and professional development, etc.
Monthly Target: $3465 (2.5 days per week)
Current Regular Giving: $2712
Are you possibly one of the below?
1 new person giving $150/month
3 new people giving $100/month
4 new people giving $50/month
4 new people giving $25/month
Family
This year we’ve really been fine tuning our interests and talents.
Altogether we’ve fostered 7 cats from the local cat shelter. We help rehabilitate them and get to know them so that they can be adopted. The shelter provides all the food and supplies we need. At the end of their stay, we share photos and a bio we’ve written to help Ten Lives Cat Centre place them in new homes. Mike’s favorite part of the whole process is making up terrible nicknames for the cats. My favourite one so far has to be “Millie”, a black and white “catten” who was funny and adventurous, loved “walkies” on the lead outside and purred on my neck overnight.
Olivia has really flourished with her drawing skills. She’s filled several sketchbooks this year and would like nothing more than an iPad with drawing stylus to create digital art. We’re keeping our eyes open for a used iPad she can buy with the money she’s saved. She shares her artwork on an online platform called DIY. She’s loved getting to know other creative kids around the world. Moderators even invited her to do a LIVE webinar on their platform to teach other kids how to make a Corgi plushy.
Ella has found her tribe, her peeps, her musical theatre crew. She can sing, dance and act. She’s the whole package. Late last year she convinced two besties to sign up to a musical theatre class but was then surprised by a scholarship to a drama class for Terms 1 and 2 this year. She did really well but wanted very much to join her friends at musical theatre (especially after binge watching High School Musical: the Musical: the Series). The first lesson was INTENSE. They’d already started rehearsals for the end of year performance of The Lion King and given out roles. But she practiced the choreography every day after school and nailed it the following week. She comes home each week absolutely beaming.
Mike and I have loved finding out where we fit with St Johns Presbyterian Church community and mission. We hope to become members in a few weeks time. St. John’s mission is:
The risen and ruling Lord Jesus has given us the mission of making disciples. We will do that by prayerfully going into all His world, declaring His gospel, in the power of His Spirit, so that we may reach and gather His people. Together, as His church we will lovingly teach one another to obey all of His commands so that we may grow to be more like Him, until His return, to the glory of God the Father.
Giving Back to You
Sharing resources is my way of giving back to you and supporting your own relationship with Jesus and your church family and your own ministry. All links have been shared in Christine: Behind the Scenes. Join us in the group to discuss how the content might affect our lives and gospel work.
[Listen] What Is Abuse: An account of abuse, “double abuse“ from her Christian community, followed by a restored marriage after covert emotional abuse that led to complex post-traumatic stress. I’d never heard of such a restoration. themendproject.com
[Read] Why a Masculine Ministry Rose and Fell: For those of you listening along to the podcast series The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, David French’s article strikes home at what some of us found appealing at the time. But also where the ministry and methods and tone diverged from the person and work of Jesus.
[Read] The Bible Doesn’t Come with Instructions. But We Still Need Guidance to Handle It Well: This is the sort of work we do with our students.
[Watch] Reading Scripture in Public: Free online video course on the value, discipline and the craft of public Bible reading. I personally love this aspect of Word ministry.
[Read] Why I Stopped Calling Parts of the Bible “Boring”: “Perhaps our greatest Bible study tool is a rightly cultivated expectation, born of faith and sustained by practice, that even in the “boring” parts, there will be beauty and truth and goodness, because that is who God is.”
[Listen] The Goodness of Holiness: “"We were not made to run on our own. We were made to run and do our work on the power of God." In this classic talk, Dallas Willard recaptures the beauty and goodness of holiness, the power to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.”
Upcoming Speaking Events
Bookings for speaking at your church, ministry, school or event are open for 2021 via Video or In Person.
Please contact me at christine@ufcutas.org to discuss your event.
11 September: Engage Conference
18 September: Bishop’s Training Event: #metoo, Women, Society, Church, Bible and Jesus
15-18 November: National Training Event (Hobart): strand content
