Bringing Christ to the community
A typical Sunday at St Peters Watsons Bay sees a small congregation of about 40 adults get together for their single 9:30am service. Yet based on the census data, there’s over 800 people who identify as Anglican within the suburb (that’s 13% of the area’s population). As we’ve discovered through chatting to locals, people who’ve lived in the area a long time often have had some kind of connection to the church – although often many years ago. They might recall a minister from 50 years ago or the kindergarten that used to run on the church grounds.
It seems many people just haven’t made much room for Christ in their lives. They don’t see meeting together around God’s Word as a priority. Watsons Bay is a community full of people in need of being transformed by the Holy Spirit who brings genuine faith and radical change to those who call Christ their Lord and Saviour. And this is what the relatively new staff team are seeking and praying for as they build connections with the community and share the good news of Christ.
A new ministry
One way they are trying to outreach to the community is through Music Time for young kids. This new ministry has been running for just a month now. There are a handful of grandmothers and mothers who have started coming along with grandchildren or children. Each Monday morning the kids get to sing and rattle their shakers to songs about God. This past week in story time they heard about how Jesus is the good shepherd.
A few of our team members were able to go along to Music Time. While we had great fun playing with the kids and remembering how to do the hokey pokey, there was also opportunity to chat with the parents and grandparents. For one mum who is new to the area, Music Time has meant she’s realised that there is a local church. For some of the other grandmothers, a connection to the church has been renewed.
Meeting the locals
A big way our team is getting alongside Watsons Bay Anglican this week is through flyering the area with invites to church and getting out and meeting people in the community. We’ve gone out for coffee and struck up conversations with baristas and café owners. We’ve given invites to the early morning commuters at the ferry wharf. We’ve hung out in the park and walked the assistant minister’s dog to help us meet locals. And along the way God has provided some great opportunities to talk about Christ and to encourage people to come check out church again.
Please pray
- for the staff team at St Peters Watsons Bay as they seek to share the good news of Christ as both Lord and Saviour
- for spiritual revival in Watsons Bay where people would see that being a Christian is all about having an active faith in Christ
- for the connections made through Music Time to lead to opportunities to share the gospel
- for there to be gospel fruit from the conversations and invites we’ve been able to make with locals