On the first day of February, I preached at my friend’s church, Carlton Methodist Church (CMC) in Allawah. I was invited to give a sermon to the English congregation, which is mainly made up of the parent’s children of the Chinese service. The majority of them are high school age. They are such a fun and great bunch, very vibrant and enthusiastic group of youth. I had a great time sharing God’s word with them and meeting some of the youth leaders who lead their youth group called REEF.
I learnt that the Methodist church was founded by John Wesley and missionaries from Britain, North America, and Australia planted Methodist churches in Asia in the mid 1800s. I did a bit of research and learnt that the Methodist revival movement traces its origins to the Great Awakening in the 18th century in Epworth, North Lincolnshire, England. It began with a group of men, including John Wesley and his younger brother Charles, as a movement within the Church of England. The movement focused on a methodical approach to studying scriptures and Christian living. The term "Methodism" was a pejorative term given to a small society of students at Oxford who met together between 1729 and 1735 for the purpose of mutual improvement. The early Methodists acted against perceived apathy in the Church of England, and became open-air preachers and established Methodist societies wherever they went. The Methodist preachers were notorious for their enthusiastic sermons and often accused of fanaticism. The most notable preachers were John Wesley and George Whitefield. John Wesley came under the influence of the Moravians and Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius, while Whitefield adopted Calvinistic views. Consequently, their followers separated, those of Whitefield becoming Calvinistic Methodists. Wesleyan Methodists have followed Arminian theology. CMC is predominately made up of Malaysian Christians who migrated to Sydney and came from the Methodist church in Malaysia. So after the service I had awesome chicken rice for lunch with the lovely people at CMC!
CMC is currently looking for a new pastor for the English service. As I have wandered around Sydney, I’ve discovered that there a lot of Chinese churches without a pastor for the English congregations. Some of the reasons include the English congregation being too small to support a full time pastor or that there aren’t many Asian pastors in the pipeline who can work in the Chinese church context. This is quite heart breaking because there are so many second generation Asian youth who need to be looked after and shepherd by pastors to see more disciples of Christ and the next generation leaders raised to carry on the gospel work. Please pray that God will continue to call more young men filled with the Spirit to serve faithfully as pastors to fill the vacant church positions.
I learnt that the Methodist church was founded by John Wesley and missionaries from Britain, North America, and Australia planted Methodist churches in Asia in the mid 1800s. I did a bit of research and learnt that the Methodist revival movement traces its origins to the Great Awakening in the 18th century in Epworth, North Lincolnshire, England. It began with a group of men, including John Wesley and his younger brother Charles, as a movement within the Church of England. The movement focused on a methodical approach to studying scriptures and Christian living. The term "Methodism" was a pejorative term given to a small society of students at Oxford who met together between 1729 and 1735 for the purpose of mutual improvement. The early Methodists acted against perceived apathy in the Church of England, and became open-air preachers and established Methodist societies wherever they went. The Methodist preachers were notorious for their enthusiastic sermons and often accused of fanaticism. The most notable preachers were John Wesley and George Whitefield. John Wesley came under the influence of the Moravians and Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius, while Whitefield adopted Calvinistic views. Consequently, their followers separated, those of Whitefield becoming Calvinistic Methodists. Wesleyan Methodists have followed Arminian theology. CMC is predominately made up of Malaysian Christians who migrated to Sydney and came from the Methodist church in Malaysia. So after the service I had awesome chicken rice for lunch with the lovely people at CMC!
CMC is currently looking for a new pastor for the English service. As I have wandered around Sydney, I’ve discovered that there a lot of Chinese churches without a pastor for the English congregations. Some of the reasons include the English congregation being too small to support a full time pastor or that there aren’t many Asian pastors in the pipeline who can work in the Chinese church context. This is quite heart breaking because there are so many second generation Asian youth who need to be looked after and shepherd by pastors to see more disciples of Christ and the next generation leaders raised to carry on the gospel work. Please pray that God will continue to call more young men filled with the Spirit to serve faithfully as pastors to fill the vacant church positions.
Hey Mate,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see that the blog is going and the spam is flowing.
See you tomorrow!
Grace,
Kev
Hey mate, thanks for coming to speak at CMC yesterday! Was great to hear from you!
ReplyDeleteNice little write up on Methodists - a movement, not to be confused as a denomination.