Rev. Andrew Tibbs
I continue to thank God for all He has been doing in and through NSCAC over the past year, and over the past 35 years. I am also thankful for, and humbled by, the privilege to serve as the English Pastor over the past 7 years.
It has been said that you can summarise the New Testament in two words: “Come” and “Stay”.
“Come” is the call for those not yet in a personal relationship with God – the only way to be right with God is to come to Jesus. He opened the way to God through His perfect obedience (both in His life and in His death on the cross). We come to Jesus because we cannot make ourselves right with God by our own efforts, morality or general goodness.
“Stay” is the call for those who have already come to Jesus – we are only able to bear the fruit of discipleship if we remain in Jesus (John 15:4). This call to stay is about remaining as part of the Body of Christ – people can “stay” in Jesus even when they leave NSCAC, as all disciples are citizens of the one kingdom of King Jesus.
If I may be so bold, I would like to add a third word; “Grow” – this actually ties in closely to “Stay”, but is worth emphasising. The evidence that an individual’s “stay” is genuine is that they will “grow” (that is, they will bear the fruit of discipleship from John 15, which Paul calls “the obedience of faith” in Romans). This growth occurs over time, and can be at different rates for each individual.
Across all areas of the English Ministry, our overarching goal in everything we do is to see people “come”, “stay” and “grow”. MES has been looking at this as we have been going through Paul’s letter to the Romans – looking at what it means to glorify God by being a united missionary church, humbled together under grace. NSY, the English-language Growth Groups, and our Ladies’ group and Men’s Ministry are also striving to be places for people to “come”, “stay” and “grow”. And our English Ministry Committee has formed a “Vine Project” team to prayerfully evaluate how effectively we are moving people further in the process of discipleship (called “learning Jesus” in the Vine Project), so that we can continue to make adjustments and improvements in how we achieve this.
I continue to thank God for the opportunity to grow and develop as a pastor – I expect this learning process to continue for the remainder of my life and ministry. I am thankful that God is also continuing to work in the lives of the individuals in the English Ministry, and that people want to grow in their relationship with God, and to serve others in various ways.
I am thankful that people have been returning to attending MES in-person over the past 12 months. Another highlight was the MES Camp held in Collaroy last October (alongside the Mandarin Camp).
God has been gracious in bring Eric to join us as Youth Pastor in 2023 – I am enjoying working alongside him. The entire pastoral team has adjusted smoothly to the new dynamic.
I want to thank everyone that has volunteered to serve over the past twelve months, across all areas of ministry. The English Ministry (and the church) is unable to grow effectively without people generously giving of their time and energy to serve others within the church. To avoid the possibility of leaving out anyone, I will mention the areas of service here (in alphabetical order, as there is no favouritism):
- EM Cell/Growth Group leaders
- EM Committee/Vine Project team
- EM Ladies group team
- EM Men’s Ministry team
- LIFT leaders
- MES Bible readers
- MES bulletin team
- MES Camp team
- MES Committee
- MES IT/AV/Livestream team
- MES Music team
- MES Outreach planning team
- MES Service leaders
- MES Welcoming team/ushers
- NSY leaders
I also want to thank those who have served “behind the scenes”, either in a voluntary capacity, or to support those on the front line.
As we enter our 36th year as NSCAC, I continue to be excited by what God plans to do in the English Ministry. I continue to echo Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church (as recorded in Philippians 1:9-11) for each individual in the English Ministry, and each individual in NSCAC:
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
In Him
Rev Andrew Tibbs
