Anglican churches around Sydney are following up new contacts after an intense week of Start the Ultimate Relationship mission, which ran from August 2-9.

One of these churches is Rooty Hill Multicultural Bible Ministry, which saw over 100 visitors come along to events run under the Start the Ultimate Relationship banner.

These included a men’s event on physical and spiritual health (which included talks by Moore College vice principal Bill Salier, along with two physicians), two women’s events, youth outreach events, a young adults event at the local pub, and an Elvis night, featuring an Elvis Presley impersonator.

“The theme was ‘Let the king tell you about the king of kings’,” Mr Galea smiles.

While some came along after being invited by their Rooty Hill MBM friends, others responded to advertising on radio station 103.2, while others came along as a result of “lots of doorknocking”, which Mr Galea says was fruitful and encouraging.

“We all found people who were hungry to talk about God,” he says, adding that two people made Christian commitments through doorknocking.

“Some people got to share the gospel with people who don’t understand who Jesus is and why he came to die, while others could just help people better understand Christianity.

“Most people realised that people are more eager to talk about God than we are to speak to them.”

Mr Galea adds that this contact has helped “put our church on people’s radar”, even though he suspects much of the fruit from doorknocking might not be seen for another 6-to-12 months.

Members of MBM had distributed leaflets promoting the mission in the month beforehand, while three pre-evangelistic talks on ‘Relationship Wreckers’ – grief, anger and changing habits – were held as a warm-up.

As the church continues to follow up the contacts made during that week, Mr Galea says the excitement flowing from the mission is adding to the church’s enthusiasm for Connect09.

“This is the best thing we could have done,” he says.

“That week was one of the best weeks of my life, and in the life of the church, because the mission was not done for us, it was done by us.”

Continue reading next article: Getting in before the bulldozers

Originally published on SydneyAnglicans.net by Natasha Percy on 20 August 2008.