Ministry in the Workplace

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called ChartersTowers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

What we are also hearing is that today is also a day of post denominationalism. That is more and more people are choosing a church because of the way that it meets their needs rather than the particular brand that it carries. Within denominations we are seeing a broader spectrum of worship styles, etc that are a reflection of the local community and not the church label.

This post denominationalism is also far more difficult to see in a rural community. In these communities family connections that may extend back generations tie many of the members of churches to their denomination. Others may come and go but these people are often very hard to shift. There is not the same range of choices that is available in city areas. Most people are Pentecostal, Conservative or Orthodox and in most country towns there is only one each of these.

In fact when living in Charters Towers in 1990 while a part of a mission team I was a member of the Baptist Church and April a member of the Church of Christ. Prior to coming to Charters Towers we were members of the Anglican Church in Emerald. It was only when I began as the Church of Christ pastor that my membership was transferred to the Church of Christ.

Once more we began to here talk of joining the Baptists. It required a lot of discussion and the forming of a new committee. (The foundation of church existence) I often found the issues that were raised nit picking and of little relevance to the Kingdom of God. I also realised that this was a necessary part of bringing people along for the journey rather than forcing a conclusion on them.

Sorting through the details was a slow tedious process. What we did discover was that there was very little that separated us. Most of the traditional differences in the denominations were no longer relevant. One of our biggest hurdles was getting any sort of real interest from our governing bodies. It seemed there were always more pressing issues that had to be dealt with.

We decided that beginning in the new year we would trial an amalgamation of the two churches. Services would be alternated between our two buildings. My support changed again. During the year the Baptists agreed to support me as the full time minister. The cost of my wages was shared between the two churches. This meant a reshuffling of my schedule. What really happened was that I kept most of the things I previously was doing and added the full time load of ministry on top of that.

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called Charters Towers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

Chris was one of our students from Cornerstone in Emerald. When he finished his first year he was offered a job as a radio announcer at the Emerald radio station. He started as the night shift announcer and turned what was normally the dullest part of the radio program into a huge success. Chris was offered a promotion in Gladstone and moved there.

Career wise and socially things were booming for Chris. He is a considerate, courteous and fun loving young man and was very popular. Radio announcing is a very public role that has a strong focus on the image. Being young and still unsure of his own image he gradually began to adopt the façade that popularity required. It was all too much and Chris was sucked into a lifestyle that went against all he had grown up with and learnt in his year as a student in Cornerstone.

Chris rang one night and said he was offered a job in the radio station at Charters Towers. More importantly he recognised that he needed to get out of the lifestyle in Gladstone, He asked if he could move in to try and sort things out. Of course we said yes.

Our home was beginning to fill up. Chris was great with Natasha and gave us some relief from her intensity. He also gave her a positive role model.

Charters Towers was a small radio station. Chris was the breakfast announcer and there was only a manager, secretary, and two part time announcers.

Work for Chris was quite intense. His hours were extremely long and the expectations were high. Although his spiritual life was coming together work was becoming more and more a slog.

Within a few months he was offered a job in Mackay. I thought it was too soon and was concerned that he would be sucked into the same lifestyle he had left a short time ago in Gladstone. I said to Chris that at this point I felt it was more important to focus on his spiritual life than on his career. But, I would support him in whatever decision he made.

I was wrong. Moving to Mackay was the best decision he had ever made. He was involved in a small Baptist Church and contributed to. More importantly it was there he met his future wife. Chris by nature is a drifter but Katrina is far more decisive. She is exactly the right person to keep him on track.

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called Charters Towers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

The changes that occurred in the church were imperceptible at first. But at the end of our first year the future looked just that little bit brighter. Our church savings had gone so we worked out a plan at the current income to support me on a part time basis. I saw this as a positive sign. We now had a plan to support a sustainable pastoral ministry, rather than saving to afford a minister for three years or so and then have him leave. This required me to look for other work.

Support for my ministry came from a variety of sources. One of our member’s family began giving her an offering each week to support our work. They would never come themselves but they wanted to make sure we didn’t leave the Towers. The minister’s Fraternal pitched in to support for one day a week the work I was doing at the local High School.

April says that our first year in Charters Towers was one of the best in our spiritual life. It was less demanding socially because there was no one in our age in the church for a start. It takes time to build relationships in a new community. Financially it was less stressful than our years in Cornerstone. It was the first year in our married life that we earned a proper wage. The year ahead looked exciting with the church’s outlook looking just that little bit brighter. I looked forward taking on new roles and the challenges they would bring.

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called Charters Towers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

Before joining Cornerstone community (A Christian Community based in outback Australia) shortly after becoming a Christian I had spent 9 months in Israel living in a kibbutz (at type of communal farm). Although not a Christian I recognised the relationships formed in that living arrangement were some of the most intense but also the most rewarding that I had ever had. We brought with us from Cornerstone a strong desire to develop Christian community in which people had opportunity to express their Christian faith. We saw this beginning with our home.

We developed a love hate relationship with the manse. It had magnificent potential but was quite run down. It was built on a slightly sloping block. There was a short set of stairs to the front entrance but at the back it was high enough to walk under. The area under the house was bare dirt that brought into the house a constant fine layer of dust. The church surrounded the house on two sides. The only barrier was a chicken wire fence. Our backyard felt a bit like a fishbowl. If anything occurred inside it was fair game to be discussed during morning tea after church.

When taking a shower upstairs you could also shower under the house because of the leakage through the concrete shower base. The kitchen cupboards were full of nooks and crannies that many cockroaches, silverfish, mice and other creepy crawlies called home.

Each of the rooms in the house had several layers of floor coverings. April began an eradication program of these multi-layer dust traps. Occasionally over the next few years I would arrive home to an exhausted, sweaty wife and a pile of floor coverings dumped on the front yard. This was the signal that the next room was about to begin its journey of restoration. 

Gradually we began working on different sections of the house. In our first year we rebuilt the bathroom with the help of a Peter a local handyman. David and Rachel ex Cornerstone students dropped in while on their honeymoon and helped scrape off rubberized glue and underlay from our living room floor. Once stripped back we then punched every nail in preparation for the floor sander Alan the floor sander to come and sand the boards back.

One of the bonuses of this work was discovering what lay underneath. Under the layers in one room was a pile of Townsville Bulletins dating from the 1960’s. Work came to a standstill as we read the news about men landing on the moon, etc. In another room we found a number of 10 shilling and 1 pound notes spread under the floor coverings. We were told that this was done to bring good luck. Sadly we discovered that they were not worth a fortune. However, one day they will be worth more but we have to wait for when the Queen dies.

Our home became the foundation of our community ministry within the church. Our first year brought many friends and family who came to check out our new residence. We got used to putting up all different types of people often at short notice.

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called Charters Towers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

Don't let that girl near my mother.

Don't let that girl near my daughter.

The phone rang and the lady at the other end asked did I know a Natasha. When I said yes she asked if I could come and pick her up because there were a number of kids outside her shop threatening to bash her.

This was fairly typical of the types of feelings that Natasha evoked in people. At first glance the reasons why were not obvious. The first encounter with Natasha could be deceiving. She presented as a friendly outgoing young girl. After a short time it became very obvious that there was more to her than what first met the eye.

When Natasha came to live with us April and I were coming to terms with some of the implications of infertility. Life was marching on for both of us and the prospect of not having children was something we had to consider. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps Natasha was God's way of giving us a daughter.

I never saw anyone be friends with Natasha for more than a week. The only relationships she did develop were with people much younger than her and these never lasted. Perhaps the most enduring relationship she had was with our next door neighbour who was in Year 3. This was an age gap of nearly 10 years. One test of character she did pass was with our dogs. She was great with caring for our dogs and related very well with them. Dogs are far more forgiving than humans.

Natasha struggled with school. Or, should I say it in reverse the school struggled with Natasha. She was a constant visitor to the guidance officer and the school's administration with a constant array of problems. She was a dependent person and teachers who gave extra time and effort found themselves being sucked dry by Natasha's demands.

She was a chronic liar. Even when it was obvious that Natasha wasn't telling the truth she would still lie. It didn't matter if she knew that the lie would be found out she would still choose to tell the lie.

It was difficult to know how to handle Natasha's behavioural problems and we tried a wide range of tactics. Grounding seemed to be one option. But it ended up that she was never getting out of her room and zero social contact. Gradually we came to a point of allowing her to choose her actions and suffer the consequences of those actions.

Despite this black picture I have painted so far I really cared for her. Natasha and I spent lots of time together. Often we would dash over the church before the Sunday service to give the chair a quick wipe over and the floor a vacuum because the cleaner that week had forgotten to come. She was always willing to help out although when not interested in the task she worked at a maddeningly slow pace. She never refused to help when asked.

Her background was severely disadvantaged. She was taken from her mother at a young age and grew up with an alcoholic stepfather. The reasons why she was taken were never clear but they must have been quite serious to be removed from her step mother and placed not in the care of her natural father but her step father. Evidently her mother was quite promiscuous and her relationships with men intruded on her capacity to care for Natasha.

Lindsay the stepfather tried his best with Natasha. He was battling with his own demons and was poorly equipped to raise a teenage girl. Verbal abuse was quite a common occurrence during his drunken binges. Natasha's self esteem was poor and she clearly lacked many of the skills that a mother brings to a relationship with a daughter.

April worked on many of these things with her. Teaching her how to wear makeup and match clothes. She helped with all those girl sorts of things that I have no idea about.

Being the parent of a teenager is not easy for most people. Natasha brought with her a load of baggage that increased that difficulty immensely. We tried as far as possible to include her as a member of our family. She came on holidays with us.

The morning she left began like many others. I was in the shower when April tapped on the door and said, Natasha is leaving.

I quickly got out of the shower to see what was going on. Natasha asked if she could use the phone to ring a friend so that she could move her gear. Her room was already completely packed. Evidently she stayed awake most of the night packing. Within half an hour Natasha was gone. Despite the difficulties we had with Natasha we considered her part of our family. I couldn't bear to watch her leave the house. I had to go to the backyard to be myself and cry.

At first she wanted nothing to do with us. She told all sorts of lies to her friends about the reasons why she had left. However she gradually began communicating with us. We went a couple of times to the ice cream shop where we would talk. But, it was quite clear that she wanted to live her own life without any of the responsibilities that being a part of a family brings with it.

Shortly after she moved to Townsville. We tried to stay in contact. A couple of times when we were in Townsville we ran into each other. She would always have a bloke with her. Occasionally she rang to let us know her address. After a year or so the contact began to fade. I last tried to find her at a hostel but the people said she had moved and didn't know where she was.

I find it difficult to understand why Natasha would exchange the love of a caring family for the cheap transient pleasures that she was looking for. I know we are not the perfect family but I am sure the lifestyle we offered would be the most secure she had experienced. Then I think that most of us are not that different. We choose to forget to take the best that life offers and fill our lives with cheap baubles that have a superficial attractiveness.

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called Charters Towers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

When ringing our place many people were amused by my answering machine's message. Its response was, I'm sorry I'm not able to take your call, If you want your wheelie bin cleaned, or to purchase a mobile phone or need the Church of Christ Minister then you have reached the right number. Please leave a message after the bip or you can contact me on mobile such and such. This was my year of many jobs. Besides the roles mentioned on the answering machine I also was involved in a community housing project, Chaplaincy at the State High School, writing a number of freelance newspaper articles for the Townsville Bulletin and continued on with the newspaper photography. After a year of settling into the town and the church working in so many different areas opened many opportunities to take the church to the people. Our income became fairly sporadic during the year but it was fun trying out new ideas. We had a go at selling to people door to door the dream of having a clean wheelie bin. I loved the thrill of not knowing what the next response would be. Many times the people were hostile. I think it was because of the intrusion of someone coming into their personal space and forcing them to respond. To say the least my wheelie bin business did not take off in a huge way at first. On my first day of business I cleaned a few friends bins just for practice. Over the year it did build up until it developed into a handy sideline income. Some of my other ideas were not so successful. The mobile phone business didnt really ever take off. I sold one to myself and to a couple of other people. It never generated any significant income.

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called Charters Towers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

April and I were among the youngest members of the church. There were two young children, no regular teenagers, 4 people in their 30's. Then a huge gap to people in their 60's. It seemed like an impossible task to bring young people into the church. Where would we start? Even if young people did become Christians what would we do with them?

One Sunday I noticed an attractive young girl enter nervously and sit at the back of the church. It was a wonderful moment to have a young person join us. Over the next few months she continued to attend fairly regularly. Janelle always appeared attentive and gradually opened up more about the reasons for coming.

She was not unknown to the rest of the church. Her mother was a longstanding member and Janelle grew up in the Sunday School. Like many other young people she rejected the impression of Christianity she saw in the established church. Recently a number of crises in her life forced her to search for answers. She said that my sermons were relevant to the problems she was facing at the time. This was a great encouragement to me.

At the end of the year she asked to be baptized. This was the first baptism done in the church for a number of years. Not only was it a symbol of new life for Janelle it was also a sign of new life within the church. Many of the older people who had taught Janelle in Sunday School and then see her leave the church were greatly encouraged by her spiritual growth.

Janelle had an adventurous spirit. Her return to Charters Towers was only a respite between overseas trips. Even though she was local it was only a matter of time before she had the urge to travel again. This time she went to the United States firstly as a nanny and then to work at the summer camps. While there Janelle met a young Christian man name Jim. Shortly after they were engaged and were making plans to settle in the United States.

Today Janelle and Jim live in a lovely cabin in the northern United States. Jim's family owns a sawmill. He made their home, a picturesque cabin with an amazing view and furniture with his own hands. They are very involved in the life of the local church. Jim and Janelle are also the youth group leaders with a ministry to hundreds of young people through the Word of Life programs.

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called Charters Towers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

In spite of the huge advances that science has made there is still a percentage of people who will be unable to conceive. Psychologists say this loss is like actually losing a child. [Read more…]

We spent 9 years of our life in a small country town in North Queensland called Charters Towers. These are my memories of the people and events that were a part of our life during that time.

April and I began to be concerned about not having children after our first wedding anniversary. A local doctor in Emerald referred us to the public gynecologist. This began a sometimes heartbreaking experience of dealing with infertility.

Relying of the public hospital system can be a humiliating experience. You are at the doctor's mercy. In rural areas there is little recourse if there is a problem with a doctor. A patient's right to a second opinion is worthless if there is no one else to see. We had to deal with arrogant incompetence, insensitivity and rudeness. It annoyed me to see this man later extolled on a current affairs show as a rough saint of the bush. Many times after a consultation this saint's rudeness and insensitivity would leave April in tears.

Moving to Charters Towers allowed us access to an excellent private specialist in Townsville. We began what was to be an emotional roller-coaster in our efforts to have children. April was prescribed increasing levels of clomid, a hormone that encourages ovulation. A good part of this year was spent taking April's temperature to see if ovulation had occurred.

The years of dealing with infertility were taking their toll on our relationship. The drugs alone cause hormonal imbalances that result in mood swings. At the end of the year we decided to take a break. We joined a private health insurance fund and needed to wait for 12 months before we could claim on a pre-existing condition. This was a welcome relief for our relationship. We decided to wait a year and then look at further options.

April and I had felt quite clearly for a number of years God calling us to Charters Towers since we had spent a year working in the town as a part of a Cornerstone mission team in 1990. We returned in 1995 when I was offered the job as pastor of the Church of Christ.

I remember very clearly the struggle when beginning our ministry at the Church of Christ in Charters Towers. It was a radical change from the busyness of life leading a Christian community. Although life in Cornerstone was often difficult it was never dull and the community life always had its own energy.

I was promised one year's paid work with the assurance of plenty of unpaid work beyond that. That was the amount of money the church had saved during its Pastorless time. One church leader said the expectation was that I was hired to fix the church. His analogy was If you call a plumber in to fix a broken pipe you expect the pipe to be fixed. Our church was broken because it was low on people, the most important resource of God's community. I wasn't quite as sure about the analogy between the pastor and the plumber [Read more…]