Rev Keith Garner - Spirit of Mission Address 2006

This page contains the Spirit of Mission address by Rev Keith Garner, available for you to read a particular section or the entire transcript:

Introduction

This evening is an important and significant milestone in our Wesley Mission year, in that it affords us the opportunity of thanking those who have partnered with us during the past year, as we seek to respond to the challenges of mission today.

It is also an occasion when we showcase some of the projects and priorities in relation to young people that are high on our agenda at this time. “Bright Young Things: A partnership for the future” has and does highlight some of the youth services that we are committed to delivering as we invest in the future of young people.

In addition to those things we have focused on, our involvement with young people takes many forms - for example, in our congregations, a great number of younger people actively engage in Christian ministry; through our teaching ministry in theology and the arts, we seek to bring to fruition the gifts and talents of younger people in the service of Jesus Christ; and in countless other ways.

However, some of the most important work is to be alongside young people where they are most vulnerable and to play an active role in caring for, journeying with and, perhaps most significant of all, listening to young people.

I want to do three things in this brief address.

Firstly to identify some of the issues that are before us. Secondly to flag up ways in which we can develop our dream to work with young people for the future – and thirdly to encourage you to partner with us in this task.

The challenge of young people today

A society that is tired of young people is tired of life. A danger that lies before us tonight - and one that we must avoid - is that of seeing young people as a problem, rather than an opportunity and a delight. However, we are realistic. It was Furlong and Cartmel, in their study “Young People and Social Change”, who reflected in the 1990s, “The life experience of young people in modern industrialised societies has changed quite significantly over the last two decades.” We would need to add that this is equally true for young people in a rural context.

Some of the priorities we have to keep before us are within the orbit of mental health. Recent studies have shown that 2 in 5 young people were significantly concerned about suicide and 1 in 3 about depression. At the same time, young people of all ages expressed concern about physical and sexual abuse.

Recently I sat talking with some young people in one of our centres, reflecting upon their school experience - which was a million miles from the concept of “the happiest days of our lives”.

Wesley Mission has a fundamental commitment to a Word and Deed ministry, which means for us that we are concerned with the task of winning young lives for Jesus Christ. But, at the same time, we believe it to be as much a gospel imperative to see young people as a valuable part of the community. I guess I, like you, are tired of all those hackneyed phrases like – “Young people are the church of tomorrow”, etc etc. Young people are for the ‘Here and Now’.

We are privileged to be working with young people and, wherever possible, seeking early intervention in some of the major problems they face. I have in my mind the Adolescent and Family Counselling Services, covering the Hawksbury and Penrith Local Government areas, where we focus on domestic violence, family conflict and sexual abuse in young people’s lives. I also bring to mind the Street Smart Van Outreach, which targets young people and their families with not only clothes and food, but also with information. Incidentally this is one project where a major partner is the local police, identifying areas where vulnerable young people gather.

I could list many more projects, but rather than do that I would just identify some of the challenges –

Alcohol and other drugs … education-focused.
Self-esteem and anger-management.
Cross-cultural issues … lead the way.
The dynamics of relationships in the home and the pressure of expectation.
Employment and career opportunities.
In our work with the homeless, the average age of the long-term homeless has dropped significantly.

One of the most positive cameos of Wesley Mission lies in the field of Wesley Uniting Employment – and a young indigenous man who serves on the Northern Coast. He is a marvelous role model for many of the young people in Kempsey and demonstrates our mission as a shining example of a young person empowering others.

Working with young people for the future

Of course one of the ways in which we work with young people is by providing programmes – and it is the generosity of donors and the partnership with statutory and private groupings that make this possible. But I suspect one of the most helpful ways in which we can make a contribution today is by speaking well of young people – and not allowing the ready stigmatisation that often emerges to drive our thinking about them.

We shall need to empathise and acknowledge that “Fifteen is a hard place to be.”

Tonight we have decided to focus on children and young people and I recognise that we have an enormous commitment to and huge resources employed in our work amongst older people - but the current high profile statements about people living longer and the fact that our population is getting older, should not deflect us from our commitment to young people.

The need to be people who understand is paramount. It was Bertrand Russell who said, “I was born in the wrong generation. When I was a young man no-one had any respect for youth. Now I am an old man and no-one has any respect for age.”

Equally I was amused by the bumper sticker which read, “You’re only young once – but you can be immature for your whole life.”

To involve ourselves with young people, we shall need to raise funds and give ourselves to the challenge – which is why for our September Wesley Fair, in addition to the general funds that are raised, we have committed ourselves to an additional project – the Children’s Breakaway Respite Accommodation at Northmead which is part of our Disability Support Services.

At Northmead we help a total of 35 young people, five at a time, over long weekends and school holidays, by endeavouring to hold families together by providing vital respite with the purpose of enabling physical and intellectually challenged young people to stay with their parents long-term.

When I arrived in Sydney, one of the things that used to fascinate me on my journey home across the Harbour Bridge was the sight of all these crazy groups walking across the ‘Coathanger’ in their spacesuits. I remember saying to Carol, “You’d never get me up there!” – because heights and I don’t go well together. So, to my dismay, I was presented with two tickets for the Bridge Climb.

The easy option was to say, “I’ll auction these to raise money for the Mission.” But tonight I want to say, providing $2,000 of sponsorship - as a start – is on the table, we will do it! And perhaps we all have to move out of our comfort zones to do new things to raise awareness and funds for the young people we seek to help.

Join us in the task

You wouldn’t be here tonight if you didn’t believe that what we stand for is both relevant and pertinent to the life of Sydney and NSW today.

What I can do is assure you of three things about Wesley Mission.

Firstly, we have a committed and dedicated team of staff and volunteers. Tonight gives me the opportunity of announcing a new appointment. Following the retirement of Wayne Koivu, as General Manager for our Community Services, we have been in the process of interviewing candidates for the post – and yesterday fellow Officers and I were able to make the decision that Christine Morgan will be the new General Manager. Christine, like many at Wesley Mission, has had a highly successful career in the corporate world, but made a clear decision, driven by her faith, to commit herself to Wesley Mission – and that announcement gives me enormous pleasure.

Secondly, the needs which we seek to serve still remain - and the future is likely to demand new responses in a changing world. We are committed not just to continue what has been achieved, but to do whatever is required to deliver meaningful and compassionate care for the future.

Finally, the Christian ethos of our Mission remains unaltered. A key element of all that we seek to do, and one that distinguishes our contribution, is the Christian conviction that underpins our reason for our mission. We are not a welfare agency – nor will we ever become one. We are a Christian Mission and the reason we believe in the marginalised, the hurt and the vulnerable is because Jesus Christ believes in them.

Those of you who come tonight as corporate partners, I want you to know that we could not achieve much of this without you. We express our gratitude; we ask for your continued loyalty to what we endeavour to do; and most of all, we ask you to work with us as we seek to find new ways of serving our community.

Picture the scene, Jesus was surrounded by a group of adults, in a religious context which, at the time, tended to marginalise the young. He was searching for a visual aid to help his listeners grasp the meaning of the Kingdom of God.

He did not choose a professor from the Theological Faculty of the Jerusalem University, nor a High Priest from the Temple, but a young person! In a dramatic gesture, Jesus placed a child in the centre of the community – an action which implicitly challenged the crowd – and He said:

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of God … whoever humbles himself like this child will be greatest in the Kingdom of God.”

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