Good different works for churches

An Obadiah Slope Column

“Good Different” works for churches too: A great example of how Aldi supermarket’s slogan “good different” can be a helpful strategy for churches on the ground comes from the Presbyterian Church in NSW.

“Having a couple of kids become Christians recently has left me walking away going, ‘Wow, that’s exactly where God wants me to be in that moment where I’ve shared the gospel with someone that’s taken root,’” Taree minister Vaughan  Smith described the energising impact of the Taree Presbyterian youth ministry in a story by Emma Moxham on the NSW Presbyterian youth website.

But it started with Smith’s decision to push youth ministry when others might have been more cautious. “Initially, Vaughan was concerned about what their church could offer local teenagers. Another church in Taree has been running a fairly large, established youth group for a number of years. But then he realised that a small youth group would be attractive to certain teens.

“’The strength was that we were attracting kids who were a bit more introverted,” he explains. ‘“’They didn’t like the big, noisy youth group. We had kids there who wanted to get deeper into the Word… so it was a close-knit youth group. There was a real sense of unity about it. And then, of course, it started to grow because kids were like, “Yeah, this is really nice. I’m gonna bring some friends along.”’

“As the youth group began to grow, Vaughan realised they would need more leaders. So, he explained the situation to the church congregation. 

“’We said, “God’s doing amazing things—bringing kids along.” So an older couple put their hands up and said, “‘”Yeah, we’d love to serve and help.”’”  And then a younger couple also put their hands up. They’re relatively new Christians; very keen. And another fellow put his hand up. So we’ve got seven leaders now.’”

At Taree Presbyterian the youth group is good different.

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Shout out: Obadiah thinks it is excellent that writers like Emma Moxham produce good stories that deserve to go more widely.

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In Awe: Obadiah was shocked at reading “My Year in Books” by Craig Hamilton on the Aussie Gospel Coalition site. Obadiah sees Hamilton has read some thick tomes. By “thick”, Obadiah does not mean that the books were trivial or obtuse. “thick” refers to pagination, and lots of it.
Hamilton has read
• The Life of Faith (Peter Jensen)
• The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Phillip Jensen)
• The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (Trueman)
• Biblical Critical Theory (Christopher Watkin)

That is Obadiah’s pick of weighty books he knows about out of Hamilton’s list of ten. Hamilton must be a book-reading machine! Plus, he pastors a church. Obadiah is in awe and is suitably grateful for the reminder that others (including the authors) are brighter than him.

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Eisegesis Award for 2023: There’s a week left, but Obadiah is confident he can make the call for the worst use of the Bible this year. (Dani Treweek gets a tip of the hat for spotting it. I think it possibly means she spends too much time on Twitter.)

It is sad, ridiculous, & unbiblical that a woman should refuse to take her husband's name.

God joined Adam and Eve in the first marriage and called their name Adam (Gen. 5:2).

A wife ought to take her husband's name. They shall become one flesh and be called Mr. and Mrs. Adam.

— Eric Conn (@Eric_Conn) December 15, 2023

And Mrs Slope does not use that name…

Correction: In one reference, Vaughan Smith was wrongly called Vincent