By Clinton Le Page – METRO Committee Convener
I grew up in a liberal church, and God used the Christian Union and Presbyterian Church to change my life. As a young adult entering the big world of a university, doing a Science degree with 300 others, feeling overwhelmed and not understanding the Gospel clearly, I needed direction. I needed the Gospel. And as I heard the Gospel taught clearly, and God’s word faithfully explained and applied, my eyes were opened and my life began to change. I came to see that people needed saving, they needed his word to grow, and they needed people to speak, teach and preach to them. I started to think that God may have given me gifts to do that.
So after working as a scientist for a few years I left that to begin a 2 Year full-time traineeship. This was based mostly at the Christian Union (AFES) group at La Trobe Uni, and part-time at Bundoora Presbyterian Church, which I’d joined a few years earlier. God used that traineeship to lead me to the PTC and into full-time Gospel ministry within the Presbyterian Church. And I am just one of the many examples of how God has used Metro traineeships to give us ministers.
The Ministry Equipping Training and Recruiting Organisation, or METRO Committee of the PCV is focused on the training and raising up of Gospel workers within the congregations of the PCV. The Lord Jesus left us with the task of making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28.18ff), and He wants pastors and elders to pass on the Gospel to other reliable people who can then teach others (2 Timothy 2.2). And the METRO committee seeks to help and support this in our country, city and suburban congregations. We know and we feel the need is great. The need for future pastors, children’s and women’s workers, university workers, missionaries and more, is great. Yet we rely on a great God whose glorious and powerful Gospel is able to save (Romans 1.16). And because there are millions of Australians, immigrants and others who need Christ, we seek, pray and strive to reach them.
In 2019 we have 5 men and women taking part in our METRO traineeship, which is full-time for 2 years. Each one of these people are considering their suitability for future full-time Gospel ministry. They are seeking to grow in Being like Jesus (character), Thinking like Jesus (convictions), and Serving like Jesus (competencies). But the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. So please pray for more trainees, more people to train them, and more of them to be raised up for full-time Gospel work.
Please pray that God would lead some of our part-time YouthMETRO trainees (of whom there are 10-15 each year, being equipped particularly for youth ministry) to do METRO traineeships, go to college and enter full-time Gospel ministry.
But going forward, our committee may run out of funds in about 3 years to support these 2 year traineeships. Trainees have been receiving minimum wage, and the METRO Committee has been covering half of those costs. We look to the Lord of the harvest to provide the finances needed to continue raising up workers. What can we as a denomination do to prepare for the future, and train and fund future Gospel workers?
How can we set aside more money to support the training of our future pastors?
If your congregation has the money but not the people, could you support the training of a person in another congregation and partner with them?
We want to support the training of Gospel workers until the Lord Jesus returns, so can we together and with zeal, pray that the Lord our Provider will meet all these needs, for he can do more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3.20).
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash