I never wanted to go to the hills.
I always told people that God could call me anywhere he liked so long as it was within a 3 km distance from the ocean!
So when a phone call came from the Lesmurdie Baptist church I laughed. ‘As if! As if I would go and live in the eastern hills so far from the surf…’
Danelle didn’t laugh.
At that time we were in the middle of infertility dramas and she was mad at God – she wasn’t even sure if she was going to keep going in her faith. But she showed interest in this absurd offer and funnily enough she convinced me to take it seriously.
We met the pastoral team at the Baptist Pastor’s conference in June 1995 and felt a real synergy. Danelle had a dramatic encounter with God at that time that also blew her back towards him. We felt this was right… God knows why… But we signed off after 14 years in Scarborough, sold the house we had built 11 months previously (because we thought we were there for the long term…) and moved to Lesmurdie Baptist Church.
In July of 1995 the young people had been on a camp where a large number (8 or 9) made significant recommitments to follow Jesus. I was asked to come immediately so that the momentum of those decisions wasn’t ‘lost’. I didn’t come. I needed a rest. And funnily enough by the time I got there the ‘camp decisions’ were little more than fond memories and many of those young people were in a very different place.
When we arrived in Jan 1996 we were welcomed by everyone, young and old and I could sense that this was going to be a happy place to bed down. I also sensed that to some I was the ‘messiah’.
The first year was horrible.
I still remember the first few Sunday’s standing up to preach on a Sunday night and watching a bunch of young people walk out and stand in the foyer to chat. I asked one of the other pastors what the deal was. ‘Oh they always do that…’
What the?…
That lasted a month before I had to say something. I am a very patient man… No one had ever called these guys on their rudeness so it was my first run in with them. At after church supper one night I suggested it might be a tad rude to leave while someone was speaking and asked them to cut it out. They didn’t like it… They let me know by their silence and sullenness. But they were nice enough to do as I asked.
We spent that year running a youth group and propping up a tired evening service, while I also got around and visited every family in the youth scene. I closed down a young adults home group because I believed they should have integrated with other adults – a decision that was not smart in retrospect and we started to get an idea of who our key leaders would be.
Our fortnightly leaders training meeting was probably the best part of the whole year as we got to know Graeme and Sharon Mason well, a couple who have since become two of our closest friends. Other leaders came and went and we even got so desperate as to call for volunteers from the pulpit. Note: never do this. Never ever do this! You always get the people who should never be in youth ministry.
As the year drew to an end we had got to know the young people, but even as a an optimist I found it hard to see where it was all headed. By and large the commitment level was low and the self centredness level was high.
We had been using the YMA strategy process and applying it to our youth scene and while there wasn’t much to get excited about we did have a plan and it did make some sense.
At the start of 1997 Graeme joined our staff one day a week and we went to the WCA conference in Sydney. It was one of the most transformative experiences of my life. As I listened to Bill Hybels I developed hope that church could be more than what it was at present. I began to dream of a bunch of young people more alive than I had ever seen before and for some reason I believed that it could happen. I was inspired and I was ready to do some inspiring.
I came back with a dream of re-vamping our Sunday night gig to make it a dedicated youth service. As I shared it with a few key people it seemed to strike a chord and so we set about shifting gears and (as best we knew how) turning it into a youth space. We invited all the older people to stay home and pray for us. That ruffled a few feathers, but within a 3 or 4 months it was a crew of 30 or 40 young people trying hard to figure out what the heck this thing was supposed to be.
Our early evenings still make us laugh!
But it was the genesis of something. Young people owned it. Young people drove it and it began to gain a little impetus – not much – but a little…
We knew we had started something
but we weren’t sure quite what.
Around the middle of that second year, just as we were throwing all of our energy into generating some momentum I was called by two other churches and asked if I would like to consider joining their staff. One was our biggest Baptist church in Perth and the caller was a guy who had been my mentor asking if I would like to join him and work alongside him with a view to taking over when he moved on. Wow… I have to say it was tempting. Another was a large Baptist church in Queensland who somehow got my name.
But somehow we just knew it was wrong to pursue those options. There was absolutely no sense of God leading us and while nothing had sparked yet at LBC we knew this was where we needed to keep working. We had started building teams and started to see some excitement in the young people about what could be. We had seen some shift from self centredness to service and I began to discover that I could lead and share ‘vision’ well. The young people were buying what I was saying and they were believing in what was happening.
As the year wore on a few more people came to join us. One or two young people became Christians and the following year I pulled out of theological study to go full time with the church. We had some tough talks with some of our leaders who were walking both sides of the fence and who needed to decide who they were going to serve.
Some young people left. Some re-newed their faith. Some parents got angry that their kids left and began a cold war with me. I drew some lines in the sand and to this day I am glad that I did.
I still remember an 18 year old guy listening to me asking what the heck they were doing here on a Sunday if they weren’t interested in following Jesus. He realised that night he didn’t know and walked out of the service never to return. I admired his honesty and while I don’t see him now, we did stay in touch and I get the sense that one day he will find his way again. He was much more up front than many others and I missed him.
As 1998 began we had gained some momentum. The PMS team (PM services) were an amazing group of creative young people who were up for trying anything. In fact I often found myself listening to their ideas, swallowing hard and saying ‘ok let’s do it’ all the while thinking ‘This is crazy!’
We began to experiment with different forms of church. Honestly it was nothing very radical, but the fact that it was ‘by youth and for youth’ made all the difference. I led but let them do almost anything they wanted. Knowing they genuinely owned it was a key in getting their ‘buy in’.
By the middle of the year it was as if one night we looked around and there were 70 or 80 young people regularly attending Sunday services. We had developed two youth groups with enough leaders for each group and the ‘plan’ seemed to be working.
At the same time we were struggling in some key relationships as friends and co-leaders suffered depression and found the going tough. We bore the the brunt of their struggle and it soured what was otherwise looking promising. Our two closest friends, Graeme and Sharon were going thru some difficult times and we just couldn’t seem to connect.
In May of that year a couple of US students arrived to give us a hand for 10 weeks. It was their vacation and they came to Perth as Southern Baptist Missionaries to give their holidays to helping us in youth ministry. We were a little skeptical as the last SBC missionary we had left half way thru his term when we discovered he was doing mission by day and visiting brothels at night.
But the Russell brothers (Mark & Jeff) were a different story. As these guys landed the youth scene had started to gain steam and two of the most dynamic energetic and passionate blokes I have ever met came to lend a hand.
The planets seemed to line up and suddenly things went nuts…