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Christ Expo breaks all the rules


Ridley College
Thursday, 2 September 2010, 7:04 (EST)
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When Ridley Melbourne’s College Director, Tim Foster, first heard Peter Adam’s plan to organise a crusade style Mission to Melbourne he was skeptical. “I really thought, who comes to crusades these days?” Dr Foster says.

But this wasn’t the only “rule” that the mission, entitled Christ Expo, broke. The speaker on each of the five nights was Professor Don Carson from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in Deerfield Illinois. “Not only did we have an ‘unhip’ 60 something from North America at a series of events aiming to reach those under 40, but each talk was a very solid 45 minute exposition of a section of John’s Gospel” Dr Foster explains. “And we had a hymn and a prayer at the end of the night. It breaks all the rules!”

One of the most theologically heady talks was from John 5 on the doctrine of the Trinity. “When you evangelise these days, you cannot avoid the doctrine of the Trinity” says Professor Carson, alluding to the significance of this issue for Muslims. That evening there were a good number of Muslims in the audience. Commenting on such an approach, Professor Carson says that engaging Muslims, “Is not about minimising the differences as we often think. Rather, it is about owning the differences and addressing them without needlessly causing offence”. He says that he spoke to some afterward and none had been offended.

Each night the number of attendees increased, averaging 680, and reached nearly reached the capacity of the 750 seat auditorium on the final evening. The majority of those attending were in their 20s. Between 6 and 20 indicated that they had committed their life to Christ each night, and twice that number wanted further information. Most of the responses were from university students and city workers.

When asked if he was surprised by the response Professor Carson said, “No. There is a resurgence all around the world, a growing interest in Christianity, and most of it is from people under 30.”
Rev Guy Mason, Pastor of City on a Hill was MC, and his church’s band provided the music. Rev Tracy Lauersen from St Matthew’s Prahran trained the advisers for follow up, many coming from St Matthew’s as well as Glen Waverley Anglican Church and St Judes’ Carlton, while Kevin Pedersen from Ormand Anglican coordinated the prayer effort and Anna Johnson from St Hilary’s Kew was the event manager. RMIT Christian Union, City Bible Forum will be undertaking much of the follow up. Other churches that supported the event include Mentone Baptist, Scots’ Presbyterian, Holy Trinity Doncaster, St Alfred’s Blackburn North and St Columbs’ Hawthorn. Ridley’s own students were also involved.

Ridley Principal, Canon Dr Peter Adam, says that this shows what can be achieved when churches work together. “We can accomplish more working together than we can working separately” he says. That is an important lesson to be learnt, and it is not the only one. Dr Adam says, “Be prepared to risk failure in evangelism. This was a big risk for me, and right up to the first night I was afraid it would fail. I thank God that it went so well, and that so many people invited friends and got behind it.”

“Perhaps it’s time for a new rule book” says Dr Foster who is currently rewriting his lectures on evangelism at Ridley. Each of Don Carson’s talks from Christ Expo are available from the Ridley website: www.ridley.edu.au/christ-expo.


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