Growing Disciples
WA Conference
3 Year Strategic Focus Areas
Practical Impact on the Ground
The term ‘discipleship’ has been a buzzword for a few years now. It can mean different things to different people. Our Discipleship Ministries Team in WA has chosen to define discipleship as a lifelong process of learning to follow Jesus, to become more like Him, for the benefit of others.
Through this process we choose to follow Jesus, we grow as we become more like Him, and the overflow is that we engage with others in a way that benefits them.
Imagine what our church would be like if we not only all knew God in a cerebral sense, but also tanglibly experienced the love of God as we connect with Him daily.
In the February 2021 Australian Union Conference Attendance Survey, we discovered that 73% of Western Australian participants said their relationship with God was growing or growing strongly. This is good news! However, the statistics in this area are not always so positive.
The Barna Group, in their State of the Church survey found that in 2020, 69% of participants said they pray weekly, while only 35% said they read their bible weekly. Admittedly these are American statistics, but I wonder if they would be much different in Australia?
2023 · Loving God through Daily Devotions
There are positive benefits from connecting to God daily. A Pew Research Center study found that highly religious people (defined as those who say they pray every day and attend religious services each week) are generally happier with their life. Daily devotion can help change perspective and gain peace.
Imagine what our church in WA would be like if we all gave a single focus to deepening our relationships with God. Learning more about who He is and experiencing His love. For 2023 we invite you on a journey to connect with God each day, to reignite and strengthen your devotional life.
2024 · Loving Fellowship through Small Groups
We are meant to be the church together. This might look like investing time in a bible study group, connecting deeper with your sabbath school class, a bushwalk group or having a prayer partner. Or it might look like something else. When we dedicate time to connect with each other and to God, we grow closer together to become like family, not only in name but in action.
Imagine what our church in WA would be like if we invested time into building and strengthening those spiritual connections we find in our church family. During 2024 our journey as a conference will focus on our relationships with each other.
2025 · Loving Others with Extravagant Love
In February, the South Pacific Division engaged McCrindle to conduct a survey into the perceptions of Australians and New Zealanders towards the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. For Australia, 43% of participants were familiar with but did not feel positively towards us. Only 14% were familiar with us and felt positive. We definitely have some work to do!
Imagine what our WA church would be like if we truly understood God’s passion for all people, valued them through God’s eyes—and because of that understanding—poured love on the Australian community with extravagant generosity. Generous not only with our finances but also being generous with our time and energy. What would our church family look like? What would it be like to be part of?
Our focus in WA during 2025 will be our presence in the community, with an encouraging influence and showing extravagant love.
Elegant Simplicity
We hope that by focusing on daily devotions, spiritual connectedness and extravagant love, we can help support and strengthen our discipleship culture across Western Australia. This vision is not new or cutting edge! However our Discipleship Ministries Team believe it is through small, consistent actions—with the help of the Holy Spirit—that we can have a significant impact in WA.
Our focus areas each year don’t mean we want you to stop any plans for evangelism with your local church until 2025. By all means, we want you to continue sharing the gospel with the community. However, these are the areas we’d like our Western Australian church family to focus on as a whole to rekindle and strengthen life-giving habits over the next few years.
Our focus areas are simple:
Invest in our relationship with God: Loving God.
Invest in our relationships within our church families: Loving fellowship.
Invest in our relationships with people beyond church walls: Loving others.
As Pr Steve Goods says, we have a passion to see everyone sharing Jesus in rhythm with God’s heart.
