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Christ at the Crossroads of Commerce

Steve Mayo, Australia

Australian Strategies for Urban Evangelism

City Bible Forum (www.citybibleforum.org) – lunch time Bible talks

City Bible Extra – a bridge between conversion and local church membership

Grads Club – a networking group helping Christian university students transition into professional work

Smith Lecture (www.smithlecture.org) – the gospel presented for intellectuals, with opportunity for interaction

Bridge Street Fellowship (Bridge Street is Australia's version of Wall Street) – Outreach events for dealmakers in the world of finance

CBF Legal – weekly Bible talks for lawyers over breakfast

Wellbeing (www.mywellbeing.org.au) – physical exercise group for city workers with input into spiritual topics

In-house Ministries – training of in-house leaders and hosting of evangelistic events within major corporations

Evangelistic Prayer Teams – professionals meeting biweekly to pray for non-Christian colleagues

Street Evangelism Teams – pairs of trained volunteers approaching professionals in city parks and streets

Women's Events – evangelistic talks over lunch or dinner for professional women

Edu-mission – English lessons for overseas professionals seeking Western qualifications

For more information on Ecom, visit www.ecom.org.au.

It is the duty of missions to spread out into the world to deliver the gospel, but this doesn't mean that missions must always happen on the fringe of society. The most efficient way to get the gospel to the world is to preach Christ in world-class cities— where the movers and shakers of this world come together.

ABWE is endeavouring to do this in the great city of Sydney, Australia. In cooperation with Australian ministries like Ecom (Evangelising Commerce), ABWE is reaching a worldwide audience from a single location.

“Which is easier, writing a list of ten people you know in your street or a list of ten people you know through work?” Merchant banker-turned-evangelist Peter Kaldor, who is the managing director of Ecom poses this question to show the rationale behind the organization.

Ecom was started in 1991 by Craig Josling, an accountant, as an evangelistic outreach to first world professionals—an often neglected mission field. Every weekday hundreds of thousands of men and women in business suits converge on downtown Sydney. Who is there to tell them about Jesus? 

A variety of creative approaches are used by Ecom to proclaim Christ in the heart of the city, ranging from traditional street evangelism to lunchtime Bible talks called City Bible Forums. These forums attract an average of 225 people every week—many of whom are unsaved.

The annual Smith Lecture series, another Ecom ministry, goes beyond the forums to challenge sceptics and atheists head on. One of seventy non-Christian attendees commented after a recent lecture, “I didn’t realize there was such intellectual weight behind the Christian argument.”

ABWE missionary Russ Matthews coordinates Ecom's In-House Ministries. Imagine evangelistic events and small group Bible studies happening inside the conference rooms of major corporations. That is what Russ accomplishes with In-House Ministries at 3M, HSBC, Ernst & Young, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and others.

At the headquarters of Westpac Bank, Russ led an Investigating Christianity course as part of In-House Ministries. Benji, one of the non-Christian participants, continued meeting with Russ even after the course finished. “Benji told me that all he had been taught about Jesus [before the course] was wrong,” Russ said, “but this helped him to see the correct view of Jesus.”

Russ also assists with a weeknight Ecom function called City Bible Extra. “City Bible Extra is a bridge between the City Bible Forum (the lunchtime forums) and church,” Kaldor explains.  Russ adds, “The goal is to direct non- and new Christians to strong churches.”

Sydney, Australia is a world-class city; it is the Asian-Pacific base for many multinational corporations and a center for wide-ranging cultural influence. Ecom and ABWE take the gospel to the very place beneath the glass and steel skyscrapers where East intersects with West every day. Could there be any better place to preach Christ?

Those interested in the fast pace and excitement of first-world missions are invited to join ABWE-Australia on a career or short-term basis.