Just like many, Bethany is a young worker and Headstarter. On a Monday evening, you will more often than not find her at Headstart. However, unlike many, English is Bethany's second language, her mother tongue is Mandarin and so settling into the groove that is life in Sydney and the groove that is working in Sydney has been an ongoing process. Headstart has been one of her "homes" and below, she shares what she learnt from last Headstart for 2018 - Released from full time paid ministry.
Headstart is a cool home but at the final Headstart for 2018, we had an awkward ending with abnormal workers. Awkward because of the title - Released from full time paid ministry. Hmmm. Yes. Abnormal because Maggie and Lish, our panellists, had both stopped work to study at Moore College but returned to the workplace in their corporate field (other than this, they were very normal workers and after the evening, I looked up to both very much).
What did I learn from Headstart?
I had one highlight from each of the panellists.
During Q&A with LIsh, I was reminded that ministry is about relationships and this relationship is not only with Christians but also with non-Christians. As she was sharing her experiences, a question jumped into my head “How did I treat my non-Christian friends?
Similar to Lish, so often I receive complaints from my non-Christian friends for spending too little time with them. As a Christian, I tend to focus very much on building the friendship with Christians, but very less with them. It was good to hear that I was not alone in my experience.
It is actually a great opportunity to share what the Bible says and share what I learned from my Christian friends to them when they are willing to seek my opinions. Upon reflection, I have realised that most of the time, I wasn’t there to support them as I was so busy catching up with my Christian friends or different church events. I missed the opportunities to walk along with them in their life journey and the opportunities to share Jesus with them even sometimes they are willing to hear it.
During Q&A with Maggie, she reminded me to introduce my Christian friends to them, not dividend them into two different groups. As Maggie shared, one of her non- Christian friend was willing to read the Bible with her and Grace, and those three girls became good friends, which is very encouraging! Because of the talk, I started to ask my non-Christian friends out for catch ups, text them a bit more, and pray for them to have an open heart that they will be willing to be friends with my Christian friends.
A headstart from the Bible
Jacky concluded Headstart with a short devotion from the Bible. Jacky is a lawyer and it was good to have the final Headstart run all by workers just like me. It is one thing that makes Headstart a home (i found out later that Mark was away at a conference and while it was sad he missed the final Headstart, it too is good when he is around)
One point that stuck was why do we work? Jacky suggested a good motivation is because it is a way we love our neighbour. During Monday to Friday, our colleague is our neighbour. We are diligent because we want to love our neighbour. We go the extra mile at work because we want to love our neighbour. We share Jesus with our colleague, because we want to love our neighbour. Performing at work and talking to my colleague about Jesus flow from the same motivation.
I learnt that everyone is released for full time ministry - it's just some people get paid to do it.
