Leadership
Leadership
Many churches typically operate on a hierarchical structure – the pastor at the top of the hierarchy, beneath him the parish council, and beneath them the people. If someone has a good idea, it usually has to make its way to the pastor, and wait for his decision or his action, resulting in an overworked pastor, and a lot of frustrated people.
In our church, we’ve reduced our parish council to just four members – our pastor and three wardens.
The rest of the work of the church is undertaken by eight teams of church members. The people who have a particular interest in an aspect of church life connect with other people who care about that aspect, and when the good ideas come up, they can be discussed and worked through and put into action by the people involved in that area.
OUR PASTORS
Our Pastor is responsible for spiritual oversight of the teams, leadership training of the teams, worship services and the annual Church Camp.
Rev Phill Read
Phill and Colette have been married for 26 years and active in ministry for the past 24 years. Prior to Penshurst, they have served in West Lindfield and Hurstville Grove. They have 2 lovely daughters (Miranda and Sophina) and enjoy spending time together as a family. Phill is an Anglican chaplain involved in the selection of Anglican ministers. Colette serves on the Presbyter board. They enjoy reading, walking, going to the beach and catching up with friends.
Pastor Michael Ma
Pastor Michael Ma accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour in 2002 when he was an overseas student in Sydney. Being sure of God's calling, he started his Bible college training at Morling in 2010, and started fulltime ministry in 2013.
He is married to Joy with 2 sons Caleb and Daniel, and daughter Esther. He enjoys walking and reading.
PARISH COUNCIL
We have three Wardens on our Parish Council, who meet regularly to attend to the financial, legal and building and grounds issues.
OUR TEAM STRUCTURE
The eight teams who care for the ministry of our church are grouped together in line with our church’s motto:
Jesus – communicated, celebrated, demonstrated.
Jesus - communicated through His Word, involves the following teams:
Children’s Ministry Team
Mission and Outreach Team
Discipleship Team
Jesus – celebrated through Worship, involves the following teams:
Sunday Worship Team
Special Services team
Jesus – demonstrated through Welcome, involves the following teams:
Sunday Welcome Team
Social Fellowship Team
Communications Team.
The Children’s Ministry Team looks after the important work of Sunday School, Kids Church and our Mothers’ Group.
The Mission and Outreach Team is responsible for supporting our missionaries and encouraging the work of mission in our church. We support several missions agencies financially by tithing the donations received at our church services, and spiritually by prayer.
The Discipleship Team are responsible for cell groups, Bible studies, New Member classes, baptism classes, the Sunday morning Welcomers and Youth Group.
The Sunday Worship Team coordinates the music teams, the technical people, the readings and prayers, everything that goes into making the Sunday service what it is.
The Social Fellowship Team organises our annual church camp, and all our special meals and events, like the Chinese celebrations of Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, and our Passover meal just before Easter.
The Communications Team is responsible for announcements, publicity, The Voice, the church website and signage.
The Sunday Welcome Team looks after welcoming newcomers, recognising and acknowledging every person who comes; Sunday lunch, regular newcomers’ information lunches, pastoral visits and providing meals for those in need. They care about seeing everyone connected in, so no-one sits here alone and unseen.
Team Leaders Meeting
Phill and David regularly meet with all Team Leaders.