1.What is the mission?
The Diocesan Mission aims to fulfil the great commission of Jesus by sharing the Gospel with everyone and incorporating them into bible based churches. The goal is to reach 10% of the population of the diocese by 2012. This will involve all the men and women of our churches being trained and willing to pray and to help share the Gospel with friends and neighbours.
2.How and where can a woman be trained in Sydney?
Full-time training is available at Moore Theological College through a 4 year BD; a 3year BTh; a 1yr Diploma of Bible and Missions or a 1yr Diploma of Bible and Youth Ministry Mary Andrews College offers a Diploma in Theology or Ministry that can be studied full time or part-time in a number of different locations throughout The Diocese. Other colleges such as Youth Works College, Sydney and Missionary Bible College or other Denominational Colleges will also have courses that would be helpful
3.What is MAC?
Mary Andrews College is a ministry training college for women. Its mission statement is to train women to serve Christ and his church. As well as our commitment to women, MAC is also committedly:
- Evangelical - upholding the scriptures as the authority for all teaching and training;
- Evangelistic - encouraging everyone associated with the college to be involved in declaring to family, friends and community Jesus Christ, God's Son, our Lord and our Saviour.
- Anglican - MAC upholds the doctrines of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican church, which express the central doctrines of scripture and therefore of the Christian faith.
The ministries engaged in by MAC reflect the ethos of the college and its goal of developing biblically strong and theologically skilled women evangelists, bible teachers, disciplers, pastoral workers - that is, ministers of the gospel.
MAC's key areas of ministry to women are as follows:
Women at Moore:
MAC works alongside Moore College in equipping the women theological students for ministry. The women are pastored by the MAC faculty in chaplaincy groups. These groups also provide opportunities for the students to think through theological and pastoral issues as well as further develop their ministry skills.
Women at University:
MAC provides opportunities for the university students who live in our community to grow their understanding and skills for ministry. We provide discipleship, small groups, pastoring, and mentoring to each student. We also offer a course in leadership and ministry training.
Women throughout the Diocese and Beyond
- Courses
MAC has established a number of bible and ministry training courses at local churches throughout Sydney and also at Dapto and Canberra. All courses aim to develop biblical understanding and strengthen pastoral and ministry skills.
- Conferences
As well as offering day conferences around Sydney, MAC holds an annual ministry conference for women of all ages. The conference is held on the first weekend in July each year. Narelle Jarrett is the keynote bible teacher. In the afternoon there are various electives on ministry and topical issues.
- Can MAC help in your women's ministry?
The MAC team are available as a training resource for your women's ministry. We are available to give evangelistic talks, bible talks, skills training or run short courses on a topic chosen by you. You can contact us on: (02) 9517 5333.
4. Why focus on women?
Women and men are to proclaim the life and message of the Lord Jesus. The Diocesan Team for Women believes that the centre point of their work is to call women to take up their responsibility for reaching women. In the Sydney region there are more than 4 million people half of whom will be women. Surely reaching these women must be our responsibility.
Women need to be equipped for this task. While the local church will do much of this work we believe that we can further enable women by running mission training events that will help them accomplish their task. As we want all women to catch this vision women in leadership in the local church are encouraged to bring women to these training days.
Women who are working in ministry in churches need encouragement in their ministry. We have established the ‘Women in Ministry Network’ as a base for fellowship and encouragement.
We think it is important for women in the church to have women that they can look to as mentors and equippers. At one level the team provides this but we strongly encourage women to make use of peer mentoring through the WIM Network.
