Danny Au Yeung / Rector, Lidcombe Anglican Church
My name is Danny Au Yeung and I am currently serving as the rector of Lidcombe Anglican Church. Our church has four language-specific services: English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean. We seek to reach the many culture groups in the surrounding suburbs to help them to know the wonderful gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in their heart languages, as well as in other ways they can understand.
In our part of Sydney, Chinese migrants come from very diverse backgrounds. Their occupations range from working on construction sites as builders, to running their own businesses, to working in offices as white-collar workers. There is a real mix of people in Lidcombe since it is now an important transport hub in Sydney, and it attracts many Chinese migrants who settle here. Increasingly, we see young families moving in and fewer families with teenagers moving out. In other words, people seem to want to stay here longer-term.
This encourages us to continue to develop our children and youth ministries, as well as our family ministry. In order to connect with people from all walks of life who haven’t heard about Jesus before, we organise activities such as Playcircle, Kids Club and ESL classes. These help us connect with people so that we can provide them with further opportunities to then connect with Jesus.
As we build on these relationships, we invite people to join our Investigating Christianity courses, which are offered in four languages, so that they can read God’s word and ask questions. Our growth groups and church services then become places where new believers can grow in their faith, and places where mature Christians can serve others and build each other up.
As rector, I have the immense privilege of leading the team of pastors and lay leaders doing this work together. My time studying at Moore College for a Bachelor of Divinity and Masters of Arts (Theology) has helped me to have confidence in God’s word, even when I need to interact with many different cultures. Although people groups can be very diverse, they are equally lost without God, and they all need the same gospel to be saved. Studying at Moore College has helped me discern what’s core and what’s not essential in cross-cultural ministry. In particular, the MA subject on cross-cultural ministry has given me the tools to understand cultures and teach people in a contextualised manner that does not compromise the gospel, but instead seeks to connect.
Danny Au Yeung graduated from Moore College in 2012.
Prayer
- Pray for Danny as he leads the multicultural team at Lidcombe Anglican Church to make disciples of all nations. In particular, ask God to give him and his team patience and perseverance as they engage in cross-cultural work.
- Ask God to give Danny and his team the love, strength and wisdom needed to do his work.
- Ask God to save more people and raise up a new generation of gospel workers for his harvest in Lidcombe and its surrounding suburbs.
