Coming to Australia was an ‘amazing life turnaround’ for Reverend Keith Garner, who embarked to become the Superintendent of Wesley Mission in Sydney on the 5th February 2006, which is one of the largest church based charities in Australia.
The reverend’s ‘Christian story’ began when he was 16 years old, where he was moved by a man who saw his father being shot, in a pool of blood and yet talked about believing in God.
What motivated Reverend Garner in his zeal to do God’s Will was in 1974, when he received a Bible signed by the President of the Methodist Conference who wrote: “Do the work of an Evangelist” (found in 2 Timothy 4:5). Till this day he said: “I had never lost that desire; it was my first priority and from this passion, flow my social commitment, my struggle for justice and my determination to build a new community on the enduring vision of the Kingdom of God.”
Known for his ‘gifted’ preaching, he delivered the sermon entitled ‘A New Day is Dawning,’ for the induction ceremony where he laid out the vision of Wesley Mission during his tenure. Some audience members testified the Holy Spirit was in him, as he delivered the message in a succinct and powerful manner, which on occasion was mixed with a bit of humour.
Dividing the message into two parts, he quoted from Revelation 21:5 the first text exhorting that: “I (God) am making everything new!”
With a passion he preached: “The term ‘new’ was not ‘neos’, which tends to describe something that had came into being but rather it shared a common definition with ‘kainos’, where the new was set over and against that which had run its course and seen its appropriate day.”
“God,” he stated: “Is always in the business of bringing about fresh expressions of His love and ways of embodying His Kingdom.”
Using the Economist magazine, he pointed to the potential of the youth who were becoming: “Totally disillusioned with the institutional churches and yet at the same time amongst them one could discern the growing spiritual energy.” He added that: “Wesley Mission was well positioned with younger adults to discover an appropriate understanding of the Christian faith.”
Looking at the congregation composition of the church every Sunday, Reverend Garner thanked God for: “The cultural differences…where we rejoiced in the rich tapestry of human experiences.” He sounded a warning to those who would incite racism stating authoritatively: “We would send it (racist attitudes) away with ‘a flea in its ear’ because we stand together as one People of God – and this is our vision in Christ.”
Reverend Garner urged innovation in all facets of the church to meet the challenges of today including: leadership style, worship and fellowship saying: “The old dreams would maintain the direction, but young visions would give the impetus for the future!”
The second part of the message was found in Hebrew 13:8 which he read boldly stating: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” This verse tends to be misunderstood explained Reverend Garner where: “Some hold it as all kinds of false promise for those who wanted the future to be merely an extension of the past – or an elongation of the present!”
This verse he explained was a reaffirmation of ‘Jesus Christ who reminds for ever even though leaders had left or passed on.’
“Wesley Mission is and will remain a biblical mission whose purpose is ingrained in the values and underlying ethics of the Kingdom of God,” he said.
He went on to emphasize the importance of listening to not only people but the Holy Spirit. The sermon conclusion was focused on, ‘the need to recognize the differences between what must change and which is changeless.’
Throughout the sermon and his history one could identify a passion and mission which keeps recurring which was his social commitments to people who had been marginalized by society or who were considered the ‘least’. He said: “Wesley Mission would continue to speak up and remind people the last will be first and the first will be last.”
The blights of impersonal cities on people he stated was ‘loneliness and isolation’ who will be Wesley Mission top priority because ‘God values everyone’.
At the end Reverend Garner gave a clear vision of Wesley Mission having two hands. He stated: “One hand was holding the hurt and poor of this city and the other holding the nail-pierced hand of Christ. To which we declared with arms open wide God loves this world so much as to give His Son that we might find eternal life.”