Tony McLennan leads Australia for Jesus, an initiative that launched nearly seven years ago with a goal to raise up 10,000 evangelists who would have a “soul winning goal to win Australia for Christ.”
It’s well on the way to its goal with around 6,800 names in its database.
The ministry’s website explains: “Australia For Jesus is a growing network of Christians formed by the Holy Spirit to help the lost people of Australia and New Zealand discover who Jesus is and, through repentance and faith in Him, be saved from sin and receive God’s Gift of Eternal Life.”
“Australia and New Zealand are suffering a shift towards secular humanism bringing the advance of lawlessness, the corruption of family life and the distortion of morality into anything goes.”
“Christians must declare the Gospel for the sake of our lost people who are trapped in sin. Therefore, we believe that God is calling us to join Him in a Revolution of Righteousness – a God Revolution.”
Mr. McLennan told Vision Radio how it started:
“We really got a kick off when Reverend Dr. Margaret Court invited me to speak to about 2,000 people in two services in Perth’s Life Centre in October of 2017. The response was enormous and huge. So many people came forward wanting to be soul winners for Jesus that I was just absolutely gobsmacked by it. The message at that time was based on Matthew 4:19, the very first words of Jesus when he came out of the wilderness and he spoke to his disciples and said: Come, follow Me and I’ll make you fishers of men.”
“I was once cautioned by a particular speaker who said: Don’t spend your life being an admirer of other men’s ministries. Get into the fight, get into the action and be useful and fruitful in God’s hands. And so that’s always stayed with me. So many of us entertain by what other people are doing, rather than getting into the game ourselves.”
“I remember Field Marshal Montgomery, who was himself the most successful general in the Western Europe campaigns in the Second World War and himself very much a Christian. He always would go into a battle saying: May the Lord mighty in battle, give us the victory. And so there is a sense where the Lord strengthens the arm of the righteous. If you think of those various pieces of armour — the helmet to protect your head — your thoughts; the breastplate to keep you righteous before God; the shield to be able to go forward in the face of opposition and be able to quench the fiery darts of the enemy; the sword which is the Word of God. I see the Sword of the Spirit as the actual Gospel.”
“When you pronounce the Gospel of salvation, when you’re telling people about how they can be saved (We use a certain presentation called The Way of Life to do that and it’s been outstandingly successful), the Sword of the Spirit really does break through and cut through and touch people’s lives. So these things have come together and you can see God’s mighty hand, God’s fingerprints are on it all the time. And of course, we remember the last bit of armour is the feet being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.”
“We step out and we go forward declaring the Good News. The late Timothy Keller made the point that we’re motivated by the Holy Spirit, we’re motivated by love. We’re not motivated by aggression. We’re motivated to to bring good news. He says the Gospel is not advice and it’s not an invitation. It’s good news that the person can can either take, or if they renounce the good news, it’s to their peril and destruction. We need to be more and more, conveyors of that Good News.
“I’ve just been really gobsmacked by the fact that people right across Australia are hearing from the Holy Spirit in so many different denominations — Presbyterians and Reformed Church people, Anglican people, Baptist people. C3 people, people from the ACC, so many different denominations. They’re hearing from God and saying, We’re going to get out there and tell people about Jesus whilst there’s still time. Many of those are signing up to be soul winners with Australia for Jesus. We use the term soul winner because sometimes the word evangelist sort of exalts the role too much. What we’re looking for is ordinary Christians who do the extraordinary thing of bringing others to Jesus. And that’s what’s happening. We’re so excited.”
“We’ve probably approached 22,000 people overall and actually given them a partial or full presentation of the Gospel. We’ve approached random people on the streets to offer them that opportunity — somewhere in excess of 110,000 to 120,000 people. Now we know that there’s a lot more people than that in Australia. We need more people who are equipped to give the Gospel to others in any context, not just out on the street.”
“We have hundreds of people going out every week on the streets sharing the Gospel and the number of groups is growing. I think we’re just on the cusp of another wave of growth because a lot of people in the database are supporting in prayer, or they’re supporting by giving, or they’re supporting by actual active involvement or just morally supporting it. We’re seeing it grow.”
Click below to listen to the full interview with Tony McLennan.
