After reading ‘Is The Beach Beyond Our Reach’ (21 Dec article) I thought the topic needed a bit of a run.

My background - I have been involved in SUFM around Bermagui on the far south coast of NSW since the mid 1980’s. I therefore carry some baggage and am excitable about the topic.

I am concerned about people who talk about ‘the good old days of beachmission’ when you could put up a couple of big tents and have a scoop and have a hundred kids show up for a program. This is about as relevent as those who talk about the overflowing youth group halls of the 1950’s.

Many of the lessons in beach mission evangelism is equally applicable in the local church or the wider mission field:

1. Just because you show up to evangelise doesn’t mean the great unsaved will show up to be evangelised. People respond to one-on-one invitations infinitely more often then a poster advertising an event.

2. More mission occurs away from events then at them. Conversations with other holiday makers is of great value and often the event is just a means to that end. That necessitates a move away from ‘program thinking’ to ‘people thinking’ and a greater exposure of oneself. I have seen many people at Mission over the years be willing to make a fool of themselves in front of a tent full of people but be absolutely terrified of a one-on-one conversation about Jesus at the caravan park washing machines.

3. Notwithstanding my comments in 2, you still need a program that is done well and has a gospel focus, it is just that running a program just isn’t the end of the process, just the beginning.

4. The importance of longevity. As someone with 20-odd years of mission under my belt this may not be a surprising comment. Longevity combats the shortness of each individual mission. There is one fellow in one of our parks I have been talking to about Jesus for over ten years, another for about 7. The reality is I have not done 20-odd years of Mission; I’ve done 200-odd days of Mission spread over 20 years.

5. The Costs of Choice. The choices that exist today for all participants of mission have a significant effect on both sides of Mission

For the people we are ‘missioning’ to now bring TV’s and Ipods and computer games to the caravan park where not that long ago a magnetic travel game of chess may have been the only toy a kid would bring. Younger kids are also less supervised then even 10 years ago and the ages of some children I see at the beach without adult supervision would make your hair curl. the ‘babysitting’ side of beachmission has evaporated as the babies no longer need to be sat.

For our people, in the mid 80’s it appeared every Christian University student soent three or four years on Mission and those with jobs with more family friendly vacation schedules (my subtle way of saying schoolteachers) for many more years. Now cheap airfares, more money and holiday work take the Uni students to other alternatives.

6. Prayer. Just do more of it.

7. Training. The experience of being involved in Mission is invaluable back at people’s home churches.

The Beach is not beyond our reach unless we lock ourselves into the old paradigms. Missions cannot thrive under a 1950’s mindset any more then parish churches can.

People learn about Jesus because someone tells them about Him. That remains at the heart of Beachmission. It may not be strategic or flashy but it works. Having beachmission continue to work effectively into the 21st century will continue to rely on the new thinking that started at Manly in the 19th century with the idea “how do we tell these people about Jesus?”.

We don’t have a beach in Bathurst, but we have had the Triple S or Super Summer Slam Mission for the past 6 years, and this year’s mission was supported by a record six local churches, including for the first time the Anglican Church.

James, it was great to read about your 20 year association with Bermagui SUFM. This year’s three Triple S leaders, Simon, Jenny and James have all been involved in the mission for the whole six years. It is a blessing to have people with an ongoing interest continuing to serve Christ and his church in this way.

Dear all,

In recent years we have had an annual SU mission at Tarcutta (population 700-800, including surrounding farms).  The team were previously based in Wagga but were finding it frustrating trying to reach a city of 50,000+ in just over a week.  The smaller size has worked much better for building relationships with the local Christians and broader community.  One of the great joys has been seeing some locals take time off work to join in with the team.

I wonder how many Beach Mission teams incorporate people from local churches as well as drawing people from elsewhere? 

Cheers,

Mark.

Interesting topic, and this might be a slight aside, but how did Beach Missions come about? Like when did it become the thing to do for so many groups/churches for so long? I’ve been on missions before back in my uni days, but never a ‘beach mission’ so I’ve never experienced it first hand. People were talking about their experiences though at recent Beach Missions and it just struck me as kind of an odd idea - ‘drive hours away to a nice spot to evangelize to caravaning holiday makers’? I mean if one group did it I can understand, but it seems to be quite the institution..?

I have a feeling that the CSSM groups used to be very helpful for discipling young Christians and growing them in their faith, teaching them evangelism and other skills in a less confrontational environment than would occur for example at a university. (Or my understanding of the UK history shows this).  I guess that this idea caught hold, got mingled up a bit, and God kept doing things through the work people did, so others decided to give it a go.

I was involved in starting a mission on the South Coast.  My team has been working with local churches from day 1, and we have found over the years that our activities reach the town residents as well as the caravan parks. 

This was my fourth summer away with my current team, and my sixth beach mission (including one as a young teenager with my parents).

Every year, while I have less time to commit to it, I keep seeing the great benefits of knowing the people around the area.  Over time, they begin to trust us, and we begin to understand them.

I’m not sure that I have much more to add, but that is probably a great position to start from.

i’ll echo pete’s and james’ sentiments about the blessings of serving over a period of time.  at the beginning of my beach mission time i think i saw it as a ‘one-hit wonder’ sort of thing, but four years into this mission i’ve begun to love the long-term relationships which have been built and the gradual gospelling of people at Sussex Inlet.  and i’ve got a great appreciation for the local churches who pitch in and help us out too - one church opens up their premises for the teens section and their local youth group get involved too.  not to mention the joys of serving with the fore-posting Pete Denham!

I’ve been on mission at Sawtell SUFM for the last 8 years, and am now one of the assistant directors.

Mission this year, we changed the format quite significantly; and some of these factors may be helpful in thinking about the ongoing value of caravan-park “beach” missions.

Analysis
Many of the old-timers we speak to reminisce about the days when people came to the Sawtell caravan park, and stayed for 5 weeks, lazing about all day, and more than happy for some distraction.

These days, people come for 5 days--they have less time, and want to do more. For many, their summer holiday Quality Time with their kids, having spent the last year ignoring their kids.

So they’re time is scheduled: Monday they’re going to the beach, Tuesday fishing, Wednesday a trip to the big banana, etc.

Additionally - child-protection is a big factor these days. Who lets their kids run off with random strangers… even the crazy Christians on the hill?

For these reasons and more, we’ve found less and less people from the caravan park come to our mission.

The Local Area: Long-term growth
Conversely, the kids who we’ve seen come back year after year have been local kids. We’ve been lucky to have a few join team over the years.

Also, we’ve spent the last few years building up good relationships with the local churches, many of whom stuggle to adequately minister to families in the local area. But these are godly and faithful men and women, and we are keen to encourage their ministries.

Also, there are many disadvantaged families in the area; and conversations with the local principals have just confirmed that there is a huge need in the local community.

Changes
So, we made a very bold move to change our model of mission from a caravan park mission to the local area.

We moved out of the caravan park, and into the hall of a local primary school. The local Christian high school very generously provided some classrooms to sleep in.

We moved later in the year, to the more standard “urban mission” slot, which is the 2nd or 3rd week of January.

And having just come back from mission, I think it’s safe to say that the experiment has been a success.

By the end of mission, we had as many children from the local area as we did when we ran it at the caravan park, with a huge potential for future growth. Frequently the kids called their friends, who came the next day, as did the parents.

And the great thing about being under a roof---it rained our entire trip there; from drizzle to torrential downpour. In normal conditions it would have meant mud, and unhappy bedraggled kids, and a deserted caravan park.

Instead, we had a hall full of cheerful children.

From our end, the experiment has worked: and moving from the caravan park to the local community has been exactly the right move.

Praise be to God!

G’day Haoran.
Great to read how you have adapted to changing conditions. We are also excited by the children who call their friends to come to Triple S in Bathurst, during the course of the week.