Launceston’s Door of Hope Christian Church has taken a strategic and compassionate stance in this space. This church community already held a strong vision and a clear sense of what God had called them to do — be a door of hope through Jesus Christ in a fragile and uncertain world.

Their goals for 2016 to 2020 were focused on growing hope in the community,  growing invitations to the community, and mobilising the church to reach out to others in order to care for them and share the person of Jesus.

“We felt there were mostly good gains in our mission but we were searching for ways to grow people’s capacity to tell others about Jesus,” Generation Minister Dorothy Roberts says.

“In 2018, MyFriends Training came across my radar. We were looking for tools and ways to engage our community.”

Power to Change offers MyFriends Training to help people develop a lifestyle that connects people to Jesus — their mates, loved ones or anyone in their social circles, trusting the Holy Spirit to help them experience him.

Acting on Dorothy’s suggestion, two young adult leaders from Door of Hope had a look at MyFriends and decided it was something their community could use. “After meeting with Power to Change, I also learned about the SHIFTm2M [ministries to movements] course,” she says. “Later, I looked more closely at SHIFTm2M and in 2019, I did the training.”

SHIFTm2M, presented by Power to Change, is a relational learning environment centred on a chronological journey through the gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry. It aims to help leaders create an environment for disciple-making in their ministry context.

Dorothy reports that SHIFTm2M has had the biggest impact on Door of Hope, while MyFriends, particularly its core principles, has influenced its small group approach.

“Introducing MyFriends is quite simple and easily applied to everyday life. The language of the MyFriends Training is love, pray, care, share, and we are working on making that the regular way we ‘do life’.

“MyFriends gives us an understanding about really simple ways to communicate to people about loving, caring, praying and sharing. Most people say, ‘I can do that’. Hence, those key components are being introduced into our overall language. We’re very strategic about language. It [MyFriends] is more powerful when you ask, ‘How is this part of how we do life?’”

An example of this working in the community is a Grade 3 child, May, who attends Door of Hope. She talked with a girl in her school’s playground who looked sad – the girl had lost her brother a year earlier. May offered to pray for the girl right then and there. In another case, a Year 9 Kids’ leader told a group of Year 1 boys they needed to understand that Jesus is the best friend they will ever have!

But real cultural change takes time. Dorothy says it takes time to fully implement the framework of SHIFTm2M, and the strategy and lifestyle of the MyFriends Training.

After deciding to make the two courses part of its DNA, the Generation ministry team at Door of Hope underwent SHIFTm2M training in 2021. From this, it was decided to focus on creating a ministry environment for disciple-making, and align that framework across the Generation ministry.

Door of Hope has experienced impressive growth in its Youth and Young Adults, with growing momentum in the past 12 months.

Dorothy feels the power to change really does begin with one person saying, ‘God, you can use me,’ and, ‘Give me that one person of peace who I can disciple in this way’.

“I hear so many reasons why people feel defeated,” she says. “Things like ‘Oh, my congregation is not there’ or ‘I’m just one person’. But the truth is, it starts with you. That’s why I say there has to be that heart and mind change in the ministry leader. And then God does what God does.”

To find out more about how the MyFriends Training can equip your church to connect people to Jesus, visit the MyFriends page .The MyFriends Training runs over 9 weeks and is run online via Zoom. Term 4 courses will start from Oct 17.

Introducing MyFriends Training from Power to Change Australia.

Visit Power to Change Australia to find out more about the SHIFTm2M and MyFriends Training.  

Rod Bennett for Power to Change Australia