SURGE is a conference for any person 16 years or over who loves Jesus and wants to serve Him as their Lord.
It is a new arm of RICE, an inter-denominational organisation that aims to infect Sydney with the good news of Jesus and to see lives changed by the gospel. www.ricemovement.org

Our vision is “To mobilise every Christian for a lifestyle of service as enabled by the Holy Spirit, to build God’s kingdom and make Jesus famous”

The idea was first discussed when we started to think about why in many Sydney churches there is often a significant proportion of the church who aren’t serving. Contributing to this we noticed that there are many Christians who don’t know where they should be serving. This results in people either serving in areas in which they are not as effective, serving with the wrong attitudes or gradually being discouraged and dropping out of service.
We then thought about why this was the case and came up with the following ideas:

1. Christians need to be challenged more about what serving as the body of Christ looks like and ultimately that we have been saved to serve
2. Christians are pushed into “needs” or roles to keep the structures going and therefore haven’t been encouraged to work out how God has uniquely created them to be used for His Service
3. Christians need to be better equipped or networked with others of similar gifts

That is why we hope to create a conference which, God-willing, ultimately reshapes our approach to serving – where we grow in our understanding of the many gifts and service opportunities he has given the church for the edification of the body of Christ, and from there to focus in on our personal lives: What gifts and abilities has He given me? What good Godly desires do I have? And how then can we encourage this person that He has uniquely created to serve Him most effectively given the many opportunities out there?

Do you see the difference?

No longer are we waiting to be asked to serve, but instead will gain a better understanding of how and where we can be serving most effectively.
In addition we will be networking Christians together with similar gifts as parts of the body of Christ- to train and equip together, and share with each other the many opportunities that God can use our particular gifts for His Service.
We will be challenged to give up all for His sake, and to get out there and serve Him wholeheartedly as part of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12).

It will mobilise our own lifestyle of service
     it will influence the way churches function as the body of Christ
          it will, God-willing, shape and change this city for His Name in the years to come.

This is why if SURGE is going to have the impact for His Kingdom that we hope to see, we need as many churches from all denominations and ethnicity to be involved.

It is this vision which drives us to labour for the Lord, which enthuses us to pour all our energy into this conference, and it is our prayer that you too will catch hold of this vision and partner with us to make an impact for Jesus in this city and beyond.

OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Each year we hope to build on the foundational aspects that will be laid down in every delegates first year by dealing with particular aspects of service that we believe Christians in our city and beyond NEED to hear. More than that we hope that various ‘networks’ of similar giftings or areas of service will spring out of the conference- networks that meet together throughout the year for the purposes of equipping/training/collaborating. You will be hearing more about this in the years to come!