Geoff Hall is the Youth Pastor at Holy Trinity and married to Tiff. Growing up in a Christian family, Geoff knew the truths of the gospel, but it wasn’t until his early 20s as an apprentice carpenter that he really began to understand that Jesus was both his Lord and his saviour. Now after studying and working in ministry he and his apprentice Stef Wong are hosting an MTS Recruit Local Conference Gathering (LCG) and hope to encourage their congregation to attend.
The realisation
For Geoff Hall, there was no real “light bulb” moment of faith. Growing up in a Christian family that went to church each week he found that there were smaller moments of realisation regarding the Gospel as he grew from a child to a teenager.
The realisations that Geoff had, began to solidify to an understanding that Jesus was not only his saviour but also his Lord. While working as an apprentice carpenter, he faced trials and challenges that he hadn’t as teenager. This was what clarified his relationship with God and helped him to think hard about who he was and his relationship with God.
The cost of discipleship
Overtime, Geoff began to understand what it was to be a disciple and what that might cost him. The church he’d been a part of growing up, St Paul’s Carlingford, was a training church that was very invested in training and challenging people to think hard. At this time, Geoff wasn’t alone in his understanding.
“Me and my friends were asking the question, if we’re counting the cost of discipleship, what does it mean to lay down our lives, take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Jesus” he says. The answer, for Geoff was to at the very least consider giving up his job to pursue ministry.
Geoff enjoyed the volunteer ministry he had been doing as a member of his church and decided that he wanted to pursue it further. While he knew he wasn’t ready to take on theological study, he knew that he wanted to give ministry a go. “Basically, I just thought I enjoy doing ministry. I enjoy all of the things that come with the voluntary aspects of ministry” he says.
MTS apprenticeship and ministry
Over the next two years Geoff underwent a ministry training apprenticeship at St Paul’s Carlingford, with Mike Everett as his trainer. He hoped that his joy and eagerness for ministry would eventually be enough to push him though a theological degree.
After he had finished his MTS apprenticeship, Geoff went on to study at Moore Theological College in Sydney, before moving with his wife Tiff to Melbourne where he currently works as a youth minister at Holy Trinity Doncaster.
Training the next generation
Part of Geoff’s role as youth minister is to train the youth kids and leaders within the youth group.
“There’s a handful of youth ministry teams at my church. There’s one main youth group, that meets on a Friday night, and another handful of youth Bible studies that meet during the family services on a Sunday. A lot of my job is to coordinate those ministries and care for the leaders who run them and train those who teach kids in them and meet up with the leaders one to one” he says.
A large chunk of Geoff’s time is dedicated to training and equipping other in ministry including his apprentice, Stef Wong.
Stef is in her second year of her MTS apprenticeship and works alongside Geoff and the youth ministry. She also runs a few other ministries including a welcoming ministry for the morning and evening services, as well as a women’s ministry.
In 2021, Stef suggested that they run an MTS Recruit LCG through their church and encourage their congregation members to attend. This year, they will be running it again at their church as they see a lot of potential trainees within their church.
“Stef and I are trying to raise the MTS profile at our church. It seems like there are a growing number of potential trainees at our church,” he says. “I’m excited to see who comes from our church and I’m excited to follow up some of the conversations that I had with people from last year.”
Learn more about MTS Recruit and register for Geoff’s LCG here www.mtsrecruit.online