When Lachlan Edwards was appointed Dean of Geraldton Anglican Cathedral in 2022, one of his first priorities was training.
“I thought, ‘What can the Cathedral be doing to provide support for the whole of North West Australia?’” Lachlan explains. “And training was on my heart: getting a good flow of ministers coming through—local people being raised up for local ministry.”
A foundation for ministry
Lachlan grew up in Sydney, and he gave his life to Christ as a teenager after a friend from high school invited him to his local youth group. As a young Christian, Lachlan became aware that God gifts people in various ways, and he was challenged as he started considering how God might have gifted him for His Kingdom.
As Lachlan and his wife, Bec, started growing their family, they were heavily involved at St Matthew’s Manly, where their minister began encouraging them to consider serving in full-time ministry. Lachlan explains that every three months his minister would invite them out for coffee and ask again if they had been praying about going into vocational ministry.
Lachlan vividly recalls praying with Bec one night, asking God to give them wisdom about whether or not to sell their business so that they could head into theological training.
“The very next day, we had two business brokers contact us completely out of the blue, saying, ‘Just wondering if you’re thinking of selling your business,’” Lachlan shares.
The couple felt that this was God clearly opening doors for them, so they went ahead and sold the business.
Called to the North West
“We didn’t feel necessarily called into ministry in Sydney,” Lachlan explains. “We thought that was being really well catered for, so we started to look around other areas of Australia that were in need. We explored the North West, fell in love with it, saw the need and committed ourselves to ministry there.”
After completing his Bachelor of Theology at Trinity Theological College in Perth, Lachlan then ministered in a number of different locations before completing a Master of Arts in Theology at Moore College.
Ministry Training Pipeline
As he began developing his role as Dean of the Cathedral three years ago, Lachlan started exploring his options for ministry training programs.
“As I looked at what MTS were doing, I thought that fits the bill almost perfectly,” Lachlan shares. “We’re able to work with MTS to do what we call a ministry training pipeline.”
The pipeline starts with identifying a person who could consider vocational ministry, and giving them a two-year opportunity to be able to throw themselves into what ministry looks like—alongside some theological training.
Stage two then is providing that person support as a theological student.
“Here in the North West, we don’t have a theological college down the road or next door—the closest one, being in Perth, is 500 kilometers away,” Lachlan explains. “So how do we provide necessary support to send someone from the North West to college and support them through college for three or four years?”
After that, the pipeline looks like that person returning to their diocese in order to be a Curate—and then, God-willing, sending them to their own parish in the North West.
A Long-Term Commitment to Training
“We’ve started up with Nathan as our first apprentice, but my hope is that we’ll have somebody in each stage of those three stages as we develop the pipeline,” Lachlan shares. “So as Nathan goes on to be a theological student, we’ll bring in a new apprentice or two. My recently graduated Curate has now been sent 500 kilometres north of us. I’m doing ongoing coaching with him as he develops his role as the new rector in that area.”
Lachlan has appreciated the way MTS has helped him think through the apprenticeship component of their pipeline.
“ I want to work with apprentices to think about where they’re passionate, where there might be skills or even spiritual gifts that they’ve received that they’d like to explore a little bit further in a ministry context,” he says.
As someone with a very full plate, Lachlan is mindful of continuing to prioritise and invest in training.
“I need to make sure this is not just something I do, but an absolute priority always that I’m committing to this,” he shares. “And it’s not only for my apprentice’s sake, but for our church’s sake and our diocese’s sake as well.”