Jonty Perrett is a staff worker for the Fellowship of Overseas Christian University Students (FOCUS) at Griffith University in the Gold Coast. He’s married to Beth and they have three sons ages 10, 8 and 5. This year, he’s training his first-ever MTS apprentice, Quintin!
Faith in action
Jonty grew up knowing Jesus, but it wasn’t until after school that he really began to live out his faith. Starting to lead youth group quickly grew in him a love and passion for service in ministry. In 2007 he moved from Sydney to Canberra to attend university and joined the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) uni group.
Jonty says, “I learned how to read the Bible properly for the first time. And I definitely understood the Bible as one big story for the first time.”
It was here at ANU, and attending Crossroads Church, that Jonty learned about ministry apprenticeships. He saw his now-wife Beth do MTS in 2008/2009, and was eager to do it himself.
New contexts for ministry training
After marrying in 2010, Jonty and Beth moved to Bathurst a few years later. There they attended Bathurst Presbyterian and Jonty did MTS on the Charles Sturt University campus in 2013/2014 with AFES Staff Worker Andrew Sennett as his trainer. Jonty and Beth had a growing interest in mission, so decided to do a third year of MTS at St Andrew’s Church Kowloon in Hong Kong in 2015. Here, Jonty really experienced how we get unity in the gospel.
He says, “I found while doing ministry in Hong Kong, some of the things that I thought were probably deal breakers in terms of, ‘could I work with someone if they didn’t agree with me’ – actually weren’t. That was surprising, humbling and challenging.”
Their year in Hong Kong solidified Jonty and Beth’s desire for cross-cultural ministry, and they returned to Sydney to go to Moore Theological College from 2016 to 2019.
Directed to a different kind of cross-cultural mission
Jonty shares, “After college, the plan was to apply with CMS and go overseas but God had other plans for us. We had some family health stuff pop up on my wife’s side quite unexpectedly and that family member actually moved up to the Gold Coast and we had a job offer already to come and do the international student work there.”
This job offer had already been something Jonty and his family had said no to – but when personal circumstances had changed, it felt like God wanted them to go to the Gold Coast!
So in 2020, they moved to Queensland and Jonty started his role as a staff worker for FOCUS which runs through AFES at Griffith University (and in many places around Australia).
Context and culture shape training
This year, in 2024, Jonty has taken on his first apprentice, Quintin. After having learned so much in his time as an MTS apprentice, it’s exciting to be part of training someone else in a similar way.
Jonty shares, “It’s really fun because we get to spend a bunch of time together reading the Bible, thinking and chatting about ministry and running ministry together. It can also be hard because I have to think about how I am going to train him and stretch him, but not break him. Overall this year has been really great.”
The demographic of their ministry at FOCUS is very broad! There is no one predominant group or country that makes up the international students, which means there is a lot of culture getting encountered every day. This is a big part of how Jonty is supporting Quintin as his trainer.
Jonty shares, “When you work cross-culturally, you always have to think about how this applies to these people with their backgrounds, their beliefs, language and cultural expectations. I’ve been doing that for a long time now, so you work things out and it shapes the way you do ministry.
But having someone to train, you get to see them going through that whole process again. Quintin and I will have discussions about things he’s noticed and is confused about. Often it comes down to cultural expectations that aren’t spoken but shake the way students think and act. I know how to identify them and I have a bit more of an understanding of them. And as a trainer, I get to help him to do the same.”
The gift of unity and fellowship
Jonty sees how the gospel keeps on giving to young Christians on campus each day, as they grow in maturity, confidence and skills. He explains, “Seeing the way that meeting with people and reading the Bible with them is helping them understand the gospel and God’s love has helped them to grow, not just grow in their faith, but grow as a person.”
He’s been encouraged by Quintin’s ministry, and how it is showing that the gospel gives the gift of unity to very different people.
Jonty says, “In addition to reading the Bible with students, Quintin’s helped one of our students get ready for their driving test. He’s been a key part of the growth of the social networks among the group. And all of that is driven by his love for Jesus, and Jesus’ love for them! Otherwise, you’ve just got a young Aussie guy and a bunch of people from all different countries. But the thing that brings them all together is Jesus.”
MTS provides clear pathways
Recently Jonty was reminded about the importance of the MTS movement while in a conversation with Peter Sholl, CMS International Director. Peter shared how when he was a missionary in Mexico there were lots of churches with older pastors struggling to work out how or who to pass ministry on to. This is an issue all around the world that is causing churches to close or succumb to poor leadership.
In reflection of this, Jonty shares, “But one of the wonderful things about MTS is that is exactly what it is designed to do. It’s designed to help people think through, do I want to spend the rest of my life in this kind of full-time vocational ministry? Is that what God’s leading me to do? MTS helps you to do that and it creates this space for people to do that and to reflect on that with people who’ve done it for a while and have that experience and that wisdom because that’s super important. You can’t make a decision like that by yourself. If MTS wasn’t around there would be so many fewer people in ministry.”