5 minutes with David Reay

I am an Anglican minister in Sydney. I do interim and consultancy ministry. I write daily devotions for Hope 103.2fm, and present spots on that station and also 2CH. Before becoming a pastor I worked in customer services for Qantas, and continue to work as a volunteer Airport Ambassador at the International Airport. I am married with two daughters and two granddaughters.

A Bible verse I constantly keep in mind is 2 Chronicles 20:12…”

For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” I like this verse as it reflects my own and struggles and my own often fragile faith. Circumstances may seem troubling and all I can do is to give up heroism and become helpless. I have to repeatedly come back to the overarching truths about God rather than be fixated on my immediate life situation.

My overriding purpose in my ministry is to seek to communicate deep and significant truth in such a way as to enrich lives. This doesn’t mean neatly tidying up all the mess or explaining all the mystery. It is about helping myself and other fix our eyes on Jesus in the midst of mess and mystery.

I hope forthcoming generations of Christians can grasp both the absolute truth of the love of God expressed in Jesus and also the many ambiguities inherent in our life of faith. I hope they are free of crushing self condemnation and can embrace grace. I hope they can find new ways of living out faith that can impact a world that is either apathetic or hostile to faith. I hope they can live creatively and boldly believing that God knows what he is doing even when we don’t.

Playing my part in this is what gets me up in the morning and what energises me in the day. This doesn’t mean I immerse myself in some Christian bubble. I get much blessing from poets such as R. S. Thomas and T. S. Eliot and many others. I actually enjoy classical music more than the music usually sung in churches. I believe God’s common grace allows me to enjoy much in our world. I have always loved being in the UK and travelling anywhere by air or rail. Being on some sort of journey is part of my everyday life.

Our Christian lives are often seen as some sort of race. I run the race with a limp. I sometimes go backwards. But all that simply causes me to fling myself on the grace of God. And I believe he who started me on that journey is my companion on that journey and even the goal of that journey.