Elspeth Kernebone
30 November 2023
Photographs of Exmouth show endless clear blue-water beaches, with expansive horizons.
The nearby Ningaloo Coast is world heritage listed. It is known for its reef, for whale sharks, sea turtles, rays, humpback whales, and a network of underground caves.
The town is gateway to the reef, where people dive and swim.
It’s in a 6504 square kilometre municipality, but most people live in Exmouth itself, a town of 2800.
Its population swells in winter, as people visit during the cooler months. Many people in town spend their spare time fishing, or just enjoying the environment.
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Exmouth residents, the Venerable Simon Roberts and Alison Roberts, can see much lostness, just as anywhere. Some people are escaping difficulties, others just living for the enjoyment of life, a hedonistic lifestyle in a beautiful location.
Mr and Mrs Roberts are there for neither. Instead, they hope to bring people something that will satisfy more deeply than either escape or enjoyment: a relationship with God.
They moved to Exmouth around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, Mr Roberts is rector of Exmouth and Onslow Anglican Church and archdeacon of the Pilbara.
Their goal is to maintain and grow a gospel presence in Exmouth, and for the gospel to be working in people’s lives. In Onslow it’s the survival of the church and real spiritual vitality, in whatever form that comes.
It’s much less structured than ministry in Sydney, where Mr and Mrs Roberts moved from. In Sydney, their parish had three services on a Sunday, a staff team and a busy church life.
In Exmouth, there’s one Sunday service, a couple of Bible studies during the week – and a few other weekly activities. They hope to start an after school club in 2024.
Mr Roberts said this setting meant sharing the gospel was a much more focussed task, of consciously engaging with the community.
Sometimes it’s busy, but Mr Roberts more often has to ask, “Okay, what’s on the agenda this week?”
The pair has focussed on building relationships with people, and taking up opportunities to share the gospel as they do.
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They’ve involved themselves in the community, invited people to church, and to courses such as Christianity Explored.
Mrs Roberts’ work at a café has been part of this. So far, she’s had the opportunity to share the gospel with most of her colleagues, and invited some to Christianity Explored, one of whom took up the offer.
She’s found that the transience of the population has prompted her to be more intentional in conversations, to take opportunities, and to dive in – because if she waits, they’ll leave.
Many of the Exmouth churchgoers also volunteer for the town’s ambulance service – two volunteers at a time provide paramedicine for Exmouth – both to get to know other volunteers, and to serve the community.
“For those who know our church members, they know these are people who are serious about other people, and their commitment to other people,” Mr Roberts said.
“Hopefully that means that as people contemplate the gospel, they know … we have a real interest and genuine concern for people.”
Reaching people without natural connections to the church is a big challenge in Exmouth. The large group of young workers on tour boats, who spend most of their time working, partying, or enjoying the outdoors are among these.
In the city, there were so many more people, that you could focus on reaching the people you already had connections with, Mr Roberts said.
But in a small town, they can see exactly what the town looks like. And, with one other church, a Pentecostal church, they know they will be the only ones to proclaim the gospel, to everyone in the town.
This means keeping the Bible central, the message of Christ crucified central, and inviting people to church.
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“If people give Christ a hearing, there’s a lot there that can be gained. But it’s breaking through. Most people live in Exmouth because they get to enjoy all the things God has made, be it Ningaloo Reef, or just the fishing or the sunshine, all that kind of stuff,” Mr Roberts said.
“But there’s a real lack of understanding of the Creator, why we’re created, who we are as God’s creatures, all those sorts of things. Some people already think they’re in heaven, other people there’s a lot of lostness that they don’t know how to deal with. But in all those cases, the gospel is the remedy.”
Mr and Mrs Roberts would love to see the gospel work in people’s lives – and the survival of a church in a genuine, multigenerational way.
In Onslow, they would love to see a church community of Christians gathering around Christ and his Word with the spirit present, which ideally meets weekly. The town 400 kilometres north of Exmouth has a church with a handful of members, which Mr and Mrs Roberts visit monthly.
In their ministry, they’ve been encouraged by opportunities to share the gospel, by growth of understanding in their congregations, and by answers to prayer.
For instance, Mrs Roberts was recently able to share about Jesus with her boss’s husband, who said he’d never set foot in a church before.
And Mr Roberts sees people in the congregation growing in the richness of who God is, and what he has done for them, often through reading a part of the Bible they haven’t read in a long time and making new connections, recently 1 Samuel.
They’ve also seen answers to prayer, with a new family coming to the Onslow church in the last month, just as they were wondering who would be left in the small town’s congregation.
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Mr Roberts said working in Exmouth and Onslow had given them both a new perspective on the challenges of ministry in remote and regional places, and the importance of the financial support of ministries such as Bush Church Aid.
It’s driven home for him the importance of gospel generosity among churches, and the connections Christians share as one body of believers, across Australia, and worldwide.
He said people in remote and regional places needed someone to proclaim the gospel, and to encourage them in the gospel, as much as in cities.
Exmouth and Onslow are very different to Sydney. But similar to many places, Mrs Roberts said, it was not until touched by illness or death that people thought beyond the current life.
Mr and Mrs Roberts both urged others to pray for ongoing Christian witness and gospel growth in both Exmouth in Onslow, particularly among children and youth.
“There’s a great need in remote and regional areas, and great gospel poverty. There’s still heaps of towns that either don’t have a church, or don’t have a gospel-proclaiming church,” Mr Roberts said.
“There’s all sorts of towns in the Pilbara that are quite small towns, but virtually nothing going on in terms of gospel ministry.
“Everyone needs to hear the gospel, everyone needs salvation in Christ.”
Find out more about Simon and Alison Roberts at bushchurchaid/roberts.
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