Hannah Felsbourg
27 October 2024
Jon Tran is assistant curate at Inner West Church Flemington and minister at Grasslands Church Cairnlea. He will be ordained as a priest in November 2024.
How did you end up in the position that you’re in?
In 2018, my wife and I felt God open our eyes to see the need that was in our community of Cairnlea, a suburb of 11,000 people where you wouldn’t know there were any Christians. The most spiritual image there is a Buddhist temple that dominates the central square. We felt a call from God to be a Christian presence and bring the light of the gospel to that community.
As a Vietnamese person, and my wife being Filipino, hospitality is high on our family values. We joined Inner West Church because it’s structured around missional communities and that seemed like a wonderful vehicle for us to use our gifts in hospitality to serve the kingdom. We learned from them and then were sent out to pioneer a missional community in 2020.
Our community demographically is about 30% Vietnamese, 18% ethnic Chinese, and 16% Filipino. Part of our discernment was realising we were at the time almost the statistical average household in that neighbourhood — two kids, four-bedroom house, two cars. It was humbling when we saw that God in his wisdom placed us there for this purpose.
Fast forward to 2024 and Grasslands Church has been running for 18 months. The congregation looks a lot like the community we’re in — a third Vietnamese, a third Filipino, and a mix of others. Many have Catholic roots, others are from different Christian denominations, and there are a few non-Christians that are part of our church life.
How do you see the work that you do fitting into the big picture of God’s work in the world?
We’re doing a vision series for our church, and we started off last week with a vision for God’s glory. In Habakkuk 2:14 God promises a day will come when the knowledge of His glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. A big part of what we get to do is make that glory known to our neighbourhood — for our missional communities to be like tasters of what God’s Kingdom is.
God has this big, glorious, eschatological vision to make His glory known to every man, woman, and child. As He says in Jeremiah, a day is coming when no one will need to say, “Know the Lord,” because everyone will know Him. That’s the big picture of what I see our church being part of: making God known, revealing His glory through His people.
I see God making Himself known in the ordinary things of people’s lives — cooking meals for one another, mowing lawns, picking up kids from school. Doing those seemingly ordinary things with a heart of love and service is compelling for the average person in the Western suburbs of Melbourne. People who live not for themselves, but for God and the sake of others paints a compelling picture of what the Kingdom’s like.
Practically, there’s a lot of loneliness and anxiety in our neighbourhood. Young families are stretched by mortgage repayments, both parents working full time, running their kids to and from activities on the weekend. For some, their marriages are starting to fall apart or they’re realising the dream they thought was going to fill the hole in their heart isn’t. But they don’t have anyone in their life to talk to about it, not even their spouse.
These are the kinds of spaces and people we’re ministering into. It’s a slow burn, but it’s a privilege to be part of what God is doing there.
Do you have any specific stories you can share about what you’re seeing in your congregation?
One of our missional communities is mostly retirees. Sadly, one of our planting team members died suddenly this year. It shook our community, and her husband was distraught. He’s not a Christian. He describes himself as a pretty good guy who hasn’t done anything terrible and doesn’t see much need for God in his life.
But since she passed away in July, he’s come to Sunday services more often than not. He’s meeting with some of the men in our community for coffee each week, having conversations that matter, starting to open up about his life and loneliness, and is seeing the value of God’s people. He hasn’t come to faith, but he’s not alone. And I think in the Kingdom that counts for something.
What fruit do you hope to see in your context?
I want to see people come to faith and life in Christ and be baptised into the church. I sense a strong calling for us to become a church that prays with passion, zeal, fervour, and commitment, believing that God can — and wants to — raise the dead and work in power. The spiritual fruit I’m praying for is for God’s people to have that faith awakened. From that will flow all sorts of things that we could never have anticipated.
Practically, I’d love to see a new missional community of students. High school students and young adults are the missing demographic in our congregation. I’d love us to be able to serve and connect to them in an intentional and deliberate way. I’ve been trying to hold that stuff in an open hand, not telling God what to do but asking Him what he would have us do.
Church planters typically have an entrepreneurial spirit. We’re go-getters, we want to get things up off the ground and have plans and strategy and all that sort of thing. That’s in me, but I think God has been teaching me what it means for me to be open and submitted to Him and then to use my skills, talents, and ability to think strategically in step with him.
Our ministry doesn’t look like what I wrote up in my initial planting proposal. I thought we’d be doing ministry in schools and with families and young people. The first dozen people who joined the church were retirees. I wrestled with God: “What is happening? This is not what I wrote down.” But God knows what he’s doing. Our retirees are such a gift to us and have been a strong base of support. I never thought of that demographic being so pivotal in our church planting journey.
What is your dream for this ministry?
My dream is that whatever number of people are in our church, their hearts would burn with love for God, His Kingdom, His purposes, and His church. If we can get that right, everything else will be fine. If we are wholeheartedly devoted to God then mission, love for our neighbours, and unity in the church flow naturally out of that zeal and love for God, knowing He loves us. If you’d asked me this in 2019, I’d have a very different answer. There are no numbers attached to this anymore.
What encourages you in your work?
Being a part of community and a body that’s bigger than myself. I grew up in an independent, non-denominational church. I’ve just drawn so much encouragement from being part of the Anglican Church and having sisters and brothers standing and striving alongside me. God’s been really kind, bringing the right people at the right time with the right things to say or not say.
Also, seeing Christians, lay people, loving Jesus and wanting to give their lives to Him. When I see a mum with young kids reach out to someone who’s struggling or make the effort to get to know people and set up play dates or pray for their neighbours — she doesn’t have to do that. But because she’s been gripped by the love of God, she does it gladly. That’s inspiring to me.
God’s been good to us. At the start of this year, we outgrew our living room and moved into a local restaurant. One Sunday the doors were chained shut. The restaurant had gone bankrupt. The next week we met in the park, and I said to our church, “Let’s just fast and pray that God will provide a place for us to meet.” Within the next week, we ended up at Victoria University, and we’re still there now.
The door of Victoria University was closed firmly the first time around when I was looking for venues. But it was such an easy thing the second time around. I can’t really give you the theology behind it, but there’s something about fasting and praying for things. God hears his people. So, who knows where we’ll be next year.
What’s one thing you’d like Christians in Melbourne to know about your work?
There isn’t a people or place that is not seen by God and cared for by him or that he doesn’t want to bring renewal and life into. There are pockets in Melbourne where no one would think to plant a church. I’m saying that conscious that the suburb that I live in is relatively affluent and middle class. The challenge for us is, “Hey, what are we going to do with that?” I would want to encourage people to lift their eyes and to see the Kingdom of God as broad and wide as it is. And to see that God really does want to bring renewal to our entire city.
Can you share more about your journey to ordination?
I’m getting ordained in November. I took a non-typical pathway I suppose. I started off theological study part-time at Ridley while I was working as a high school teacher. Then I moved to Whitley College, the Baptist college, then ended up going back to Ridley. I mostly served and sought ordination in the church that I grew up in. It wasn’t until we came to Inner West Church that ordination in the Anglican Church came onto my radar. There was a snowball — and here I am.
But every step of the way, I felt so supported and cared for. I’ve really appreciated how pastoral the examining chaplains and bishops have been along the way. I’ve felt very affirmed and supported. I grew up in a context where there weren’t robes, collars, organs and that sort of thing. For me it’s a brave new — or old — world. It’s been a real gift to belong to something bigger than myself and our small congregation. And to have traditions and teaching grounded in scripture and the finished work of Jesus to draw on that have stood the test of time.
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