Building a Ministry Pipeline

Lachlan Edwards grew up in Sydney, but when it came to pursuing full-time ministry, he knew he wouldn’t be staying. Lachlan’s heart was drawn to the gospel needs of Australia’s North West. It wasn’t just the shortage of churches or trained leaders that stirred him, but the vision of what could be. Now Dean of Geraldton Anglican Cathedral, Lachlan is deeply committed to not only serving the local community but also raising up others to do the same.

Lachlan came to know Jesus as a teenager, after a high school friend invited him along to youth group. As Lachlan and his wife Bec began raising their young family, they were actively serving in their local church. Their minister regularly encouraged them to think about full-time gospel work. Every few months, he’d catch up with them over coffee and they’d gently ask whether Lachlan and Bec had been praying about the possibility of vocational ministry.

One night, Lachlan and Bec brought their questions before God, specifically asking for clarity about whether they should sell their business and pursue theological study. The very next day, out of nowhere, two business brokers reached out to ask if they were thinking of selling.

It felt like a clear answer to prayer—and a door God was opening—so they made the decision to sell the business. This turned out to be the first of multiple occasions where God confirmed their next steps.

“We didn’t really feel called to ministry in Sydney at the time,” Lachlan explains. “We thought that there were a lot of people being well-trained and positioned within the Anglican church, so that helped us to explore ministry opportunities around Australia.”

As it turned out, the assistant minister at Lachlan’s church, Marty Foord, had moved to Perth to become a lecturer at Trinity. He came back to Sydney every 

Christmas and encouraged people to consider serving in Western Australia. After spending nine months travelling around the North West with his family, Lachlan was convicted about the need and the opportunities, so he decided to undertake his theological training in Perth.

Lachlan says it wasn’t a difficult decision to choose Trinity. 

“We really liked Trinity’s purpose statement: training people for effective Christian service,” Lachlan shares. “That became a key difference for us, because it was training people theologically, rigorously, and for effective Christian service.”

When he started his Bachelor of Theology in 2003, Lachlan also came to really value the interdenominational aspect of Trinity. 

“It was a joy to rub shoulders with different denominations, and it actually helped us to sharpen our theology,” Lachlan reflects. He appreciated the way everything was brought back to God’s Word.

“Trinity taught me to learn, and that I would be a lifetime learner,” he shares. “It taught me the framework of understanding how I would find what I needed, as different theological or ecclesiological issues came up.”

Since graduating from Trinity, Lachlan has served in a variety of locations and was appointed Dean of Geraldton Anglican Cathedral in 2022.

One of Lachlan’s first priorities in his current role was establishing a training pipeline to see local people being raised up for local ministry, where Trinity is a key training partner. After he finishes the first phase, which involves training a ministry apprentice at the local church, phase two of the pipeline considers how to actively support that person in their theological studies at Trinity.

“Here in the North West, we don’t have a theological college down the road or next door—Trinity is 500 kilometers away,” Lachlan explains. “So we think about how do we provide necessary support to send someone from the North West to Perth and support them through their time at Trinity for three or four years?”

After that, the pipeline involves 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.

Despite being someone with a very full plate, Lachlan is mindful of continuing to prioritise his partnership in training with Trinity. The Geraldton Cathedral already runs ‘Trinity in Town’ twice a year, and he’s hopeful that there will be more opportunities to expand on this in the future.

Please pray for wisdom as Lachlan works to strengthen the ministry training pipeline in the North West. Ask God to bring about more opportunities to support ongoing ministry development and more accessible training for regional areas.