The Ministry of the BBQ: Townsville Central City Mission

By Scott Guyatt, Office of the Synod. 

We all know that the BBQ plays a central part in Australian culture. Whether it’s the nuclear family gathered on the back patio, the balmy summer evening with friends from all over celebrating a birthday, or a sunset hang-out by the beach…our movies, TV shows, and lives have the BBQ as a central motif.

And for good reason, there is something about relaxing together, the generally simple foods, the tastes and smells, that make just about any BBQ a good place to be.

The close cousin of the BBQ, the sausage sizzle, is everywhere. At a mega-hardware store on a Saturday morning, the local soccer or netball field, and even on election days across the country, we find the ubiquitous BBQ covered in sausages and onions as an ever-present companion.

For Townsville Central City Mission, the BBQ is at the heart of its Mobile Food Outreach. Dreamed up in 2022 by a small group within the congregation, the program sees the congregation being active in its community, feeding those who are vulnerable and hungry. It’s a program steeped in prayer, generosity and commitment.

Located in the heart of the city, the team from Townsville Central is only too aware of the challenges some of their neighbours face. While other community service organisations serve all week, the Mobile Food Outreach team swings into action on the weekends, bringing a hearty meal, good conversation, and growing relationships to support those who need it most.

After an initial pilot period in 2022, the congregation and council got behind the program, purchasing a trailer and working to fit it out with BBQ, eskies, storage and all the equipment needed. The trailer is still a work in progress, with solar panels and on-board refrigeration on the wish list.

Fifteen members of the congregation are actively involved in cooking, cleaning, preparing, talking, and welcoming. The Mobile Food Outreach is a clear expression of hospitality and the mission of the BBQ.

18 months later, the congregation’s commitment shows no signs of slowing down. For Pastor Lorne Anderson, there’s a simple reason why: “There are vulnerable, hungry people who need food,” he noted, “and so as long as they are there, we’ll keep serving.”

The impact is both physical and symbolic. The congregation is actively supporting vulnerable people, hearing their stories, and building trusted relationships. They’re becoming an integral part of the fabric of the central Townsville community. Internally, the project has generated new relationships, too, bringing together different members of the congregation to serve others.

Other mission partners and congregations across Townsville have been excited to see Townsville Central’s work and are starting to bring similar support to other parts of the city. The initiative of one congregation is encouraging others to act similarly. The mission of the BBQ is spreading.

For the congregation, the Mobile Food Outreach is just one expression of what Lorne says is a “beautifully minded congregation.”  Outlining its commitment to prayerful discernment, generous service, focussed discipleship and doors open to all, Lorne goes on to describe a “plentiful community”, that knows it is “in a spring season at the moment, facing a great opportunity to invest time, energy, and resources to work together and plant things that might benefit people down the track.”

For Townsville Central City Mission, the mission of the BBQ demonstrates their commitment to transforming their community through loving service and is joined by a deep and abiding commitment to discipleship. From junior creche through Sunday School, a growing youth group and range of bible studies, the shared discipleship life of the congregation is evident.

They are right in the heart of a new period of discernment, too, praying, talking, and dreaming as they work out what’s next in their shared life. This is a congregation for whom clarity of vision and purpose is being lived out every day: to walk and work with Jesus Christ to build the kingdom of God in Townsville and beyond.

It sounds a whole lot like the journey of renewal we hear God inviting us all to undertake. May the ministry of the BBQ continue to spread.

Photos provided by: Pastor Lorne Anderson