Lausanne World Pulse – Leadership Profiles – Leadership Profile: Kath Henry, Northridge Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Thornleigh, Sydney, Australia

April 2010

Q. Tell us about your family.

A. I am married to a wonderful man, Phil, and have two amazing children: Beth, 19, and Sam, 15. One of our greatest delights is to be together as a family.

Having recently come back from leave where we travelled together for three months, we have many wonderful memories of laughter and fun. Meals times are the best in our household and we all try to have that time together.

Q. Give us a brief overview of your work and ministry.

A. I am the co-senior pastor, with my husband, of Northridge Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Thornleigh, Sydney, Australia. I oversee the women’s ministry at church. My husband and I are members of the Australian Vineyard Churches board.

I enjoy being a chaplain with Kairos Outside (a ministry to women who have been impacted by the imprisonment of a significant person in their life) and am connected with a cross-denominational network of women in Christian leadership in Sydney and WINGS with The Lausanne Movement. I am also a midwife and have continued to work in that field in clinical practice, education, and research.

Q. What is your favorite quote?

A. “Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller

Q. Who has been the most influential person in your life/ministry, and why?

A. There are so many people: my family, friends, and men and women of faith who took time to speak into my life, including Dave Short, Harry Goodhew, John White, John Wimber, and Robyn Claydon. There are also people I have never met, but I have read their stories of faith.

Evangelism. On Point.  Q. Describe a time when you shared your faith in Christ with someone who didn’t know him, and then saw God clearly work in that situation. A. Can I tell three? One was a sweet elderly lady who attended a women’s conference where I was a speaking. She came up at the end to tell me she liked what I said but that she was not a Christian. I simply asked, “What on earth are you waiting for?” She started crying, said, “I don’t know,” and gave her heart to God right then and there. Later I heard she had connected with the church, loved going to Bible study, and was an encouragement to many people. The second was a gym instructor who knew I was a Christian. She came to me after seeing the movie “The Passion of the Christ” and asked if she could have coffee with me. We went to have coffee and she asked, “Did God really do that for me?” We talked about Jesus and I told her how much it meant for me to discover God’s ongoing love and forgiveness. She gave her heart to Jesus at that sidewalk café. Today she loves God and has seen her husband come to God through the Alpha course. The third one is very different. It is encouraging to know that sometimes out of the saddest things God can bring life. A fellow midwife was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. I went to see her as a friend, and over a few weeks of me sitting with her and reading to her from the Bible about how much God had always loved her and how beautiful heaven was, she gave her heart to God. Before she died, she met with her three closest friends and asked them to see ask me about God. Two of those friends approached me at her funeral. A year after my friend’s death, having met regularly, one of those friends has come to accept God’s love for her.

There have also been a number of patients I have nursed. One man, George, stands out. Even though he was sick, I found him helping other patients and constantly telling them of God’s love. He wrote to me until he died, always encouraging me to find ways to share my faith with others.

There was also a young girl who I met with every week over a period of months while she was in rehab after an accident damaged her brain in such a way that she could not move or speak. I sat with her and sometimes we’d just look into each other’s eyes. I cannot explain it, but God mentored me more in that time than perhaps anywhere else.

Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve received?

A. The best piece of advice came from a lady who said to me, “Make sure you don’t burn out, because I can assure you no one will thank you!” Although slightly stunned at the time, I have often reminded myself that it is my responsibility to find the balance between doing and being. It leads me to ask, “Who am I becoming in God?” rather than, “What have I done for God?”

Q. What one issue do you believe is the greatest barrier or opportunity to evangelism, and why?

A. God places natural life seasons in our journey that provide opportunities to be more open to the reality of God. I think of transitions we, as women, go through, such as childhood to adolescence and womanhood, studying to entering the workforce, perhaps marriage, perhaps pregnancy and birth, times of celebrations and times of grief, successes and failures. These are all opportunities to meet with people and help them discover an awakening to God’s love.

Q. What book do you most often recommend to others to read, and why?

A. The Bible, nothing else compares. Beyond that, it very much depends upon who I am talking to. In fact, I think it is more important for me to be reading what others are reading. This has especially helped when I read what corporate men and women have been encouraged to read in their workplace.

Q. What would you like to be doing in ten years?

A. I would like to be putting a smile on my Lord’s face.

Q. How can people be praying for you?

A. I would be so touched to think someone might pray for me from this! Please pray that I will be faithful always and that my life might help others find there way to God. May I remain abandoned to his grace, anchored in his love, and living fully in the open palm of my king.