Welcome to the students
I am delighted that you have the opportunity to study at Moore College. You have joined a Christian fellowship of learning with a rich heritage that stretches back over 160 years. Moore College was established by the will of the first magistrate of Liverpool, former shipwright to the Colony, Thomas Moore, which came into effect in 1840. Its first students were enrolled in 1856. Since then, the College has been characterized by an unwavering commitment to serving the churches of Christ in Sydney and further afield by training up generation after generation of labourers for the Lord’s harvest. The College has grown enormously since those earliest days and many things have changed. Yet our determination to live and serve under the word of the living God, given to us as Scripture, has remained unchanged. You have entered that wonderful Christian heritage and in the future, I trust, God’s people will look back on your generation with thankfulness to God for the way you furthered it.
We are a Christian fellowship of learners and we take the academic side of our life seriously. Academic standards and academic integrity really do matter, not because they are ends in themselves, but because they serve the larger goal of honouring Christ through serving the churches. The churches of Christ, of whatever denomination and in whatever setting (in a parish, on a university campus, in a remote area of the mission field) need those who are able to teach them faithfully and help guard them against false teaching and false practice. May I encourage you, at whatever stage of your studies you are this year, not to lose that focus on the sacrificial service of the people of God, modelled on the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our vision is huge. It is not limited to Sydney, nor Australia, nor to confessional Anglicanism. We do not only serve the work of parish churches but Bible teaching ministry wherever it may be exercised. We have a global vision and a multifaceted vision. The goal is to see men and women all over the world come to faith and life in the Lord Jesus and built up into his likeness through the faithful, loving ministry of the word of God. I hope that while you are at College, working as hard as you are able at your studies, you will keep lifting your eyes to the global mission field. On the last day, I trust, under God and in part as a result of your faithful ministry, there will many more from every tribe, people and language gathered around the throne of God and of the Lamb, singing his praises and rejoicing in the salvation he has won for us.
There is one other piece of advice I’d like to give you as you begin or continue your study at Moore College. I began by describing us as a fellowship of learning. The use of that word was very deliberate. We are here to serve, encourage, support and help each other. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, whether from your teachers or from your fellow students. We want every student to succeed, and we want to do all we can to make that happen. But also, don’t hold back from serving, encouraging, supporting and helping those around you. Look out for those who are struggling for one reason or another and take the opportunity to practice the service you are training to engage in for the rest of your lives.
The study of theology is one of the most wonderful of privileges and it can bring the deepest joys. The perspective God gives us in his word—a perspective on him in his inexhaustible perfection, on his creation as the objects of his loving care, of his purpose towards which all things are heading— is breathtaking. I pray you will be enthralled by what you study here. I pray your love for the Lord Jesus will be deepened, your understanding of the truth he taught expanded and clarified, and your service of his people made much more effective than it might otherwise have been. It is a very great privilege to serve you as you study. Let us honour the Lord together.
Mark D Thompson
Principal