Jeremy Greening – Former Granite Belt LCC Chairperson
The Granite Belt, in Queensland’s Southern Downs region, is renowned for its stunning countryside, delicious produce, and award-winning wine. But if it’s up to Jeremy and the Granite Belt LCC team, it won’t be long before it’s known for something else entirely – their hardworking chaplains.
“If people hear the good stories and understand the core of what the chaplains are doing, I’d be surprised if any community wouldn’t want to support chaplaincy,” explains Jeremy Greening, Senior Pastor of Stanthorpe’s Vineyard Christian Church & former Chairperson for Granite Belt LCC.
Despite recently moving on from his role as Chairperson, Jeremy is continuing to serve on the LCC as a committee member, and his church is continuing their crucial fundraising efforts.
“Our church sponsors the fundraising dinner for the district. We basically fund it, arrange it and make sure it all happens as planned. It’d be the single biggest fundraising event our committee does each year. We only just had our dinner for 2016, a month ago, and we raised over $10,000 which is the most we’ve ever raised,” he says.
Jeremy has been a committee member since taking up the role as Senior Pastor at Stanthorpe’s Vineyard Christian Church three years ago. During that time, he’s noticed an improvement in the way the LCC operates.
“We’ve done our best to make sure there have been improvements to way the fundraising dinner is run and this has paid off in terms of the amount of money we’ve raised. But as a committee, we’re really fortunate to be a part of such a great community. Not just the church community, but the wider community as well, is really behind chaplaincy. So I guess we’re aware that we need to keep that momentum up.”
Along with these gradual improvements, Jeremy and the committee have intentionally focussed their attention towards advocacy and raising awareness of their school chaplaincy services.
“A chaplain’s primary motive is just to be there to support the kids. So it’s important to communicate that message. I find the committee is great at communicating that message and engaging the local churches. If you engage local churches and businesses to also communicate that message, you’ll often find you get great support. We try and demonstrate that our chappies are there for our local kids. The first and only message is chaplains are there to support the next generation.”
Jeremy’s main piece of advice, for his fellow LCC members throughout Queensland, is closely related to this advocacy and awareness approach.
“Do everything you can to give the chaplains a voice in the community. And do everything you can to support them. I’ve always said this to anyone I talk to about chaplaincy – they wear so many hats and they’ve got so many stakeholders to consider, and people they need to report to. SU QLD is one of them, but there are also school principals, staff, parents, kids, P&C committee, churches, pastors, and even the LCC committee. They wear so many hats and this can be a genuine challenge for some. So do everything you can to give them a voice, and secondly, do everything you can to support them so they know what backing they have behind them.”