The Project Hope network invites you to hear two powerful case studies of people who are working at extending the boundaries of the church. Both are examples of people who are attempting to get the church to embrace a wider world with tough issues in a more authentic and Christ-like way.
A local picture
Tim Burns is committed to Bracken Ridge Baptist in Brisbane. He is working with others to connect in helpful ways with locals. He will tell us what he is observing and learning about getting a local church better connected in its locality.
A global picture
Peter Branjerporn and Greg Manning will stimulate a discussion based on their recent experiences with two international Christian networks who are seeking to increase their engagement with people and populations living with HIV.
We hope you can join us.
Date: Saturday 13th December
Time: 9 -11.30am
Venue: 69 Thomas Street West End, Brisbane
Inquiries: Neil Barringham 32172522 or Neil Hockey 55413157
Trinity Theological College in Brisbane has two mission-related courses on offer at Trinity College in 2009.
Building Community
Building Community is being taught by Dave Andrews, using his books Compassionate Community Work and Not Religion But Love as the main texts. Thursday afternoons, 1 – 4 pm, February 26 to June 4.
Mission of the Church
Mission of the Church is being taught by Neil Sims. The course text is Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today, by Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder (2004), and Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, by David Bosch (1991). Wednesday evenings, 6 – 9 pm, July 22 to October 29.
Members of the Uniting Church can enrol as audit students in these courses, for $150. Audit students participate fully through discussions, questions and other in-class learning but do not undertake any of the assessment tasks and do not receive credit for a course.
Mark and Leesa Cornford struggle with how to live lives that are environmentally sustainable, hopeful, good news for people and still enjoyable. They are facilitating a weekend retreat for others who share that challenge.
“The Simply Living Retreat is an opportunity to reflect on how God calls us to be good news to all the world by the way we live”, said Mark.
The Simply Living Retreat is being held from January 16 to 18 at Camp North Pine on Lake Samsonvale, just north of Brisbane, and will be suitable for individuals and families.
Mark, a deacon currently in placement in Deception Bay, has spent the last five years developing The Greenhouse Project, a set of resources for individuals and groups exploring the connection between faith, evangelism and justice in everyday life.
He is available to work with small groups and congregations who want to develop their local mission plans into action.
LAURA MOORE, a 27 year old school chaplain in Deception Bay north of Brisbane, has long had a desire to travel and see the world. When she ran short of funds for a KonTiki trip, she asked a dangerous question, “How might God use my urge to see the world?” Laura began to seek alternatives to the usual young adult focus on “collecting experiences”.
In 2006 Laura was asked by her congregation to consider joining Global Walking, a short term exposure trip organised by Uniting Church youth worker Jason Bray in collaboration with Vision for Mission and the Justice and International Mission Advocate.
Despite being briefed before leaving Australia, Laura was not prepared for the mind-blowing experience she had in the Philippines. Laura was introduced to ‘in-your-face poverty’ from the moment she stepped off the plane. Walking through Manila, she came across a mother and two boys lying in the gutter. At first she thought they might be dead but she soon discovered that this was where they slept.
Ninety minutes with Manila’s huge rubbish dump slum community on Smokey Mountain changed Laura’s life forever. Here the team witnessed a whole community living, working and playing among the layers and layers of black rubbish, collecting and recycling material for sale.
Carrying a street sign that once pointed to a growing Uniting Church congregation Vision for Mission Advocate Rev Duncan Macleod spoke to the November meeting of the Queensland Synod about the lessons learned from two and a half years with the Vision for Mission project.
Mr Macleod explained that the sign had become redundant when the congregation closed and asked, “Where is the church opening now?
“The Queensland Synod needs to foster new expressions of the church while still supporting those congregations which are well established.”
He suggested the most effective model was to encourage congregations in their development of informal faith communities.
“The Gap Uniting Church, for example, is developing the capacity of its members to connect with students from the high school next door. “Youth and community worker Richard Cassady has been working with congregational members, teachers and students from the school and local business leaders to transform a storage space into the Bike Workshop for Year 9 boys.”
Here’s a process to help a community get their heads around what it means to be missional. This gives the opportunity to examine the heart of mission – being sent by Jesus. As we walk through different rooms in a church complex we stop to reflect on a period of Church history.
Concepts explored here can be found in David Bosch’s book, Transforming Mission, and Loren Mead’s book, The Once and Future Church.
Early Church
We begin in a room. No chairs. People sit on the floor. No front. Conversation flows around the room.
We’re inside John 21, with the first disciples of Jesus. Jesus is with us speaking. “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” So says Jesus to his disciples before he breathes the Holy Spirit into them.
The disciples are gathered in a locked room in Jerusalem, discovering that their world has become so much more dangerous. Before they were followers of a Jewish rabbi. Now they’re renegades, spreading the word on a subversive movement centred around the crucified and risen leader.
Where do they start? No point in just hanging a shingle out the front door and hoping ‘church goers’ will turn up. They have to get out of the room and build an incarnational presence where people are. Some will go fishing. Some will hit the road. Some will stay in Jerusalem. They’ll need to meet in homes, in public places, in Jewish synagogues, in the Jewish temple.
The ‘Apostolic’ paradigm begins with a strong sense of core membership. These are the followers of Jesus, an unknown, unpublicized Jewish sect. As time goes on persecution will lead to an urgent call to clarify who is in and who is not. As the Jesus movement becomes more and more culturally varied, there will be a call to clarify what is central to following Jesus universally and what is negotiable for each ethnic expression of the good news.
Christendom Community
We move into the church building, sitting in the pews facing the front, imagining our way into the hamlet of Saxenberg, 1412. The lectern at the front indicates that there is an established leadership structure. We reflect on the likelihood that many in the room take key responsibilities in the ongoing life of the local township. Many of us would have met yesterday at the beerhouse with our families.
When we reflect on Jesus sending us as he was sent we’re not too sure what to think. Our weekly life is marked by stability and predictability. We count on nurture and loyalty to pass on the Christian way of life to each generation.
The challenge we face together is one of integrity. It is only when we have people from outside our context arrive in our village that we are likely to re-examine our everyday lifestyle, in the home, in the town hall and in the market. Change is slow.
We are vaguely aware of people beyond Christendom who need to hear the gospel and respond to it. Perhaps there are missionaries who will travel to those places to establish the kind of village life we have here.
Over the next few decades people in our region will face the turmoil of the Reformation and industrial revolution. However the Christendom model will be retained somehow through the establishment of national church structures as well as denominational structures that supersede national identity. Within those frameworks we will attempt to have the stability and established order experienced in Christendom.
21st Century Australia
We move into the hall and find chairs to sit on. We have the choice about where to sit. We’re now in a circle and expect people from around the circle to speak to one another rather than to the front.
How do we respond to Jesus standing here telling us that as the Father sent him, he sends us.
Everything is negotiable. Nothing can be taken for granted. No longer can we rely on loyalty based on a denominational tag, the attractiveness of a staff person, or a building and plant. No longer can we ‘build it’ and expect that people will come. We’ve noticed the changes even in the last fifty years. What worked in a cohesive community in the 1950s is difficult to achieve in our splintered communities today.
Unlike the early church, here in Australia we generally do not face a hostile world. As members of the Uniting Church we experience good will from community members, often because of a strong heritage of service provision. There is a danger of course that we’ll be seen as service providers rather than as a community of everyday faith. Some people see us as a community of Sunday worship only.
We’re aware of the fluid nature of our community. People come and go. They travel long distances to be with their friends and family. People sample community, trying out different churches, clubs, shopping centres. We need to find a way of being committed at the core, open at the edges.
We face the challenge of how we relate to a society in which one of the highest values is that of individual choice and freedom. While encouraging personal responsibility and celebrating diversity of cultural expression, the people of Christ live out the good news of community in which people of all backgrounds can genuinely love one another.
We face a the temptation to develop a safe environment, a parallel universe, in which Christians are safe from the ‘outside world’. However it is no easy task to simply enter existing networks in the community, particularly when our mobile lifestyle lead to people building networks with friends and family that have little connection with where people live.
Let’s not overlook the breathing in of the Holy Spirit. We too readily discount the impact of Jesus’ action because of our concern to distinguish ourselves from the Pentecostals, or our discomfort with the thought of being breathed upon! Jesus’ action counters our tendency to over-intellectualise what we are doing. We desperately need the continuing inspiration of God, the time to draw close to Jesus as a community and be strengthened for mission.
The word ‘mission’ is thrown around in many circles, not just in the church. When I quiz people about it I get a range of answers.
Mission, as an English word, comes from ‘missio’, a Latin word describing ’sending’, from the verb, mittere, to send.
1. Mission as a project (often sent from HQ). “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…”
2. Mission as a goal. “We set ourselves a mission of raising $5000.”
3. Mission as an aspiration. “We see our mission as healing the lives of the broken.”
4. Mission as a group of people sent as missionaries to a strange culture. “I am joining the Baptist mission in Thailand”.
5. Mission as a service provided for the needy. “I have joined up with the Mission to Seamen”.
We have secret missions, Mission to Mars, and military missions. Many companies have mission statements.
Theology of Christian Mission
Christian mission belongs to God. Christian mission is God’s engagement with the world, highlighted in the sending of Jesus into the world.
The people of God are called to join in the mission of God in worshipping, witnessing and serving in the wider community. This participation is inspired by the gospel story and words/actions of Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20).
The fruit of God’s mission is brought about by the Holy Spirit acting in, through and beyond the people of God. The results are lives transformed, communities changed and people made whole (Luke 4:18-19).
The mission of the Church embodies God’s sending character in action and community.
What does Christian mission look like?
1. Christian mission begins and continues with personal and communal everyday discipleship.
2. Christian mission involves sending – commissioning – recognising that we’re on the move, not static.
3. Christian mission involves proximity with the wider community – involving listening and dialogue.
4. Christian mission is as much about communities, networks as about individuals.
5. Christian mission involves worship as much as evangelism and serving.
6. Christian mission’s end goal is the Kingdom of God – relationships reflecting the character and purposes of God.
Hi, my name is Neil Barringham and I’m a member of the Waiters Union Training Team. I live in Highgate Hill with my wife Penny and our two children. As a family we are currently including Penny’s 93-year-old mother into our home and neighbourhood. This is an exciting and challenging venture, challenging me to deal with my penchant for busy-ness and to find ways to open up time and energy to welcome her to our home.
I have been involved in responding to the call to mission for some years. Currently I am particularly interested in spending time in my neighbourhood with people who don’t normally get given the time of day by others. For example, I go on a regular picnic to catch up with some isolated people. Through knowing them I get the opportunity to get involved in issues they face around housing, friendship, employment or abuse. It’s been great exploring how to include our friends into a local church community too.
In my work with Vision for Mission I am facilitating Project Hope with Neil Hockey. Project Hope is a network for nurturing hopes, for reminding us of our call and for helping us to be more genuinely engaged in our communities. I facilitate a Project Hope meeting in West End every six weeks or so on a Saturday morning. The purpose of the meetings is for camaraderie, reflection, inspiration, story-sharing and training. People travel from across Brisbane and even from around the region to these meetings. Usually there are 15-25 in attendance. Generally our meetings begin with a cup of tea and a welcome time. Then follows a presentation or story with discussion.
People say that they find the meetings a safe place and an opportunity for discussion about issues they don’t get much input on. Some who attend are active in their local congregations. Project Hope is also a support base for others who do not currently have meaningful church involvement.
I have been involved in responding to the call to mission for some years. Currently I am particularly interested in spending time in my neighbourhood with people who don’t normally get given the time of day by others. For example, I go on a regular picnic to catch up with some isolated people. Through knowing them I get the opportunity to get involved in issues they face around housing, friendship, employment or abuse. It’s been great exploring how to include our friends into a local church community too.