Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Study Tour
A group of us have just been part of the second Youth Vision Study Tour. 2 years ago we took 14 from QLD and 17 from WA to Sydney. This year we had about 45, with 15 from QLD and others from every state. Firstly we had a 2 day National Gathering of http://www.youthvision.org.au/ , where we stayed in a monastery, which provoked numerous immature jokes.Then for the tour we moved from the monastery to the nunnery (he he), a backpackers resort in Fitzroy, walking distance to the city. Great place. From there we visited a great variety of ministries. If you want more info on any of that, have a look in comments
Comments:
Planetshakers was a fascinating Church. They have 3000 people attending after being open for 18 months. One of the guys we spoke to was a youth pastor from a Church of Christ in WA, who felt called by God to be part of the startup of planetshakers. He worked full time for a year before the Church started paying him, and that sort of commitment, dedication, sacrifice and passion is built into the fabric of the Church. Their Friday night youth program attracts 500 kids, almost all of whom are bussed into the Church from their school. The Church runs youth programs in many schools, then provides a bus to bring the students in. Their paradigm there is about praise and worship – or singing to God if you prefer. Their youth program on Friday night is very similar to the normal services, just younger and louder. For them praise and worship is such a high priority that once they bus a student in, they will let the kid go out the front of the building and smoke during the sermon and offering, but they insist the student be in there for the singing, as they see that as the most important tool to transform their lives.
St Mark’s Anglican specialise in one to one evangelism. The pastors are all evangelists by gifting, and this filters down to the key leaders and then to the rest of the congregations. Now it’s part of the DNA of the Church. It’s not rare to walk into a youth activity and see two kids looking into a Bible together, one leading the other to a relationship with Jesus. They also are heavily involved in welfare ministries, helping youth wherever they can, often getting paid by the Government to do it. One contract they have is to help youth leaving prison to reintegrate with the rest of society – how terrific!
Youth Dimension (http://www.youthdimension.org.au) are the guys who coordinate the student focus program, and gave us the full story on their schools ministry.
Connections Church of Christ just about died when it got down to a dozen young adults, (albeit with a different name) but now have a thriving evening youth congregation, plus two smaller adult groups that meet in pubs on a Sunday morning. Ironically the youth have the traditional (almost) services with preaching and musical worship, while the adults have no singing and only a 5 minute sermon, but lots of discussion. http://www.connection.org.au/
Northern Communities Church of Christ again nearly died, but now has 7 congregations all meeting in different locations, times and styles throughout the week. Most have meals, communion, offerings and get into the Bible, but all from vastly different directions. http://www.nccc.org.au/ One service is what we would perceive as normal here. Others are based around eating meals, times of extended silence and meditation, scripture reflections, discussion, story telling, simulations. If you are part of the Church there you are expected to turn up to one service, not multiple, plus one mission activity, plus be involved with various spiritual disciplines.
The Living Room is a house Church, or actually three house Churches by now. The founder of the living room was immensely frustrated. He did lots of schools ministry, but was acutely aware that he spoke one language when he was in schools, and another language when he shared in Churches. He found many people committed to Christ through the schools ministry, but very few of them were able to connect with any Churches due to the massive cultural divide between the Churches and the rest of the community. He also was disturbed by the practice of Christians letting the Church fill their lives so that they had no relational space for non-Christians. Some good friends suggested to him that he could spend the rest of his life being bitter and angry and frustrated towards the Church, or he could birth something new.
Now their focus is on relationships, towards God, others and each other. Some nights they have meaty Bible studies, other nights focus on more contemplative prayer with various spiritual exercises, sometimes they have a certain topic to discuss, other times they play BYO worship, and everyone brings something to contribute towards the broader gathering for 3-4 minutes. Sounds rather biblical to me! Each night they eat together, pray together and share their lives. http://www.livingroom.org.au
Citylife is the second largest Church in Australia, with nearly 6000, and a plan to create satellite services so they reach 12000 in 5 years time. With a Church that big, they understand the crucial role of small groups and see them as the primary tools of pastoral care, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. What the large gatherings does best is praise and worship. For their youth ministry, they noted that the number one question asked by someone new when they arrived was “Do I belong here?” – and that’s a great insight. www.wcf.org.au
We did a tour of Telstra Dome, which was very cool, and spoke to the chaplain of the Melbourne Demons and the head of Sports and Leisure Ministries Australia. His role as chaplain is to go into the sporting culture of a professional footy club and be the presence of Jesus there. They become his Church, as he prays with them, does marital counseling with them, helps them grieve appropriately, helps them to deal with their successes and is there to assist wherever he can. He suggested that bi-vocational ministers like him will be needed more and more in the future – people who can earn a living outside the Church yet still devote their lives to serving God. Rather than hoping to bring people to a Church, he takes the Church to them himself.
UNOH, or Urban Neighbours of Hope is a group of people that are cross-cultural missionaries, but instead of going to another country, they are missionaries to the poor of Melbourne. They live amongst the poor, voluntarily limit their income and share their lives with them. Just like a traditional missionary overseas, they commit for the long term, live like the people they seek to reach, seek to build relationships, and create Churches that are suitable for the people living there. These are high commitment, Godly people who take seriously Jesus’ teaching on how to care for the poor. www.unoh.org/
Kardinia Christian Church is in a very poor area, and was a cool example of an old, traditional Church of Christ turning itself around with a leadership and outreach focus and now have 1000 people attending. Amazing stuff!
I think I still need to put together some more reflection on all of this!
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St Mark’s Anglican specialise in one to one evangelism. The pastors are all evangelists by gifting, and this filters down to the key leaders and then to the rest of the congregations. Now it’s part of the DNA of the Church. It’s not rare to walk into a youth activity and see two kids looking into a Bible together, one leading the other to a relationship with Jesus. They also are heavily involved in welfare ministries, helping youth wherever they can, often getting paid by the Government to do it. One contract they have is to help youth leaving prison to reintegrate with the rest of society – how terrific!
Youth Dimension (http://www.youthdimension.org.au) are the guys who coordinate the student focus program, and gave us the full story on their schools ministry.
Connections Church of Christ just about died when it got down to a dozen young adults, (albeit with a different name) but now have a thriving evening youth congregation, plus two smaller adult groups that meet in pubs on a Sunday morning. Ironically the youth have the traditional (almost) services with preaching and musical worship, while the adults have no singing and only a 5 minute sermon, but lots of discussion. http://www.connection.org.au/
Northern Communities Church of Christ again nearly died, but now has 7 congregations all meeting in different locations, times and styles throughout the week. Most have meals, communion, offerings and get into the Bible, but all from vastly different directions. http://www.nccc.org.au/ One service is what we would perceive as normal here. Others are based around eating meals, times of extended silence and meditation, scripture reflections, discussion, story telling, simulations. If you are part of the Church there you are expected to turn up to one service, not multiple, plus one mission activity, plus be involved with various spiritual disciplines.
The Living Room is a house Church, or actually three house Churches by now. The founder of the living room was immensely frustrated. He did lots of schools ministry, but was acutely aware that he spoke one language when he was in schools, and another language when he shared in Churches. He found many people committed to Christ through the schools ministry, but very few of them were able to connect with any Churches due to the massive cultural divide between the Churches and the rest of the community. He also was disturbed by the practice of Christians letting the Church fill their lives so that they had no relational space for non-Christians. Some good friends suggested to him that he could spend the rest of his life being bitter and angry and frustrated towards the Church, or he could birth something new.
Now their focus is on relationships, towards God, others and each other. Some nights they have meaty Bible studies, other nights focus on more contemplative prayer with various spiritual exercises, sometimes they have a certain topic to discuss, other times they play BYO worship, and everyone brings something to contribute towards the broader gathering for 3-4 minutes. Sounds rather biblical to me! Each night they eat together, pray together and share their lives. http://www.livingroom.org.au
Citylife is the second largest Church in Australia, with nearly 6000, and a plan to create satellite services so they reach 12000 in 5 years time. With a Church that big, they understand the crucial role of small groups and see them as the primary tools of pastoral care, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. What the large gatherings does best is praise and worship. For their youth ministry, they noted that the number one question asked by someone new when they arrived was “Do I belong here?” – and that’s a great insight. www.wcf.org.au
We did a tour of Telstra Dome, which was very cool, and spoke to the chaplain of the Melbourne Demons and the head of Sports and Leisure Ministries Australia. His role as chaplain is to go into the sporting culture of a professional footy club and be the presence of Jesus there. They become his Church, as he prays with them, does marital counseling with them, helps them grieve appropriately, helps them to deal with their successes and is there to assist wherever he can. He suggested that bi-vocational ministers like him will be needed more and more in the future – people who can earn a living outside the Church yet still devote their lives to serving God. Rather than hoping to bring people to a Church, he takes the Church to them himself.
UNOH, or Urban Neighbours of Hope is a group of people that are cross-cultural missionaries, but instead of going to another country, they are missionaries to the poor of Melbourne. They live amongst the poor, voluntarily limit their income and share their lives with them. Just like a traditional missionary overseas, they commit for the long term, live like the people they seek to reach, seek to build relationships, and create Churches that are suitable for the people living there. These are high commitment, Godly people who take seriously Jesus’ teaching on how to care for the poor. www.unoh.org/
Kardinia Christian Church is in a very poor area, and was a cool example of an old, traditional Church of Christ turning itself around with a leadership and outreach focus and now have 1000 people attending. Amazing stuff!
I think I still need to put together some more reflection on all of this!
