yes, I need another day in the week. in the middle of a very busy few weeks. last week was our third annual training weekend at college, where we try to have several learning streams running all weekend and attract a crowd. it has been growing slowly but is not yet a big event... about 75 enrolled for 6 'topics' (we offered 10 to start with). BUT it was a great weekend despite stormy weather. when people rate their experience consistently at 6-7 out of 7 on about a dozen evaluation scales, you must be doing OK.
the cancelled topics were evangelism, leading small groups, worship leading and contemplative living. nothing to do with the leaders who are all excellent, but it says a lot about what we try to do. people are trying to bag the church as 'not interested in evangelism'. I think the problem is that 'evangelism' is seen as a weird post-WWII project that has little to do with how I live, and that a training course is not the way to help me be genuine about how I live my faith. most churches dont have effective small groups ministry and also dont have anyone who wants to learn how (including the ministers - sorry, just a bit crabby) etc etc
we had the wonderful julie perrin leading storytelling and contributing to worship..., lee on "credible faith in a cynical world" (faith + science + ecology + post-modernity), vicky on Romans, beatrice on "listening and speaking from the heart" (pastoral care), deidre + vivien on childrens ministry, and me plus guests on "the welcoming church".
"the welcoming church" sounds like a contradiction. I love the topic at the same time as I despair at the assumptions and contradictions. it was a wonderful, open group of people and we had a great time together. I had done this as a short session elsewhere a few years ago, and re-working it into a weekend program was a good exercise. so much of it ends up being about things like - what is the church anyway, what is authentic life-giving community, what is generous hospitality, what are the entering and belonging spaces, how do you build relationships, how do we communicate well.... very fundamental questions. funny that no-one comes to an evangelism session but that the welcoming church was the most popular... says it all really.
i sleep badly leading up to and during such an event, so I flew to melbourne sunday night exhausted. staying with rod who I figure will be tired since he had major heart surgery recently. i fly into melbourne at 9.15 pm and roddy flies in at 11.15 pm!! he's healthier than i am! (all due to being told by your doctor to sleep during the day when you feel like it.... I suppose diet and exercise might contribute a bit....)
on monday I talked to a gathering of our state and national youth and childrens ministry people about our Big Year Out. although we're still in our first experimental year of the thing, they love the idea and are keen to explore how they might adopt and adapt it in other states/synods. exciting and a bit of a challenge for us here as well.
then back here and we have philip hughes from the christian research association here for a couple of days leading seminars on the "Spirituality of Gen Y" national research project. today we had a colloquium at college, a session at Annesley College tonight, and a lecture tomorrow night at the ACD. we're also meeting tomorrow to discuss the findings of the rural resourcing study that they have conducted on our behalf.
all great and I'm exhausted....
the subtext is that my sunday morning youth group filmed our second "lego Jesus" movie last sunday and it's up this sunday. i'm just going to hand the editing over to maddy...
next week is on to writing competencies and assessment tools for our new [national] ministry of pastor.
and that didn't include living in a family, apparently...
bring on the break in july!!!
[thank you for reading this far... it's all better than it sounds...]
thanks to 
how cool is this? is it for real?
