our new college

Last night we launched our 'new' college at our presbytery/synod meeting.

We had a jazzy-gospel band featuring the fergusons... Andrew Dutney preached on 1 Corintihians 12, and managed to connect that with the new college being like the bit of the travel guide that you rip out of the book to put in your back pocket while you're visiting that town. ie. this initiative is current, contextual, provisional and temporary. a great metaphor I thought.

The lowlight was that I had worked on a video for weeks and it looked absolutely crap onscreen. The widescreen was chopped off at bottom and side (although we'd earlier got it right) but the main problem was that the projector brightness was way up and it was all washed out. I was extremely disappointed, to say the least, and am still trying to figure out why it looked so bad.

we're sending a DVD to churches and will have stuff on our website when I can get to it. hopefully that will redeem me.

anyway.... for those who don't know, all faculty positions here are ending, with new positions created, some similar to previous, and others new. all new positions require a teaching focus on mission and leadership, and active faculty participation in a congregation or faith community (you'd think all that was obvious).

for those who know people here...
Vicky Balabanski continues as Lecturer in New Testament in the new role
Liz Boase from WA has come across to the new Lecturer in Old Testament position
Craig Bailey will be the Lecturer in Leadership, commencing mid-year

We're about to interview for the second time for a Lecturer in Missiology/Theology. Stay tuned...

Some of the future positions arent entirely clear, but there are some key shifts in what we're doing that I'll blog about shortly. I think its a creative and interesting change - far from perfect, but a good unsettling of the way things were.

My position here finishes in April 2010, and there will be a new position here for which I'll probably apply. However I've never been particularly worried about job security, or indeed working for the church forever, so I'm quite relaxed, and mainly asking what kind of work woud be satisfying for me and make a positive difference in the world. (so why is that I keep getting work that isnt as satisfying as I'd like, and more about changing the church than the world......)

Comments

[Rob H]

Hey Craig,
Thanks for a timely post... sorry about the video... reminds me of trouble with our XGA data projector that won't talk to my laptop so I can feel that defaltion after having put in so much time...

I'd love to hear and talk more about the 'new college' which we could certainly do with here... even if it were only the engagement part...

We are dealing here with the whole no money in 2 years thing and trying to find a constructive way thru... and the college shape and focus are just one small part... I might flick you some questions some time to help with my thinking.... maybe that's Tropfest payback!!

Catch you soon...