Riding the Waves conference
The IRC conference speakers provided hugely valuable insights, and encouragement, for those of us navigating change – and that’s pretty much all of us!
The day was a wonderful opportunity for more than 60 attendees to receive and reflect on missional approaches from many different perspectives. Although originally planned as a fully in-person event, one of the presenters tested positive for COVID and one could not travel from the UK because of a COVID diagnosis, and so they gave presentations on Zoom – a perfect illustration of the waves of change that all of us have faced in the last two and a half years! The presenters took us through a post-war history of the mission of the church in Australia; New Testament approaches to spiritual formation; assessing whether your local church is ready for change, and the dynamics of the change process in local churches. Read more from Pr Nathan Hedt’s article HERE
Below are some ‘take aways’ and links to resources from Vic District attendees:
“The great first century religions ‘of wood and stone and marble’ are extinct (think Rome and its great temples). The only two religions who have survived are the religions ‘of the book’, Christianity and Judaism. And you wouldn’t have bet on either of them in the first century!”
“Christianity does not save me from suffering – it gives my suffering new meaning”
“The primary task of the church is spiritual formation. We are rediscovering this. The Holy Spirit is working, through the church, to spiritually form us into the image of Christ. This is also known as discipleship formation. Spiritual formation is: a life-long process, a communal process, a thoughtful process. It’s a thoughtful process because God renews our minds as we read his word. Congregations do well when they focus on a few regular habits or practices that are communal, thoughtful and focussed on God’s word. God uses suffering and persecution to bring about spiritual formation.”
“COVID was not a snow storm, it ushered in a new ice-age and has given God’s church a chance to ‘tell it like it is’”
“Historically the church stuck around when plagues hit (unlike the pagan Roman elites who ran away from opportunities to be infected). And plagues hit regularly. Historians estimate that christian numbers increased by one third after major plagues. “How can we serve our neighbours best in a time of plague?”
“Let’s not waste a good crisis.”
(shared by Pastor for Congregational Support, Pr Brett Kennett)
A couple quotes stood out for me (both by Ian Robinson):
- “Whatever happened to the grasp Jesus had on us?” – referring to the way evangelism has all but disappeared from church agendas, and the fact that most church members rarely read their Bibles.
- “The church we are saving cannot be the one we have had.” – referring to the tendency, in challenging times, to want to return to what we have known rather than to seek to be the church we need to be in those challenging times.
(shared by District Bishop Lester Priebbenow)
My highlight was participating in a physical identification of our context as a part of exploring “ Theory U” from work by Otto Scharmer. The Rev’d Canon Dr Nigel Rooms asked us to position ourselves as a representation of where our Congregation/denomination was at in terms of working through the reality of our context as Church in a Post-modern world adapting to Change. It was interesting hearing from those at different points in the “U” in regards how it felt to be at that place in the journey.
About Theory U
IRC Open Day conference on 29th June 2022 : now available for viewing. Four videos, one for each speaker from the conference, on the New and Renewing Churches website: www.newandrenewingchurches.org.au/events
(shared by Congregational and Migrant Ministry Support Officer Erin Grainger)
