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Hi Guys,
Have you registered for surrender conference yet? Well get onto it. Good speakers and workshops are the norm, including this year has Dave Andrews “plan be” stuff ?and workshops run by the usual suspects?of the radical discipleship, social justice and peace ?mobs. ?Oh and tear are running slum survivor plus the youth night is a fun celebration. So cya there.
What is it?
SURRENDER is a message (and a conference!) that invites and encourages Jesus followers on a journey from believer to disciple. It?s an invitation to follow Jesus among the poor, to influence the broader climate of church opinion and sow seeds for the future of incarnational mission. SURRENDER does this by focussing primarily on inspiring young adults to engage directly with God through the bible, people facing oppression and fellow disciples on the road.
http://surrender.org.au/
Applications for the About FACE 2010 program close in 2 weeks ? Friday 26th February, 2010!
About FACE 2010 is a?Faith?And?Cultural?Exchange for young adults between 18 and 30 years, to take place from 26th June to 17th July, 2010.? Participants will elect to spend two weeks in a placement with either an Aboriginal community in Australia, or with one of our partner churches in the Asia-Pacific region. The About FACE program is an exciting and strategic opportunity for young adults to participate in the reconciliation and covenanting process with Aboriginal communities in Australia, and to share in solidarity with partner churches in the region.
The program will raise awareness of what it means to live in a global community, and to share resources and opportunities responsibly and with justice. It aims to create an ?about face? in the attitudes and lifestyles of participants, and to build relationships and bridges of understanding. About FACE is not simply an event for an individual, but is a shared experience with congregations and communities.
In 2010, placements will be within indigenous Australian communities, SE Asia, South Asia and the Pacific.
For more information please visit the About FACE website ??www.aboutface.org.au (the website is currently in the process of being upgraded, so it may look a little different from when you visited last time).?? You are also welcome to contact either Jill or Tess in the Justice & International Mission Unit on (03) 9251 5271 or?info@aboutface.org.au
note from Age
Hi guys if your thinking of applying but are unsure if it is for you …. then that wonder mean yes it is you - register already and I will see you at briefing. - I’m already looking forward to this years mob - gotta love about face!!!
facebook event here
UCA YOUTH KICKOFF on the 30th of Jan.
As you can see we have a great line up of Simeon, Tam Peters and DJ Rave?nMad. Check out Simeon and Tam?s websites, they have samples of their music.
We are inviting you with your friends to go the beach for the arvo then have fish and chips for dinner before you walk up the road to St Andrews where we will have the open air caf? happening and dance hall going off.
This is a great chance for groups to kick off the year together and be part of the wider community of young people in VicTas. If you are from the country and would like to stay overnight, please get in touch with me and we can organise something.
If you are unable to make it to our gathering can I suggest you get together with your group and go out for dinner. This way you can be part of the greater gathering even though you are unable to make it to Black Rock. If this is what you are doing then please let me know about it.
cya all there!!
Facebook event here
From Diane’s blog:
Alright so, anger and sadness have filled my thoughts for the last couple of days as I had big plans for this week.?Anti-poverty Week was suppose to be a time where people bridge the gap, get to know and maybe make?a difference in the lives of some people in poverty. There is this carpark ramp?at the back of my work, where some people have made their home. During the day their belongings are neatly stored in the cable trays that hang under the concrete slab above, no one would know during the day that anyone called this home. I work long hours and this is how my friends and I?met.?My plan this week was to make sure that each night?there was?dinner, or some new blankets, or even something like some flowers. I even thought of doing a painting. Alas ? my plans have changed. Monday morning, bright and fresh I strolled down the alley to find a dirty great big roller door stuck on the outside of the building…
Read the full post for the whole story… 
Scholarships are Go! Last July we offered scholarships to attend the School of Discipleship (July 10-13) in Canberra. Six young adults Laura, Bron, Kelly, Am?, Andrew and James took up the chance and have written short reflections about connecting ‘faith and life’. Here is Andrew’s reflection ….
Connecting to my faith in the hustle and bustle of the big city can be an incredible challenge. Between work, gym, dance classes, bible study and worship, there isn?t much time left in the day to just sit and be with God. Sometimes I feel like us Christian youth are in denial about how much time we actually devote to God, pretending to be well connected to Him through a regular routine of prayer and reflection, and we surely must read the bible nightly.
You can imagine my excitement when I found a group of fellow Christians who I could relate to. Those who see that we are a fellowship of broken souls, who hopelessly follow Christ in the best way we know how. We all struggle through, and find God in brief but tantalizing glimpses when we least expect it. These tiny glimpses spurs us on to try and get to know God more.
So I look back at my experience at the School of Discipleship and appreciate all the conversations and good times I shared with the other delegates. I remember sharing my frustration about how little of the bible I have read recently, I remember not being alone. I remember sharing stories of how I just don?t know what to do with my friend who?s gotten mixed up with drugs, I felt supported. I remember lamenting the plight of displaced and dispossessed peoples in our lands, I felt us standing together.
I drove to the convention, which was held in Canberra. On the return trip I found my mind wandering to how I could follow God better. How could I connect my busy life with God?s work? After all, I?m only 23, what impact could I possibly have on the world? How can I be a witness to God in my everyday life? After the nine hour drive, I still didn?t have any answers, but somehow that didn?t matter. I realized that perhaps my mind wandering was my own way of connecting with God, and that this journey through life is only just beginning.
Andrew Wheatland
(If you are interested the next round of scholarships email Age = age@morepraxis.org.au)
The World Council of Churches (WCC) will welcome five young people (aged 18-30 years) to serve as interns in its Geneva offices from February 2010 to January 2011. Interns bring valuable experiences to the WCC at the same time as they undertake several modules of ecumenical learning.
The next 12 months’ internship period begins in February 2010. In Geneva, the interns will be assigned to one of the WCC working areas. They will carry out their tasks in cooperation with programme staff and under individualized supervision. During their stay in Geneva each intern is expected to plan an ecumenical project to implement in his or her home context when they return in February 2011.
The next generation of interns’ areas of work will be 1. International Ecumenical Peace Convocation; 2. youth and ecumenical formation; 3. visitors programme/media relations; 4. mission and evangelism; and 5. ecology and social justice.
Successful candidates are people committed to the ideals of the ecumenical movement, who will bring their energy, commitment and a fresh vision to their specific work assignment. Applicants must send, along with their application, background information about their church or Christian youth network that will help them in implementing their proposed ecumenical project.
Closing date for receiving applications for the five internships is 30 September 2009. As the ability to work in English is a necessary qualification, applications must be written in English.
More information on the WCC internship programme:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3187
Information requests and applications should be sent to: wccinterns@gmail.com
Those aroung OZ… Please contact Sandy Boyce, sandyeboyce@gmail.com if you are interested in this opportunity, or know of someone who might be. Please pass on to people in your networks.
Hey peeps here is a thought provoking article by?Bob Lupton?about OS mission trips, work parties and the like. Have read reflect and tell me what you think. (I have put the whole article up as the url points to all FCS articles)
?They?re turning my people into beggars!? It was a painful accusation for Juan Ulloa to make. He was a churchman, after all. An elder. With loyalty to the household of faith. But when asked the question directly, he could not lie. I had pressed him on the relationship of his micro-lending organization to the churches of Nicaragua. Juan was the executive director of a Christian micro-finance ministry that made many thousands of small loans to Nicaraguan peasants. It seemed to me a reasonable inquiry to understand how they worked together with local churches. Hesitantly at first, Juan explained that there were entire sections of the country where his loan officers could not make any loans at all. These were the regions where a concentration of churches from the U.S. conducted their mission trips. ?People say ?Why should we borrow money when the churches give it to us???
The people were right, of course. What peasant scratching out a bare existence could refuse suitcases bulging with new clothing for his family? What struggling pastor could resist the temptation to accept a steady salary and generous church income in exchange for hosting visitors, organizing volunteer work, and staffing funded programs? What village would borrow money to dig a well or buy books for their school library or save money to build a church if these things were provided for them free of charge? If all they had to do was make their wish lists, show up for the schedule arranged by the donors, and smile graciously until their benefactors head back home, who would blame them for accepting this easy charity?
No, Juan was not blaming his people for becoming beggars. He was faulting the affluent, well-meaning U.S. church for its unexamined generosity. His accusations, now pouring forth with considerable force, were directed at na?ve ?vacationaries? who spend millions of dollars traveling to his country, perform work that locals could better do for themselves, and create a welfare economy that deprives a people of the pride of their own accomplishments ? all in the name of Christian service. The unintended consequences of such mission work was undoing the very vision Juan had given his life to ? helping his people emerge from poverty through training, entrepreneurship, saving and hard work.
For some reason U.S. churches, filled with results-oriented members, seem oblivious to the abysmal outcomes of many if not most mission trips. Perhaps because it feels so good to be giving to those so much worse off, or because unconditional serving seems so Christ-like, the Western church embraces with great pride an unexamined form of charity that our nation as a whole rejected with the passage of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. We know that welfare creates unhealthy dependency, that it erodes a work ethic, that it does not elevate people out of poverty. Yet, in the name of Christ, we perpetuate this very welfare principle in the way we do missions. And the trend is growing!
A Princeton University study found that in one year (2005) 1.6 million church members took mission trips ? an average of eight days ? at a cost of $2.4 billion. And the number has grown every year since. ?Religious tourism? as some call it has become a growth industry. The web is full of agencies (denominational and para-church) ready to connect churches to a ?meaningful mission experience? in an exotic location rife with human need. The Bahamas, for example, receives one short-term missionary for every fifteen residents.
More scornful critics point to the make-work nature of many missions trips. Like the wall built on an orphanage soccer field in Brazil that had to be torn down after the visitors left. And the church in Mexico that was painted six times during one summer by six different missions groups. And the church in Ecuador built by volunteers that was never used because the community said it was not needed.
But in fairness to our U.S. churches, many of our motives are noble. We want to excite our members about missions. We want to expose youth and adults to the needs of a hurting world. We want to engage our people in life-changing experiences. We desire deeply to obey the teachings of Christ to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, show compassion to the oppressed and spread the Good News. But because we view missions through the lens of our church ? that is, what will benefit?our?people the most, what will be most rewarding for?us, what will appeal the most to?our?members ? we neglect to consider what is in the best interests of those we would serve.
How?we serve is equally important to?who?we serve. Take the well that my church dug for a rural Honduran village. The remote peasant community needed water. The obvious solution: dig them a well. There was great celebration when the first water was pumped to the surface and villagers filled their jugs with cold, pure water. But when our missioners returned the following year the pump was idle and locals were again carry water from a distant supply. We repaired the pump. But by the time we returned the following year it had broken down again. This happened repeatedly year after year. The village simply waited until their benefactors returned.
Compare this experience to the remote mountain village in Nicaragua where a different strategy was employed. A community developer, recruited from the U.S. and supported by Juan?s micro-lending organization, assisted the residents in creating a plan for a much needed well. She arranged financing conditional upon villagers investing their own money from their meager savings. She then connected them with a reliable Nicaraguan engineer, and helped them organize a water commission to set fees, collect water bills, manage finances and maintain their new utility. Village men provided all the labor, digging trenches, laying water lines and setting 250 meters. When the pump was switched on and water surged to the homes, the village erupted with pride. Their water supply, they soon learned, was abundant ? sufficient to allow them to sell water to the adjacent village. They now?owned?andmanaged?a wealth-producing asset. The lesson: never deprive people of the satisfaction of doing for themselves.
?Above all, do no harm.? It?s the bottom line of the Hippocratic Oath that has guided the conduct of physicians for centuries. It is time for the Western church to apply the same principle.
PS: Some believe that short-term missions trips whet the appetite for long-term mission involvement. Research does not support this claim however. In spite of all the moving testimonies of ?life-changing experiences? by returning short-termers and the occasional example of full-time missionaries who point to a mission trip as the catalyst for their calling, there is no evidence that missions as a whole has benefitted. As a matter of fact, while short-term mission trips have increased dramatically over the past two decades, support of long-term missionaries has declined. Strangely, the correlation seems to be inverse. Perhaps because we have spent so lavishly on ?religious tourism? we feel that our financial responsibility to missions has been discharged. Or is it that long-term missionaries do not serve the immediate self-interest of our church?
Bob Lupton
continue reading more from FCS - urban perspectives
praxis09 - A Disturbing Peace
Think, pray, play and meet with more of your tribe who long for a Christian spirituality that interconnects social action and theological reflection.
Been waiting for this? Good, so have we.
Where: Clifford Park Scouts camp site - Clifford Rd, Wonga Park VIC (Melways 24 J6)
45 mins from Melbourne
Online Rego here and facebook event to help spam the gathering here
Costs PP: $45 Cabin, $30 Camp, Food $25 Adult/$15 Kids, Day Pass $35
This is an All Play event - Come ready to share.
http://www.regonline.com/praxis09
You have been preparing all your life to lead a conversation on something - come prepared to engage that conversation but don?t stress on the preparation. Currently options include? ‘lightning talks’ (your 5minutes of fame to spark more conversations), sacred space installation, labyrinth, teepee time, a tech hub, activist hub, conversations on community leadership and conflict, sleep out in a slum experience, a kids quest, sumo suit and music + your ideas/talents we would enjoy??
Also, there will be a space set aside for participants to propaganda/promote their group, cause, next action, t-shirt, study, book?. you get the idea. (byo? for your promo space)
If you are at a junction where you need to think and chat about your vocation and the direction of your life with active, prayerful and wise mentors and co-travelers ? there will be a bunch at praxis>09 to bounce ideas with.
If you are a family that is interested in connecting social justice and spirituality then this gathering has space for your needs. The site is well equipped for free play and organised chaos
Put this in your diaries and help shape what we do here in the comments bit- From the evaluation of last time - the toasted stories around campfires seemed very popular last time as did informal discussion time and the space to pray and relax with family and like minded or at least interesting people. Having content was good, as was free time and including families was great.
Download the PDF flyer?here
Hi guys below are the detail to what used to be know as Christ in the Community course, living up with Dave Andrews and other friends in west end Qld for a couple of weeks. ?There are a number of people around our networks who have done this and I would recommend it as the best of all the live in intentional community/discipleship learning options out there. So if you are keen… contact them, ?and as always I am ?happy to chat more about this with you. Age
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The Waiters Union is offering three options for people who want to learn how to live compassionately as a disciple of Christ in response to the distress of people in our communities.
Community Orientation Course (Two weeks)
An intensive course in West End, Brisbane held midyear (June/July), and again at the end of the year (early December). The course is a two-week, grass-roots, face-to-face, show-and-tell, do-it-and-discuss-it intro to Christ-centred community work. A range of inputs from people involved with aborigines, refugees and people with dis-abilities in the neighbourhood. Most of the time participants live in a joint household, but will be able to stay over night now and then with people in the community. The course includes personal reflection, interpersonal interaction, group process, cooperative organisation, whole-hearted, holistic engagement, cross-cultural dialogue, practical service and nonviolent action. The costs of the course are decided by the participants in a group cost-sharing work-shop, that we run as part of the course.
A brochure (?inside?and?outside?) with upcoming course details can be found by clicking?here?and?here
2009 Course dates June 21- July 4;December 6-19
Community Work Placement (3 months)
Community Work Internship (6-12 months)
?
More info here?http://www.waitersunion.org/training.htm#communityorientation
Contact:Evonne Richards
P61 (7) 32172323 or 0422601439
E.?evonne@blackstarcoffee.com.au
Website:?http://www.waitersunion.org
Hi Guys, I am having some chats about this program/idea and Vic/Tas next week. Any comments,thoughts or interest off the bat? Age
Are you feeling the need for ?time out??
A change of direction?
Space to breathe?
Have you been challenged to get serious about your faith? To make a difference? Be an agent of change?
The Big Year Out is a new adventure in living and serving for Christian young adults aged 18 to 30 years. It?s a year-long experience that you can take on part-time or full time. The Big Year Out includes
- a one-week discipleship intensive (9-13 February 09)
- a weekly community day of sharing, learning, inspiration and spiritual growth
- a weekly, hands-on mission placement in a church community service agency
- a mid year cross-cultural?trip for three weeks including briefing and de-briefing
- a spiritual growth plan that takes you deeper in prayer and reading the Bible
- an end of year discernment retreat
- and more ?
The Big Year Out is a part-time program. Along with the Discipleship Intensive and cross-cultural trip, each week from March you participate in the Community day and one day of mission service. That leaves the rest of your week free for part-time work, study, whatever.
http://thebigyearout.com/
Download a postcard here: bigyearout_postcard_web.pdf
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