sustain:if:able kiwi

Learning and development: a Salvation Army after-dinner mint

I am with the Salvation Army in Wellington this evening. I have been asked to present a keynote address at the Salvation Army’s inaugural Learning and Development Conference. It involves around 50 executive leaders from across the Army, wrestling with how they might collaboration in training. I have been asked to provide an after dinner speech, in which I, as an outside voice, address the question

Why would the Salvation Army even be doing learning and development, and what is at stake?

After some considered reflection, and rifting through quite a bit of recent speaking material around innovation and discipleship, I’ve returned to something I did in Australia in February 2015, speaking to a group of funders of the Uniting College about the future of the church. It means I will speak under three headings.

• What is God up to?
• What lies in a “Kingdom” kete (basket)?
• Three stories from my own experience

Under each of these headings, I will weave three repeating threads

• the move from centre to edge, learnt to play away from home
• the moving from monocultural to multi-cultural, learning to lead across cultures
• the move from face to face to digital, becoming fluent with faith formation in digital worlds.

It has been at least seven years since I was last with the Salvation Army in New Zealand and will be my first non-Presbyterian outing since I’ve returned to New Zealand. I’ve never seen myself in the after-dinner mint category – you know inspiring, funny – but despite these limitations, I’m looking forward to it.