sustain:if:able kiwi

msm adelaide update 1

The start of the first ever mission-shaped ministry course in Adelaide is only a week away (starting Wednesday 27 July) and the working team met for a final planning meeting yesterday.

There are some real encouragements.

• Enrolments currently stand at 45 29.
• We will have a group from Kangaroo Island part of through the use of (touch wood) Skype technology
• We have a teaching team that includes at least 15 people, ensuring a genuine team feel
• We  have four hardworking hosts, from four denominations, that will also ensure a genuinely ecumenical feel.

It is amazing that only 8 months ago, November 2010, was the first meeting of a group from around Australia to simply canvas the possibility of working together. And now, it’s about to start. (If you want more of this history, go here)

I left reflecting on what it means to be a pioneer. I was thanked for being willing to be the first speaker on the first night. But for me, it’s a privilege. I’m energised by that sense of uncertainty and unknown.

I (as a pioneer) am needed.

Yet I know that once a thing starts, I find it much more difficult to pay attention and keep focused. While others are energised by having a pattern and a template, which they can refine and improve.

They too are needed.

As it says in the Basis of Union, “The Uniting Church … acknowledges with thanksgiving that the one Spirit has endowed the members of Christ’s Church with a diversity of gifts, and that there is no gift without its corresponding service.”