\ ACC COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT \
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ommunity engagement is embedded into our culture. The strength of our gospel is not simple to be the mouthpiece of our great message but the hands and feet of Jesus to the many lonely, disconnected, and struggling people. When we get this combination right, people are transformed.
Leadership Like most National ministry departments, we aim to have a representative Community Engagement Leader in each state: National Leader – Paul Bartlett NSW/ACT – Andrew Harper WA – Josh Fernandez VIC – Daniel Sanders TAS – Dermot Cottuli Tara Conradt and John Rewald have stepped down from their role as WA and QLD/NT leaders, we thank them for their hard work and amazing loyalty to Community Engagement. We are currently looking to fill the positions in SA and QLD/NT. Stats During 2019 and 2020 we continued to train ACC pastors and leaders. Diploma of Community Services: This course is designed to equip people to think and act differently regarding community transformation. In partnership with Alphacrucis and ACC Community Engagement we were able to offer this course in person and online during 2020. In 2019 10 Students were enrolled and in 2020 , there were 14 students. Events Because of our inability to host large gatherings during 2020, we were unable to host our ACC Community Engagement Conference. However, as many organisations did, we moved online. The Community Engagement team hosted over 130 participants for the first online Summit on September 10, 2020. As part of the Summit Paul Bartlett shared from Isaiah 54:2 “Enlarge the place of our tent” and focused on finding new ways to do this, not just hanging on till we can go back to doing what we used to do. State Leaders were also given opportunity to provide practical suggestions on how to engage with your community and Nic Mackay, National Director for Cinnamon Network Australia, was able to update the participants on the relationship between ACC and Cinnamon. Because of the success of this format the Community Engagement team intend to host three more Summits during 2021. Training and Equipping We are almost at the end of our five year strategy to turn the inspiration of Community Engagement into training and qualifications available to every Pastor and Church. Our ‘Building Strong Communities’ one day workshop was on hold in 2020 but the team is looking to reshape this to be an online course during 2021. The course to date has been run in every state in Australia.
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