\ NEW SOUTH WALES & ACT \
T
he past two years has been a period of adjustment for our state, as I navigated my first two years as State President. This meant a re-evaluation across all areas of what we do, who we are, and how we spend our budget.
The State Executive and I have felt to bring a particular emphasis/ focus (with a measurable strategy and outcome) in:
Community Services • Chaplaincy retreat • Supervision/Mentoring
• Raising more young leaders/pastors. • Planting Churches that plant churches (20 churches a year by 2023 with a commitment to sow financially into places which are deemed growth areas with no ACC Church).
Events Our Core Team and Key Leaders Retreat continues to be an important annual event. This two-day retreat has proven to be important to create a culture and set a common focus(s) that empower our churches and pastors to move forward.
• Resourcing churches to strengthen their discipleship culture. • Supporting Indigenous (identifying and raising more Indigenous pastors and helping local churches be culturally aware).
Our 2019 State Conference was one of our best attended conference with Jemima Varughese, Paul Scanlon, Paul Bartlett, Corey Turner, and Keith Farmer bringing powerful sessions that equipped and developed our pastors.
We continue to focus on mentoring (we have 30 trained mentors and supervisors) of which we contribute to the cost for any pastor that chooses to utilise. In the first quarter of 2021, we had a retreat with our executive, regional leaders, and state department heads. Their feedback was the lean in and enthusiasm for our state has never been higher!
In contrast, 2020 was completely different, as we had a oneday conference online! It was a great success as we had 899 registrations and 3,100 people join us online. All our speakers, Carey Nieuwhof, myself, and Shane Willard spoke clearly into this season that we find ourselves leading in, while giving us insight into our future. We also ended the day with 9 optional breakout sessions which were attended by many of our pastors and leaders.
Leadership 2020 was our voting year at our State Conference (facilitated totally online via electronic voting, Zoom and business sessions, and break-out groups, which saw Bruce Robertson (Robbo) deciding not to stand for another term and Stephen Lott (Lotty) being elected for 2020-2022. We thank Robbo for his leadership and friendship.
In February 2021 we held an ‘Indigenous Awareness Seminar’ led by Sinead Dumas, who consults and works alongside churches and senior leadership to bring cultural safety packages and training. The seminar explains historical issues that Indigenous Australians face, with a Biblical & God-focused lens, to enable change and action from within the Church. This seminar personally impacted our team (and many we talked to) in so many ways and left us with new perspectives, challenged our bias’, and gave us some great ways to reach the Indigenous in our communities.
As a team, the State Executive, have brought new thinking, new strategies and changes to our state, particularly in giving each member of the State Executive responsibility and accountability for ministry areas. We have also prioritised investment into our ministry and regional leaders so they can carry the vision and focus into their spheres of influence. Stats
Goals
• 323 NSW & ACT ACC churches • 26 new churches have been added over the past 2 years (Church planting is a strong goal for us over the next 5 years) • 924 credentialed pastors • Over the period of 2017 – 2018 we credentialed 6 SMC, 106 PMC, 50 OMC, & 11 OMC Transfer Credentials
As we emerge from the pandemic, and realise how difficult 2020 was, there are many things we have learnt that will help us lead our movement and churches better in the coming decade. Carey Nieuwhof says, “Crisis is the great accelerator”. We must recognise we can reach more people when we become more strategic with our digital platforms and realise that the goal is not simply large numbers gathering but raising up disciples that themselves make more disciples.
Training & Resources We currently host: • • • • • • • •
Two Ministry Essentials per year. Two Church Planting/Blank Canvas Retreats per year Emerging Leaders Retreat, Youth Leaders (Youth Alive) Retreat, Kids Pastors Training Days and catch-ups, SRE Teacher Training Days Emeritus Lunches in specific regions Community Engagement Online summit and have partnered with Alphacrucis to facilitate the Diploma in
While the future is different, I believe that ACC NSW/ACT is well positioned to help resource and lead all our pastors and churches strategically into the next decade. PAUL BARTLETT State President: NSW & ACT
43
