Witnesses To An Alternate Story Sam Hearn
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Risky Discipleship Gemma Bell
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The Brave Discipler Scott Mageean
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Disciples Making Disciples Alice Mundy
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Shopping for the Poor Colin Scott
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Bravery In The Middle Sam Curkpatrick
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Stepping Through Open Doors Michael Blumel
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Three Tensions in Partnering Against Poverty & How To Hold Them April Holmes
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Courage Andrew Menzies
21 WINTER 2017
Contributors Alice Mundy
April Holmes
Alice is a minister at Third Place Communities, a network of missional communities and passionate disciple-makers seeking to bless the suburbs of Hobart in Southern Tasmania. She is learning a lot about leadership, living in community, listening to the Spirit, and acting in obedience. She has begun a hairdressing apprenticeship with Jakadjari Hair Australia to explore the intrigue of bivocational ministry.
April is a student and the embody Relationships Manager for Vic/Tas. She previously coordinated project partnerships at Thankyou Group in Melbourne. April has a passion for international development which has taken her from India to the back streets of Keysborough, and to Timor-Leste for her honours research. She likes her boyfriend, her dachshund puppy, her community, coffee, and reading through her stack of overdue library books.
Andrew Menzies
Scott Mageean
Andrew is Principal at Stirling Theological College and a part of the kids’ ministry at Ringwood Church of Christ. The majority of his ministry years have been spent in ministry with young people in churches, in a rural secondary school, and as Director of Youth Services for South Australia and Northern Territory, but it is about to become real as his kids enter highschool next year.
Scott Mageean is the Co-Leader of Youth Vision Vic/Tas, focusing on empowering and equipping local leaders and ministries. He is passionate about the local church, which fuels his other Churches of Christ Vic/Tas role as Mission Activator for the Communities team. He and his wife Luella, with their large tribe of children, enjoy quality coffee, great tunes, Netflix, American sports, and road trips.
Colin Scott
Sam Hearn
Colin is the director of Churches of Christ Overseas Aid (COCOA), the relief and development program of Global Mission Partners. Colin has been in this role for 7 years, developing the program to qualify for federal government accreditation and building a small team. He also coordinates GMP church partnerships in NSW.
Sam seeks to follow the way of Jesus as a leader of a neighbourhood church community in a disadvantaged area on the Mornington Peninsula. He is the National Director of SURRENDER Australia and currently the youngest elected Councillor of the Mornington Peninsula Shire. He loves building and riding motorbikes, shooting hoops, and hitting the beach.
Michael Blumel Michael is the Youth and Young Adults Pastor at Deep Creek Anglican Church in Doncaster East. He is a graduate of Stirling Theological College and is passionate about seeing young leaders be given the chance to shape their future.
Sam Curkpatrick Sam is the Vic/Tas Partnership Coordinator with Global Mission Partners, is involved in youth ministry at Richmond Vietnamese Church of Christ, and tutors at Stirling Theological College. He loves mountain biking and music.
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Youth Vision Vic/Tas is the generational ministry arm of Churches of Christ in Victoria and Tasmania (CCVT).
Gemma Bell Gemma is Team Leader at Fusion Mornington Peninsula and Youth Ministry Facilitator with Mornington Church of Christ. The Bell family, husband Stuart and daughter Jade, live onsite at Fusion’s accommodation and support service for homeless young people. Gemma develops and delivers leadership and youth work training and awareness raising events to spark community change.
The Youth Vision team consists of Kat Deith, Scott Mageean, and Mitchell Salmon.
A | 1st Floor 582 Heidelberg Rd, Fairfield VIC 3078 P | 03 9488 8800 W | churchesofchrist.org.au/ youthvision E | yv@churchesofchrist.org.au
YVQ | Issue 16 | Winter 2017
From the Editor YVQ Annual 2017 You’re standing in a storm. Rain beats your face, wind howls in your ears. Waves thrash around you, roaring against one another like animals. You look down, seeing the gaping deep of the abyss beneath your feet. Water all around. Water above. Water below. Do you see the shifting shadows beneath the water? Do you see the grasping hands of the dead, of spirits and dark things, reaching up to wrap knife-like fingers around your ankles and pull you underneath? Does your breath catch in anticipation of the cold water rushing into your lungs? You’re standing at a banquet. People talk with one another. No one talks to you. No one is looking at you, but everyone knows you are there. You’re out of place. You’re a sore on otherwise smooth skin. You clutch your jar of perfume tightly, twisting the alabaster neck in anxiety. Do you recognise the men in the room? Do you see when their eyes slide over you, when they refuse to recognise you? Does your heart hammer in your chest, each beat a hammer in your ears, drowning out the dinner conversation? Fear and bravery are two key themes running through the Bible. ‘Brave’ moments appear in every major story as people follow God in risky and dangerous ways, sometimes risking life and limb and sometimes risking social ostracisation (in the times and cultures in the Bible, those two things are not so different from one another). Two examples that spring to mind from the Gospels are the story in Matthew 14 of Peter walking on water, and in Luke 7 of an unnamed woman anointing Jesus. These are two very different examples of bravery. Peter’s story is full of courage as he steps out of the (relative) safety of the fishing boat and onto the water—attempting to do, by faith, something that is literally impossible (cf. Matt 19:26). Without God’s miraculous intervention, possible outcomes that await those who attempt to walk on water during a storm include drowning and death. But even more pressing, to the ancient Jewish mind, was the spiritual reality of the underworld at the bottom of oceans. Peter stepped out to walk on top of Hell—bravery in the face of destruction of body and soul. The unnamed ‘sinner’ in Luke’s Gospel strikes a different but no less brave tone; here a ‘sinner’ enters a ‘righteous man’s’ home with the intent to interact with the most righteous man (perhaps only wholly righteous man) the world has ever known. Her presence—her very existence—there is in defiance of the religious leaders of her community. But she bravely continues to exist, and in fact goes above that to act, despite not being welcome, despite being dismissed. Jesus praises her for showing love, and fulfilling the customs their host ignored—defiant existence in the face of social risk. The common factor between Peter and the unnamed woman is that both found courage in Jesus. He was the focus of their courageous activities, the reason for them stepping out into danger. And in both cases he was there as defender and aid, saving them from destruction without removing risk.
Imagine A Fairer World YVQ Annual is an art journal for young and emerging artists to be published in November 2017. If you are a young and emerging writer or artist, you are invited to make a submission to YVQ Annual for a chance to have your work featured in this year’s anthology of essays, short stories, poetry, and visual art. Published works will explore the topic prompt “Imagine a fairer world” through art, writing, and poetry, with a particular eye on God’s imagination for a shalom‑centred world in which everyone, and particularly people on the margins, are loved, included, and advocated for. Submissions open September 1 to October 31 2017. For more information, visit churchesofchrist. org.au/yvqannual.
Letters to the Editor Something in this edition of YVQ stick with you, start you thinking, or make you want to explore the topic further? Address your letters to our editor and contributors to editor@churchesofchrist.org.au. Messages that move the conversation forward may be included in future editions of YVQ, with a response from the original contributor.
In this edition of YVQ we welcome a variety of writers continuing the discussions begun at State Youth Games 2017, and exploring what bravery looks like for different people in different contexts. It’s not a one size fits all concept, bravery. For some it’s adventure. For some it’s existence. But the focus is always Jesus, and he is always active. —Mitchell Salmon
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Witnesses To An Alternate Story Writer Sam Hearn
I think it’s interesting that, in our modern presentations of the story of Jesus and his message, we often start with recognising the way in which it impacts upon us as individuals who are being eternally and spiritually redeemed, and from there widen outwards to recognise his impact upon society, humanity, and the world. This is in many ways the opposite trajectory to how his first disciples progressively encountered and understood Jesus and his message. They encountered him first as a real person in the midst of the tangible dynamics of their society and community, and found in him a witness of a different way for the world and their society to be, and a different way for people to live. Then, subsequent to his death and resurrection, they began to more fully understand and develop theology around the eternal and spiritually transformative significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for all peoples, times, and places. The simple fact that the New Testament progresses from the stories and teachings of the Gospels to the unpacking of beliefs and ideas in the letters of Paul and the other apostles is evidence of this. In churches, we often speak about the way in which the one moment of the cross changed the course of history, but we cannot forget that in exactly the same manner the three years of Jesus’ lived ministry in Galilee and Judea turned the world upside down. In fact, in the 1st century AD context that he was born into, Jesus was crucified by the authorities for seeking to bring a radically different world. The society looking on at the events of Jesus’ life and death were very much aware that he was being executed for seeking to see a Kingdom not like the kingdoms of the world—a way of life not like the systems of the world. They understood that his speaking of truth and turning things upside down was a direct and undisguised attack on the unjust, oppressive, and controlling political and social hierarchies of their society. By bringing the margins and the rejected into the centre, into the very family of God, and demonstrating that God is good, merciful, gracious, healing, and forgiving—and not controlling, rejecting, oppressing, and condemning—Jesus was undermining the ways in which economic and social status were stripped from the many and controlled by the few. It’s no surprise that in stark contrast to Jesus’ expression of abundant love, forgiveness, and grace it was the sin, the corruption, the deceit of humanity that crucified him. Those who felt their power and status threatened used lies, power, religious control and judgmentalism,
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wealth and privilege, and finally violence to seek his destruction. These things aren’t just theories; they are really happening in our own world and communities! Destructive forces are creating stories of brokenness while the Kingdom of light seeks to break forth in stories of hope and love. I was reminded of this last year on one weekend in the life of my own neighbourhood in the best and worst kind of way. On that Friday, we spent a great afternoon with a dozen or so people working on our neighbourhood garden that sits behind our local community centre. We pulled out the remains of the summer’s season’s planting and weeded the beds. We picked up a trailer load of manure and turned the beds over, mixing the manure through the soil to enrich it before we planted the autumn veggies. We also put up a colourful and beautiful mural on the back fence which reads in bright bold letters, ‘Love Thy Neighbour’. It was a great afternoon. The sun shone and a whole bunch of the teenage boys we mentor turned up to help without much prompting at all. They worked like Trojans and didn’t complain one bit. Most stuck round until the whole job was done! At about 1 AM that night, in a street just around the corner from the garden and its new mural, there was a shooting. An altercation happened between two men in their 20s that were living right next door to each other. A fist fight broke out, and then one of the men went next door, got a gun he had in the house, and came back and shot the other man through the jaw and stomach before fleeing on a dirt bike. Police and ambulance sirens immediately filled the air, and the streets were blocked off in response. Our local newspaper’s Facebook page picked up on it immediately and very quickly people were commenting about how bad our neighbourhood is and how well known it is that everyone who lives there are ‘scum’ and ‘what else do you expect in Tanti?’ My first emotional responses were anger and outrage at the prejudice shown, and sadness and bitter disappointment that once again the story told about my neighbourhood was the one of two people acting out of hate and violence, rather than the one of the more than fifty local people that have been part of creating a beautiful space of belonging, rest, and life together in the garden. But as I reflected, I understood that this is always part of the journey for us as followers of Christ seeking to live out his kingdom in real places with real people. The story of brokenness and fallenness is real and ever present, and
Another alternative story is a story of bravery in the midst of brokenness that I encountered in the last few weeks unfolding in the neighbourhood of Risdon Vale in Hobart. This is an area known across the whole city for its struggles. Young people growing up there very much see systems and structures around them that reinforce a message of marginalisation and rejection. The community is built in a valley, and there is literally a prison overlooking the local school. Young people lift their eyes to the hills and see despair, not hope. Yet in this context I spent a day with a Christian guy who has spent the last 7 years living in the area as part of a missional community. He started a Risdon Vale Bike Collective as an expression of the transforming message of Jesus, where young people from the neighbourhood could gather and work on bikes and build both practical skills and a sense of belonging. They are mentored, valued, and cared for, and they always know that there is a place where they matter and are loved. And now they are changing their neighbourhood and the world. They all worked together to build a BMX track in the middle of their neighbourhood, and they filled an entire shipping container with hundreds of restored bicycles, tools, and parts that they then sent over to a community in Namibia as the start of a Bike Collective in Africa! Barack Obama spoke for the first time since the end of his term as US president to a group of students at the University of Chicago. He reflected on the way in which our world is facing immense challenges in the form of climate change, global inequality, hate speech and conflict, the tidal wave of displaced people and refugees, and the mental health epidemic. He said that in reflecting on this and his own experiences as a young man seeking change in the neighbourhoods of Chicago, he had realised that the most meaningful thing he can do with the rest of his life’s work is to invest in the next generation and support them taking up the baton of bringing change and seeking justice for a better world. I thought it was very interesting that rather than seeing himself as individually needing to try to bring whatever power and influence he has to bear, he saw the answer and hope lying in the empowerment of grassroots transformation led by the many not the few.
YVQ | Issue 16 | Winter 2017
people live their lives marked by fear because of it. But we are called to be people who invite others to see and experience a different story, the story of Jesus that calls us to ‘love thy neighbour’ and respond with trust and an open hand rather than a closed fist. As Ivan Ilich says, “Change doesn’t come by evolution or revolution, but by telling an alternative story.”
Jesus’ invitation is to be part of remaking the world, society, humanity, but in his way it happens relationship by relationship, and place by place. It’s not done by celebrities and politicians but by his transforming love and power being expressed through ordinary people who are willing to live a different way. Governments, schools, churches, hospitals don’t care for people—people care for people. Will you follow Jesus and be part of remaking your school, neighbourhood, nation and world? Will you be brave enough to love? As we reflect on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and begin to fully understand the meaning that they hold, we also begin to discover that something supernatural alongside the social and political was occurring. The Jewish and Roman leaders knew they were executing him because of the revolution he was bringing to the systems of their society, but Jesus himself was conscious that he was submitting to suffering and death to take the fight directly to the disease and grip of sin in human hearts across all time and all places. He understood his death and pointed, through the first communion, to the fact that he was sacrificing himself in order to break the destructive power and hold that fear, greed, pride, and hate had over all humanity. He predicted his resurrection as the sign that this had indeed been broken and that the needed healing, the seed of truth and light and love planted in our hearts, has been made possible. The people he walked alongside in his life, and all who were to hear his message across the centuries that followed, were now able to be free to fully live the life of peace, love, and truth that he called them to. The way has been made for us to truly be reborn, recreated in his likeness. This is my story. I grew up in a family where, though my parents really loved me and invested in me in so many positive ways, they also carried and acted out of deep hurt and brokenness. My childhood was impacted by the uncertainty and poverty of unemployment and living off government benefits, and by the trauma of family violence, conflict, and breakdown. This led me to a place as a teenager and young adult of experiencing significant mental illness and homelessness. It was in this place that Jesus impacted me, and I clung on to and found promise healing and a new life in his words in Luke 4. I was brokenhearted, chained by darkness and
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“True bravery lies in taking the journey of being a wounded healer; recognising that you are both on a journey of being healed yourself while understanding that you also have the capacity and call from Jesus to reach out in love and compassion to be part of the healing journey of others.” fear, lashing out and hurting others. Yet it was there that the transforming presence of Jesus impacted me, and he is still taking me on a journey of personal healing that also propels me to be part of the story of him healing and redeeming my community and world. Now I’m the local councillor for the same community and streets I was homeless in! Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the Holocaust and its concentration camps writes in his seminal work Man’s Search for Meaning that in his personal observation all human suffering is equal, because all suffering is completely overwhelming for the person who is experiencing it. My story may not be your story, but all of us have suffering, pain, and the shadow presence of sin and brokenness as part of our story in some way. True bravery lies in taking the journey of being a wounded healer; recognising that you are both on a journey of being healed yourself while understanding that you also have the capacity and call from Jesus to reach out in love and compassion to be part of the healing journey of others. This is the example of Jesus and the message of his Gospel. He invites and calls us to be brave witnesses to both! ●
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YVQ | Issue 16 | Winter 2017
Risky Discipleship Writer Gemma Bell
Amy was having a moment of crisis. “I’m totally not cut out for this! I’m a terrible youth worker, I feel like I haven’t helped this girl at all!” It’s late at night. Amy is 18, still in Year 12, and we are in the middle of the outback, somewhere between Coober Pedy and the Northern Territory border. Annually, Fusion, the organisation I’m a part of, takes young people through Aboriginal communities, helping suburban kids empathise with and value First Nations people. Amy comes from a middle-class Christian home, and her upbringing has been the kind that includes comfortable wealth, the safety of a loving family, and a supportive church. Many people would call her blessed. Twelve months ago she asked to be mentored to support young people, stating she wants to learn how to follow Jesus. Did she really know what she was asking for? Not a chance. But now Amy has been one of many Christians that has experienced risky discipleship. For myself and our team, we follow Jesus to the margins. He has called us to live with the homeless, walk alongside people with crippling mental health, who live with the daily echoes of trauma, people who are often lonely isolated souls… this is the kind of blessed life we seek. I can recall a time when I too associated following Jesus to being some kind of serene peaceful life. Maybe with rainbows, sunshine, and puppy dogs, sanitised and romanticised by my own imagination. Can’t say that has been my experience. My experience has been earthy, gritty, wild, and somehow larger or denser than what I can contain. So I totally get where Amy is coming from—in fact, I kind of pity the dilemma she is in. Marie, the girl Amy is supporting, has lived most of her life in foster care, when she hasn’t been in foster care she has been in an abusive home. Marie has lived with stuff young girls shouldn’t ever be exposed to. Amy is realising just how hard life is for many people, and how far her own life is from the pain and suffering that this girl has experienced.
Asking a young Christian to live out the heart of God when they feel like they are falling apart—rough call, hey? I could write about the kinds of mentoring we put in place so that young adults are completely supported as they seek to find their feet as ministers to kids on the fringes, and that by age 20 Amy was offered a position as a school Chaplain, was leading trips to the outback, and supported a range of high-needs young people. But I think I need to talk about what happens if the opposite of Amy’s story occurs—when young Christians never take a risk to follow Jesus. They are a Christian without the experiential knowledge that they have the Spirit of the resurrected Christ in them; a Christian who has never built a relationship with those Jesus calls ‘the least of my brothers’; a Christian who has never had to follow Jesus without a safety net. It’s like owing a F1 racing car and only doing 5km an hour. Our schools across the country talk about building resilience in our kids. I say we need to build resilience in our brothers and sisters, so that they are willing to go where Jesus calls them. And what if we get it wrong, you say? So what! Shake the dust from your feet, get up and try again. It worked for the disciples—maybe it’s good enough for us too. Not neat and tidy is it? That is risk for you, it is messy. You learn humility, the gift of laughing at yourself, and of trusting Jesus and not always liking what he is doing. Bonhoeffer once preached, “the Kingdom of God is bound to Earth,” and the Earth is chaotic and messy. It is the same place where Jesus walked and ministered, and he calls us to do the same with the Holy Spirit guiding us. What a beautiful mess we’re in. Aren’t we blessed… ●
Amy wants to give up, go back to her beautiful home, her mum and dad, her no-conflict life that makes sense to her. I know this, and smile at her. “Good. That’s what you’re supposed to feel—like you don’t have the answers. Now what do you think God’s heart for Marie is?”
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The Brave Discipler Writer Scott Mageean
If you’ve been around ministry to children or youth long enough you’re likely to have heard at least one of a number of statements based on stats that some researchers at some time and place came up with that may or may not be true… but the stories keep being shared. Firstly, you may have heard that eight out of ten people that identify as Christian today made their faith decision before the age of 18. Secondly, you may be aware of a large number of young people leaving the church each year, not transitioning from children’s and youth ministries into faithful Sunday church attenders. Some research suggest that the figure is 50 000 youth and young adults who drift away from the Christian faith annually. The third commonly shared stat is that youth ministers on average aren’t in their role for longer than 18 months. I don’t know if there’s an equivalent number thrown around for children’s ministers. Whether the stats themselves are 100% accurate for our Australian context in the year 2017, it’s safe to say that we share these statements because, anecdotally, they seem accurate and they capture our experiences. On their own, these statements show the importance of our ministry areas and why showing up and doing our best matters. Combined, however, if these trends are all accurate it paints a very stark picture for the future of church and our ministries and highlights that it’s going to take something special to see young people of the coming generations become mature disciples of Christ. The final chapter of Matthew closes with these challenging words:
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“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20, NIV) These words are challenging because what’s described is hard work. They’re challenging because I wouldn’t consider myself an evangelist, and just maybe it wasn’t meant to be the Great Commission, just a commission? They’re challenging because I’m already so busy trying to live out the Great Commandment of loving the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind that getting to the second part of that commandment to love my neighbour as myself is enough without stacking another commission on top of it all. Perhaps they’re challenging because I don’t really know what it means for Jesus to be with me to the end of the age. Regardless of how we feel about Jesus’ Great Commission, I’m sure most of us would agree that we, as individuals, and our ministries find their purpose in those words. That our role is to love God and invite others to do the same. That in that invitation we are expressing to them the Good News of what God has done and what it means to base our lives on the personhood and Lordship of Jesus Christ. We do this for those currently in our ministries and for those to come in the future. Making disciples is the great need and challenge for our day. We’ve seen a rise in the amount of literature, models, and events trying to help tackle the issue of discipleship
in the last few years. Some ministries have committed much of their journey to helping churches do better at making disciples, but the reality is much more work is needed. It’s easy to talk about what is needed in the future, or even where we haven’t done well in the past. The challenge is to start walking into the unknown and being brave enough to tackle the issues as we encounter them. We need people who will be brave enough to give themselves to discipling young people today for tomorrow’s world. In a leadership obsessed culture it can be easy for us to think that by raising leaders we are making disciples. The reality is that the discipleship journey is much longer and a tougher road to walk. I am convinced however that if we do the hard work of making disciples we will have the leaders we need for the future. John Mark Comer, as he exegetes Matthew 28:18-20, reminds us that Jesus’ instructions for us are not to ‘teach them everything I have commanded’ but instead we are called to ‘teach them to obey everything he has commanded us.’ We’re called to not just tell people what Jesus said but also to help them know how to do it. We see this modelled in Jesus’ own teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus instructs the people the requirements of the law but then gives them examples of how to start faithfully living this out. He gives them a starting point for trying to fulfil what God is calling them to (see Matthew 5: 21-26, 33- 37, 38-42, Matthew 6:1-18). This ‘doing’ part is core to the whole idea of discipleship. Many have started using the term ‘apprentice’
This is obviously a life-long work, but we have the opportunity to create environments and relationships that will encourage young people to start this journey well, and to give them the tools, practices, and frameworks that will help them grow in their discipleship well into their adult years. To do this we need to be brave to be a disciple ourselves. We need to make sure that we are still looking to Jesus as the ultimate model of what it means to be human and to live. We need to be connected to the vine and remember that without him we can do nothing (John 15: 1-8). Only when we are disciples ourselves can we model it to those in our leadership teams and ministries. Paul in his letters would often remind the churches of his own behaviour, the way he had conducted himself while he was with them to make a point about how they should be living and treating one another. His ultimate call to this was for the church in Corinth to “imitate me as I imitate Christ”(1 Corinthians 11:1).
We also need people that will be brave to dig deep and go the distance with people. We need to go the distance with people because it is in and through relationship with others than our own discipleship is worked out. Equally important, though, is that the fact that while creating environments where discipleship happens is great, being present long enough to see those environments and experiences shape the culture of a ministry is what is required to see a multiplication of disciples who make disciples in our churches.
YVQ | Issue 16 | Winter 2017
instead of ‘disciple’, because it better captures the relationship in the Jewish idea of discipleship. Those that heard Jesus use the term disciple would have been aware of the practice of disciples living their life imitating their respective Rabbi. The aim of being a disciple of a teacher was to live life the way the teacher did. To eat when they ate, to rest when they rested, to sound like them when one spoke, and so on. For us to be disciples of Jesus means to model all our life on Jesus—for us to make disciples we need to teach them how to live their life the way Jesus lived his.
There are plenty of challenges ahead of us as we consider ministry to children and teenagers into the future. Plenty of things we are yet to see play out in our culture that will have profound impacts on what it means to be a Christian in the world. There are some questions we still have and many unknowns, but the reality is that as the culture in which we live shapes us we need to be intentional about our discipleship to Christ to make sure we are becoming who he would have us be in these times, doing the things he has created us for and is calling us to. We need people that will be brave enough to step into the unknown challenges of being a disciple and therefore a disciple-maker in this day and age and as we embark on this journey together, through conversations and shared learning I’m convinced that the slow, difficult, and deep work of discipling others will not only serve them well but will be an outworking of our faithfulness and apprenticeship to Christ. ●
We need people that will be brave enough to create environments of challenge and encouragement. Spaces were young people can see what God is calling them to, how they should treat others, handle their finances, view their sexuality, whether God is really the priority of their heart or whether some other good thing has taken his place as the thing they are worshipping. We need places where there is good teaching, where scripture is opened and they are encouraged to read and meditate on scripture. We need to encourage them to not only know or hear what Jesus says but to actually do it; to build their lives and habits on his words and teaching. We need to create environments where young people can take risks and try to embody practices that will help them in their discipleship of Christ, things like prayer, fasting, solitude, giving, and serving. We need to be encouraging in the way that we love, show grace and call out the best in them, the true them that can only be realised as they become more like Christ.
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Disciples Making Disciples Writer Alice Mundy Stories are really powerful. We often use stories to convey a message, to help us remember, to add depth and excitement to what we’re saying, and to connect deeper. Jesus told many stories. Some of them had clear messages and outcomes, whereas others were a little more obscure, and harder to draw meaning from. It’s the same when we read over the stories of the Old Testament. Some stories make a lot of sense, while others just seem plain strange and confusing! I’m curious about what happens when we hear stories that are hard for us to grasp. Sometimes we get frustrated, sometimes we get angry, sometimes we sulk or blame, but maybe underpinning all of those emotions is a curiosity we cannot shake. While Jesus told stories of lost things that were again found, there are times when I read stories from the bible that never lead me to reach that ‘found’ moment, that ‘a-ha!’ moment where it all makes sense. Sometimes it feels as though that coin was never found, and that son who took his inheritance never returned home—sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to me! In our children’s ministry at Third Place Communities (TPC), we long to help our kids explore God’s story with wonder. In these moments, questions are raised, curiosity is ignited, and an invitation is extended to discover who God really is. As our children are invited to journey with their questions, it is our hope that they might encounter a curious God who is encountered in and through curiosity. As we’ve sought to do this, we’ve borrowed and adapted a Catholic resource called ‘Godly Play’. Godly Play is a method of storytelling that allows listeners to interact with stories of faith, both visually and tangibly, allowing a deeper exploration of the scriptures using open-ended questions of wonder. The Godly Play storyteller brings the story to life as they lay out a set of props and figurines before our children. Recognising that the spiritual development of children is best engaged using natural interests and activities that are familiar, this method of storytelling allows children to enter the Biblical narrative, helping them to remember the story, and think through what it means for them. Children are asked a series of ‘I wonder’ questions to trigger their thinking and help them reflect on the story. In a way, we have also adapted Godly Play to emphasise the importance of reproducible disciple making, which is so central to how we minister in Third Place Communities. Every Jesus follower is called to make disciples and our children are no exception! Rather than ‘receiving’ ministry, which can sometimes feel consumptive, we train our older children to ‘train’ other children, even as they learn themselves. Older children discuss the Godly Play story, 10 | learn it for themselves, and then share the story with their
siblings and younger children. As each family has crafted a kit of Godly play figurines and props, we encourage the children to retell the story to their family and friends, demonstrating the way they have learnt and engaged with the story. I wonder how many people came to Jesus, and kept coming back to Jesus, not because he answered all their questions and filled their heads with knowledge, but because they were curious? I wonder how many people brought their sick, lame, blind, and hurting friends to Jesus not because they one hundred percent believed, but because they were curious about who Jesus was and whether his healing power was true? I wonder how many people remembered Jesus’ stories, in depth, not by hearing them, but by retelling them to others? I wonder… ‘I wonder’ questions are simple, but they work. …I wonder how the Shepherd felt when he realised that one of his sheep were missing? …I wonder why the wolf wanted to get to the sheep? …I wonder who the Shepherd might be in this story? …I wonder why the sheep followed the Shepherd? …I wonder if you can tell me what made the Shepherd ‘good’? The above story is obviously an example from the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15), Jesus the Good Shepherd (John 10), and Psalm 23. I wonder if it has made you curious about the Shepherd? I wonder if it has raised a question for you about how you could make those in your ministry curious about the Shepherd? Using Godly Play with our children is new and fresh for us. We are still learning. Telling our story and God’s story, and teaching others to do the same, is something we’re still learning how to do. But as learners, our hope is that we will see more people become curious about the Kingdom, becoming like hidden treasure (or something that’s been lost!) that will one day be found. As learners, we hope to grow in telling the story of who God is, and how the stories of his word have helped us to know and adore him. And we hope that while learning, others will learn with us, and we will see more people saying ‘yes’ for Jesus, choosing to follow, apprenticing themselves to him, and leading those around them to do the same—disciples who make disciples, at any age! ●
Writer Colin Scott Identifying the sponsor child you want to support or finding the organisation with an approach to alleviating poverty that resonates with your own can make you feel like you are at the supermarket trying to decide which brand of dish washing liquid to buy—too many choices and not much between them. The scary part is that it may be the dish washing liquid decision, not the sponsor child one, that most affects those without adequate access to resources across the globe. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, announced that he will give away 99% of his wealth, some $45 billion dollars1. This could have an amazing impact for good, but a better first step to helping the poor might be making sure that Facebook is paying tax in all countries—especially the developing countries—in which it operates. Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber allowed drivers to offer the option of adding a $5 donation to a kid’s charity to a passenger’s bill2. This too is a great initiative, but a better first step might be to allow drivers to join a union if they so choose. Globalisation means that we are all intimately connected to people across the world. The tuna in your lunch could be from Thailand, the cashews you snack on from Vietnam, and the football in your backyard from India. The way you exercise your consumption choices is the single most powerful avenue for you to make an impact on poverty. The good news is that this means you can be part of changing things for the poor without leaving home. The bad news is that this will be much more painful than giving a big donation, because it means changing the system that you and all of us in the Western world have grown accustomed to benefitting from. Imagine, for a minute, that you were sending money to help educate a child at Gnyan Sampada Residential School in India (a partner of Global Mission Partners). Imagine that at the same time you were buying footballs stitched by that child’s friend, who couldn’t go to school because they had to stitch an impossible number of footballs each day to help support their family. You would be promoting education with one dollar and denying it with the very next dollar! Giving while maintaining an unfair system keeps us in a position of power. We determine how much we give to the poor, we expect lots of guarantees with our gift (no corruption, lots of reports in good English…), and we expect the poor to be thankful. Paying tax, allowing unionisation, and refusing to buy something that has 1 2
taken a child out of school instead start to treat the poor as peers, as people worthy of equal dignity and respect as ourselves—people also made in the image of God (Gn 1:27). The country we grow up in or our own achievements do not determine our worth but rather the reality that we are made by and belong to the loving God who created the universe. So how does this understanding of the intrinsic equality and value of all people translate into economics? What does it mean for my shopping?
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Shopping for the Poor
The prophet Amos brings economic issues to the surface in a time not unlike our own—a time where consumption was the dominant paradigm ordering society. People worked at getting ahead, and whatever got them ahead became their moral compass. Amos makes the point that economics is a moral issue, not a pragmatic one. Pursuing more stuff for yourself (which is the basis of current economic neoliberalism) does not result in more and better stuff for everyone. Amos first makes this point by setting economic oppression of the poor alongside sexual promiscuity and worshipping other Gods (Am 2:6-8). Then and now we quickly identify sexuality and worship as key areas for spiritual purity. Amos is clear that our economics are just as important. Amos points out a long list of practices that still exist today. Inferior quality products were sold to unknowing customers who didn’t have the social recognition to complain (Am 8:6). Those who gave their labour in production were treated with disdain, sometimes as slaves, by the owners of the enterprise (Am 2:7). They were so keen to make money that holidays, particularly religious holidays, got in their way (Am 8:5). And they used their influence to bend the system to benefit themselves (Am 2:8). Economics is a moral activity. The way we distribute resources is part of our discipleship just like our sexual behaviour and our worship. Shopping for the poor doesn’t mean sending them some clothes or making a donation, though these things have their place as gap fillers as we infuse the economic system with Kingdom values. Shopping for the poor means consuming and advocating with them in mind—making decisions that are good for everyone, not just yourself; loving your neighbour as you love yourself (Matthew 19:19). ●
businessinsider.com.au/mark-zuckerberg-giving-away-99-of-his-facebook-shares-2015-12 mashable.com/2014/12/09/uber-giving-campaign
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YVQ | Issue 16 | Winter 2017
Bravery In The Middle Writer Sam Curkpatrick What images come to mind when you think about mission? Probably not the image of an outdoor toilet in tropical Vietnam, the thick, heavy air buzzing with noisy insects, the tiles damp because of the humidity. In the middle of the day, many come to sit; in the middle of their school days, work days, and rest days… in the middle of their lives. Amid such regularity, the ‘nothing to report here’ routine, you might wonder why a toilet has anything to do with bravery. I will come to that. Perhaps the word ‘adventure’ comes to mind when you think of mission: brave individuals wanting to make a change and stepping out where no one has gone before; ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!’ This is a bravery of a sort, although sometimes it is only bravado. Maybe you think of mission as something that begins at home, living out your faith wherever you find yourself—like apologising to a sibling. This sort of bravery is about courageously being who you are: to live authentically and to be who God is calling you to be. In this article, I will explore these different images of mission and the way we think about bravery and Christian faith. I work for an organisation called Global Mission Partners (GMP for short). You might have heard of us through our youth and young adults network, embody. Or Safe Water September, one of our more popular campaigns. We are all about connecting Australian churches and individuals with our mission partners overseas, and encouraging a healthy, active life of mission at the heart of Christian faith. My job is to share stories with our churches in Victoria and Tasmania, a great privilege as there are many inspiring stories of bravery. These are also your stories. There is the Emmanuel Children’s
14 | Program in South Sudan, the newest
country in the world, where many children have been left without family because of years of devastating war and now famine. They must bravely face an unknown future. This program helps them to do this, providing a bed to sleep in, food in their bellies, a school to attend and a new, loving community of carers and friends. Then there is our growing network of small, underground churches in Vietnam. Our leaders there face persecution and harassment from the government and police. They do not always know who they can trust and are always looking over their shoulders as they go about their ministry and church planting. Every day they step out with bravery. In Indonesia, there is also a general resistance to the Christian faith, even church bombings. Yet students at a theological college there, supported by GMP, are required to plant and grow their own Christian community or mission program to graduate! To do this, they must first gain official permission from the majority Muslim population in the neighbourhood or village they wish to reach. Even though some of them have just finished high school, they show amazing bravery in their compassion and love for the communities they serve, as well as their brave dreams for the future of the church in Indonesia. And in India, in a hospital that provides care for anyone who needs it whether they can afford it or not, a small group of women meet to talk, cry, and laugh. These women are often from rural areas and are have been stigmatised, neglected, sometimes even separated from their families, because they are HIV positive. The community around them is scared—uneducated about the risks and how the virus is passed on. Through this support group, these women discover a new sense of hope, are encouraged by new friendships
and some even come to faith. With love and hope come a new bravery to face the difficulties of life. And finally, there is our toilet project in Vietnam. It might get overlooked behind other headline projects, described by a small paragraph on p. 26 of the 2016 Annual Report. In Vietnam, GMP has supported the construction of around 60 toilets for households with a family member with disability. For those with a disability, getting to the toilet can be difficult. By providing new facilities with accessibility features like ramps and hand rails, we have been able to make daily life much easier for many. While our toilet project isn’t your typical front page news, it really is at the heart of why we exist—as a mission organisation and as a church concerned with the dignity of human life before God. And this Christian story begins right in the middle of everyday life. Adventure
Let’s return to the idea of mission as an adventure, pushing out into the unknown. Because this how most people imagine it. And you can see why. We hear all sorts of wonderful stories about bravery in mission, people pushing out into the world and touching the untouched with the love of God. Sometimes these stories can seem so far from everyday life. Tingling with excitement, she laced up her boots, slung a light backpack over her shoulder and headed out into the cold night. It was time for a journey, setting off to who knows where. Like all good adventures, there would be danger. Her eyes fixed on a tiny speck on the expansive horizon, her feet crunched steadily down the rocky track, striding through the darkness, her face steady in the beating wind and rain. Perhaps there was treasure out there; a strange land of untold beauty and
Bravery—to step out on an adventure, pushing out to the edges of the world, discovering something new. I think we all have a secret desire, even just a little bit, for this sort of adventure. But does this image of bravery and adventure fit with the Christian call to mission? Here are some words to consider from Luke: “Then Jesus sent the twelve out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.” (Luke 9:1-6) The coach energises his players—when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Is Jesus saying that mission needs a hardened face of bravery, heading off down a dusty track as the toughened, gritty faces of villagers stare back? This seems to have been the case with the first missionary sent overseas by Churches of Christ in Australia. In 1891, Mary Thompson was sent to Western India, a single woman (!) travelling by bullock cart through dusty, rural villages in the nineteenth century.
turns out to be the living heart of the church. The edge is in the centre. Jesus, the man of the edge, with nowhere to lay his head, trudging down the dusty streets, eating with the outcast of society. Jesus, the edge of God, the expression of God’s love becoming real and personal in our midst— our living centre. What gets toilets built in Vietnam? The bravery to know God’s love in the middle of life. We don’t build toilets because it is a good idea. Not because it is ethical. Not so we get ‘likes’ on Facebook. Not because it is exciting. But because the greatest adventure of all is to discover life in the middle, to discover a living God who meets us as we give ourselves in love. What of Jesus’ instructions, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money”? Does this require a bravery that pushes out into the unknown, doing everything by yourself? Or are these words about dependence? Take nothing with you but the humble confession on your lips: ‘This is my body, broken for you.’ Here, in the middle of life, this is our call. A huge storm was smashing the disciples’ boat. Suddenly, a figure appeared, walking on the water. They were afraid. Peter, putting on a brave face, stood up. “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.” He stepped off the side of the boat. Pushing out into a new frontier—one giant leap for mankind!
Pushing out into the unknown requires great bravery. But we have to ask: does this sort of bravery last? Is a brave face enough to keep you going day after day, when home and family are far away? When there just isn’t enough food or medicine? When governments push back against your every move? What gives these individuals confidence when the devastation of war, famine and disease loom constantly on the horizon? In the end, a brave face just doesn’t cut it. Bravery that is only skin deep melts away.
But then he saw the wind—he heard the ferocious and almighty breath of God racing all around. He felt weak— he was a speck of dust in a stormy world of destruction. Beginning to sink, Peter cried out: “Lord, save me.”
A deeper sort of confidence is needed; a different game plan, bravery that doesn’t begin with a hard edge, but with a softened, vulnerable heart. Bravery that knows God’s love and realises that we are involved in this love becoming real in the lives of all people and all nations.
Mission begins here, with softened hearts, trusting in God’s possibilities for life. Generosity begins here, in humility that knowns we are involved in God’s love. And if we are brave enough to begin in faith and hope, the adventure will take care of itself.
Inside Out
Next time you are sitting on the toilet, remember that God’s love begins in the middle of life. You might pray the following: Loving God, give us the courage to know that we are implicated by your love and entangled with the lives of those around us. Open our eyes to know how we might respond to your goodness, to discover your life in everything we do. Give us bravery to live with generosity, compassion and hope. Take us on an adventure and show us into life.
I am sitting here writing this article in the Churches of Christ offices in Fairfield, part of a mission organisation that could seem at a distance from your community of faith. And over there, seemingly doing mission on our behalf, our overseas partners are even further away. It is easy to think mission is about people and cultures that are far away. But don’t be fooled into thinking that mission is something distant, out there on the edge, where brave individuals work on our behalf. Christian faith turns things inside out. Mission might look like something at the edge of the church, but it
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freedom; profound wisdom to learn—these things just waiting for that brave someone to venture close enough, to reach out and touch the untouched.
Dependence. When war, famine, hatred, loss, hardship and hopelessness threaten, real courage begins in vulnerability, confident not in human strength but in a loving God of life who gives abundantly to those who trust in him.
Let it be so. ● Interested in mission? Please visit www.gmp.org.au | 15 or www.embody.org.au
Stepping Through Open Doors Writer Michael Blumel
As students drift into the John Landy Senior Centre on a Wednesday morning for Brekky Club they are greeted by a friendly face at the door welcoming them to the club. From there, some tough choices have to made. Toast or crumpets? Milo or tea? Uno or Jenga?
Each week we are given the opportunity to connect with these young people and share God’s love in ways that are subtle but very significant. Although we are outsiders coming in to serve in a secular environment, we are not bringing God with us; he was there in the beginning and he will be there in the end. We have the privilege of being there in the middle. For us, the Breakfast Club at East Doncaster Secondary College (‘Brekky Club’ for short) is less about the food and more about the people. The students that join us for breakfast each week create a culture, and we try to harness their energy to provide something a little bit different in the middle of what can be just another week of school. Everyone is welcome, which is rare in a system that separates students according to their age. The group of year 7 girls that are often first to arrive have just as much ownership over the space as the year 12s who are now the elders of the student body. In a school with over one thousand students, it is hard to find a way to invite the entire student body to the same place at the same time… but from 7.45 till 8.45 on a Wednesday, we get to be part of that very thing.
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The story of how Brekky Club began is one that is probably familiar to most of you. A small group of Christians saw an opportunity to meet a need in their neighbourhood and God opened the door to turn a dream into reality. And although the small group of Christians that God asked to be involved with this ministry already had the connections and experience to make it work, it
took a lot of patience, prayer, and wisdom to get things started. The ministry team at Doncaster Church of Christ (Donny) had already established a successful breakfast club down the road at Doncaster Secondary College (DSC), so they knew what worked and what didn’t. They felt prompted to explore what it might look like to have this simple model replicated at another local school, which led Ben Chong (Youth Minister at the time at Donny) to start a conversation with his former housemate Amy Nettelbeck, a teacher at East Doncaster Secondary College (EDSC). They quickly found that there was an opportunity to present this model to the board at EDSC, but they knew that things had to start off small. So instead of proposing a breakfast club to cater for the whole school, they decided to focus on reaching students in year 7 and 8, who Amy had noticed were finding it hard to connect with the school community. While most students would develop friendships during recess and lunchtime, Amy saw many young students sitting alone and staring at their phones and iPads. Rather than proposing an established model, they altered what had been done at DSC to make sure that this ministry targeted a specific need within the school community. This strategic approach allowed them to start a discussion with the EDSC Board that, after several months of prayer and relationship building, saw a new door opened.
Before things really got started, there were some challenges to work through. Although the school liked the idea of seeing young students connecting with each other, there was some concern about whether having a group of Christians running this program would alienate students from other faith backgrounds. Amy and Ben were quick to address this concern and happy to work with the school to ensure that all students would feel welcome. They agreed that Brekky Club volunteers would not initiate faith conversations and that volunteers involved would not come with evangelistic intentions. The goal was to connect, not to put pressure on young students to become Christians. If students asked why they were there, they were allowed to share where they were from and their heart behind the program. After the proposal was accepted, Ben was able to reach out to other local churches to develop a team of volunteers that could sustain this program for years to come. Each week, the volunteers from DCC, Deep Creek Anglican Church, and Edge Church would meet in the year 7 corridor armed with UNO cards, Milo, and toast. EDSC teachers were rostered on to be a familiar face and to build stronger connections with the students outside of class time. Before long, between 30 and 40 students began gathering to hang out with their classmates, teachers, and the Brekky Club volunteers. Over time, the volunteers began to develop deeper connections with the students, some of whom were
already attending the local churches. This empowered the students to invite their friends along to their youth group and other events like State Youth Games and Illuminate. It also allowed the ministry team at Donny to provide further support for certain students as they went through the ups and downs of teenage life. As the club built momentum, the need for funding and support grew. However, some unexpected opportunities arose. A local orthodontist who had heard about Brekky Club from a school parent chipped in to provide a term’s worth of funding for food. The bread that would eventually be turned into toast was donated by a bakery owned by another school parent. Things were coming together nicely as the volunteers continued to move in sync with the Holy Spirit. That’s something that is hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it firsthand, but there are times when everything falls into place—and it can be easy to take this for granted. A real strength during the early years of Brekky Club was the consistent presence that the team became at the school. They were there every week, so the students knew that they could rely on the team through both the good and not-so-good times. As the years passed, the original group of students grew older and the connection between the local churches and the local school continued to flourish. The club was clearly meeting an important need, and the team of volunteers made an extra effort to work well with the teachers. Fast forward to end of 2016 and a new door began to open. Having seen the years of progress that Brekky Club had made, the EDSC leadership and Board decided that the club should be opened up to all of the students, not just the youngsters. So instead of meeting in the year 7 corridor, the school decided that the club should meet in the senior centre, which had a larger kitchen and much more open space. This change allowed Brekky Club to expand and the menu to grow. If you joined us on a Wednesday morning today, you might find yourself being offered a hot cross bun, some fruit, smoothies, and possibly even a pancake if you’re lucky.
Students from the school have also become even more involved in making sure that Brekky Club will continue for years to come. They help out with promotion by inviting friends, designing posters, fundraising, and organising bake sales and other events. Volunteers from the local churches are still around to setup the toasters, but the focus is still less about the food and more about connecting with our neighbours. Serving breakfast is what allowed the door to open, but it’s the relationship with the school community that keeps us going, particularly on those cold winter mornings.
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“ Things were coming together nicely as the volunteers continued to move in sync with the Holy Spirit. That’s something that is hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it firsthand, but there are times when everything falls into place—and it can be easy to take this for granted.”
The future of Brekky Club is looking bright even though things continue to change. After leading the club for many years, Ben recently decided that it was time to pass on the baton to a new leader, Julia Sakellaris, who is a youth leader at Deep Creek Anglican Church. The team of volunteers has now grown to include ten people, which is helping us connect with even more students. And although the team is comprised of people from different Christian denominations, all of us find a lot of joy in partnering together to see God’s Kingdom grow in Doncaster East. Both Ben and Julia make sure that when we debrief each week we not only spend time praying for the program, but also for each team member and what they are going through in life, which brings us closer to God and to each other. Over the coming months we are hoping to increase student ownership even more, whether it be through joining the setup and service teams or identifying new ways to fund the program. Though it would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that what worked in the past will continue to work in the future, we still see areas for improvement and opportunities that we haven’t been able to make the most of yet. We would like to see an even closer bond between the school and our local churches, because there are so many common goals that we are all working towards in different ways. But we also acknowledge the need to wait patiently for God to open the next door, and for us to be ready to go when it does. ●
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Three Tensions in Partnering Against Poverty & How To Hold Them Writer April Holmes
Wade into the discussions about development partnerships and you will find much of it is concerned with trying to find ways of holding difficult tensions: • The tension of how to communicate programs effectively and not oversimplify the story of poverty or use exploitative photography of the poor; • The tension of valuing grassroots partnerships and honouring the good that regulated partnership agencies offer (e.g. adherence to industry codes, such as ACFID’s code of conduct); • The tension of the potential value of the pro bono work of a skilled volunteer, and preventing dependence and promoting a recognition of the skills and resources communities can find locally;
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The Tension Between Emphasising Personal Relationship, And Giving Over Cold Hard Cash Emphasis on monetary support
Lack of relationship; cold/distant partnership; enforces idea that poverty is purely economical
tension
Emphasis on relational support excess
People within the church and without are asking ‘how do we do partnership well?’ There is a greater awareness that we have failed in the past (both in delivering impactful interventions against poverty, and by promoting development practices that patronise the poor ), and with more cultural consciousness about the breadth of inequality between Global North and South, there is a need to be mindful about the way we approach partnership.
Many of these tensions are discernible in churches’ engagement in development partnerships. The art of holding tensions seems to be, at least partly, about slowly and mindfully looking for a ‘third way’ that reconciles and leads to creative solutions between two sides. Here I explore three key tensions that face those who seek to partner with churches and organisations in development contexts, with some reference to my own research into the dynamics between grassroots Timorese NGOs and their donors. The diagrams introduce how asymmetrically leaning towards one side of a tension can lead to unfavourable outcomes, and suggest where perhaps a third way might be found.
third way
The latter in particular tends to be the platform engagement strategy for churches in developing country contexts: we connect with the poor by partnering with sister churches or local NGOs, either through grassroots relationships or mediated through development agencies. Indeed, partnership is how much of the international development industry operates, and how to conduct partnership well is a source of continual debate; for instance, the 2017 Research for Development Impact conference— one of the major Australian gathering points for development discussion—centred on the theme of partnership.
• The tension overall between ‘missions’ as it traditionally means to the church, and the concept of ‘development’, with all of the literature and debate that it entails.
excess
For people of faith, poverty’s existence should—and hopefully does—provoke in us a deep lament. Beyond mourning, there are many actions available to us. Among them are prayer, study, giving generously, raising awareness in our own circles, taking action by engaging with campaigns or changing our lifestyles, advocating within our own political context for top-down change, and connecting personally with the poor and marginalised.
Lack of money; many in-kind donations/visits not as effective & limit independence
Partnerships that are fundamentally based on asking the partner what they actually need, usually with both relational and monetary offering
For partnerships that are personal—for example, between an Australian church and a Vanuatuan church or cooperative—a large part of the appeal is surely the relational aspect. It offers an opportunity to get to know people who live in developing country contexts as friends, rather than invisible beneficiaries of aid given through international
At the same time, the monetary aspect of partnerships cannot be overlooked. It is problematic to shy away from the fact that the programs that alleviate poverty—water and sanitation projects, education, and peacemaking initiatives, for example—take cash to run. To an extent, in-kind donations (like textbooks) and skilled-volunteer trips (teacher training) may help; but it has been posited many times that supporting local economies and resources should be our first priority over sending our own congregations over to help or mobilising people to knit blankets or donate old ‘stuff’. The latter can be detrimental to local markets, is commonly difficult to ship and distribute, and undermines local peoples’ agency by perpetuated a culture of ‘handouts’. There has been a push to make the public more aware of this in recent years, especially in post-emergency contexts; for example, USAID’s recent campaign slogan, “Cash Rebuilds, Clothes Do Not”. My friend Sam Curkpatrick (see Bravery in the Middle in this edition of YVQ. -ed) has a wonderful analogy for what a third way can look like here. He says some people approach partnerships with a bucketful of cash and resources, wanting to give it away, whilst others begin with an empty bucket, wanting to fill it with experiences and relationships. Instead of focusing on what we can give or get from partnerships, Sam suggests we flip our bucket on its head and sit down alongside our partners as neighbours, start with conversation. From this modest perspective, we can put aside our preconceptions about what partnerships need to look like and base our offerings on what our partners actually want and need.
Nihilistic acceptance of asymmetry and resulting patronisation of partners
Working on basis that partnerships are equal
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tension
excess
Knowing there is asymmetry of power in partnerships
third way
Personal relationships typically lead to the sharing of more than money: we want to offer our expertise, networks, and physical gifts, like office equipment or books. I have spoken with Timorese NGO leaders who greatly value the partners they have this kind of relationship with; they note that they specifically benefit from partners who help them set up organisational systems and share their stories of experiences of community development from elsewhere in the world.
The Tension Of Treating Partners As Equals And Acknowledging The Existence Of Structural Inequality
excess
NGOs. Certainly it is good to get to know people who are poor or who live amongst the poor. This can challenge our beliefs about the lived experience of poverty and can humanise people, not as primarily needy or broken, but as real, resourceful, and as beloved as all of God’s creation.
Ignorance about the influence of own privilege on relationship
Acknowledging the difference in power between Global Northerners and Southerners. Working to shift this dynamic as much as possible by giving power over; being sensitive to remaining asymmetry
In Timor I met Eliza, an Australian woman working within a Timorese NGO as an organisational mentor. The way she engaged with her Timorese counterpart, Valentina, was a good example of holding the tension of acknowledging inequality yet undoing it as much as possible. Here is an interaction between Eliza and Valentina, where the topic was keeping detailed records of program data versus relying on staff’s intuitive knowledge: Eliza: People [here] really know the clients and have a lot of information in their heads, and know things. And I think that sometimes that needs to be respected, that people need to— Valentina: —Need to write down… Eliza: Oh, I was going to say the opposite, that sometimes people—I think [white foreigners]—assume that if something’s not written down, it’s not knowledge that can be used. And I think there’re some reasons and some things that it’s really important to write down, but I also think that there’s value in respecting [the way locals do things].
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Valentina expected Eliza to say that her organisation’s natural way of storing and sharing information about their programs was wrong. Eliza’s response was surprising, therefore, when she instead called for greater value to be placed on the local way. Importantly, Eliza is still working to shift and grow Valentina’s organisational practices where it is genuinely helpful to do so, but in assuming a humble, respectful position towards Timorese cultural norms she resists, in a small way, the power dynamic that exists where Western norms, and people, are elevated. Elsewhere in our conversation, Eliza continually referred back to things Valentina had said, placing her point of view at the centre of the conversation. Promoting Valentina’s voice confirmed her as the real expert on the development of her own community, and Eliza as simply the supporter. I offer this example as a third way solution to two alternatives: knowing inequality exists yet not changing the way we act and speak to counter it, and going about our business as if we are not the benefactors of more than our share of privilege. Both ways lead to detrimental outcomes for our partners. For the sake of doing something to reverse the structural inequality that we benefit from, may we humble ourselves in our interactions with the poor and let them lead the way as they determine their own path of development. The Tension Of Measuring Success And Inviting Failure
Overbearing reporting requirements; exploits local labour and may require an English writer
Laissez-faire, relational approach; nonjudgemental towards failure excess
third way
tension
excess
Measuring success of programs and impact of funding
Reporting program impact in terms of inputs (‘what we did’) but never exploring the outcomes (‘what it actually achieved’)
Monitoring and evaluation that emphasises learning and adaptation, is participatory and open, and has a healthy respect for failure
An essential part of any partnership that involves monetary donations, whether it is formalised or not, is the way that the two parties decide to communicate about how the money is spent. Donors tend to diverge in two
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directions when faced with this: they may hand down a template and plan for reporting, with the goal to keep accountability for every dollar and the impact thereof; or they may take a more laissez-faire approach, relying on conversations during visits or informal methods like photos to confirm that programs have been implemented as agreed. Issues exist with both of these methods. Reporting requirements can become unrealistic and exploitative, taking too long for partners to undertake and perhaps even burdening them to write in English, instead of using a paid translator. On the other hand, money has been transferred from developed to developing communities for decades with its qualification limited to the question, ‘was it spent how we agreed?’ This neglects to push the questions further into the territory of: ‘did anything change?’ and if not, ‘did we learn something from this? How will we do things differently next time?’ The third way in this instance has many facets. I am probably biased by my study in the area of monitoring and evaluation (M&E), but I think some form of M&E is essential—even in informal church partnerships—in order to avoid replicating ‘solutions’ to poverty that achieve little real, meaningful change. I do not think the key motivator for M&E should be an assumption that the people we are partnering with are corrupt, and will misspend donations (see tension 2, above). To condense much of the emerging M&E literature, good ways of keeping track of partnerships are those which are participatory (the starting point is ideally what the partner wants to know about their own programs), emphasise learning and adaptation (funds are not tied up with requisites so much that the partner feels they cannot change a program on-the-go to meet changing circumstances), and are open to failure (not projecting an anxiety about failure helps foster more open, transparent communication between partners). The Third Way Is Brave
It is not, generally, natural or easy to sit in a place of tension and look for a point of reconciliation. Our culture values those who pick a direction and run with it, treating apprehension as weakness. But it is not only brave to step out and do something to partner with people and communities shifting the reality of poverty; brave is also—maybe even more importantly—to confront the tensions that we encounter in nearly every step after the first and to wait on a third way to reveal itself. It may indeed mean waiting. It may mean assuming a position of humility and admitting our not knowingness. It will almost certainly mean submitting to the wisdom of the people for whom poverty is everyday life. Still, for the sake of meeting the enduring challenge that poverty represents, the third way in is worth pursuing. ●
Writer Andrew Menzies There once was a Prep to Year 12 school that decided to build a boat over the course of a year, as a school-wide project. The teachers got right into the vision and developed a maritime curriculum for the year across all year levels. The younger students learned about boats and oceans while the older students learned about navigation and engineering. This was all going on while the students constructed the boat. Over the year it came together and most people across the school community got involved. Parents even ran fundraisers to finance the project. It was a wonderful year that no one would ever forget. Eventually the boat was built and ready to be launched from the dry dock. On a Saturday in December the whole school community gathered together. A retired and greatly loved teacher was invited to ‘christen’ the boat, and she made a little speech and smashed a bottle of champagne across the bow. The boat was then launched into the water and to everyone’s great relief… it floated! Now that the boat was in the water it needed some fine tuning, and the deck needed a little more paint. Some students volunteered to do this work over the summer break. This project had become a passion. As they worked on the boat all summer, other classmates would drop by to help out and marvel at the boat as it floated there tied to the wharf. Over the years it became a regular pastime for current students and graduates to inspect the boat and talk about the project. Whenever there was a school reunion the boat always came up in conversation. Once someone suggested that they should take the boat out of the harbour for a sail. As the official owners of the boat, the school Council met and discussed this agenda item. It was passed to the risk management committee who considered the issues and recommended to the Council that taking the boat out of the harbour into the ocean was too great a risk. The boat might hit large waves or forceful wind and be in peril. If it sank, then the symbol of that great year in the life of the school would be lost forever. The school Council decided that the boat should be moored in the harbour forever and was never allowed to sail in the ocean. They also appointed a budget and maintenance committee of old scholars whose job it was to maintain the boat, keep it fresh and ‘shipshape’. Another committee was formed to write the history of the boat. All participants in the project had their names and photos added in a lovely hardcover book that told the story of the boat. And the boat never went out to sea.
It is possible to live the Christian life like this. Some people who term themselves ‘Christian’ seem committed to a life of comfort and safety, but following Jesus never promises that. Indeed, the genuine Christian journey is filled with examples of and commands towards the very opposite. Consider Jesus’ greatest commandment, found in Matthew 22:37-40, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
YVQ | Issue 16 | Winter 2017
Courage
This is an explicit command to love God, neighbour, and self. Paul explores the depth, cost, and expression of love so well in 1 Corinthians 13: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Jesus’ parting commission to his disciples was to go and make disciples of all tribes and tongues (Matt 28:18-20). His training method was to send followers out in pairs to villages that he had yet to go to (Luke 10:1-12). His daily schedule was regularly interrupted by random people who asked him to dinner and peppered him with questions. His famous visit to the Temple ended very poorly when he turned all the vendor’s tables upside down and told them that they had made the place a den of robbers (Matt 21:12-13). Try that next time you’re at church! It is true that our experience of Jesus is stunning, amazing, wonderful, peaceful, loving, and accepting. However, when this is experienced, absorbed, understood, and processed we should naturally find ourselves left with a deep inner compulsion (a sure sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit) to do something with it. We want to praise and worship; we want to encourage; we want to mature; we want to become more whole; we want to fight injustice; we want to change ourselves; we want to advance the Gospel; we want to serve; we want to pray; we want reconciliation; we want to change the world; and we want to develop integrity. None of these things are easy. They all call us to draw on our reserves and develop courage. So, where do we start? I want to suggest a three-level assessment plan, if you like, that never ends for the rest of your Christian journey. It comes from a very reliable source (see above!)
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One: Love God
What is the first image that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘God’? An old man with a beard sitting in fluffy white clouds? Piped music and slow motion film footage? Darth Vader? It is actually very important to develop a Biblical understanding of God if you want to get a healthy spiritual perspective. Understand that God is a three-in-one person who can be realised as the Father, the Spirit, or the Son Jesus Christ. God is the creator and the conclusion. God is love and mystery all wrapped up in one. But God is real too, and appeared as a man and showed us his true nature that was extraordinary. Some leaders covert power for personal need, but God gave it away in Christ. He came as a peasant, washed the feet of his people, and ended up dying for them—for all people. But God (Jesus) could not be kept down and on the third day rose, defeating the grip of death that was on humans. Therefore, a way was opened, via faith in Jesus, for all of humanity to experience hope, love, faith, and eternity. The choice to love God seems peace-inducing and sensible at first but beware: the decision to love God is going to require courage. For some Christians around the world today it means death and persecution. This is extremely unlikely in Australia, but more and more Christians around the world are dying and suffering for their love of God. Regularly—if you follow the news— Christians in Egypt are martyred, simply for worshipping God. Regularly, Christians who convert from Islam suffer dispossession of inheritance and loss of family (in our Churches of Christ theological colleges in Indonesia there are students who testify of this regularly). Persecution is defined as ‘hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs; oppression.’ Sure, in Australia your life is not in jeopardy for worshiping God but let’s unpack the treatment of Margaret Court in the media, and especially on The Project. (Note, please, that this is not a comment on either side of this particular moral/ethical issue—I am aware of strong arguments for both sides—but a comment on the public and media response). Margaret Court is Australia’s greatest female tennis player—some would argue the greatest player (I’ll leave that to the tennis aficionados). She wrote to a Perth newspaper arguing for traditional marriage and not same-sex marriage. She was belittled, sledged, ridiculed, and attacked. Calls were made for the Margaret Court arena to have its name changed. Why? Simply because she argued for a traditional definition about marriage that has the
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weight of history from almost all cultures. My point is that as a Christian, if you make a stand for what is quite orthodox, be prepared to be attacked and bullied. The Project’s panel were astonishingly disrespectful to one of our nation’s ‘elders’. It takes courage to love God. Move on from Margaret Court and think about a high school or university classroom. It isn’t easy being a Christian there either. That’s why our ministry to young people needs to build safe, secure, and affirming culture for young people to be built up as Christians. They are copping far more every day then most Youth Ministers ever do (and Theological College Principals, too). Young people are often our heroes. Two: Love Self
You can’t get to the next point (love neighbour) without doing some deep work on this issue: love self. If you can’t accept yourself for who God has made you to be how can you love others? Love of neighbour, according to Jesus’ words, is meant to be a repeat of how you love yourself. This can only be possible via grace. It is only by understanding and experiencing the vast, inexhaustible volumes of God’s love and grace that you begin to appreciate that God really is the one who saves. Loving yourself does not mean that you become vain or filled with pride. It means that you understand and experience God’s love and you know that God accepts you just as you are. God made you. Personally, I could name a hundred things about myself that I’d like to change. Some are things that I am regularly involved in tackling—usually ethical, moral, and character issues. Other things are unchangeable and are just who I am—physical, temperament, and soul things. Jesus’ meaning of love of self is about seeing yourself as God sees you. Someone who is now a co-heir and member of the heavenly royal household, through the work of Christ. It is vital that we build our self understanding and self appreciation upon God’s design and sacrifice. It helps us start to get a proper sense of our real value to God. It is by developing a stronger sense of self-worth and security that we are able to take risks in the name of love with less fear of being rejected. That security comes from God who first loved us. It is the key to reaching out into a hurting world that can at times bite (see the reference to Margaret Court). She can stand firm on what she believes because she knows who she is in Christ.
Back in the day, our youth ministry rented the local high school gymnasium each Easter. The idea came from the young people themselves. Some of them were regular participants in Scripture Union and Youth Dimension Summer Coffee Shop outreaches. They would come back from the experience buzzing, but there were always two questions: how could they keep in touch with the young people they had met (who lived all over the state), and why don’t we do anything like that locally? So, inspired and challenged by members of our own youth ministry, we rented the local high school gym and ran a local coffee shop outreach each Easter. We would sleep at the church and set up sports and games throughout the day. At night we had a band, games, and a kitchen served by church volunteers running pancakes and coffee. Importantly, each member of the team was rostered through a prayer room during the program.
YVQ | Issue 16 | Winter 2017
Three: Love Neighbour
The hardest part of the evening for each participant was sharing their own life story (a testimony) in front of school friends and strangers. It was a condition of being on the team that if needed, you would share your faith journey. It was inspiring to watch a fifteen year-old stand up in front of some of the suburb’s toughest kids (who had just walked in off the street) about how Jesus changed their life. The whole outreach was built around sharing our personal experience of Jesus and inviting the local young people to join our ‘Jesus community’. Several did. I know another young Christian who stopped a fight in his school—that takes courage. Two boys were fighting and, as usual, the cowardly crowd was standing around cheering them on. As usual, the fight featured a bigger kid who was smashing it out to a smaller kid. This new Christian believed what Jesus said about peace-making and working for justice, and walked into the middle of the fight and broke it up before any teachers were on the scene. There was a real risk that he would have several people turn on him. After breaking up the fight, he took the smaller kid and his tooth that was on the ground to the school nurse and helped him generally get back on his feet (see the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37). Young people can be courageous heroes if we let them! We began with a story of a Prep to Year 12 school that built a boat that was never let out onto the ocean. In my experience, ministry to young people simply isn’t respected, and certainly doesn’t work or last, unless we help them develop courage for the journey. The youth and young adult ministry is the wharf where repairs, maintenance and safe harbour is found but it exists so that young people can go back out into deeper water to live faith with courage. Anything less won’t last and certainly won’t change the world. ●
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YVQ Annual is a Christian art journal for young and emerging artists to be published in November 2017. If you are a young and emerging writer or artist, you are invited to make a submission to YVQ Annual for a chance to have your work featured in this year’s anthology of essays, short stories, poetry, and visual art. churchesofchrist.org.au/yvqannual