Leaders 2 Go!

Every two years, a highlight of my PD calendar comes around - an opportunity to interact with other leaders of family ministry and children's ministry from across Australia and New Zealand, hearing of successes and struggles across denominations and boundaries.

I was surprised to learn this was the ninth time the biennial "Leaders 2 Go" conference has been held.  About 80 delegates gathered once again at the beautiful Stanwell Tops conference centre between Sydney and Wollongong NSW to share in three days of worship, fellowship and of course learning about what is happening across the world in our shared areas of ministry interest.

One of the highlights was the theme itself and how this was worked out over our time together.  There was a lot of focus on the natural growth of the trees around us, tree imagery in the Bible (like Hosea 14:5-9) and how we could grow and mature over the course of the conference, and how our congregations could grow in the future. This was illustrated daily by the gradual transformation of our main meeting space from a place featuring bare stumps on the first night to a room overflowing with branches and leaves by the time we left. It was a clever idea to reinforce the theme and one I'm sure I'll be trying out in Queensland at the first opportunity.

We had some strong keynote speakers, including Jill Kayser from kidsfriendly.org.nz.  Jill comes from the growing tribe of clergy and lay ministers who believe the church must eliminate age-specific ministry as much as possible and embrace genuinely all-age worship wherever possible. This is not a new idea (in fact, there is a great deal of very good biblical and traditional support for it) but it is still challenging for many.  In our own context, most parishes still feel that there is value in Sunday School models, in order to benefit both the group which has been 'taken out' of church as well as the group which is 'left in' church. I often think of the Rev John Roundhill at Aspley-Albany Creek parish who once left the Sunday School kids in church and took out the rest of the congregation!

Genuinely "all-age worship", we were reminded, doesn't mean "children's ministry to which adults are dragged along".  It is very important to try to have something for each age bracket as often as possible, without losing the integrity of the Worship service.  This is challenging, but certainly achievable, as we saw in Jill's examples, and I feel it is something we must aim for in as many parishes as possible. As our 'family time' gets squeezed more and more, so we need to ensure that church time is family time, and every service is a 'family service'. This is not about dumbing down the Anglican liturgy, but being more creative and broader in our thinking about the available elements with which we want to worship God.

A few quick notes from Jill's presentation:

• Do we watch State of Origin in separate age-groups? No. So why go to Church separately?
• Is your church Cross-Generational (one generation doing ministry to another), Multi-generational (several generations present but not interacting) or Intergenerational (multiple generations ministering with and to each other)?
• Rich Melheim (Faith Inkubators): Young people's world today is EPIC: Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich, Connected.
• The shift from a 'TV' world (one directional communication) to an 'Internet' world (the audience co-creates and shapes content) and the implications of this for churches.
• The significance of multiple generations doing things together - the significant moments - the shared experiences. E.g. watch this clip about the Seattle nursing home which combined activities with a pre-school!
• Ultimately, this approach is about 'doing things differently', not 'doing different things', which is important for those who feel their cherished church traditions are at risk to remember.

Jill Kayser, NZ

Like many at L2G, I attended Jill's follow-up workshop on "reimagining church for secular Australasia" (more about that to follow). I'm hoping Jill's Powerpoints will be available on-line so I can promote them as they were certainly thought-provoking.

I'll report further on my Leaders 2 Go conference findings in a future blog post.  If you have questions or comments about anything above, don't hesitate to make them!

(Jonathan K.)