A project of the Uniting Church SA
Dave Andrews
Dave Andrews, author and mission activist, will be the keynote speaker at the SA Presbytery & Synod meeting on Saturday morning 27 February, Adelaide West Uniting Church, 9.00 am – 12.15 pm.
Dave will be speaking about “Plan Be: Be-Attitudes for 21st Century Disciples”. We are promoting Dave’s book, “Plan Be”, and accompanying study and personal reflection resources to congregations for use in 2010.
“Following the Way of Jesus” is a series of Lenten Bible studies for 2010 based on the Gospel of Luke. These have been developed by Dr Peter Mallen, a biblical scholar who works with the UCA in Victoria & Tasmania’s Centre for Theology and Ministry.
The themes of the studies are:
Week 1: People of the Way
Week 2: Daring to be different
Week 3: Knowing the story
Week 4: Living the story
Week 5: Co?operating with God
Week 6: Walking the way of the cross
The studies may be downloaded here. (PDF document, 800 kb)
Dr Peter Mallen, Director of Discipleship Education for the Uniting Church, Victoria, has produced a set of Bible studies for Advent based on the lectionary passages. You can access them here.
Peter is a New Testament scholar who previously lectured at Tabor College in Melbourne. He is a member of North Ringwood Uniting Church.
We’ve just been promoting this site as part of our synod’s Resourcing Expo – so welcome if you’re a new visitor! Feel free to browse around. We’re about to review some new resources, particularly on sharing faith with newcomers and enquirers, since that seems to be a common request!
We are about to plan “Pathways” workshops for 2010, so if you’d like to host one in your region, email us. Please don’t confuse this with ‘Pastoral Pathways’! Click on the link above for more information.
Please join our e-group or Facebook group to keep in touch. We’d love to hear your stories about how you are seeking to grow disciples. And you’re welcome to comment on any post by clicking below the title.
Welcome to our community. We’re passionate about life-long, deepening faith in God, and learning the risky way of Jesus.
That’s the question? We’ve been looking at Edward Hall’s understandings about how different groups, people and societies use physical and relational space. (see previous posts) So let me describe the fourth kind of ’space’ and then look at ‘entry points’.
Private Space is our most intimate space, reserved for partners and spouses, immediate family or household members, and our closest friends. These are the people whom we unashamedly embrace, with whom we are willing to be emotionally naked and vulnerable. These relationships go beyond stated commitments, they are the people with whom we are most open – parents, children, lovers, deep friends. In fact, there is a mutual willingness to stretch each other, to expose our inner selves to one another.
It is important to say that not all of our relationships can or should be this close. We are highly sensitive to people who are inappropriately intimate with us or others. The church doesn’t ‘arrange’ such intimacy, although we can provide the conditions in which it can grow (how many youth camps produced all kinds of intimacy?), and more importantly, we can recognise, celebrate and support intimate unions (clearly a big issue in relation to relationships other than marriage). Continue reading →
Apologies for the gap in posting! We’ve been exploring some things raised in the Welcoming Church series – in particular the idea that people ‘belong’ in different kinds of spaces. See below for descriptions of Public Space, and Social Space.
The third kind of space is Personal Space, friendship space. As people move deeper into community life, they go from being acquaintances to becoming friends. All of us have friends and extended family with whom we are willing to talk about the important things in our lives, our inner feelings, our hopes and doubts. The cuppa conversation after church often stays on the surface. Personal space goes a step further. How do people move from ’surface’ relationships into deepeer, sustained friendships in your congregation or faith community?
Openness requires trust and authenticity. People can’t be forced into friendships. Small groups may provide a primary setting in which personal sharing takes place, but membership can’t be forced, only encouraged. Continue reading →