Risk Taking Mission and Service

May is Mission Month at our Church. During mission month we focus our fundraising efforts on our partners in Northern Thailand and the Upside Down Circus which is a big, 2 day family friendly event, supported by the different churches of various denominations in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. Mission month used to be an opportunity for the congregation to hear about different people's experiences of mission. When you hear people speak passionately about the way they are involved in mission, whether it's an overseas short term trip or whether it's something a person is involved in weekly or part of their daily life it is always inspiring. However, that is nothing compared to actually being involved in mission, having the courage to get out of your comfort zone and experiencing first hand what it means to come alongside someone, serving them and caring for them, sharing your experience of your relationship with God.

This is our second year where we have encouraged people in our small groups (we call them K3Y groups) to not just give money and not just listen to other people's experiences but to actually get active and find opportunities to serve and build relationships with people in our local community. We encourage our small groups to do this together because it's always easier to do something in groups rather than as individuals.

As an FYI our K3Y groups (pronounced "key" groups) have three values:

- Intimacy with God

- Relationships with Christians

- Connecting with people who don't yet know God 

We have found the third value - connecting with people who don't yet know God the most challenging value for our groups

 Even as groups it can be scary to 'go out' and find ways to partner with people. Our groups are made up of teenagers through to people in their 80's but we think age shouldn't be an excuse for not caring for people in our community. It's been exciting to hear the stories that our groups have been sharing with the leadership team. One group of older women has been organising afternoon tea for the police chaplain to take to the police station when he visits. One of our teenage groups supported another local church by helping out at their Easter event. Another group organised a "Biggest Afternoon Tea" to raise money for the cancer council. These are just a few examples. Each group is encouraged to look at their own gifts, skills and interests to think how they could serve people in the community. This is only the second year we've done this but I can see how people are willing to take a risk and try something new. Sometimes the hardest decision in doing something new is just deciding you're going to actually do it.

To keep encouraging groups we had a K3Y event night where we continued to look at the "Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations" by Robert Schnase, with a focus on Risk Taking Mission and Service. We began by acknowledging there are risks involved when we decide to get involved in mission and work alongside people. Usually we think of the risks to ourselves before thinking about the risks for others or even the positive risks involved. We all react to risk in different ways.

In mission there is a starting point and that starting point can be different for each person. This can include:
- Sensing an invitation or a call from God
- An awareness of human need
- Feeling unworthy or inadequate but wanting to do something
- Wanting to make a difference
- Finding purpose and meaning
- Seeing an opportunity to using Spiritual gifts or material resources

In mission we are aware that God invites us to participate in God's mission.
We join God in mission where we learn to love God and love others the way God loves us. (John 13:34) It is a risk to allow ourselves to love people who aren't like us, don't think like us, don't look like us. Loving others like God loves us pushes us to re-evaluate our friendship circles and moral circles as we build friendships with people with different life experiences to our own.

In mission we risk not being in control:
- We don't know the outcomes and whether our efforts will make a difference
- We don't have all the answers
- We don't have all the resources
- We risk relying on others generosity and receiving what they offer
- We need to be sensitive to any inequalities of power/influence/money

In mission we risk relationships:
- Relationships take time
- Relationships need commitment
- Relationships can't be planned
- We risk getting involved

As we practice risk taking mission and service, God's Spirit;
- Changes us
- Changes others
- Changes churches

In mission we risk failure:
Failure is different for each person
 
“Risk taking mission and service is one of the fundamental activities of church life that is so critical that failure to practice it in some form results in deterioration of the church’s vitality and ability to make disciples of Jesus Christ. When churches turn inward, using all resources for their own survival and caring only for their own people, then spirituality wanes.” Schnase pg 83

In mission we risk Spiritual growth:
We discussed how mission looked for a person on a discipleship pathway from new to connecting and growing through to leading.

We had some good, thought provoking table discussions and input throughout the night. It might help our groups to think of ways they can continue to be involved in risk taking mission and service.

Walking on Country

As a minister in the Uniting Church of South Australia I am required to be part of a continual learning process. Sometimes this can feel like an extra thing to do on top of an already busy schedule and other times it can be a pleasant break from the usual routine and demands that part of life.

Currently I'm completing a Post Graduate Certificate in Theology which is part of my love-hate relationship with study. As part of the course I recently participated in Walking on Country. A weekend where a group of us from the Uniting College of Leadership and Theology travelled to the Flinders Ranges, staying at Angapena station, to spend time learning about the Adnyamathanha people, who are the first peoples of the land in the Gammon Ranges.

I’m not a “country” girl and very rarely spend time in the country. I have never stayed in the Flinders Ranges or heard the stories of the Adnyamathanha people. The weekend was a huge learning curve for me.

One of the highlights for me on the weekend was to spend time with people from Iga Warta. There, we travelled to nearby landmarks to hear the stories of the  Adnyamathanha people. We stood in a creek bed to hear the story of a flood. We looked out on the ranges to hear the creation story. We sat near a tree to hear the story of family. We saw a rock that looked like damper that told the story of a mother looking for her children that had wondered off. So many integral stories which connected people and land that I had never heard before.

We visited an ochre pit. I remember Terry (in the photo) asking us if we were ok to put ochre on our faces and I thought it was a polite but funny question because a bit of ochre isn’t going to hurt anyone. Terry put the white ochre on each of our faces, explaining that white was representing the connection with mother earth. As he placed the ochre onto my forehead I felt I had received a blessing. I felt myself relaxing and being aware of my surroundings. For me it was a spiritual moment. However, I also thought that was it and was ready to move on. Terry explained that there were more colours of ochre that he would put on our faces. I wondered how all those colours were going to fit! And yet each time Terry put ochre onto my face it was like another sense came alive; another blessing. I became even more aware of the sounds, noises, and the earth around me. The orange ochre was particularly valuable to me as I thought about Mother Earth breathing, and for me, connecting to mother earth for new perspective and breathing in the fresh air. A blessing, a time of personal refreshing and reconnecting to God’s creation as we heard the stories and opened our eyes to seeing the land around us in new ways.

I think for myself, being first generation Australian in my family. I hadn’t really connected with the stories of the first people of Australia. They weren’t the stories of my heritage and no one in my family knew the stories to even tell them, let alone make personal connections.  So although I had heard stories being told it had never made a personal impact on me. Over the weekend I felt I began to connect with the stories, understand the important relationship to land and could see how this includes me in both a physical and spiritual way.

 (Rainbow over Nepabunna)

After our weekend I went home and preached on community. I told the story of the hill that represents the two different Moieties (family groups) and the significance of that to the Adnyamathanha. I talked about how important stories are to community, especially when told orally with significant landmarks close by. I made the connection to the oral tradition of Christian stories and how they help form us as Christian community. I encouraged the congregation to share together some of our faith stories. I reminded them that those stories are part of who we are as Christians and that we also have symbols in the Christian faith that help point us to those stories. I talked about how, because of the treatment by white invaders, the Adnyamathanha people had started to lose their language and their stories but they were trying to reclaim those things important to their community. I made the connection that as Christians we have no excuse to lose our stories.

 (Hill showing the two Moieties - North and South)

I finished by sharing that as we left the Flinders Ranges we drove past the hill where we’d heard Aunty Denise tell the story of the two Moieties. It was the first story we had heard as we travelled to Angapena station. On our way home the people in our car spotted the hill as we drove by and the people in the car began retelling the story and what we had learnt over the weekend. At Church in Pt Augusta Aunty Denise asked the whole group if we had noticed the hill and we all said we had. She asked us if we had known the story before we began the trip and we answered no. She then asked us to tell the story, and different people in the group gave input to the story. Aunty Denise then said, “Now, every time you see that rock you will know the story of the Adnyamathanha people.” As Christians we can learn about the importance of story and sharing the stories of our faith and connect people to a deeper understanding that these stories of our faith, just like the stories of the Adnyamathanha people, aren’t just read but they are lived and experienced and help us understand the relationship of creation, creator and spirit in our lives.

I am still working on what I will do now that I’m home. Just in sharing in my sermon it brought a range of emotions from my congregation. Some recalling their own time spent with first peoples and others working through what reconciliation means. Before my sermon I read to the congregation the Uniting Church pre-amble to the constitution. One person wrote me an email to say they felt they had wanted to stand up and clap when they heard it read in church.

 (how far we travelled)

We were welcomed on to country and experienced amazing hospitality over our weekend. It was a very humbling experience.I really hadn't been sure what to expect when I made the decision to go but the weekend was a rich learning time and an experience that has had an impact on me and my ministry.