Turning Talk into Action

Last night I enjoyed an evening listening to Al Stewart's dream for an Australian network of church planting networks.

It was a cool time. Here are a few things that stood out to me:

• It's dead encouraging to hear about the church-planting efforts of some guys around the country. Stuff in surf clubs, beer halls, with down-and-outs, with students... I think the stories about the hard times were especially encouraging 'cause it showed a real-ness, a visceral side to the whole thing.
• Andrew Heard recommended that a church planter should be really clear on which issues they're going to be unbending on (and so risk division, etc.) and which issues they're going to back themselves to tackle in a more winsome way. And get that distinction clear in your thinking early, he said. Good advice, I reckon.
• The Sydney scene and the Tassie scene, at least for me, conceive of church planting's place-in-the-world a little differently from one another. I imagine it's a lot to do with the peculiar history of my Christian life, but I can't really conceive of ministry in Tasmania apart from being involved with, supporting, encouraging, and sponsoring church planting. I'm not saying it's everything, but Tassie needs new ministries, and church planting is a key way to multiply them. Ironically, it seems less of a 'given' here (in Sydney) among the general populace. Perhaps that's just the difference in scale...

For more on the conference, I imagine Mikey and Nick will have plenty to say :)