Collective 24: Preparing for Breaking Ground - Churches of Christ Australia | NSW & ACT

Preparing for BREAKING GROUND

To prepare for Collective 24, we encourage each church or ministry to gather a group of ministering leaders – staff, elders, and key volunteers – to harvest the conversations or perspectives your church may want to contribute to Collective this year. We encourage you to lead this group through a prayerful, reflective process and invite them to attend Collective in November. We want to hear their voices and believe that these conversations will sharpen their vision and strengthen their network for ministry.

1. Watch: Conversation Primer Videos

Daz Farrell and Conference Executive members Jenni Gainer and Peter Chi sat down to discuss and prepare for BREAKING GROUND and Open Space Technology conversations this year at Collective 24. Listen in to prime yourself for our conversations together!

2. Open Your Mailbox and Gather A Team

In September, we mailed each church a ‘conversation primer’ tool. This is to be shared as a physical invitation with those you would like to invite to Collective this year. As you open this tool together, you will be led into a short, prayerful discussion to prepare for Collective together. You could do this over coffee or a meal before or after a Sunday service, or in a team meeting. Each invitee should receive their own conversation primer to take home, reminding them to be prayerful about this upcoming conversation.

3. Imagine: Windows of Future Flourishing

Each year at Collective, we invite artists and creatives from our churches to lead us into our theme and focus through creative reflection and worship. This year, we’ve invited artists to create prophetic expressions, imagining what our journey towards flourishing together looks, feels, and tastes like. We invite you to reflect on these artworks as you prepare to engage in our convening question this year, allowing these windows into flourishing to inspire your own imagination. Click on each artwork to see the full resolution image and print or share as prompts for your group’s reflection.

As you contemplate these images, we invite you as a group to ask: “How do these images speak to you about God’s invitation to you for the future flourishing of your ministry and of our network?”

: Gather and grow, Gather and go, REPEAT – Meredith Harmer – Coast Community Church, Central Coast

: Leap of Faith – Wendy Stumbles – NewDay Church, Wollongong

: Transformed for Freedom – Greta Thiering, Connect Church, Engadine

: Flourish – Duncan Robinson – Northgate Church, Belrose

: The Bubble of Defiance – Glenn Newton – Northwest Sydney

: Spectrum of Growth – Bruce Tindale – Seechange Church, Miranda

4. Learn about Open Space Technology

What will these conversations look like?

This year we are inviting Michael Wood to facilitate a series of sessions at Collective using a method of meeting called Open Space Technology.

Michael Wood has been an Anglican Priest for 28 years and is now a Community Chaplain in Richmond, Victoria. Alongside this ministry, Michael is a professional facilitator of Open Space Technology. He uses this method of conversation to enable groups to have respectful and productive conversations about ideas they really care about.

Open Space Technology (OST) is a simple way to run productive, self-organising conversations. It has been used for groups of five to 2000+ people at a time. In OST, participants create and manage their own agenda of conversations, beginning with a central theme or question. Participants are given the freedom to propose and initiate topics for conversations and to join conversations raised by others that align with their interests, expertise, and passion. These conversations are documented, and participants are given an opportunity for action planning if they wish to take responsibility for continuing particular conversations after the conference.

Why Open Space Technology?

OST was originally designed by Harrison Owen, an episcopal priest, when he noticed that the most energising conversations people have at conferences usually happen outside of directed sessions. These conversations happen because people self-organised to have the conversations that mattered to them!

Over the years, we have noticed a similar phenomenon at Collective, which is why this year we are dedicating space to enable you to have the conversations that matter most to you. We believe that to attend to what God has for us to do and to be in partnership together in the future, we must begin by exploring the diverse passions God has given us and be ready to listen deeply to each other.

What kind of conversation could I have?

As you ponder our convening question with a team from your ministry, you are free to consider what topic(s) would be most energising for you to be part of as an individual. The bottom line is: if it matters to you, we want to hear it. Come curiously ready to engage in conversations that excite you and your God-wired personality. You might like to consider:

Are you a wonderer? Do you love to ponder new, big ideas to see where they lead? What big picture ideas do you believe will bring flourishing to our network?

Are you an inventor? Do you love to see innovative solutions emerge to solve current problems? What creative conversation could catalyse new initiatives?

Are you a discerner? Are you gifted in testing and considering health? Is there an area that you desire to discern in community about the future direction of our network?

Are you a galvaniser? Do you love to bring the right people together to see great things happen? What conversations might spark new movements of co-labourers in our network?

Are you an enabler? Do you love to build healthy systems that enable people to do the work of God? How can we enable people to flourish in their ministry in the future?

Are you tenacious? Do you love to see ideas becomes reality? What vision or project amongst us needs tenacious, creative people to help it take flight? What conversation could you join or begin that will activate flourishing in our network?

5. Register Your Team

Who will you bring to Collective this year? Who in your community could be inspired by conversations about the future of our network and bring something to contribute? Get them signed up now!