MONDAY APRIL 10 BRISBANE - CANBERRA SUMMARY REFLECTIONS ON THE CROSSLINK CLUSTER MEETINGS

Mark was at Geoff and Isobel’s place right on time at 6:15 this morning with Rob. The trip from Redcliff to the airport should be a very simple one with dual lane roads most of the way. The only problem is that you have to contend with all the traffic coming from the Sunshine Coast into the city and south across the Gateway bridge. According to the locals the traffic build up is getting earlier and earlier. We hit the Gateway Motorway before 6:30 and there were quite significant delays while traffic merged. Can’t imagine how people do this every day. Once we were down the freeway it started to move and we were into the terminal by a little after 7:00.

We wandered up and waited for Graeme in the Blue Room. When he came we did a bit of a general summary comments whip around. They are included in the list below. I kept looking at the departures board as the time got closer to our 8:15 flight. The instruction said to go to the gate but we assumed there would be a further instruction that would tell us that boarding had begun. The fact was there would be no such indication. I wasn’t about to miss the plane home and when Graeme and I got to the gate our names were being mentioned over the paging system. Shocker!!

On the way home I had the opportunity to speak with a young guy called Rowan who works for Doma Hotels. They are a local company and are expanding their facilities in and beyond Canberra. They run the Barclay and Pinnacle Apartment Hotels in Manuka and Kingston. They are also building a brand new hotel where the Macquarie Hotel was in Barton. He was a good young guy and there was plenty of opportunity to give him some information about a hotel that Jesus was building that had plenty of rooms. I must say I enjoy this kind of thing and hope that it isn’t a bad way to do business. When he said he worked for a hotel chain, I just said, “The bloke I work for is in the hotel business too.” It went on from there and we had a good laugh when I said I was doing a bit the same job as him. He was a sales manager who had been to a tourism exhibition to sell accommodation. I said that while I wasn’t the manager, I was part of the sales team for our hotel chain. I said we had a deal they could never match and much better room service. It was good fun and led to some more serious conversation.

Canberra airport. What a joy. I almost felt like kissing the ground. And that fresh crisp air. Nothing better. Rachel and Georgia were there to pick me up. Nola had some appointments so I didn’t get to see her till lunch time. She also had a commitment at lunch, so Nola and I had a lovely romantic lunch with one of her clients. There was a lot to do and I basically got right into it trying to cover all the bases for the next stage of operations.

SUMMARY

The idea of having cluster meetings of between ten and twenty leaders in a place close to where they live and work is of great value in talking over any issue whether it has to do with the Network as a whole or their own churches and ministries simply because there is greater awareness of the situation and greater opportunity to interact.
The Townsville meeting saw most of the leaders come for most of the time. The Brisbane meetings were attended by far fewer leaders and for less of the time. It is always hard to get a time that suits everyone, but I think if we were to do it again I would spend more time trying to negotiate the dates and times so that we could have greater and more consistent participation. The momentum of the gathering (if I can speak broadly in those terms) was built during the two days. The ones who were there for the whole time were part of that. People who came for a small amount of time, say, on the second day were not able to plug in to what was happening. It worked like a small group in that respect.
We are a Network, and everything that the “Network” does comes by way of an offer rather than an obligation. In the case of the Brisbane meetings it was obvious that it was viewed by a number of Crosslink leaders as either not relevant to them, unimportant or just not possible due to other commitments. It is a hard issue to balance, but I think we would be better served in the future to do more work in gaining broader ownership before we confirm the arrangement.
I think the fact that we tacked the two cluster meetings on the back of the One Heart National Consultation was understandable from the Townsville point of view (distance) but it definitely narrowed our options for gathering people when we came to Brisbane.
The meetings themselves were outstanding. We were presenting the issue of leadership arising from a commitment to New Testament references like Ephesians 2:20 and talking about building the church on the foundation of apostolic and prophetic ministry. The issues covered: What is it? How does it work? What does it mean for a local congregation? What does it mean for the church in a city? What does it mean for a Network of churches like ours? What are some of the historic pitfalls and warnings? In almost every discussion we were never asked to respond to the issue of whether apostolic and prophetic leadership should be viewed dispensationally (i.e. the apostles referred to could only be interpreted as the twelve appointed by Jesus and the prophets could only be interpreted as those mentioned in the Bible). That meant we were pretty much on the same page for most of the time.
Roadway, not parking lot. This was an image that received constant mention and reference. I think it came from some things that I had referred to at the Conference last year. It is tied to the discussion as to whether we are to be a reactive or proactive movement. When the Network started there was no doubt we were a parking lot. Churches and ministries were able to come and park themselves in the Network and we would provide a few minor mechanical services and some modest car detailing services. But we were not really moving anywhere as a Network. Everyone had their own individual agenda and we were serving that agenda. I now believe that if we were to continue to take that attitude we would miss the opportunity to serve the restoring purposes of God for the church in our nation (and beyond) according to Scripture. Who knows, in the end, what we might become. All I know is that we have an opportunity to witness the restoration of apostolic and prophetic leadership like few other movements do. We have nothing to defend and nothing to possess. Without starting to preach, this point was taken up very positively by almost everyone we talked with. There is much more to say about this of course, but these two cluster meetings paved the way for a much greater understanding of how we might carry this forward.
The sessions each day went from 9:00 or 10:00 till 4:00 over the two days. That seems to be enough time. I think it could be compressed into one longer day with some preliminary materials being sent to everyone and perhaps a preliminary discussion or two. The sessions were fluid. We had some teaching input to give. I gave some and Rob gave some. We had a lot of interaction and time for worship and prayer. The goal was to raise the issue and allow people to respond and to respond to their response. That worked really well. We didn’t provide a written review form but in each case there was very strong vocal affirmation.
We agreed to work on a follow up plan. With the Townsville guys we have arranged to work up a Skype conversation once every three to four weeks in order to review the ongoing actions and issues. I think if we were to do further clusters this technology could be used a way of preparing for the time and making the best use of it.


There will probably be other things to think of as time goes by. When we spoke at the airport before leaving for Canberra we agreed to think about presenting a more digested report for all of the people in the Network and of working on a gathering for the NSW guys at an appropriate place (say west Sydney) later in the year.