Craig Mitchell’s workshop at Summer Spirit in February was both inspirational and entertaining. Craig is the national director of Formation, Education and Discipleship for the Uniting Church in Australia.
His two sessions looked at congregations as learning communities and mission-shaped discipleship. Effective ministry leadership was about building relationships both within the congregation and in the larger community. Examples of how to do this were shown in video clips from a Formation, Education and Discipleship (FED) study: Creative thinking was necessary even when it challenged people’s comfort zones. I liked the example given of a minister who shook up his Church Council meeting by hiring a bus and taking them all to dinner in a city restaurant. They had a bird’s eye view of the casino carpark and the minister challenged them to think about how to get the church carpark just as full. Continue Reading