December 2010 3D Review Page 1 Advent 2010 Vol 2 33DD ReviewReview No 1 incorporating Anglican News and Four Rivers The Newspaper of the Covenanting Dioceses of Riverina, Bathurst and Canberra-Goulburn preparation anticipation AAdvent:dvent: a ttimeime ofof ...... expectation aspiration supplication revelation sanctifi cation inin thisthis issue:issue: Dean of Exeter Making disciples ... NATSIAC meets in visits the Outback pages 2-3 Griffi th ... page 12 ... page 15 Page 2 3D Review December 2010 NEWS It’s all about making disciples (who then make more disciples) Last month, at Bishop Stuart Robinson’s invitation, Anglican News Editor Lewis Hitchick attended a two-day gathering in Melbourne aimed at raising awareness of the 3DM movement, an approach to discipling and church growth through Missional Communities that is having an amazing impact in the UK, Europe and more recently in the US. Last month, at Bishop Stuart Absalom. Alex is an Anglican Robinson’s invitation, Angli- priest who served as part of the can News Editor Lew Hitchick ministry team at St Thomas’ in attended a two-day gathering Sheffi eld in the early part of this in Melbourne aimed at raising decade. awareness of the 3DM move- In the mid-1990s the churches ment, an approach to discipling in Sheffi eld, along with the rest of and church growth that is having the city, were in serious decline. an amazing impact in the UK, Eu- Restructuring during the Thatch- MISSIONAL: Alex Absalom, principal speaker at the gathering, with Bruce Ollington, Vicar of rope and more recently in the US. er years had effectively closed Mulgrave; Nathan Head, speaker; David Wanstall, Pastor of Stonington Baptist; Ian Weaver, Vicar In many ways 3DM mirrors down the local steel industry, of East Geelong during the 3DM ‘Taster’ gathering at St Hillary’s, Kew. the pattern of the First Century the region’s major employer, and church, making disciples who community morale was very low. then go on to make more disci- In this environment Mike who were united by Christian and pubs; and in doing so, they literature. ples. And they do it in much the Breen was appointed Senior community and a common focus quietly started a missional revo- Mike Breen and Alex Absa- same way: by modelling Christ- Pastor at St Thomas’ Church. for service and witness. lution. By 2000, St Thomas’ had lom are both now based in the US like behaviour to a small group. Through years of experimenting, Led by lay people, each of become the largest church in where they have formed 3DM, Principal speaker at the 3DM he and his team developed what these clusters chose a specifi c England. a coaching entity that comes ‘Taster’ event held at St Hillary’s, they called Clusters, groups of mission: perhaps homeless street At the heart of it all was a alongside churches of varying Kew, in mid-November was Alex between 20 and around 60 people people, university students, Ira- church culture that didn’t just sizes to help them move into this nian refugees or young married create converts - it created disci- missional/discipleship model. couples. ples that seemed to live an awful They have also renamed Operating in a culture that lot like Jesus did. They trained ‘clusters’ as Missional Commu- Who is 3DM? was not friendly to Christians, regular, ordinary lay people to be nities (also known as Mid-Sized they understood that if they leaders, to listen to the voice of Communities, Mission Shaped 3DM is the expression of a movement that began in England were going to bring new people God and respond. And the people Communities or MSCs). over 15 years ago and now involves hundreds of churches in the to Jesus, it wasn’t going to be in they trained went on to train oth- With a strong value on life United States. Forced to “do church differently” because of an a church service. So they rein- ers. The movement spread. together, each missional com- increasingly secularised culture, St Thomas Sheffi eld pioneered vented what church looked like. The phenomenal growth of St munity has the expressed inten- a vision for the church of the 21st Century, moving from theory And what they came up with Thomas’ was one of the triggers tion of seeing those they impact to practice. They put Discipleship and Mission at the centre of it looks a lot like the church de- that led to the Church of Eng- choose to start following Jesus, everything they did and a movement began. In 2004, this church scribed in the New Testament. land report on Mission Shaped through this more fl exible and multiplied into two churches, St Thomas Crookes and St Thomas They went to the streets, the Church, which went on to be- locally incarnated expression of Philadelphia. What were the results? college campuses, living rooms come a best-seller in Christian the church. St Thomas Philadelphia has grown to be one of the largest churches in Europe. St Thomas Crookes is the fastest growing church in Eu- rope, seeing more than 500% growth in under fi ve years. What does 3DM do? In partnership with the European Church Planting Network What 3DM does is help leaders transition churches or plant churches that are ready to move into this way of doing church has been streamlined and over 725 the future, reclaiming the biblical call of mission and discipleship for every community and every churches have been planted in just over three years. This has Christian. We have found that almost all pastors are asking three simple questions: never been done before in European church history. 1) What does the future of the church look like? In a conversation with some friends of 3DM, US philoso- 2) How do we reach people who don’t know Jesus? phy professor and Christian writer Dallas Willard remarked this 3) How do we make missional disciples? might be one of the few times he has seen a group of churches 3DM is a movement of churches of all sizes: megachurches with more than 15,000 people down intentionally and successfully make missional disciples. “These to church plants with less than 15 people. 3DM is denominational, transdenominational, nonde- churches have a plan to make disciples and the plan actually nominational churches and everything in between; a movement of churches learning to thrive in the works” future by reclaiming the ancient practices of discipleship and mission. An ethical investment alternative ... Anglican Development Fund Dio- cese of Bathurst Phone: (02) 6331 1722 or (02) 6332 2022 Fax: (02) 6332 2772 Email: [email protected] December 2010 3D Review Page 3 NEWS Covenant and Kingdom: Biblical keys to mission by Lewis Hitchick which he described as Covenant “It’s his trust, it’s his relation- and Kingdom. ship,” Alex said. “You see, what In encouraging churches to “Covenant and Kingdom God’s most after is our relational develop Missional Communities, defi ne the core message of the heartbeat. That’s why he’s cre- Alex Absalom stressed that he Bible, and they get worked out ated us.” was not promoting another ‘pro- in all the theology that we put on Alex went on to explain that gram’ for church growth. top of it,” he explained. the themes of covenant were “It’s not about program, it’s He said that we were made in picked up very strongly by Jesus, about process,” he told the 3DM the image of God, which meant and helped make sense of what ‘Taster’ gathering in Melbourne that God should be visible in hu- happened at the cross. last month. manity, and his humanity should “We don’t understand cov- He pointed out that Western be visible in us. enant theology very much, but culture had shifted dramatically “If God is King of the uni- when you start to go back to these over the last generation. “We’re verse, that makes you and me themes that are embedded in STREET CRED: Alex Absalom’s experience in the rapidly- now a post-Christendom culture his royal emissaries, we’re his Scripture and fl ow through it, you – so what does it mean to do and growing church of St Thomas’ in Sheffi eld gave his presentations at representatives, his ambassadors see that foundationally, covenant Melbourne’s 3DM gathering credibility when he spoke of releasing to be a church in that context?” here on Earth. So we represent is about this relational thing, it’s lay missional communities to take the Gospel into areas the he asked. God as we rule on his behalf.” about our image, it’s about our Acknowledging that he didn’t He illustrated Covenant identity,” he pointed out. traditional church was not equipped to go into. have “all the answers”, he ex- through the Genesis account of Kingdom plained that the purpose of the the developing relationship be- two-day gathering was to share He then jumped to the story he’s in charge. What he really Father, he’s also our King”. tween God and Abraham, includ- of Joseph to illustrate the concept wants to do is to be able to give to “So once we recognise and some contextual theology and ing God’s covenant promising some tools he had found helpful: of Kingdom, showing that Joseph us his authority, but that author- submit to that, he’s the one who Abraham a son, and an infi nite moved through three phases of ity is only going to be grounded has all Authority. So as we submit “Some models and ways of do- number of descendants (Gen 15).