Newsletter

The Future Starts Here…
A New Principal for CCTC: Dr Andrew Menzies

I didn’t want to write an essay, but I can’t help myself. I am excited about the future and the possibilities that are before CCTC. On behalf of the Churches of Christ Theological College Board I take great pleasure in being able to announce to you that Dr Andrew Menzies (pictured) has been appointed as the incoming Principal and will begin in early 2010.

Andrew is 42 years of age, married to Kim and is father of young twins James and Ellen. He comes to us with a wide range of experiences in theological, ministry and leadership formation consistent with our ethos.

Andrew has most recently been the Senior Pastor at Camberwell Baptist Church and Chair of the Board of Tabor College Victoria.

Andrew’s appointment comes as a conclusion to a long process which has involved the formation of the College’s strategic plan and a season of consultation and reflection which lead to the creation of the advertised position description. Formal applications were received from a significant number of credible people from Australia, the UK and the USA. The Search Committee have been very grateful for the thoughtfulness and inspiration that these applicants all brought into our process of discovery, discernment and deliberation.

Every principal in the College’s long history has brought a unique set of gifts, experiences, insights and skills to the life of the College and the wider community that it serves.

Andrew also brings a unique set of gifts and abilities. We have had the privilege of celebrating principals who have upheld strong mission relationships, brought expertise and insights into various areas of the curriculum and vitality to the relationships we enjoy with a diversity of churches and other key organizations. We anticipate that Andrew will do the same.

We look forward to the passion and contribution that Andrew will make particularly to the area of ‘Ministry and Leadership formation’.

The Board anticipates that Andrew’s key focus and inspirational presence will be in lifting up and championing the excellent work that has been achieved in the area of field education. This involves a range of mission and ministry placements, active supervision and exposure to a process of spiritual, character and leadership maturation and growth.

If I could send the clearest message about the journey the Search Committee and Board have been on it would be this: That we are serious about equipping Christian leaders that have been theologically nurtured, practically equipped and robustly formed for service to the Church in all of its diversity, complexity and challenge. We are for mission, for the communities beyond our churches, for diversity in ministry, for the Kingdom of God and for lifting up the name and character of Christ.

The Board is thrilled to have such an experienced faculty and administration team to welcome Andrew and we invite your prayers for him, his family, the College and for our wider relationships as we discover the future together.

Yours faithfully,

John Sharpe: Chair of the CCTC Board / Ministry Team Leader Ringwood Church of Christ December 23rd 2009

Reflections on theological education at STJKI

During November, Stephen Curkpatrick visited the Churches of Christ Conference of Central Java, Indonesia with Paul Cameron, CEO, Conference of Churches of Christ in Vic-Tas.

Stephen taught an intensive unit on Romans while Paul built new relationships and explored opportunities for missional partnerships with Churches of Christ in Central Java. Here are Stephen's impressions of Churches of Christ in Java......

Two crucial qualities characterise the Churches of Christ ethos of Central Java, Indonesia, as these are expressed in church life and theological education.

First, there is clear expression of Christian identity; second, there is a transparent desire to be a blessing to the community. The second is an integral expression of the first; the first clarifies the focus of the second.

Both foci are essential within the world’s largest Islamic society as Christian faith is expressed with clarity and compassion. Both foci are at the heart of theological education at STJKI (Churches of Christ Theological College, Indonesia).

The pulse of theological education at STJKI was taken from students, graduates and faculty within an intensive course on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, conversations and visits to urban and village ministries.

Theological engagement occurs primarily through Scripture, the experience of Christian faith and challenges of ministry. These sources are expressed within a desire, faithfully to communicate the Christian story in word and deed.

Theological education can provide useful secondary sources or tools for clarifying its primary work of engaging Scripture, Christian faith and ministry. Without this primary work, a surfeit of secondary sources adds nothing essential to Christian faith and stymies clear imperatives for Christian ministry.

With a judicious approach to secondary sources, which has long been a Churches of Christ value, and under winsome leadership, the focus of theology at STJKI is orientated unequivocally, toward the primary sources of Scripture, Christian faith and ministry.

Students have no inclination to distrust the veracity of Scripture and the imperatives of Christian testimony. With their discoveries, challenges, joys of faith and strong sense of call to ministry, student engagement with Romans was expressed with charming, intelligent passion.

Consistent with New Testament testimony and without apology, Romans calls into question human assumptions about life before God among others in the midst of creation. Of ourselves, we never get this right; everything is skewed from one generation to another, whether religious or not. Our resources are inadequate for durable righteousness without compromise and self-deception.

In their honest engagement with Romans, students had no illusions about human life and the necessity of transformation through redemptive grace.

At STJKI there is no sense that the “big issues” of theology need to be prompted by complex and sometimes convoluted expositions of what a text “is really saying.” Human dilemmas and their resources in grace are inscribed clearly within biblical testimony, awaiting heartfelt and intelligent responses that can be given genuine and life-changing expression in Christian ministry. With this approach, Scripture is read by students and graduates alike with clarity and thirst.

Faith summons intelligence of the heart that is expressed with anticipation of God’s creativity in the great relay of Christian testimony. While student and graduate experiences of life in faith and ministry generate questions that have been asked many times in this relay, every unique context presents new challenges that are slightly different from others in this story. These are engaged in each “today” with eager anticipation of the Christian Church’s “tomorrow” in the midst of humanity.

The resources of Scripture, the Christian story and present experiences of faith and ministry are entwined in conversations shared in the classroom context and beyond.

Students must plant a church in order to graduate! This is a feasible goal with faith and ministry firmly focused on the essentials of Christian identity and mission.

In diverse urban and village ministries, the reality of human need and trauma is always present and embraced by students and graduates with tangible and life-giving confidence in the gospel as the crucial point of reference.

Intelligent and contemporary theological interest does not need to be endorsed by deference to religion. This may seem plausible where theological education reflects a flattening of Christian faith to comparative expressions of religious phenomena. Trusting grace and truth in Jesus Christ within a pervasive religious society, students feel no need to approach theological engagement from an interfaith perspective. Consistent with the gospel, their conversation is with humanity not religion.

***

The dignity of human life in genuine hope that does not disappoint is known through the gospel by which, God in Christ discloses love for humanity as an invitation to new life within triune communion. For this reason, two crucial foci—distinctive Christian faith and a transparent desire to be a blessing to others—are characteristic of the Churches of Christ ethos in ministry and theological education within the Lemkersa Conference of Central Java.

Clear expression of Christian faith and tangible deeds invoke theological engagement that is passionate as intelligent, even as various resources are used to express these with faithfulness to the Christian story. In this story, Scripture is crucial and Christian testimony is imperative; faith is enthusiastic and given with joy to challenges, commitments and creative leadership within mission and ministry.

Students trust the Christian story and its testimony to grace and truth in Jesus Christ. This is their primary resource and consistent expression of theological education at STJKI.

Two

A Nice Moment

I stood in the back of the Church and wondered where I should sit. It was the 'minister's day,' which was held the day before the Vic/Tas Conference Annual General Meeting at the beginning of May. The venue was the York Street Church of Christ in Ballarat. I had been a bit tardy in setting up the CCTC display stand and fuelling up on coffee, so the music leaders had already begun the worship when I entered the chapel.

To my left were some friends and colleagues who had started at College the same year as me. To my right were some friends from my Church. Up the front, sitting just behind the Vic/Tas Conference Executive Officer, Paul Cameron, were some of our current ministry candidates. I went and sat with them. They welcomed me with smiles and nods and I immediately felt like I had made the right choice. These were some of our 20 to 30 year old students - Matthew, Scott, Natasha, Gavin, Jay, Suzanne, Rachael. They have all been at College for two or three years.

Later in the morning we were instructed to form little groups to discuss the ideas that had been presented. Paul, me, and the students turned to each other and started talking. The students were passionate about God's church and positive about its future. They spoke thoughtfully and intelligently, displaying a level of maturity and a capacity for reflection that has developed since they first entered College. I tell you it felt terrific. I can readily imagine parishioners or seekers of God's love walking into a church in which these young people are ministering, being welcomed with a smile or a nod, and thinking to themselves that they had made the right choice. It was a nice moment.

Life, marriage, ministry, and a bit of heavy metal

Scott on fire as he plays bass guitar

Scott says that his goals in life are still taking shape: ‘I would like my life to be recognised as one that carries God into places.’He is still discussing just how he can do that with God and his wife, Luella. One thing is for sure - music will be a part of it. Please pray for Scott as he continues to train for ministry.

Growing Mustard Seeds

Devonport is a beautiful city of 25,000 situated in the centre of Tasmania's North Coast. There is a Church of Christ in Devonport that has produced two remarkable students, Renee Benjamin and Hamish Graham.

Renee Benjamin

Renee is a bubbly 24 year old who brightens up your day just be being around. Before coming to College she worked in a shop and lived in Leith, which is 10 minutes out of the Devonport city centre. She came to CCTC to study youth ministry and build some biblical and theological foundations for faith. After two years, she feels that her calling in ministry might be to run a café in Devonport. She imagines a comfortable, friendly place where people can come and enjoy good service and conversations around faith.

Studying at CCTC has exposed Renee to ideas that she had not been aware of back in Devonport. “My faith has been challenged, often by discussions with other students, which have forced me to think about and clarify my beliefs. The lecturers have also challenged me but at the same time they have affirmed the faith that brought me here.”

This year, Renee's spirituality classes have presented a new challenge. “I'm not an introspective person. I feel I am connected to God, but mostly through other people. Now, I'm learning other ways to listen to God's voice and to discern God's calling.”

She enjoys the support and friendship of the small community of students that live on campus and the proximity of bedroom to classroom allowed her to attend New Testament Greek classes in her colourful pyjamas! It didn't affect her grades though, “My marks have surprised me,” she says. “I never thought I could do well at College but I have impressed myself, it's a bit of a thrill!”

Renee talks about her friend Hamish as a “catalyst for faith.” It was Hamish who encouraged Renee to come to College. He had enrolled at CCTC five years earlier and studied part time while also studying full-time for a Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery at Monash University, which he gained in 2005. This was the same year he published his first book called 'Beyond Borders.'

Hamish Graham

Hamish has twice travelled to India to volunteer at a medical clinic in the remote Orissa province. Last summer he left his job in Dandenong Hospital to work in a health clinic with disadvantaged people in Alice Springs. Now, 28-year-old Hamish is on a 6-month mission with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), working in a town called Niertiti, at the foot of the Jebel Marra mountain ranges in western Darfur, Sudan. With 30,000, it is just a little bigger than Devonport but that is where the similarities end. Most of the inhabitants are refugees (or more correctly IDPs - internally displaced persons).

Darfur is the site of the world's biggest current humanitarian crisis. Genocidal violence over the past five years has killed thousands and displaced over 6 million. This accounts for one quarter of the total number of refugees and displaced persons around the globe. Hamish is one of about 120 Australian volunteers with MSF. He says, “The main threat to me is to my heart, not my body, witnessing thousands of destitute Darfur residents making a life for themselves in the shadow of gross human rights abuses. It is a challenge and a privilege to work in such a setting, and I am both excited and a little nervous.”

What is it about the Devonport Church of Christ that has inspired these two students? For Renee, it is the genuine relationships offered by the small groups and by the minister and his wife, Bruce and Lisa Edwards: “You can't help but be influenced by their obvious love of God and other people – they're amazing.”

Obviously, this faith and love is rubbing off: from Devonport to the College to Darfur. Please pray for Renee and Hamish as they continue to be disciples of Jesus.

Faith and Frogs 

Paul 'Digger' Randle began a youth internship at Churches of Christ Theological College in 2003. On completing the internship, Paul became a ministry candidate for Churches of Christ and last year he was provisionally endorsed as a Churches of Christ minister.

Paul discovered his passion was ignited by ministry in schools and the emerging church scene. He has worked in school chaplaincy at Somerville and church planting at Tyabb ('The Huddle') and he maintains his links with his home church in Frankston. His studies have taken him to Tabor College and Whitley College as well as CCTC.

This year Paul became involved in the innovative 'Building Bridges' programme run by Tim McCowan, CCTC's lecturer in spirituality and reconciliation. Paul's job has been to facilitate group sessions for year 8 and 9 boys from Christian, Jewish and Muslim schools. I help them to get to know each other and share their life stories. It has been great! All the boys were a bit rowdy and undisciplined in the first couple of sessions, which proves that boys are boys whatever their faith background. Since then they have settled down and they are starting to talk seriously about their faith. All sorts of subjects have come up such as fasting, festivals and Abraham - they all know the stories about Abraham. At the last session one of the boys from a Muslim school said, "This is fantastic, why don't we get to do it more often?"

Paul is also involved in a school programme run by JCMA (Jewish, Christian, Muslim Association). Through this programme Paul is able to go to high schools and talk about his faith - what he believes and why he believes. Some of the questions that come up after the talks are interesting. The Muslim and Jewish speakers are invariably asked about headscarves while Paul is asked questions on a variety of topics, from sex before marriage and creation, to heaven, hell and the rapture. All the easy topics! In primary schools the talks are simpler and centre on mutual respect and Christian ethics.

Paul found his first two years of study a little confusing but he stuck with it. As time went on he became more comfortable with mystery. Different lecturers have provided different ways of thinking about God and knowing God. Paul says, I'm now able to discern what I need to hold on to and what I can leave behind. My study has given me some tools that sustain me when life is hard or when my spirit is down.

One of the interesting things that Paul does is Red Frogs (www.redfrogs.com.au). This is a chaplaincy service that runs during 'schoolies week' in Victoria. Last year it was held at Torquay. Paul and others set up a 'chill out zone' where schoolies can talk about life and problems and get a red frog (the kind you eat). Paul watches out for the schoolies' safety and cooks pancake breakfasts for those who want it. Invariably, the Red Frogs Crew is asked, "Why are you doing this?" This often leads to discussions about faith and what it is that motivates Christians to serve in this manner. It is a great support for the schoolies and it's no surprise that the Mornington Shire Council has invited Red Frogs to set up at Rye this year.

Interestingly, two other CCTC students have been influential in Paul's Christian journey. Some years ago, Peter Rivett connected with Paul at a Youth Vision camp and helped him come to faith. Peter is now a youth worker at McKinnon Secondary College sponsored by the Ormond Community Church of Christ.

Cindy Waters is a member at Frankston Church of Christ, a school chaplain and a CCTC supervisor. Paul says that Cindy has been a good mentor and she has been very supportive in the development of Paul's discipleship.

Please pray for Paul as he continues to study and witness to a diverse group of people.

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GIVE GOD A PIECE OF YOUR MIND!

People study (part-time or full-time) at Churches of Christ Theological College for all sorts of reasons. Some are discerning God’s call on their lives, some are training for ministry and all enjoy the thrill of discovering more about God, faith and themselves.
You can join them on the journey…
Take the next step!
Phone CCTC today (03) 9790 1000

If you’ve been asking yourself this question then it’s time you took the next step and came to CCTC. People study at Churches of Christ Theological College for different reasons. Some are discerning God’s call on their lives. Some are training for ministry. All enjoy the thrill of discovering more about God, faith and themselves. Why don’t you join them on the journey?