115. Boldness, courage and sacrifice – reaching Canberra

In this episode, we will hear from Brian and Klaus from when they shared at our February Launch gathering. Brian begins by sharing the current picture in Canberra. It feels bleak as they look at the numbers of people attending church. It is an even more despairing picture when they look at the number of people actively engaging almost lost people as disciple-makers. 

But God has given them a vision and has been taking the whole church on a journey, challenging their understanding of how to make disciples. He has been leading them to lay down old ways of doing things to pick up new ways that He is teaching them. 

“We have to unlearn a bunch of things and we don’t even know what we gotta unlearn.”

So what has shifted?

  • Building focus to field focus (being where the people are)
  • Charismatic leader focus to ordinary people doing the work
  • Prayer – making prayer the priority to receive love, faith, guidance and power for the next steps (the harp and the sword)
  • Moving away from a sermon-focus to interactive accountability to God’s word and Spirit by all people
  • A greater allegiance to Jesus as King
  • Moving from information focus to discovery and obedience. 
  • From a Sunday focus to being a disciple every day of the week
  • From being a self-serving community to an outward focused community 

As you finish listening to this journey, take a few minutes to ask yourself, what are the things that you and your community need to lay down so that you can pick up the new things that God has for you? What are the bold and courageous steps that God is asking you to take?