A small steering group, part of the Mission Advisory Forum, started in 2001 to plan for a conference to help the Queensland Synod engage in the issue of church planting. The tentative name for the conference was “Seeds of Hope”. For various reasons the conference was postponed. In the meantime CRM Australia (Church Resource Ministries) invited the Queensland Synod to enter into a two year process called Matrix Cross Training for Church Multiplication. Over time we took a core team of six people to six training events. Ray Reddicliffe, Barbara Bailey, Bruce Moore, John McGookin, Graham Beattie and I made a commitment to attend and work through strategy. I received monthly mentoring from Ken Morgan, CRM consultant.
The six events:
1. Church Multiplication Movements – Clarifying Vision and Spiritual Empowerment, developing intercessory foundation, building a team and culture.
2. Mobilizing Church Planters – Attracting and Assessing the Best Planters – with practical tools for interviewing prospective church plant leaders.
3. Multiplying Congregations – Encouraging Existing Congregations to Multiply
– held at Redcliffe, with guest team members Mark Setch, Colin Munns, Wendi Sargeant, Jess Hubbard, Bevan Favelle, Allan Kuchler.
4. Launching Healthy Churches – Coaching and Training Church Planters
held in Melbourne – with guest team members Sue Page, Glennis Johnston, Matthew Bolte, Herman Ruyters.
5. Raising Leaders for the Harvest – Developing Leadership Farm Systems
– held in Sydney, with Peter Armstrong, Mark Cornford, Bruce Mullan.
6. Launchpad – Tools for Emerging Missional Communities
– held in Robina with Tallebudgera, Bray Park, Fassifern Valley, Toombul, Pacific Parks.
The “Seeds of Hope” name was developed as the name for the network developed over the two years. New missional communities and their leaders have been loosely networked together through a web site, an email list, and occasional gatherings.
“Reframe”, a training event developed in cooperation with CRM, was used to introduce leaders to the concepts of missional church, and was later used for whole leadership teams.
See the Seeds of Hope web site for more information.