Posted 12 days ago
Report from the Sine's trip to Australia
By Tom Sine
Christine and I just returned from three weeks in Australia where Christine spent time with her family and Tom did a book tour on The New Conspirators. Christine spent most of her time in Sydney with her mom, and we stayed with her brother and his wife. It was one of her best visits in recent years.
The Evangelical Alliance coordinated the book tour that began with a gathering at Morling College hosted by Mike Frost. We had an overflow crowd comprised largely of missional church planters and leaders looking for innovative ways to make a difference in their churches and communities. After several more events in Sydney, Ian Packer, a public theologian with the Evangelical Alliance, drove us 10 hours to Melbourne where we did a major book launch for The New Conspirators at Grassroots, the Forge Mission Festival on the missional church. We also spoke at an EA event, as we had in Sydney, “One World Ready or Not!”, in which we helped church leaders imagine new ways to engage new challenges facing their congregations, organizations and those they serve. We also briefly addressed a group of demographic researchers that Lausanne had convened to look at declining attendance patterns in the church in Australia, Britain and North America. We also spoke at World Vision Australia and Urban Seed. Gary and Ev Heard, longtime supporters of MSA had us over for dinner and we had the opportunity to prowl the lovely Victoria Market.
After the beautiful drive back to Sydney, Christine and I spoke at Hornsby Baptist Church about Living on Purpose since the church plans to do a study through our book Living On Purpose in coming weeks. Then Ian and I flew across the country to Perth and visited the most remote, but one of the most beautiful, cities in the world. People were exceeding hospitable. I had a very engaging evening with Ian Barnes and the Lesslie Newbigin Study Group. I spoke on future trends at Vose Seminary and had a wonderful final evening with a group that filled the library at the seminary. We had a very stimulating discussion regarding what God is doing through a new generation of new conspirators and creative ways we might join them. I particularly enjoyed staying at the Peace Tree Community and cooking Mexican tostadas for 35 of their friends during our evening with them.
A QUICK HEADS UP TO OUR FRIENDS IN THE UK. I WILL BE DOING A TOUR ON THE NEW CONSPIRATORS THERE FROM SEPTEMBER 18 TO OCTOBER 5. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BOOKING ME TO SPEAK, CONTACT ROBIN PARRY AT PATERNOSTER BY PHONE AT 019053577 OR EMAIL AT robin.parry@authenticmedia.co.uk. HOPE TO SEE YOU!
Tom
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