Dinner with Deb and Alan Hirsch

Reshaping your spirit for mission

Forge New Web Site.

Forge Australia has got a new web site.

There is also a spot with what is happening in Victoria where the Ranges area is located.

You can check it out here.

Ian Mosby

An interesting interview with John Cleary from ‘Sunday nights’  John Cleary is on the ‘Sunday nights’ on abc radio.

Ian Mosby was also interviewed the second hour. Ian was in town when the Forge intensive was on. ( I know he got asked to come along, but was to busy…) Anyway great  discussion regarding ‘post christian society’.

Forge prospectus 2009

For anyone who might be interested in a Forge internship this year the Prospectus for 2009 is out. 

There are three stream:

Pioneering missions

The pioneering missions stream is designed to support, inspire and equip people in missional living 

and setting out to pioneer new missional enterprises. This can include pioneering leaders and those 

working in pioneering teams both within established churches and organizations and new start-ups. 

The primary goal of the pioneering mission stream is to help missional leaders engage in paradigm 

shifting experiences that broaden and deepen their capacity to engage in the mission of Jesus and 

to help connect them in a life-long relational network of fellow missionaries.

church planting 

The church planting stream focuses on the biblical basis of church planting, the dynamics of building 

a team and engaging communities, and provides the practical principles and support for dreaming 

about, forming and leading a church planting team. Church planters are encouraged to sign up for 

this stream, and to bring their teams along. 

Church planters can register for a Church Planting Internship or a streamlined Church Planting 

Teams Training alternative. There are three options. The basic course is Church Planting 101 (for 

new planting core teams planting community, house, café, missional churches). If there is sufficient 

interest Church Planting 201 (for core teams who have been planting for a year); or Church 

Planting 301 (for planters/churches multiplying networks/movements) – will also be offered. 

Church Planting Internship: In addition to the 3 intensives and clusters groups, interns will attend 

a planting-focused weekend on March 20-22 (West) or March 27-29 (East). 

Church Planting Teams Training: This streamlined program (for teams) includes the planting- 

focused weekend [March 20-22 (West) or March 27-29 (East)], cluster groups, and a final 

seminar Nov 7/8. This program does not include the full 3 intensives. 

Peter Roennfeldt will facilitate the teaching of the Church Planting Track with teachers and case- 

studies from a network of participants in the process – including Crossway, BUV, Adventists, 

Heathmont Baptist, Salvation Army, Wesley-Methodist, Church of Christ, Revive, Living Waters, etc. 

transition 

Across Australia church leaders are recognising that the traditional models of leadership and 

mission may no longer be as effective in a new social and cultural environment. However, it is not 

always clear how to capture and implement some of the latest creative and energetic models, which 

often seem oriented around church planting or non-traditional environments. 

Forge Transition is a resource and training program for leaders of established churches to help 

you to begin to capture new missional energy within the context and challenges of a traditional 

or not so traditional church. The objective is to help leaders make the shift to cultivate a missional 

environment. The focus will be on allowing the leader to engage in a reflection process on how our 

missional context has changed and ways we can become more creative and experimental with our 

leadership in this new time. 

The transition team will help to tailor a package for you or your team to best enable the spirit of 

God to reinvigorate and inspire existing churches and their leaders.

 

You can download the rest of the 2009-forge-prospectus here

New National director for Forge…

Reading off Hamo’s blog…

I think some of my weirdness of feeling comes from the fact that yesterday I resigned as the National Director of Forge and now (having resigned from my WA role) I have no official function or role in an organisation that I have been an integral part of. On the one hand that’s no big deal – most people have no official role or function in Forge – but when your life & identity has been so tightly enmeshed with what you do it does leave you a little disoriented. I identify with Wayne Carey when he gave up football, but I’m hopeful I will respond a little differently.

My resignation from both roles comes at a time when I just knew that my ‘work was done’. In WA Forge is up and running, is stable and healthy and my work as the founding leader was over. It was time for someone to come in and give it some new life and direction. I could feel my vision and creative energy waning and was aware that it was time to hand it on.

In the National Director role I have been aware that the challenges ahead of us lie a bit beyond what I am capable of managing well. We need to re-invent ourselves and re-structure if we are to have a significant influence in the future. I am fairly good at strategic planning and the like, but Phil McCredden is a bloody genius at it and yesterday as we were discussing the road ahead I offered to step down so that Phil could give us the leadership we need at this point.

He has accepted so another stage of the Forge journey begins. I believe Phil is the right bloke for the job and I will continue to serve on the national team in whatever capacity I am needed for the next twelve months and we’ll see where it goes from there. Phil is a highly gifted man of great integrity and I am really pleased that he has accepted the challenge of leading the next phase of the the transition. We are good friends and I feel very satisfied to be able to pass the baton to him.

Forge Victoria director change…

The ammened blurb from the Victorian Forge directors….

Throughout 2008 FORGE Victoria has been working with a number of operational issues and has concluded that change is vital for renewed health and growth. The board has now moved to restructure the organisation.  FORGE Victoria is the original seed that has developed FORGE throughout the world and the board is committed to continuing to offer quality training for aspiring emerging missional leaders.

Phil McCredden has been appointed the new director of Forge Victoria.  Phil has headed the Transition Stream of Forge for three years and is the Ministry Team Leader of Northern Community Church of Christ.  We are developing a new lean operational structure which focusses on our core internship program and the delivery of missional training to a new generation of leaders.

The board thanks Kim Hammond for his  work as Director of FORGE Victoria from 2006. Kim was an intern in 2002 and joined the staff team as a volunteer from 2003. As director for 3 years he has overseen three national conferences, over 100 interns, assembled a quality team and expanded the FORGE brand. Kim remains part of the FORGE movement as he moves on to other things.

Forge Victoria still faces many challenges in this transition to a new structure and leadership.  We thank our partners and friends for your generous help and support in the past, and we look forward to continuing in partnership in the future.  If you have any questions about the ongoing operations of Forge Victoria and our hopes for the future, please contact Board Chair Olivia MacLean or Director Phil McCredden. 

Forge Victoria director change…

Here is the official blurb from the Board…

Throughout 2008 FORGE Victoria has been working with a number of operational issues and has concluded that change is vital for renewed health and growth. The board has now moved to restructure the organisation.  FORGE Victoria is the original seed that has developed FORGE throughout the world and the board is committed to continuing to offer quality training for aspiring emerging missional leaders.

Phil McCredden has been appointed the new director of Forge Victoria.  Phil has headed the Transition Stream of Forge for three years and is the Ministry Team Leader of Northern Community Church of Christ.  We are developing a new lean operational structure which focusses on our core internship program and the delivery of missional training to a new generation of leaders.

Forge Victoria still faces many challenges in this transition to a new structure and leadership.  We thank our partners and friends for your generous help and support in the past, and we look forward to continuing in partnership in the future.  If you have any questions about the ongoing operations of Forge Victoria and our hopes for the future, please contact Board Chair Olivia McLean or Director Phil McCredden. 

Forge Canada

Alan Hirsch posted on his blog the launch of Forge Canada, with the hint of ForgeUSA some time in 2009

It is with great pleasure that we announce the new partnership between Missional Training Network and Forge to create a network of Forge Missional Training Network (Canada). Pioneered and led by my great buddy Cameron Roxburgh and a fantastic team of thinkers and practitioners. We are excited about what God is going to do in the coming years in enhancing grassroots mission and incarnational church planting in that great land. All I can say is “yessss!!” We are now looking at a ForgeUSA sometime in ‘09.

Stories of Mission and Pioneering Leadership

Title: Stories of Mission and Pioneering Leadership CIRCA 2008

When: Saturday November 8, 2008 11:00am to 9:00pm

What: Inspiring Stories of Grassroots mission in the 1st world. God is at work in our world and inviting us to join with him.

Who: Peter Roenfeldt , Brad Buchanan, Kim Hammond and Mark & Sue Whitby.

Where: City Life, 12 Clyde Street Frankston CBD 3199

How much: $45.00 [meals not included, plenty of eateries nearby]

What else?: This is a great opportunity to be inspired, to take some practical tips from real life examples and to connect with a community of people seeking to live out the mission of Jesus in out world – right here, right now!