The EU celebrated her 85th birthday this year. What a long and glorious history of God working at Sydney University! But a student generation is only a short 3 or 4 years, and every year a new group of student leaders are appointed. How do we make sure that the baton will be faithfully passed on and not dropped?
The Changeover Conference is a two-day residential conference for the over 100 faculty and specialist team (teams formed to put together a project, like Annual Conference or Public Meetings) members during the University’s Spring break. Over the years, we have realised that this is the time to do two vital things
Develop team function
There is something wonderful that happens when you put godly students together; living, eating, talking, laughing, spending time with one another, sharing their stories and hopes and dreams. Their enthusiasm is so infectious! But team building is vital. We need people who’ve learnt to be faithful to the faithful God to trust and work with one another. We need effective teams.
Develop clarity
These cohesive teams also need to be clear about what they do. From the Scriptures, we were reminded that we are part of God’s larger story, his plan to put all things under Christ’s headship. We are also part of the story 85 years of ministry of the EU. Within these narratives we have specific tasks: to evangelise the campus, edify the members and flood God’s church with graduates who are biblically and theologically mature, servant-hearted, innovative ministry strategists.
A Roadmap for Developing Clarity
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Does the team know why it exists?
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What are the goals?
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How are they achieved?
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How do we behave in the achieving of the goals?
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What are our roles?
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What is the most important thing to do now?
We were also reminded from the Scriptures of the privilege and duty of being loving servants of God, that our goal is to see people mature in Christ, and that we are aiming to grow both upwards and outwards. We saw how the activities that the EU make these happen by bringing God’s word to bear in people’s lives and each member have their role in this.
Of course, there’s lots more to do. Over the next few weeks, they will continue to build the team and develop clarity, but pray for them as they do specific planning for next year and communicate this clearly.
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