MRI Conference – finding a way in the fiery chaos
- deansimpson7
- Jun 11
- 4 min read
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
Disrupting the system is key to transforming The Salvation Army’s ability to engage through missional communities, attendees were told at the Movement Renewal Initiative (MRI) Conference in Melbourne over the weekend.
Speaker and leadership coach Rich Robinson, author of All Change, talked about the importance of disrupting existing systems in a session on Movement Dynamics, where he encouraged a discussion on how to envision and enact transformation in a missional context.
The event, which began on the evening of Friday 6 June and concluded on the afternoon of Saturday 7 June, drew more than 130 officers, staff and ministry personnel from across the country.
The conference’s speaking line-up included Rich Robinson, missiologist and theologian Mike Frost, micro-church planting practitioner Bree Mills, missional community builder Emma Cotterill and mission specialist Alan Hirsch. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Team, led by Shirli Congoo, conducted the Acknowledgement of Country, and worship accompaniment was by Dan and Nathan Casey.
Mike Frost spoke in the first session on Friday night about a pervasive sense among Australian Christians that politically, socially and spiritually, things “are careening out of control”.
“Some historians and cultural observers say, actually, what’s happening is a time of polycrisis,” Mike said. “A time of polycrisis is where there’s not one calamitous crisis like a world war or something like that, but where multiple crises are careening at the same time, each heating up the other.”
Mike spoke about conflicts worldwide, political tensions, inaccessible housing and healthcare, inequality, the spread of misinformation, and other crises.
“This is the world that you are seeking to minister in,” Mike said. “This is the world that your congregation is living in.”
When speaking of the Church, Mike referenced the emergence of the deconstruction movement, a widespread decline in church attendance and church closures, reduced volunteers, growing disinterest in vocational ministry or overseas mission, challenges to ‘traditional’ values, instability in theological schools, regular scandals and the diminishing of American evangelicalism, among other issues.
“Clapping triumphalism is not going to see us through,” he said. “Just pretending the world isn’t like this is not the way forward. Just imagining if we plant more and better churches that would do the trick is naïve. Just imagining [that] when we restructure our denominational or organisational structures, everything will be better – it won’t do the trick.
“Let’s face up to the fact that we are living in a time of polycrisis and seek to find some way as God’s people [and] leaders of God’s people to help us find a way forward in the midst of all of this fiery chaos.”
Mike reminded conferencegoers to ‘lower their vision’ and aim to do what they can.
“What does God put before you to do? Do it,” he said. “And we know what we’re called to do. We’re called to love mercy, to act justly, to walk humbly with our God. If we could just resolve yet again to discover what it is that God’s put in our hands – who has God put before us? Where has God placed us? – then just do what all caring people can do under those circumstances.”
Throughout the Saturday sessions, attendees were encouraged to discuss their reflections and consider how to apply what they were learning in their own contexts.
Rich Robinson spoke about the lack of a silver bullet to increase engagement and effectiveness, and the importance of “disrupting the present” in line with Salvation Army co-founder Catherine Booth’s conviction that ‘if we are to better the future, we must disturb the present’.
“There’s a sense that we are living in a world that we weren’t prepared for, that we are called to lead in times that we don’t feel equipped for,” Rich said. “And we can then sort of hold tight. We can try and be strong. We can depend on a vehicle, or we can continue to walk together faithfully in this moment.”
Rich spoke about learning from an amateur boxer what it took to punch well, and how it required the force of the entire length of the body rather than just the forearm. He learned that when he used this method, the force could explode through him towards the target.
“The reality is this, we spend most of our time in our ministry life punching with elbow to wrist, just prodding, tapping, trying to work it out in our own strength,” Rich said.
“That is not strong enough. The reality for us, and what MRI is doing for you and The Salvation Army, is actually helping you to stop all the busyness and the activity of the stuff, to step back, breathe and then use all that you have to explode.”
In their workshop, Alan Hirsch and Emma Cotterill presented the APEST 5Q model of mapping the giftings of ministry communities. The five points on the APEST chart are the Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic, Shepherding, and Teaching intelligences.
Alan encouraged attendees to map their faith communities on the chart and identify their strongest and weakest points, as well as areas for growth.
“You’re only as strong as the weakest point in your system,” Alan said.
Bree Mills, Canon for Church Planting at the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, spoke in her workshop, assisted by Bree Wilkinson, about micro churches and the purpose of making church groups smaller and more intimate.
“The way that we do church at times can require a small team of 10 to 15 people,” Bree said. “The point of micro church is to strip it back and see actually how can we do church in the simplest way, whether it’s in the local café, our school or in someone’s home.
“It’s not simple because we can’t do or we don’t like complex, but because simple is reproducible.”
Secretary for Faith Communities Development Major Dianne Jarvey is the contact for MRI. To find out more, email movementrenewal@salvationarmy.org.au.
