Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Thriving, brought to you by the Discipleship and Advocacy Team of the Synod of Victoria in Tasmania, produced on the land of the Wurundju people of the Kulin Nation.
Welcome to the Thriving podcast. This is our first ever episode and I'm joined today by Nigel Hanscamp, who is the director of the Discipleship and Advocacy Team in the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. And we're going to do a backflip today because Nigel is actually going to interview me about the Thriving podcast and why we're doing it. Nigel, do you want to just tell us a bit about you before we start?
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm director of Discipleship and Advocacy Team, as Sandy said, ordained minister in the Uniting Church and a passionate runner. Those of you who follow my Facebook page will often see photos of me out in crazy places and at odd times of the day and night. So. So I'm here to interview Sandy to do a little bit of a bio and an introduction to the podcast so that we can start with some basic information.
So, Sandy, tell us a little bit about yourself.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Well, I'm also a minister in the Uniting Church in Australia and prior to that I was a secondary teacher. So I was a Chinese English and RE teacher in secondary schools in Victoria. I've also taught a tiny bit in China and I spent a year teaching in the uk. So I've had lots of teaching experience with teenagers overseas since I became a minister. My first placement was in a network of congregations which aimed to grow new expressions of church. So in that ministry, which was a 12 year ministry, we grew two messy churches, actually a contemplative Thursday night community and a Sunday morning inclusive intergenerational community. So that's the background that I come into the younger generation team with. And my job title in the younger gen team is education and Strategy coordinator.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Fantastic. And part of that is informing people about what the various teams do. And I'm just wondering, in terms of this podcast, why did you choose the name Thriving?
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Well, I chose the name Thriving because I think that the one thing we want to do, whether we're talking about developing new mission or we're talking about intergenerational communities, whatever we're talking about with relation to church, is to grow communities where discipleship thrives, where faith formation thrives, where people are coming to know and love Jesus and to share the love of Jesus with others and help to grow themselves as Christians, but also to grow a healthy and thriving community. So I thought if I chose a descriptive word, then it could be true of all sorts of communities. I could be thriving messy churches.
It could be thriving, thriving missional communities. It could be anything, really. We can stick any noun we like with it to talk about what we're trying to grow and what we're wanting to thrive within the Uniting Church in Victas.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: So it recognises that people have a background that's already been growing, but thriving, says, let's put some fertilizer on that and grow it even more.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. There's plenty of examples of good things happening in the Uniting Church in Victas, so I'll be looking forward to having some opportunities, opportunities to talk with some of those people about what they're doing, why they're doing it and how the rest of us can learn from them.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: So you've given us some hints about what we can expect to hear about. Can you give us a couple of others?
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So I have a number of friends in Australia and around the world who are very heavily involved in youth and children's ministry and intergenerational ministry and also in growing missional communities. So I'm going to talk to some of those friends. I've got a number of people who are really excited to join me. So it'll be a chat style conversation of about half an hour with one person talking about what's happening in their community or one expert. So, for example, I was in London just recently and the first episode that I've recorded was with Ike Kennett Brown and Jane Butler who are the leads. Ike is the lead of Messy Church internationally and Jane works with her. And so we talked about what creates a thriving messy church and we talked about youth in Messy Church, we talked about Messy Church Goes wild. What happens when you take Messy Church out. Out of the building and into a forest is the language they would use. We'd say out into the bush. And how, how can that help grow a thriving community? So that was actually a really fun conversation and, and I think that's one that's well worth listening to in the next week or so when that one comes up.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: So we're going to hear from people around the world, not just in Australia,
[00:04:51] Speaker A: going to hear from people all around the world. So people who've just written new books. We're also in the first, in the first few, going to hear from my colleague Steve Taylor. Steve is a missiologist from New Zealand and he and I are actually teaching a practicing the missional church subject at Pilgrim in second semester this year. And so Steve and I are going to have a chat in the first couple of episodes about the work we're doing in that course. And we're also hopefully going to talk to some of some of the people who've written some of the books that we're wanting to share in our class to help give people a sense of what it is we're learning in that subject. And maybe people might even want to join the class.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Fantastic. So if people want to get a hold of you, how can they do that?
[00:05:39] Speaker A: The easiest way to get hold of me is with the YG Team email address, so ygteamictas.uca.org au or you can use the YG Team Facebook page. We're just getting up the podcast page. So once that up, that's up. You'll be able to comment in the chat on the podcast.
But until then, YG Teamictaz.UCA.org AU or the YG Team Facebook page are the best ways to get hold of us.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Fantastic. Well, we're looking forward to seeing what comes next and how this grows and, and the people you're going to interview or the ones who might even interview you.
Thanks, Sandy. Look forward to hearing later.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Thanks, Nigel. I should say too that I am hoping I will not be the only host of this podcast, that you will host them at some point and also that my colleagues Matt Harry, Dong Won Kim, Kelly woods and Nia Lavaki will also at some point either come on and talk to me or they will host. So this is going to be a team effort. So we look forward to connecting with you via this new podcast and hearing all about the thriving things that you are growing in your communities.
Bye for now.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us for the thriving podcast hosted and produced by Sandy Brodine.
