Where Do We Go From Here

77 WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? deepest, most honest and most demanding examination of what had been, what was and what might be emerging. The message of the Apostles may have been ‘Good News’ but the implementation of that news tore people apart, personally and communally. Something new was entering the world, with all the associated blood, tears and laughter. What has been so remarkable in the Australian journey, is the way so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been so receptive to the Gospel despite the incredible levels of cruelty and dispossession they faced. Realities that we are only just allowing ourselves (in the non-indigenous community) to recognise. What is also amazing is the level of hospitality and patience that indigenous people have shown towards the people and religion that has caused so much hurt for so many . 5 Perhaps it is time for us to listen much more carefully to the Indigenous Church? When Paul is shipwrecked on Malta, the people there show spontaneous, generous and innate hospitality. When Paul is bitten by a snake – and then survives – they try and interpret what has happened through the lens of their belief structure and systems. When Paul starts to heal, they accept this gift with enthusiasm. But there is no mention of Paul preaching to them - or of mass conversion - even though it is difficult to believe that Paul ignored that opportunity! As Paul sails away, the people of Malta are left to ponder the arrival of this new view of God, the meaning of the miracles of healing and the conundrum of how to integrate the new and prior understandings. As an Australian church, have we ever really examined for ourselves what it might mean to ‘be’ the church in this country, instead of simply relying on imported understandings of ecclesiology, spirituality and tradition? Have we ever really understood what God was doing here before our European ancestors arrived? Have we listened deeply to the voice of Indigenous people who have both ancient and fresh understandings of faith? At some stage, all of our ancestors have had to grapple with the question about new and old wineskins. Perhaps the deep work of ‘mission’ is sometimes to unsettle and to stir examination of where God has been with us, where God is now and what God is asking today. Perhaps the question of ‘mission’ is always, ‘where dowe go fromhere’? 4. http://wontulp.qld.edu.au/ about_thename.php 5. For a deeper understanding of this history, please read ABM’s publication ‘A Voice in the Wilderness’ by Celia Kemp. www.abmission.org/voice