Faculty-Postgrad Research Seminar
14th October @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Join us for our final Faculty-Postgrad research seminar of 2024 with Hollie Bailey and Scott Downman.
Hollie Bailey (Trinity’s MTS student) will be presenting her paper on ‘Journey from Charity to Community at Jacaranda Community Church: Action Research on the Process of Re-imagining the Annual Christmas Mission Event through the lens of an Asset Based Community Development Approach.’
Scott Downman (Trinity’s Academic Dean and Lecturer in Missional Theology) and Tim Fawssett (Scripture Union’s Group Manager of Cross-Cultural Innovations) will be presenting ‘CHAT: Facilitating intercultural understanding and dialogue among youth and young adults in the church.’
Attendees are welcome to join us on campus with light refreshments served from 6pm before the seminar begins at 6:30pm. For those outside of Brisbane, please request the livestream link.
Monday October 14th from 6pm at Trinity College Queensland, Level 1, 60 Bayliss Street, Auchenflower. Enter the building facing Bayliss Street by taking the basement car park lift up to Trinity on Level 1.
Looking for more information about the topic?
The Australian church is becoming increasingly multicultural. The NCLS (2016) recognises most Australian churches are monocultural, however, compared to other nations, Australia has a relatively high proportion of multicultural churches. For example, in 2016, approximately 23-percent of Australian churches were multicultural – where no one ethnic group accounts for 80-percent or more of the membership. This compares to 14-percent of churches in the US (NCLS, 2016). However, the multicultural church scene also presents significant challenges.
Ethnic siloing, cross-cultural misunderstandings, monocultural leadership and dominant cultural-driven preaching, worship and music can contribute to tensions and conflict. In 2021, SU Australia’s CHAT (Cultural Hearing Asking Telling) program was launched to address interfaith and cultural misunderstandings in schools. Focussed on the characteristics of healthy dialogue – listening, asking and telling – the program aims to break cultural stereotypes, misconceptions and create a platform for respectful communication and understanding. However, in response to needs within the church, the program has now been ‘repurposed’ for use in congregations with a new biblical CHAT Program to be piloted in the next year. This research explains the process for repurposing CHAT for the church and provides a snapshot into what Bible-based dialogue looks like.