Additional influences come from Dave Andrews (West End Waiter’s Union) concerning engaging the community and rallying support without coercion, and cross-cultural missionary practice. Essentially, Cheers has formed as Geoff and Sally have approached their local community as a foreign culture, looking to partner with locals for the blessing of their community, and embody the Kingdom of God in Banksia Grove.
II. HISTORY 1. How has this ICC formed from initial idea and first expressions to its present expression? Summary: Geoff was for some time a Baptist Pastor, but felt despite his best efforts that the people weren’t “getting it” … that that were largely consumers who didn’t demonstrate significant transformation within themselves, let alone transformation of the surrounding community. He and Sally stepped back from this, and applied a cross-cultural model intentionally when they moved houses into Banksia Grove, looking to foster a pared down church built around blessing the local community, as a missional church. At the same time, Scripture Union had birthed SUNO (SU Neighbourhood Outreach), a department wanting to foster missional community activities. On advice from Dave Andrews, Geoff wanted accountability financially and spiritually for this emerging church, without the administrative load of set membership and liability. So ‘Cheers’ (as it would later be known) came under the auspice of SU, as a working model. (Geoff teaches SUNO workshops.) In terms of Cheers itself, Geoff and Sally started an inquiry group based on the Luke 10 model, finding a person of peace, building networks, friends and family gathering around this, which evolved into the Tuesday night meetings/church. They connected in with a local playgroup, and the residents association, and then started dreaming with others about what kind of neighbourhood they wanted. They showed that this was Jesus’ dream, and the Bible gives a great foundation for many of the common values and aims they hold. They invited those sharing the dream (10 people, half were Christians) to a BBQ, to look at taking steps towards this dream. Out of this emerged their desire to “CHEER” for what’s good in community, and pray for what’s bad. For a time they experimented with a more expressive and weekly form of worship on the second Sunday, but found that it still reinforced participants being fundamentally consumers rather than contributors. So over time Cheers adopted the present form of CHEERS 13 (1st and 3rd Tuesday night, praying for the community and inspiration, and planning action), and CHEERS 24 (2nd and 4th week, “family time” with more Bible based learning … interestingly they have more non-Christians at this meeting)—roughly 20-40 people coming each week, with ~70 people associated with Cheers, and 150 with Round Table. All are associated by the action of Cheers, not necessarily coming weekly.
2. What were the main challenges of developing this ICC? Summary: Key challenges included whether to take up the Baptist Union on the use of a building/facility. After prayer, they decided to pursue a model that requires no financial support or buildings. The challenge of membership was solved by functioning under the auspices of SU. Also, direction of Cheers was gradually determined by a quarterly steering meeting, still facilitated by Geoff as the founder, which helps determine topics addressed by Cheers 24 and action emphases for Cheers 13. Whoever is most affected by a decision has the most say.
GROWING TOGETHER
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ICC SURVEY 2011