I-N-G-S is for Is the News Good in Sydney?

And in Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane? Read on.

In the month of August 1998, I was blessed with an opportunity to visit Australia where Crossings is also clearly alive and well. I was invited to give about twenty presentations and workshops in the twenty days I was there, so it was not, as they say, a "holiday." But I wouldn't have had it any other way. And I was so warmly received by the many wonderful people there, including the four host families (in the four cities of Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, and Brisbane) who welcomed me into their homes and treated me like one of their own family.

		For Australians, Crossings is particularly valuable as an hermeneutical tool for bible study. It helps them understand the word, and the Word. My sense is that it also does many wonders for their daily life and work as well, though the abbreviated workshops didn't allow us as much time to explore that important dimension of "crossing." I was given two basic assignments: to talk with them about "vocation" and to help them "cross" the biblical text of Hebrews 12 ("running with perseverance").
Crossing in Sydney

In the process, I learned a great deal more about how they are already bringing Hebrews 12 to bear on their own vocations. For a tiny Lutheran church (100,000 altogether) in a vast land (as big as the continental U.S.A.), running the race can be a daunting mission. But that so fits the temperament of these Australian crossers, whose ancestors were themselves pioneers, following the "Pioneer and Perfecter of their faith," Jesus the Christ. Those very same ancestors, among the great "cloud of witnesses," are no doubt cheering on their post-modern descendants who are running the race today. And those descendants have some tough challenges ahead, not the least of which is to clarify (evangelize!) the place of women in the church and in the Australian culture, as well as to enhance their vision of outreach to the unchurched. Still, there is no doubting their zeal and commitment. We in North America can learn a great deal from these bold runners on the other side of our world, who take their Word seriously (and joyously). Keep on trekking, mates!

michael hoy