The making of ‘Moved’

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Marc presenting Moved

Moved, the new resource from Global Interaction, is being launched this month. The three-session multimedia package highlights the centrality of mission to our faith, develops awareness of global mission issues, and encourages a personal and community response. In the making for a year, Moved has been a collaborative project of Baptist leaders from around the country. The Together team heard from a few contributors about their involvement.

gia2Michael Frost, Morling College

I am the presenter for the session of the DVD that’s called Moved by the Need. We begin talking about the massive spread of Christianity around the world, then highlight the stark reality that one third of the world is least-reached, still waiting to hear about Jesus. We reflect on the injustice of the provision of Christian workers and resources among the reached and least-reached.
This session was filmed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It was an experience delivering lines while riding on the back of a motorbike negotiating my way through narrow crowded streets, walking across rickety bridges in a slum, and sitting among monks and tourists at a Buddhist temple.
I am pleased to be part of this project as I’m passionate about keeping mission front and centre in the minds of our students, pastors and churches.

Marc Rader, Gymea Baptist and Morling College

I presented the session called Moved by God, an overview of God’s redemptive purposes as revealed in Scripture. The greatest challenge wasn’t the locations – we filmed at a volcano and in several back streets of a large city in South East Asia – but trying to condense the biblical story of God’s mission into a few minutes of script! During the trip I gained a greater insight into the nature of missionary endeavour; it certainly gave me plenty to think about.
Preparing to film Moved was an opportunity to reconsider my own understanding of mission and I hope that it will do the same for our churches. It is always appropriate to return to the Word of God and reflect again on the implications of the familiar story.

Andrew Palmer, State Director Global Interaction NSW/ACT

I am part of a team that prepared the sermon outlines for Moved. It’s a strange experience to sit at my computer and type ideas and words that will be spoken by hundreds of pastors in churches all around the country. The words will be amplified from the stage in large auditoriums to crowds of people, and spoken from couches to small gatherings.
Of course, my colleagues in ministry know how to take the ideas of others and flavour them with their own stories and experiences – it’s what we do best! As with all elements of the Moved resource, churches can use different parts to cater to the needs of their communities. The sermon outlines include biblical texts, stories and ideas that follow the same theme as the DVD and the discussion questions in the small group guide. Extra stories and resources are available on the website.
I hope our efforts in preparing Moved will help all our churches listen to God and follow him more closely into mission.

Nathan Reid, Partnership Development, Global Interac tion NSW/ACT

Moved has been in the engine room for a while; I remember the team meeting more than a year ago where it all began. We got out the butchers paper and textas, talked late into the night, and dreamed the whole thing up. It’s fantastic to see the finished product!
Our churches are ready for Moved. The team in our office regularly takes calls from pastors asking, ‘What’s next? What have you got that we can use?’ Pastors are hungry for high-quality, Australian-made resources that will help them encourage and engage their church communities.
A number of churches have benefited from a whole-church focus for a few weeks in their church calendar. Many have done ‘Forty Days of Purpose’, ‘Walk Across The Room’, ‘Jesus. All About Life’ and Baptist World Aid’s 50:50 program. Involving the whole church community for services, small groups, children’s and youth activities helps people to focus. There is great potential for change and transformation in the life of the church as a whole.
We’ve created Moved for pastors to either follow the program, or pick and choose elements to suit their needs. I’ve heard of one church planning to use it at their weekend camp. Another will use it over two Sundays and create a special mid-week service in between. Another will adapt their evening service to have a relaxed cafe style where they’ll use the small group DVD and discussion guides instead of the sermon. I’m looking forward to seeing how our churches will creatively use, and, more importantly, learn from Moved during 2012 and beyond.

Keith Jobberns, outgoing Global Interac tion General Director, incoming National Ministries Director, Australian Baptist Ministries

Moved is unlike anything that Global Interaction has ever produced before. We are serious about our commitment to resource the Australian Baptist Church in mission. We’re proud to produce Moved as one aspect of our partnership. It’s not made to promote crosscultural team members; it’s not made to raise funds; it’s not made to recruit workers. It is made to educate, equip, inform and inspire our community of churches to have a more mission-focused faith. We hope, of course, that it is successful to this end and some of the thousands that are involved in Moved will pray, give and join our cross-cultural teams. Greater than this, we hope that everybody who watches the DVDs, hears the sermons and is part of the small groups will see mission as a greater part of their everyday life, at home and cross-culturally. Our communities, local and global, deserve the right to hear in a way that makes sense in their context: that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Global Interaction is very pleased to have the financial support from our partners in Baptist ministry, Baptist Financial Services and Crossover Australia. Without them, the project could not have happened and we thank them for it. The Moved team – presenters, producers and the sermon, children’s, youth, prayer and small group guide authors – has done a great job and we encourage you to participate.

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