Intervenciones urbanas

Subsequent discussion by a Crusade Ministry College sub-committee of the Commonwealth Council considered a feasibility report presented by CRC ministers, Dennis Slape (ironically of Tabor College), and the original correspondent who had triggered discussions of renewed

158 _{Barry Chant, correspondence to Russell Hooper, June 28, 1979.}

159 _{Russell Hooper, “Blue Paper,” 7.}

160 _{Bill Vasilakis, “The History of the CRC From 1977 to 2007: Part 2,” DVD presentation (Adelaide, S.A.:}

CRC College of Ministry, 2007).

161 _{Neil Milne, “The Crusade and its Future,” correspondence to State Council of South Australia, 1980.}

162 _{Author’s Name Withheld, “Comments on Commonwealth Council Proposals” (regional ministers’ network}

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training approaches.163 Their recommendations, based upon extensive feedback from other ministers, conceded that a national training college would be expensive to establish and would duplicate existing Colleges which could help to facilitate training needs unique to the CRC in each state.164 This proved to foreshadow changes later reiterated in the establishment of a nationally accredited program and resembled the related suggestion previously offered by Barry Chant and was underlined by the identification of no more than forty per cent of CRC ministers having been trained in the Crusade Bible College, the majority of these apparently being from the home state of South Australia.165 The use of specialised resources in state-based CRC training options, also pre-empting future emphasis on local resources and better integration, was also endorsed by ministers in Victoria advocating cooperative work between any national college established and field-based service in localised settings.166

Simultaneously, the Victorian churches which represented four in ten within the CRC at the time, contemplated a call by the National Chairman to consider the use of a Tabor College- supplemented ministry training program, or a suitable alternative.167 A 1983 strategy report identified the provision of specialised ministry training seminars to be held over a two-year period as a prerequisite for receipt of a ministry credential.168 These also included key leaders and some existing pastors to provide professional development.169 _{The following year saw} evolution to a three-stage scheme whereby an additional video-based Bible School program would be available for churches to use and additional leadership seminars would be held on Saturdays as a preliminary requirement for those subsequently enrolling in the ministry seminars.170 The video program evolved from sessions being held at the Ballarat CRC church in 1983 and the overall structure formed the nucleus of future state training operations and, ultimately for the later nationalised operations of CRC training.171

The success of the Victorian initiative was evident in the increased number of new churches and ministers. By 1990, the number of new churches since the introduction of the training was 14 (a 47% increase), compared with 22 nationally (a 29% increase), whereas the nett overall

163 _{Author Unknown, Crusade Ministry College Sub-Committee Minutes, November 1981, 4.}

164 _{Dennis Slape (co-author’s name withheld), “CRC Magazine and Ministry College” (report to Sub-}

Committee, Adelaide, 1981), 1.

165 _{Slape, “CRC Magazine and Ministry College,” 2.}

166 _{For an example, see Barrie Ryan, “Report on CRC Ministry School” (paper presented to CRC National}

Executive, Melbourne, 1982), 1.

167 _{Russell Hooper, “Crusade Ministry Training,” in CRC Annual Report ‘82/’83 (Melbourne: Christian Revival}

Crusade, 1983), 8.

168 _{Author Unknown, Victorian Crusade Strategy (Melbourne: Christian Revival Crusade, September, 1983), 5.}

169 _{Author Unknown, “Ministers and Key Leaders Training Seminar,” Crusade 4 (1983): 11.}

170 _{Dudley Cooper, “Victoria,” Crusade 7 (1984): 15.} 171 _{Cooper, Flames, 286.}

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increase in numbers of ministers nationally was equal to the nett increase of 44 ministers in Victoria.172 The view was clearly held that the development and release of new ministers was a key to growth and by 1986, it was being reported that fifty potential ministers were attending the Saturday ministry seminars in Victoria and in excess of fifty the leadership seminars.173 The video program was being used across four states with 187 enrolled students, so that by 1987, the 22 South Australian CRC churches were considering adopting the Victorian training model and by 1988, all CRC churches were being encouraged to follow suit.174

Other factors such as visionary leadership also contributed to a stated urgency in ministry growth, but this was clearly being driven through, and expanded by, training development. Training initiatives at the Ballarat church, for example, were enhanced by the apostolic church planting ministry of Tony Smits in North-Western Victoria, with the state chairman noting that “his leadership, training program and Bible School have helped produce ministry, new outreaches and assemblies in that area.”175 Hooper also emphasised the need for effective formation for ministry to achieve growth, noting that many churches were becoming aware of the need to train and develop people for ministry to meet existing ministry demands and future development needs.176

Likewise, the CRC’s Victorian state chairman observed that, “in order to grow it is essential to have an expanding leadership base [and that], consequently, we have again increased our commitment to leadership development in the state.”177 _{A clear pathway from local church} leadership development to unaccredited ministry training was to potentially progress to Degree level through external providers, despite Tabor College’s undergraduate Degree program only commencing in 1993.178 Nationalisation of training approaches, though the responsibility of each state to implement, prompted the Victorian chairman to articulate the objectives more clearly prior to his accession to the national leadership of the CRC. These were:

172 _{Calculations based on CRC Annual Reports ‘82/’83 to ‘89/’90 (Melbourne: Christian Revival Crusade, 1983-}

1990).

173 _{Russell Hooper, “Training Programmes,” in CRC Annual Report ‘84/’85 (Melbourne: Christian Revival}

Crusade, 1985), 2; Mike Cronin, “Victorian State Chairman’s Report,” in CRC Annual Report ‘85/’86

(Melbourne: Christian Revival Crusade, 1986), 11.

174 _{Dennis Slape, “South Australian State Chairman’s Report,” in CRC Annual Report ‘86/’87 (Melbourne:}

Christian Revival Crusade, 1987), 9; Dudley Cooper, “National Chairman’s Report,” in CRC Annual

Report ‘87/’88 (Melbourne: Christian Revival Crusade, 1988), 4.

175 _{Dudley Cooper, “Victorian State Chairman’s Report,” in CRC Annual Report ‘83/’84 (Melbourne: Christian}

Revival Crusade, 1984), 14.

176 _{Russell Hooper, “Chairman’s Review,” in CRC Annual Report ‘84/’85 (Melbourne: Christian Revival}

Crusade, 1985), 2.

177 _{Mike Cronin, “Victorian State Chairman’s Report,” in CRC Annual Report ‘84/’85 (Melbourne: Christian}

Revival Crusade, 1985), 11.

178 _{Mike Cronin, “Victorian State Chairman’s Report,”in CRC Annual Report ‘87/’88 (Melbourne: Christian}

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to provide training for members of local churches that will equip them to make an effective and useful contribution to the leadership of the local assembly; to develop and equip ministries that may be released to plant new churches, or pastor existing churches; [and] to provide ongoing areas of training suitable for existing ministers in both short term and long term courses.179

This focus on local churches, as previously noted, serviced the proliferation and empowerment of church congregations which were clearly believed to be the most effective vehicles for missional fruitfulness within Australia. Such a return to the engagement of local churches and their ministers in engaging the development of competence according to unique personal gifting was of critical importance to growth in light of the later formation research outlined above. With such restrictive but focused emphasis on ministry achieving mission through local churches, simplified and controllable denominational formation processes continued serving rapid growth without the bottlenecking that would have been perceived to have resulted from accredited programs. Furthermore, the affirmation and validation of ministry expertise in recognising giftedness and reproducing leadership in the aforementioned Ephesians 4:11-12 mould was a crucial factor in the theologisation and growth of the movement at the time, resulting in substantially unchanged training processes for almost twenty years.

These were, however, enhanced. By 1992, a finishing school for those called to vocational ministry, but already completing the earlier courses, was established in both South Australia and Victoria in the form of the Crusade College of Ministry.180 _{It served as a precursor to the} contemporary training incarnation and represented a positive step toward the re-nationalisation of formation that the ‘blue paper’ had envisioned. Importantly, though, this was more specifically established to facilitate intentional growth throughout what was dubbed the ‘Decade of Harvest,’ as the CRC’s first international conference in 1991 launched the unfolding of an international endeavour requiring the mobilisation of churches nationally.181

With key leaders engaging in strategic promotion and the use of visionary events, the strengthening of training initiatives led, in turn, to mission-focused expansion through the planting of new churches across Australia. The number of congregations subsequently increased by more than one third from 97 in 1990 to 131 by its fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 1995, the largest proportional increase since the rapid 1960s growth.182 Importantly,

179 _{Mike Cronin, “Victorian State Chairman’s Report,” in CRC Annual Report ‘87/’88 (Adelaide: Christian}

Revival Crusade, 1988), 12.

180 _{Mike Cronin, “Has God Set a Vision Before You,” Crusade Action 12 (1991): 3.}

181 _{Mike Cronin, “A Light to the Nations,” Crusade Action 11 (1991): 8.}

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intentional formation initiatives were implemented at the forefront of a shared commitment to, and eventual realisation of, such growth. This observation was now being realised a third time, but has not been evidenced in the years since.183