AFRICAN ADVANCE: SOUTH AFRICA: 08-11 DECEMBER 2007
The OnTrack experience in the African Wilds is an unrivalled experience that promises to thrill and revive the spirit of all participants. Part of it was best described by the feedback from a recent management team member from AngloGold Ashanti: “… it was the best learning experience I had in my whole career … when I stood 25 yards from the lionesses, full of excitement but with no fear, I realized that the reason for the fearlessness was because I was not alone … every activity could be related to the principles of business and life.”
Your tracking guides for the Advance is from the best the African continent has to offer (see www.ontracksa.co.za for this). We will follow a spontaneous and dynamic approach where Africa will determine the Agenda as we explore the tracks and signs in front of us.
Your spiritual guides for the event include Leonard Sweet from the USA as well as Stephan Joubert, Nelus Niemandt and Callie Roos from South Africa.
Some of the spiritual guides intent is best described in recent thoughts of Len Sweet when he said: 'The first thing I would do to distinguish this "unconference" or "advance" is to accent its focus on followership, not leadership. We have had 30 years of conferences on "leadership," and the "leadership crisis" is as bad (if not worse) as it has ever been. Maybe its time to re-examine our assumptions about "leadership" in the first place. Our fundamental identity as "Christians" is as disciples, a word (mathetes) which (unlike "leadership") occurs almost 300 times in the New Testament, a word that means "follower" or "learner" or "disciple." Jesus is the Leader; we are his followers. If anything, we lead from behind. The real question is: how do we fall in from behind, or more precisely, how do we re-cognize Jesus, track his treds, so that we can fall in from behind and continue his mission, his work and witness in the world. This makes "semiotics" or the art and science of "reading signs" a paramount importance for followership. We first have to read the "signs of the times" and the "signs of the Spirit" if we are to lead from behind. My hope for this unconference, this advance, is that we might learn to read "signs" better, both signs that are all around us in nature that we miss, and signs of the Spirit that also are all around us in the culture that we miss. The ultimate in spiritual illiteracy is the inability to read the handwriting on the wall. God's finger is still writing. We need to develop a new kind of spiritual literacy. I can't wait to learn from Callie's ability to read "signs" from the natural world, and hope I can contribute to helping people read "signs" from the spiritual world as well.'
Our venue for the Advance will be Tanda Tula. A Big Five Private Game Lodge in the hart of the African Bush. Go to www.tandatula.co.za for some footage. The advance is also supported by an additional touring package down to Cape Town. This is administrated by Dries Lombard and he can be contacted for information on this at africanmosaic@gmail.com
For detail on bookings and other admin related options including our extended tour down to Cape Town please contact the following for details:
Past Mountain Advances
Make sure to check out information about other advances here.
Nov. 9 & 10, 2007
Alan Hirsch Biography Alan Hirsch is the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network, a highly innovative action-learning system focused on developing missional leaders in western contexts. He is (co)author of The Shaping of Things To Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church (Hendrickson; 2003.) His new book, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, will be released by Brazos Press in Jan 2007. Alan has been directly involved in church planting and mission among various sub-cultures in inner city Melbourne (Australia) for many years. He has also been director of Mission and Revitalization for his denomination in Australia.
Professional life
Was Team Leader of an innovative Christian movement among the marginalized in inner city Melbourne for fifteen years and has recently resigned in order to start a new work where he and Debra now live.
Most of his time is spent working with Forge Mission Training Network. He is the founder and director of this agency which aims at developing missional and pioneering leaders in first world contexts. Forge operates across Australia and in New Zealand, with significant links to similar agencies in the UK and the US.
He has co-authored a book with Michael Frost called The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church (Hendrickson, 2003.) which to their great surprise was shortlisted for the Christianity Today Book of the Year 2004.
He has been involved in significant translocal denominational (as well as local) work over the last 12 years. He headed up his denomination’s Department of Mission and Revitalization and resigned this role to focus more narrowly on Missional Leadership Development because he felt that this was the place of strategic leverage for the Emerging Missional Church.
Passions
Yearns to see God’s people innovatively engage in their destiny by becoming a truly transformative Jesus movement in the West.
Existential Philosophy and Judaism.
Collecting people’s stories and ideas.
Hobbies and interests
Conversations with friends around a good meal
Reading (esp. Buber and Kierkegaard)
Collecting (and subsequently assimilating) red wine
Good music of wide variety with a bit of poetry and art thrown in
(Definitely only) watching Rugby Union, the sport they play in heaven.
Nov. 10 & 11, 2006 It's hard to believe another Advance has already come and gone! Check out details on Lisa Samson's blog, www.lisasamson.com.
Make sure to check out information about other advances here.
The OnTrack experience in the African Wilds is an unrivalled experience that promises to thrill and revive the spirit of all participants. Part of it was best described by the feedback from a recent management team member from AngloGold Ashanti: “… it was the best learning experience I had in my whole career … when I stood 25 yards from the lionesses, full of excitement but with no fear, I realized that the reason for the fearlessness was because I was not alone … every activity could be related to the principles of business and life.”
Alan Hirsch Biography
