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We hope you enjoy enCompass for November 2011.
COMPASS SUMMER CONFERENCES 2012, SPREAD THE WORD
Registrations and nominations for our 2012 summer conferences are open. We are excited with how the schedule is shaping up and the local and international speakers committed to contributing. John Stonestreet is confirmed for both the New Zealand and Australian conferences. John is the Executive Director of Summit Ministries in Colorado, USA. For those who have heard John speak at Compass in the past, you know his sessions will be a real highlight. Last year spaces filled up fast, so let us know if you are interested in coming. Perhaps start thinking about who in your life would really benefit from the conference and get the word out. Word of mouth is still the way most people hear about the Compass Summer Conferences. New ZealandThe New Zealand conference will be held from 7 - 14 January, at Lifeway campus, Snells Beach (about an hour north of Auckland). Click here for more information
AustraliaThe Australian conference will be held from 15 - 22 January, at the St Lucia campus, University of Queensland, Brisbane. Click here for more information THE COMPASS TEAM 
ALUMNI INTERVIEW WITH HANNAH ASHBY
This month we interview Sydneysider Hannah Ashby about the impact a Compass summer conference had on her at a critical time in her faith and vocational journey. Some of what she says may resonate with your own experience. As you read through it, have a think about someone you think needs to be there this year and send them an email encouraging them to register. Hannah, you've been both an Australian and a New Zealander. Tell us how you ended up living in Sydney? I spent my primary school years in Sydney and we moved back to Christchurch just in time for me to start high school. I was unsure of what to do after school and Compass came at just the right time. After Compass I started Uni at Canterbury but quickly realised I was heading in the wrong direction. There were a number of attractions drawing me over and as I already considered Sydney my second home, it seemed a logical move. So what role do you think the “Compass experience” played in your decision? By the end of school I felt obliged to study something useful, something like law, but I wasn't particularly excited about it and dragged my feet enrolling. I wanted to study art but I couldn't seem to justify it. I meet so many different people through Compass, placed in wide range of professions, all equally devoted to Christ and I realised I didn't have to go to bible college to qualify as a Christian. But it didn't really sink in until I was half way through my first year of an Art History degree. What was your favourite thing about the Compass Summer Conference? My experience of Compass was, and still is, terrifically inspiring. I had no idea what to expect from Compass when I started the conference but it turned out to be exactly what I needed at that stage of my journey. The lectures consistently addressed questions I had trouble answering and the fellowship I experienced encouraged my faith and my trust in other believers. But my favourite thing about Compass was the enthusiasm for life that seems to be infused throughout every aspect of the week. Like many others, I suffered a severe case of Post Compass Blues (PCB), but looking back a couple of years, I'm noticing that enthusiasm continues to sustain me. Why would you recommend people go to the Summer Conference? I would recommend people attend the conference if they were keen for a week with incredible people, immersed in the story. It would be particularly valuable if you're at a crossroads and think it might be useful to explore your assumptions and beliefs. Oh, and it's great fun. Finally, how do you feel you’ve changed after that decision to come across the ditch?! What joys have surprised you? Any ‘costs’ that snuck up on you? There seem to be hidden costs to any decision we make. If we weighed every cost against the benefits we perceive, life would be rather difficult to navigate. If I knew what I would risk, shifting to Sydney, doubtless my more rational sensibilities would see me still at home. But I wanted a wee bit more adventure, saw only what could be gained and trusted God was urging me forward. Perhaps it was wilful naivety! Or perhaps God is just that big, he can use these decisions to grow us. It’s tricky to identify costs when so often they turn out to be blessings. Blessings that are revealed gradually and unexpectedly, that have moulded and remade me – creating a joy that has been surprisingly rich. THE COMPASS TEAM
RHYTHMS AND RULE OF LIFE
This year Compass has been publishing an on-line calendar with two aims – 1. to encourage readers to engage with Scripture in a way that helps them to understand the breadth and depth of the gospel story, and; 2. To suggest disciplines and practices that will assist in the development of healthy life rhythms. We are currently collating and editing that material into a resource that we hope will serve to critique the fragmented, distracted living that culture shapes us towards. This is a preview of January’s introduction. Socrates declared, at least 400 years before Christ, that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Although it is unlikely he was setting out to make a theological statement, there is plenty of biblical evidence to suggest that he was on to something. It may not be said in exactly those terms, but many of the psalms, proverbs, epistles and examples in Scripture extol the benefits of self-evaluation. Why then do we do so little of it?! In his helpful essay on rhythms of life, Chris Webb – director of Renovare – notes that we are all creatures of habit. We prefer to live with some level of routine than with absolute chaos. We follow patterns; we build structure; we create shorter-term rituals and longer-term traditions. We repeat; we revisit; we live by rhythms. Unfortunately, however, we seldom make a habit of examining our habits. That is to say, our schedules, our routines, our habits, are for the most part passively acquired. We work “X” number of hours because our job (or our debt!) demands that we do. We commute the hours we need to make those work hours happen. We gather in groups as our beliefs and pastimes require. We catch up with friends and family when we want, remember, or have to – depending on the enjoyment we derive from their company. And in the time left over we squeeze in our shopping, our eating, our banking, our cleaning, our mowing, our sleeping, etc. It’s not that we avoid decisions – we just make most of them on the fly. Our decisions are largely reactive, rather than proactive. They lack intentionality. As John Lennon’s song Beautiful Boy warned us: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” This month we want to encourage you to pause and ask: “What sort of life do I want to be living?” “What do I actually want my life to look like?” Chances are that you haven’t considered that sort of question for a while, if ever. Chances are, also, that your idealised answers are quite different from your current trajectory of activity. We are not talking here about goal-setting. The corporate world is awash with such motivational material and, despite the enthusiasm with which it is imported into some discipleship settings, we think its usefulness here is limited. The life of faith and KPIs seldom make good bed-fellows. Goal-setting usually implies destination – we are more interested here in how well we know and imitate Christ along the way. Webb suggests that how we schedule this journey not only reflects our level of intimacy and virtue – it can change it. “The way we structure our days not only reveals our character and priorities, it can also help to shape them. We make some choices because of who we are, but others because of who we wish to become.” He goes on to explain that most of us would benefit from the Christian tradition of intentionally structuring our lives through a Regula Vitae – a “Rule of Life.” Don’t panic – this is not a legalistic set of rules to follow. Rather, it is an invitation to write down some of your thoughts and responses to those questions above. Regula was the Latin word for a wooden strip with markings used for measuring and alignment – similar to our present-day classroom rulers. We hold things against a ruler to see if they are straight and true and if their proportions and measurements are right. In the same way a Regula Vitae – a “Rule of Life” – is an opportunity for us to mark out some of our intentions in advance and then to regularly hold it up to our life and see how our alignment and proportions are fairing. We’re not going to ask you to write out a Rule of Life now – we’ve got to give you something to look forward to in January! But we are suggesting you take some time to sit and reflect on the shape and pace of your life. Are you happy with how it is looking? Why or why not? What changes might help? Here’s to examined lives that are worth living! SAM BLOORE
COMPASS CALENDAR: NOVEMBER
November’s Calendar is about the Church and Service. The Church is called to live as part of the story of the Bible, as part of the new Creation that has begun in Jesus, and will one day be fully revealed. This is the same story that Israel was called to be part of, and the same mission that Adam and Eve were originally given – to continue God’s creative work of ordering and filling the world – to live life as God intended
Our calendar also considers the discipline of Service. In a culture which heavily encourages self-focus, service is a counter-cultural act expressing the radicalness of the gospel. Back to top^
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