Neil's blog

Nearly a whole week of ‘Oz’mosis & I’m still waking up several times in the night. It’s weird waking up at 5.00 a.m & being able to see & speak to my family via Skype (8 p.m. in Irvine). Amy tells me I look a bit rough! (see attached photos). Dr Who must have some job recovering from tardus lag in his travels! It is remarkable that God can be in Australia, Scotland and so many other places at the one time.

My Sydney friends, the Bartletts, are wonderful hosts! I’m here for a week, being driven by David to visit church pastors & key leaders in the Sydney area. Ozzies are inherently cynical & quick to sniff out hypocrisy or the Real McCoy (not unlike Scots!). ‘Fair Dinkum’ means ‘For Real’. I’m much encouraged by their deep desire to see others experience the saving love of God. ‘Coast Community Church’ is known as ‘C3’, their motto, “Changing lives, one at a time”. How churches & para-church organisations rebrand themselves is interesting. The Salvation Army in Oz are affectionately known as ‘Salvos’, their motto ‘Thank God for the Salvos!’ Ozzies love to shorten & informalise things (MacDonalds known as ‘Mackas&rsquo. Key to branding yourself with a view to attracting others to get involved with you are your ‘core values’ & ‘mission’. Why are we so bad at branding ourselves in the C of S? When we merge & link churches, we tend to amalgamate & accumulate historical names rather than characterise our core values & vision. ‘New Trinity Church’ sounds heretical! ‘Auchertmuchty linked with Auchenshugle, linked with Urquhart’ is just silly! Then we add ‘Parish Church of Scotland’! What a mouth full! There is something safe for many people about the C of S which we can use, but is there not a new descriptive affectionate name we can find to describe the C of S, & likewise locally? What names might connect better with local people? Of course, you can re-brand with great imagination, but without substance & integrity we’ll be wasting our time. I think Fullarton has quite a positive image in our local community, essentially, ‘Together, sharing the love of Jesus’, so if we were to rebrand Fullarton Parish Church, how might it sound? Answers on a post card! Why not post your ideas on the blog? ‘The Banner Church’ / ‘Kirk that cares’ / ‘Fullarton Family’ (In Oz ‘Community’ is a more inclusive buzz word than ‘Family&rsquo / ‘Fullarton Community Church’? Over to you!

By the way kangaroo meat’s pretty tasty! I’ve still to try crocodile (see butcher photo). I head back to Melbourne from Sydney on Sunday, where I’m doing a week of Sports’ Chaplaincy training. I'm told that Melbourne's 'Dinkum Pies' might rival the famous Killie Pie; I'm up for putting that to the test! Keep on keepin’ on!

Yours truly, ‘Sleepless in Sydney’.

p.s. photo - don't tell Polo!