There is still time to make your order!

With the SURRENDER:13 DVD pack you’ll be able to watch all the main sessions from the conference, PLUS audio of the main sessions, bible studies and selected workshops. This pack will give you the chance to revisit some of the incredible sessions from the weekend, reflect with your group, or use a study resource with friends who didn’t make it to SURRENDER:13.

If you’ve come away from SURRENDER:13 with questions, ideas and thoughts, this is a great opportunity to reflect on the parts of the conference that inspired you most, and to explore how you’re going to respond.

For more information, including an order form, please click on the link below or email enquiries@surrender.org.au.

Order the SURRENDER:13 DVD pack

Image © Jon Osborne. 

A selection of these photographs is now showing on the SURRENDER homepage.

All images © Jon Osborne - http://jonosbornephoto.wordpress.com/ 

Doncaster Church of Christ

Ben Chong knows that responding to Jesus’ radical call to mission on your own can be a little daunting. That’s why the young adults of Doncaster Church of Christ are together taking small steps towards bringing the Kingdom to their community.“The more people you know are dreaming with you,” he says,“the bigger and crazier you dare to dream of how the Kingdom might come.”

“We are still in the early days of a new adventure, but we can feel something stirring,” says Ben. Something certainly was stirring when a group of Doncaster’s young adults met to share a meal together.“We discussed the irony of meeting at church to talk about loving our neighbours, but not knowing the names or stories of others in our congregations, or of those who used our facilities, or of those who physically lived next to us.”

Together they read the parable of the Banquet and the Rich Young Ruler, and were challenged to extend their hospitality in a way that required risk. The result of that discussion was another dinner party where friends, family and strangers were invited to attend.“Others heard and became part of the excitement,” Ben says. And in a true expression of God’s Kingdom working in their community, so many people attended this dinner that they were spilling out of the dining room.“People were laughing, drawing on the tables, wrestling on the stage, playing jenga with children, and it felt like family,” Ben recalls.

There have been three dinners since and each time those involved have been challenged and inspired by God’s provision at work.“We have been privileged to catch little glimpses of the Kingdom breaking through,” says Ben.

This inspiration has extended into an English Conversation Class for new migrant adults, a Breakfast Club at the local high school, and even a vegetable patch in the church office gardens. Its produce is used to cook meals for families of the local primary school, who are experiencing financial difficulties.“The God we read about in the Bible is never removed from life,” Ben explains.“We are still learning, but it is becoming clear that if we want to actually follow Christ, then we have to follow him into all the different places he might go- be they amongst strangers, or dirty, or scary, or ugly or broken.”

God’s mission is to restore life, and with this belief Doncaster Church are going to the places where life is most broken. This is evidently impacting on those involved, with one young adult reflecting on their own attitude change,saying,“It is easy to dislike someone who is different when you talk about them like an issue.It is almost impossible to dislike them when you are playing with their children over dinner.”

Bridges are being built, connections are being made and the community of Doncaster Church of Christ are  seeing God’s Kingdom breaking out in their neighbourhood.“People who were once ‘strangers’ or‘others’ to us are now friends with names and connections,” says Ben.“It has encouraged us to move from a place of engaging with issues of justice on a purely intellectual level, to a place where our hands are dirty because we’re living amongst the people where life is happening.

Interview and words by Bec Jones
This interview first appeared in The SURRENDER Toolkit. 

You heard from international and local speakers who are living out the Kingdom in their communities, and now you want to immerse yourself in the heart of God too. SURRENDER has put together two great resources to help you do just that; to put legs on living out the call to the margins.

• The SURRENDER Toolkit
  We want you to take the ideas, enthusiasm and commitment that have been birthed at the SURRENDER Conference and take the next steps in living Jesus’ radical call to the margins. It’s not enough just to talk about it – we want to live it! The SURRENDER Toolkit contains a bunch of ideas to help you follow Jesus wherever he may go.

• SURRENDER’s Mission Mentors
  SURRENDER Mission Mentors is a robust mentoring program that supports and sustains a new generation of young Christian community based mission workers in their local neighbourhoods. If you want to move from interest to action, get involved.

If you have any questions about these two resources, or would just like to chat about the ideas to come out of SURRENDER:13, please contact us at enquiries@surrender.org.au.

We are in the process of putting together a DVD pack of the SURRENDER:13 Conference. You’ll be able to watch all the main sessions PLUS audio of the main sessions, Bible studies and selected workshops. This pack will give you the chance to revisit some of the incredible sessions from the weekend, reflect with your group, or use a study resource with friends who didn’t make it to SURRENDER:13. 

For more information, including an order form, please click on the link below or email enquiries@surrender.org.au.

SURRENDER:13 DVD & MP3 order form

Image © Jon Osborne

If you came along to SURRENDER:13, whether it was for the whole weekend, for one day or just an evening, you can win a pass to SURRENDER:14! To go into the draw you’ll need to complete our SURRENDER:13 Survey. It only takes a couple of minutes, and by giving us such valuable feedback you’ll help to shape next year’s conference.

We have been reading some wonderful feedback so far, and we want to thank those who have already participated for their responses. We love hearing your stories and value your comments.

Here’s what some participants have already shared about their SURRENDER experience:

• SURRENDER was a really helpful space to engage with what the Kingdom of God looks like, and therefore how we can best serve and enact that Kingdom in our neighbourhoods and communities.
• The people on the margins are to be included in the kingdom of God and we as believers have a response to the gospel to reach out to them.
• [SURRENDER is] Just a great reminder and challenge to continue to reach the unreached in our own back yard.
• SURRENDER – a weekend of raw authentic people from a wide range of communities… gathered in unity to share in a larger community of brothers and sisters, eager to explore what it really looks like to fall at the feet of the people we are living in a world with and helping.

Take the time to fill out the survey now, entries close TUESDAY 26TH MARCH!

Image © Jon Osborne

From the SURRENDER team: A huge thank-you to everyone who came and were part of SURRENDER:13. It was an incredible weekend with over a thousand Christians from across Australia gathered together as one mob. Together, we sat under the incredible teaching of our friends from India, the Bronx, Burundi and leaders from Indigenous communities across Australia. Over the weekend, we experienced a collective refreshing in our commitment to be part of building the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

As Alexie reminded us over the weekend, “we belong to one another”. So from the SURRENDER team, we deeply thank-you for joining us over the weekend and the year ahead. We look forward to seeing what God will continue to do – over our dinner tables, in our neighbourhoods, across our land and in our world. Thank-you for being part of the SURRENDER journey.

Image © Jon Osborne

After months of planning, excitement and anticipation, SURRENDER:13 is happening this weekend. Our incredible international speakers have touched down in Australia, our partner organisations are setting up their displays and ready to share with you, and here at SURRENDER we just can’t sit still.

There are so many things to look forward to at SURRENDER:13, all of which are listed in our program booklet. Don’t miss Taste of SURRENDER on Friday night with Alexie Torres-Fleming, Indigenous Night on Saturday with Jisas Wantaim and our Indigenous brothers and sisters, and sitting in the SURRENDER Village with a warm cup of chai.

Share our program with your friends and invite them to join us as we explore the message of The Kingdom Next Door. See you at SURRENDER:13!

15-17 March
Belgrave Heights Convention Centre

SURRENDER is an experience like no other, and sometimes it’s hard to define or describe. Something special happens when the tribes gather together at SURRENDER, so we want you to share your experiences with us.

Why are you attending SURRENDER:13? Is there a particular aspect of the conference you are most looking forward to? Are you searching for a way to answer Jesus’ call to mission among the margins? Maybe you have a story from a past SURRENDER weekend that is bringing you back for another year.

Head over to Facebook and “Like” the SURRENDER Page. Post your SURRENDER Story to your wall and tag @SURRENDER in your post. Start your story with the line “I wouldn’t want to miss…”, and the rest is up to you!

If you want your photos shared with everyone at SURRENDER:13, then post them online by this Friday 8th March. Stop and look around your neighbourhood- where can you see God’s Kingdom breaking through?

Post photos to Instagram and tag #iseethekingdom,
tweet them to @SURRENDERau and tag #iseethekingdom
or post them to Facebook tagging the SURRENDER page.