Two icons

My last day in Australia.

Taught for 6 hours and then as my colleague Paul Borden spoke to a Chinese and Australian group I grabbed a cab and headed downtown.

Time to see the 2 iconic Sydney landmarks – Sydney Opera House and Sydney Bridge.

I was too late to climb up the outside of the Bridge (next time – looks fun), but I took a ferry and sailed out into the bay, past the Opera House, under the Bridge and up to Darling Harbor. Found a neat Malaysian Restaurant, ate well, drank a smooth China beer called Lucky and walked across the river to look at Sydney from another angle.

Sydney is a city with an impressive skyline, a beautiful location, appears very clean and modern, hugely multicultural and a very appealing city.

So I gave it a good 4 hours of visiting - mixture of tiredness and a long flight tomorrow saw my energy levels sag …..and no even Lucky or Cadbury’s could resuscitate my energy.

But maybe I’ll be back.

The Salvo’s seemed appreciative (even although the Divisional Commander in thanking me for coming called me Roger!!!! ….do I look like a ‘Roger’? Keeps you humble.).
For them the work of transformation in the Eastern Territory is at beginning stages.
Would be interesting to visit in two years to see if traction is happening.

In leadership, and especially change leadership, momentum is crucial.
Our time here has been trying to generate such momentum. Get Officers into the dialogue of growth, transformation, outward focus, missional action.
Reintroduce them to what is the main thing.
Over 2 days or 3 days of teaching and discussing bring to the fore of their thinking what it would look like to lead missional corps.

Momentum.

Mine’s is diminishing.
16 days on the road is fun but weary – especially for an introvert like me.
Space and silence has been rare.
So unlike really godly pastors I’ll not be leading the person sitting next to me on my flight home in the sinners prayer after drawing the cross diagram on a napkin during my 17 hours flight home …..instead I’ll be sitting with my headphones on, ignoring them (I will introduce myself as I slip my headphones on) and taking much needed space …in a huge Airbus 380 double decker plane with 550 people on board