MCSI Boards
Two voluntary boards provided invaluable strategic advice, direction, experience and wisdom in governing MCSI:
Board of Directors
Thank you to all who served MCSI on the Board of Directors over the years:
Jean Ashton
Ian Campbell
Roger Chilton
Catriona Corbett
Bob Frisken
Tony Golsby-Smith
Stuart Johnson
Geoff Kells (Chair to 2004)
Peter Lees (Chair 2004-2008)
Kara Martin
Jack Mechielsen
Adrian McComb (Company Secretary)
Stuart Piggin
Andries Terblanché
Ron Winestock
Board of Advice
Among others the following people have served on the MCSI Board of Advice:Bruce Baird, Rob Cartwright, Robyn Claydon, Roger Corbett, Tim Costello, Peter Crimmins, John Dickson, Harry Goodhew, Leigh Hatcher, Andrew Lu, Keith Mason, Bob Mierisch, Phil Pringle, George Savvides, Ridley Smith, Glenda Weldon, Roderick West, John Yeo
Reflections from Board Members
Kara Martin
I first became interested in the idea of MCSI when I was working as a consultant for Stuart Piggin, then Master of Robert Menzies College. Stuart asked me if I would help formulate a proposal to take to a Foundation requesting seed funding for an Institute that would collaborate with Macquarie University. We were successful in our application.
Initially it was envisaged that MCSI would be an outworking of the existing ministries of Robert Menzies College: the Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity (CSAC) and the School of Christian Studies (SOCS); however it became clear that something new and different was emerging.
Although I missed out on some of the early meetings, such as the meeting convened by the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, and the visioning work of Tony Golsby-Smith; I did get to see Adrian McComb operating a mobile MCSI office out of his briefcase, and attended an inspirational weekend of the Board up at Eaglereach.
I was also involved in the drafting of the Memorandum of Understanding with Macquarie University. We managed to establish a unique partnership with MU having unparalleled acceptance and exposure to MU resources. Much of the credit for this incredible status within the university must go to Stuart Piggin for his special working relationship with the Vice-Chancellor of MU, Di Yerbury.
I conducted some early focus groups with MU students, testing the waters for interest in our vision. It was obvious that the students were struggling with the concept. They found it hard to differentiate MCSI from the Christian groups on campus. I'll never forget the AFES staffworker claiming that teaching students how to run a bible study and form a prayer group at the workplace was the only training they needed for life as a Christian in the workforce.
The early focus was on the anticipated need for training up teachers for Christian schools, and this was broadened to develop "perspectival" courses for other professions. Vision teams were formed for media, law, counselling, science, business and the aged care industry.
While all this work was going on there were two needs: an office location close to the university, and a Dean and Director. A house was found on the grounds of Baptist Community Services on the fringe of the uni. Then there was the historic meeting when the Board was asked to dream. The question was put: "If you could choose anyone to lead MCSI, who would it be? Who is the world leader in the area of practical spirituality?" The name Robert Banks was mentioned, and it was agreed he should be approached.
Robert had been a leading voice for "lay spirituality" in Australia before he was enticed to the United States to head up the prestigious DuPree Leadership Centre at Fuller Seminary. It was hard to imagine that he would be interested in starting something so new and small back in Australia.
However, it turned out that Robert and his wife Julie were interested in returning to Australia, and Robert agreed to take up the role. It was a great boost to the morale and prestige of MCSI. Robert brought a calm presence of authority. He empowered those around him. Julie also was an enthusiastic advocate for the vision. Then there was a terrible setback, Julie was diagnosed with cancer, and the triumphant return to Australia was instead a sad retreat to be amongst family. Julie's funeral was a beautiful celebration of her life, but a horribly difficult beginning for Robert with MCSI.
He suggested as MCSI's first academic administrator a PhD student, Simon Holt. Simon and Brenda and family were a delightful addition to the growing MCSI community. Robert and Simon developed the first teaching offerings, negotiated with the university, and recruited lecturers. Jan McEvoy was the very over-qualified Office Administrator, and Adrian McComb continued to be involved in everything.
I was a student of one of the first MCSI subject's: Everyday Ethics, held as an intensive in conjunction with the annual SOCS conference. Robert and Simon taught together, and even though I had been so involved in planning and articulating the vision, studying and learning in this subject helped me see how different this understanding of God and the Bible was. I realised for the first time how dualistic my thinking was: sacred versus secular; spirit versus flesh; ministry versus ordinary jobs... Read More>
Mark Hutchinson
Though Mark didn't officially serve on the MCSI Board he played a crucial role in the conception and birth of the concept that grew into MCSI:
"In 1993, Stuart Piggin and I were considering how best to get Australian Christian historical content into the schools curriculum across Australia. We called together a group of history teachers and began design for what in future would flow into the National Christian Heritage foundation that Stuart is presently working on. While involved in this, we began talking to the Christian Schooling organisations (the organisations that are now Christian Parent Controlled Schools and Christian Schools Australia), and were interacting with some of their staff who had also been involved in thinking toward the idea of a Christian University. Eventually, we ran a conference on 'The Idea of an Australian Christian University' (1996) at Macquarie.
In the interim, Ian Lambert (who was Director of National Institute of Christian Education, NICE) and I published a number of books together on Christian schooling, and were talking about how nice it would be to work together. NICE and CSAC (Centre for Study of Australian Christianity) thus began talking about an institution which would fuse the functions of the two organisations on the Macquarie campus, while retaining their existence off campus. Stuart Johnson and I travelled to the USA to speak with Robert Banks about the possibility that he would be returning to Sydney after his time at Fuller. The committees were then formed, and the machinery took over. Ian went off to run Swan Christian High in Perth, as he felt in need of senior schools management experience. I finished out with CSAC in 1999, spent a year as 'Senior Research Fellow' with MCSI, before moving on to Southern Cross College in 2000.
Read more about the beginnings of MCSI here>
Stuart Piggin: Penultimate Farewell Reflection at the MCSI Board: 2 Cor 1:3-7 and 12-14, 25/11/08
This is the text of Dr Piggin's farewell reflection with the MCSI Board in November 2008:
" 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. . .
12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace. 13 For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, 14 as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus."
Introduction
Let us together reflect for a few moments on just the last verse, namely II Cors 1.14.
1. From Boasting in ourselves to Rejoicing in Christ
We know a fair about what he meant by ‘boast' thanks to the scholarship of a great scholar who was instrumental in forming MCSI, ancient historian, Professor Edwin Judge. Edwin Judge showed that Paul the Apostle often spoke of boasting because it was a very popular past-time among the Romans of the ancient world. The Romans thought that boasting was a good thing to do: telling people how good you are is how you establish your own glory, and, to a Roman, ‘gloria' was the greatest thing to have, more important than money and life after death.
So Paul was using a much-used and highly revered word. But, argued Professor Judge, St Paul used it differently. He used the word ‘boast' ironically, that is, critiquing the Roman use of the word. You boast of this and that, said Paul, but God has come to us in Jesus, and turned the world upside down, so that Christians, who are possessed by the Spirit of Christ, boast in something completely different.
In another place in the same letter, 2 Cors 11.30, he says, ‘If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness'.
So the habit of ‘boasting' was an honoured practice in the ancient world, but Christ changed the world, so that in our world, which has been highly influenced by Christian values, boasting is dishonourable: Instead, we honour humility.
So, have you got the point? Paul would have used the word ‘boast' to communicate in a world where it was a popular practice, but he was so successful that his message changed the world to being a place where it is unpopular to boast, and so to communicate to us who live in this world, rather than the ancient world, some versions of the Scriptures don't want to use the word ‘boast' here, but ‘rejoice'.
‘I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can rejoice in us just as we will rejoice in you in the day of the Lord Jesus.'
So, my first point is that we have embraced a world view, the Christian world view, which has changed and shaped the world, and that in belonging to MCSI, we have belonged to an organisation where the Word of God is so valued that it has attracted the best scholarship of which the Christian Church can boast, oops, the best scholarship in which the Church can rejoice. And what that scholarship confirms is that the Bible has so captivated that world that it has taught us that we must not boast in ourselves, but rejoice in Christ.
2. To Rejoice in Christ means to Rejoice in Each Other.
But do notice here that in vs 14, Paul does not talk about boasting or rejoicing in Christ, but rather in each other:
‘I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.'
Paul's desire is that they will be so confident in him (Paul) that they can boast about him, and his certain conviction is that he can boast about them.
Now the Word of God, as it speaks to us here, does not want us to boast in ourselves, but instead to rejoice in Christ. Yet, to rejoice in Christ means that we must learn how to rejoice in each other. And that is what this verse is all about. Have we at MCSI learned how to rejoice in each other?
Now the history of MCSI, of which we are mindful on this day, has taught us how to rejoice in each other at times. We have had some wonderful moments when we have felt the nearness of God through the intimacy of our fellowship with one another.
One example: Adrian
But it is also true that MCSI has been an organisation where we have been pained by each other at other times. Things have not always gone right. MCSI has not always been a place of rejoicing, and we have been through some very rough waters indeed, and sometimes we have felt that we are drowning in such rough waters. And we have felt impatient with each other at times and tempted into becoming critical and judgemental.
Now that was exactly the situation Paul was addressing when he penned this letter to the Christians at Corinth. Our crises have not been caused by sins of the flesh, but we have had clashes over leadership. We have sought to be an ego free organisation, but we have not always managed to restrain our egos. So it is good to reflect on this letter in general and this verse 14 of ch 1 in particular.
2.1 Do not be defensive; do not dwell on the bad things you perceive in others; look for the positives, and rejoice in them.
Paul could easily have got defensive. He was not particularly easy to understand, and because he was direct about correcting abuses, it was easy to get indignant with him, and because he was so disciplined and strong in Christ, people wanted to pull him down and to be suspicious of his motives and intentions.
So how does Paul respond to this less than generous treatment? He does not say, ‘You don't understand me' or ‘you are not prepared to give me the benefit of the doubt'. Instead he looked for something good in the situation: he thought about those who had taken his criticisms to heart and wanted to change and he thought about those who, even though they had doubts about him, still did want to give him the benefit of the doubt.
And so Paul spoke positively and charitably about them. He said vs 14 ‘you have understood us in part'. Not ‘the trouble with you lot is that you just don't understand me', but rather ‘you have understood me in part'.
Now, in this farewell meditation, I am not comparing any of us with the Apostle Paul, but I, for one, could say exactly the same thing about all this. I am not always easy to understand. I won't even understand this meditation when I read it again in a week's time. Why should I be surprised that you have not always understood me?
But you have made some effort to understand me, and you have understood me in part, and I am so grateful for that. It was in connection with MCSI and because of it that I first did my Myers-Briggs and I know that an ENFP is the most easily misunderstood of personality types.
But here, with the encouragement of the Word of God, we see that we have understood each other in part, and we feel grateful for that.
So Paul does recognise here the human factors which are present in relationships, and by his example Paul shows us that it is better not to be defensive; not to dwell on the bad things we perceive in others; but instead to look for the positives, and rejoice in them.
Now, while it takes divine grace to go on acting like that, it does not take divine grace to see the wisdom of such behaviour. Anyone could see that this advice and this example is the wisest to follow in every human situation. You should not need the Bible or Paul's example to teach you that.
But then Paul suddenly says something which came straight from the seat of heavenly wisdom, from the throne of grace itself, and this is why I wanted us to reflect on this verse at this time.
2.2 Remember that we shall all meet again before Christ to have our relationships assessed by him.
You see, Paul was certain of a number of things, and his certainty was not in the area of personality theory. He was certain that God had become a human being in Jesus Christ; that Christ had suffered on the cross for our salvation; that he conquered death for us and rose again. Of all those actions of Christ in the past, Paul was certain, and, as for the future, one day, Jesus would judge the world. Of that Paul was equally certain.
Those few facts about Jesus were the fundamentals of his life and the foundation of his thought and action. All we have to do now is to work out the implications for our own life of those few solid, foundational Christian truths, which are all about Jesus.
One certain implication of this is, as Paul shows here in 1.14 is that one day, we will stand together with those with whom we have shared in the ministry of the gospel. We who have shared in this ministry, on this Board, will stand together before the Lord Jesus.
That will be on the occasion of the day which is referred to (1.14) as the day of the Lord Jesus. On that day, Paul says, I am going to be proud of you Corinthian Christians. On that day, we are confident, we will be proud of what we have done here.
That is what Paul says here in vs 14: ‘you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus'.
And in 2 Corinthians 4:14 he says: ‘we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence'.
Us with you in the presence of Christ on judgement day. The relationship between us and you is going to be judged, assessed, evaluated, on judgement day.
Now, is that a surprising thought? Surely, we have pictured the judgement as King Jesus, seated on his judgement throne, surrounded by all his holy angels, his own eyes afire with the light of judgement. There will be millions and millions of people there, each person entirely alone before the judge, and some will receive the crown of eternal life and others will be cast into eternal darkness.
Surely, that is the main game on judgement day. It will be such an awe-inspiring sight. Surely, we will not have eyes for anything else such as the relationship between those who have shared in the ministry of the gospel.
Well, this is one part of Scripture which tells us that it will not be quite like that. It will not be so individualistic. We will not be just one in a vast crowd. True, there will be lots of people there with whom we have had absolutely nothing to do, so they will be judged apart from us, but there will also be people there who we know and with whom we have had relationships, and those relationships will be judged like everything else.
[Come the judgement day, you will be conscious of ‘us and you' as well as of Jesus. There will be matters of mutual concern between us.
Why in particular will we be judged together with those with whom we have laboured in the gospel? 1 Corinthians 3.13 teaches us that our every work will be assessed on judgement day. We usually think that what will be judged will be all the things we have done wrong, like our lies and our lust, but the most important ‘work' we do is the work of the gospel, and how we do this work in relationship with each other will be evaluated.
So, for those of us who are signing of from the Board and for those who are staying with it, this is not the end. We cannot say ‘farewell', but rather ‘until we meet again', for meet again we must.]
Come that day, the day of the Lord Jesus, we will stand together, before our Lord and then we will fully understand each other, and in particular we will see the extent to which our motives came from Jesus, even though we may not always have thought that when we shared together in this work through MCSI. And when we see that, we will boast in each other, we will be proud of each other, we will rejoice.
Conclusion:
Kara wrote a long reflection on MCSI and sent it to me in the expectation that I would enjoy reading it. It was great stuff, but, to my surprise, I was struck by how sad I was when I read it. But, on the authority of God's word, I know that one day, his day, the day of the Lord, all of us who have worked in this endeavour will certainly meet before the Lord Jesus, and, I know, just as certainly, that we will rejoice in each other; we will be very proud of each other; we will boast of each other. Since, the Lord has revealed that to us, that such will be our certain future experience, let that knowledge transform our evaluation of what God has wrought through MCSI and how he has used us each one for his greater glory