The Shock Absorber

We are coming back with the second season of The Shock Absorber podcast! Get ready to hear how Soul Revival Church was planted in 2012 and all the challenges we've experienced up until the present!

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In the last episode of season 1, Stu and Joel discuss the principles of the Shock Absorber that been developed over first 20 years of Soul Revival at Gymea Anglican Church.

The generational shift from the 1990s to the 2000s brought a real test for what Soul Revival had been originally built on. This period inspired the three main tenets for the Shock Absorber as a framework for intergenerational ministry.

Stu touches on a few pivotal events that occurred in the early 2000s which signalled that the youth culture was changing. While it was tough era, it genuinely tested Soul Revival's strategy and helped the ministry adapt to change. It lead to the realisation that rather than institutionalising ideas and becoming rigid, it was far more important to fight transience and institutionalise relationships between generations.

What transpired was the next era of Soul Revival as it re-articulated it's approach around three main principles:

• Theology
• Strategy
• Practice

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The Shock Absorber is brought to you by Soul Revival Church

After establishing a theological foundation, Soul Revival felt it was important to express Jesus' community not just within a local church context but also amongst other churches and ministries. That lead to a number of relationships and movements during the 1990s and 2000s which further developed and honed the Shock Absorber principles.

The Shock Absorber is a podcast brought to you by Soul Revival Church from Sydney, Australia. It discusses how the church can adapt to culture and maintain a strong Biblical presence.

We felt bad that we haven't been able to bring much content lately due to focusing on changing how Soul Revival Church does its gatherings! But check out this talk from Stu on Matthew 22:37-40 and the Shock Absorber.

On 27 March, Stu preached at Soul Revival Church's Friday night gathering on Matthew 22:37-40, a passage that has, and continues to have a huge impact on the Soul Revival model of ministry. In this short talk, he explores the idea of the Shock Absorber and how important we feel it is to have an all-age, all-stage approach.

After growing and establishing itself as an effective ministry, it was time for Soul Revival to develop more structure and solidity, and most importantly, a theological perspective.

After growing and establishing itself as an effective ministry, it was time for Soul Revival to develop more structure and solidity, and most importantly, a theological perspective.

The introduction of The Commitments helped create a regular and committed culture across youth ministry and church services. What resulted was a huge growth in the ministry as new Christians joined the community and energised the Christians that were already part of it. But with that fast growth came conflicts and controversies! The Commitments model became a weekly Shock Absorber to deal with the real issues young people (and even concerned parents) were bringing to the table.

The introduction of The Commitments helped create a regular and committed culture across youth ministry and church services. What resulted was a huge growth in the ministry as new Christians joined the community and energised the Christians that were already part of it. But with that fast growth came conflicts and controversies! The Commitments model became a weekly Shock Absorber to deal with the real issues young people (and even concerned parents) were bringing to the table.

Following the Jesus Movement, the church had moved to the Homogeneous Unit Principle, where churches had unintentionally widened the generation gap even further. Soul Revival came up with a corporate response to the transcient, individualistic, consumeristic church culture that resulted. Inspired by the 1991 movie  The Commitments and Oldenburg's Third Place theory the leaders hit upon the need for a more regular and committed culture that would foster a fun and inclusive community in Jesus' name.

In episode 3, hear how after realising a paradigm shift in how they could do ministry, Stu was able to use his studies of the 1960s to create a new form of youth ministry that focused on living out a Jesus-led community rather than attempting to be relevant to multiple generations across the church.

Episode 2 sees Joel and Stu discuss how the Soul Revival ministry began.

Triggered by a desire for an adventure and a paradigm shift in their thinking, four people in a dumpy garage created a new way of doing youth ministry and laid the groundwork for the Shock Absorber.

From now on, the ministry wouldn’t be based around a certain interest but around Jesus and being friends because of Him.