25th January, 2006

Phil McCredden, 38, is the ministry team leader at the Northern Community Church of Christ in Preston, Melbourne (www.nccc.org.au). He is married to Danielle.

I first became a Christian... In some ways, I have always considered myself a Christian. I grew up in a family that was very involved in a church plant in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Our church was considered alternative and even a bit radical but to me growing up it was normal and something that was a big part of my life. I was baptised at the age of 13 having made my decision as an adult to follow Jesus.

I knew I was called into ministry when... This is hard to answer. I don't remember one time, or even one event that I could pinpoint as me being called to minister. Rather there was a growing sense that this is what I wanted to do and what I felt God would want me to do. There were significant people that helped form this calling for me which included Ian Corlett (then at Kensington Christian Network), and Greg Elsdon (then principal at Churches of Christ Theological College).

The most challenging aspect of my role is... to hold in tension the different and emerging church communities with a more traditional and heritage community. I firmly believe that we need to allow the energy and the creativity of the emerging church to impact the established church. But changing long term understanding of what church is, and what the focus should be, is never easy.

The best part of my role is... seeing people transformed into new or better followers of Jesus.

Three words that best describe our church are... our three core values – developing community, deepening spirituality and demonstrating compassion.

Something innovative that God's doing at our church is... Over the past six years we have worked at cultivating an environment where we can be the hands and feet of Jesus in the northern suburbs. This has led us to create a church that has many different congregations meeting at different times of the week and each of the congregations has a different style and format. We have met in cafes, pubs, community centres, church buildings and homes. We are also planting many different missional teams that seek to connect with the many different people that make up the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

If I had one more message to bring to the church it would be... that we need to seek ways to move beyond seeing getting people to worship as the aim.

Someone who inspires me is... Ashley Barker at Urban Neighbours of Hope (a Churches of Christ mission organisation - www.unoh.org).

My favorite book of the Bible is... Mark – it is an earthy Gospel with a call to a radical faith.

Apart from the Bible, I'm reading... Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.

Musically, I like... U2.

I'm a blogger because... it allows me to connect with a group of people around the world who are doing similar things.

I'm currently praying for... us to continue to follow the path that God has called us - even when it is difficult and painful.

McCredden writes a blog which can be found at www.signposts.org.au.

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