How are you going to transform the world?
This was the question put to participants in the Moderators workshop with UCA school prefects.
How are you going to transform the world?
This was the question put to participants in the Moderators workshop with UCA school prefects 2 weeks ago. Beginning with a devotion thinking about the feeding of the 5000, and how a boy’s small offering, transformed that group, students heard that the Synod theme this year has been about Transforming Community. They were given opportunity to talk about how they had transformed their school community during their leadership year.
Stories of successful events run, community engagement, raising money for charities and having a hand in developing their school spirit were shared. Alongside this they reflected on how they had learnt to navigate complex school calendars, gaining permission for ideas and understanding risk assessments. They also discussed the improvement in their ability to speak in public, often in whole school assemblies of up to one or two thousand students. They had grown and stretched in the eight months since the last workshop.
As they took this morning away from school in the workshop, we asked them to step back and look at themselves. What have they learnt this year? What will they take with them? Who was influencing them? Who were they listening to, and whose voices were they missing? How were they incorporating feedback to grow? And what would they like to develop further?
As they approach the end of their time at a Uniting Church school we encouraged them to not see this as an end to using their gifts and skills of leadership. As these students go into the workforce or university they will be a part of many communities and we encouraged them to think about how they might be able to use their leadership skills to make a difference in those communities.
What type of world do you want to see? How might you use what you have learnt to make the world you live in, fairer, more just, kinder, more welcoming? It was exciting to hear their responses and their commitment to making the small part of the world they will find themselves in, a better place.
Of course, it is not just a question for young people at the start of their life. It is one for all of us…. How are you going to transform the world?
