EXPLORE ~ DISCOVER ~ THRIVE
NEXT is a unmatched experience of friendship, discipleship and personal development delivered through an accredited Diploma. Quite simply, it is a year like no other, tailor made for young adults.
When God Is Not Being Clear
As we launch our new program – NEXT2 – we are exploring purpose, vocation, calling and discerning the way ahead through our blog. This week, we are re-posting a blog written by Rowan Lewis, team leader at NEXT, that explores God’s Will and finding our way when things aren’t clear. We will be going deeper […]
OPEN NIGHT (2015) REDUX
If you couldn’t make it to NEXT’s Open Night, you can now watch and engage online. Through the NEXT Open Night you will discover the heart behind NEXT, the way we approach discipleship and formation, the options you have available and how you can join us for 2015. There’s also a special Spoken Word / Slam Poetry piece […]
Bend, Don’t Break: The Importance of a Flexible Faith
I’ve heard some people say that the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. While I agree that doubt is definitely not the opposite of faith, I’m not so sure that certainty is either. Having said that, I am sure that equating certainty with faith is highly problematic. Here are some interesting thoughts from […]
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Developing Your Ministry is not about Technique
A new unit is being offered this semester at Whitley DP2010W / DP9010W Personal Formation for Generational Ministry. It focuses NOT on the techniques of ministry, but on the person of the minister and their formation. Here’s the details … ENROL NOW I don’t know about you, but sometimes being involved in ministry frightens the heck […]
Ash Wednesday: Befriending Fragility and the Beginning of Lent
Today is the day I get to acknowledge that I am not strong, that I am not perfect, that I am hurt, I am fearful, I am sad, I have doubts, I feel small, that I am not a person of limitless ability or competency and that I absolutely do not have it all together. […]
Study Youth and Young Adult Spirituality
Understand the spiritual journeys’ of young people Discover how faith begins, grows and changes across the life course Learn how to accompany young people amidst a faith crisis The Basics: This semester, we are running a class examining the spiritual lives of younger people – both youth and young adults. It is a class […]
Adulting
ADULTING – it is now a verb … or participle. Like walking or swimming, there is now adulting. Adulthood has become differentiated as something that is no longer automatic. We all grow older equally, but not all grow up equally. Adulthood is not simply something that happens by virtue of age – it is […]
Faith is not my New Year’s Resolution…
Can you feel that? A new year is coming…. For some a new year begins with fireworks of excitement and possibility, for others in nervous twitches, and sometimes it simply arrives deadpan expecting us to know what to do with it. Whatever way it arrives most of the time a new year is accompanied by […]
#WhatWeLearned@NEXT
What have you discovered to be deeply true this year? This is what we found (and it is awesome!).
Meet the Team
Team Leader
Rowan Lewis leads the team that delivers Whitley College’s NEXT Diploma program that offers emerging and young adults a unique experience of personal development and spiritual formation within an accredited setting. He is also engaged in PhD research, exploring the ways in which religious and spiritual identity become established, lost and renegotiated in young people through their late teens and twenties.
Rowan Lewis
Co-ordinator
Mia Co-ordinates the first year of Whitley College’s NEXT Diploma program. Mia brings to NEXT a keen interest in locating oneself in the biblical story in order to know God, know self and know others as well as a desire to creatively adapt traditional practices of liturgy in order to better integrate the life of a community with the life of Christ.
Mia Kafieris
NEXT2 Coordinator & Lecturer in Creativity and Spirituality
Joel McKerrow is a writer, speaker, educator, community arts worker and one of Australia’s most successful internationally touring performance poets. Amongst his busy schedule Joel coordinates the NEXT2 program as well as teaching our Creativity and Spirituality elective. Based out of Melbourne, Australia he is the Artist Ambassador for the aid and development organisation TEAR Australia and was the co-founder of community arts organisation The Centre for Poetics and Justice (2010-2013).
Joel McKerrow
Spirituality, Activism & Justice
Stephen is a big fan of NEXT, that is to say he is passionate about facilitating an environment where young adults can explore and experiment with the historical, social, economic and political dimensions of Christian spirituality. Stephen is a husband, a dad, and a foundation member of the Melbourne City Football Club. Stephen is particularly interested in radical spirituality, incarnational community and the dynamics of personal and social transformation, particularly amongst young adults. He has helped many think about the nexus between the issues of justice, poverty, consumerism and discipleship in the context of popular global culture.
Stephen Said