Stress

I've just completed a 6 week course on stress management hosted by C3 Carlingford.

I don't normally trip to the western suburbs of Sydney <gr>, but the course was in Pennant Hills (not very west, but still west of where I live) where the church has its offices and training centre, so I went.

The church big meetings are held in Carlingford High School auditorium: a nice model of church operations to my mind: big investment in sustaining facilities, low investment in low use premises.

The course was run by a facilitator and a clinical psychologist who were both part of the church (that is, they were part of the church body, neither a paid Christian) using cognitive behaviour therapy principles.

I found it of some value as a course, but what I really enjoyed was sitting with a demographically uniform bunch of blokes talking through how we handle our everyday pressures.

At one meeting I made the observation that these fellows, all of whom except self were part of C3, seemed to have a great community in their church: lots of mutual friendships and social contact at a deeper than typical Oz level. If my observation was right, that is how church should be...it was a little taste of heaven to be even on the edge of it: acceptance, no platitudes, genuine conversation and real love: not rhetorical maneuvers.