Baptist Magazine v134 n6

Baptist Churches of New Zealand

baptistmag.org.nz

THE

strength O F R E L AT I O N S H I P S

Live your best ordinary life

Hui 2018

Faith formation in the home

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE TEAM? †CHRISTMAS WHERE WE ARE

| D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 8 / J a n u a r y 2 0 1 9 | v. 1 3 4 n o . 6 |

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We will establish a strong culture of leadership development. We will identify, equip and empower kingdom-focused leaders.

EDITOR Linda Grigg | linda@baptistmag.org.nz GLOBAL MISSION EDITOR Greg Knowles GRAPHIC DESIGNER Rebecca McLeay PRODUCTION MANAGER Kathryn Heslop ADVERTISING Marelize Bester | advertising@baptistmag.org.nz FINANCE MANAGER Winston Hema

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— Baptist Churches of New Zealand PO Box 12-149, Penrose, Auckland 1642, New Zealand 09 526 0338 — Printing Image Print, Auckland — Front cover photography Rebecca McLeay

E B I R C S B U S

— Scripture Unless otherwise specified, Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright ©1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.

Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, BSB. Copyright ©2016, 2018 by Bible Hub. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

— Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand or the magazine’s editorial team.

— The NZ Baptist Magazine is the magazine of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand and the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society.

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5. “Nurture”— support, equip, encourage

CONTENT 04

Nurture (establishing a strong culture of leadership development) is the last of five strategic mission priorities we have explored as themes in the Baptist magazine this year. Whether it is self-leadership, or leadership in teams, or parents as leaders in faith formation at home, we hope there is something in this issue of the magazine that speaks uniquely to you.

We also present a brief overview of this year’s Hui for you. It is always a challenge to condense down several days’ korero and events into just a few paragraphs and photographs. But, if you could not attend, hopefully it gives you a taste of what you missed.

I want to thank all who have personally contacted us this year, to let us know how you feel about the magazine’s look or content. Feedback is always useful and valued.

We look forward to serving you in the coming year, bringing you more news, stories and viewpoints from across our diverse movement. If you have something to share, please get in touch. You can even submit stories or story ideas via our website. Try it out!

Blessings to you at this very special time of year.

~Linda Grigg

Live your best ordinary life

07

REFLECTIONS FROM CRAIG VERNALL

10

NEIGHBOURHOOD & JUSTICE

12 A word from the editor

FEATURE

16 18 20 27 31 33

The strength of relationships

Leading with justice CHILD & FAMILY

Faith formation in the home

CULTURE

The multitude from every nation

LEADERSHIP

Whatever happened to the team?

HUI 2018

OUR STORIES

DIRECTORY

GLOBAL MISSION

Caring for the caregivers Christmas where we are Small bites Opportunities to serve

Baptist / F E A T U R E

Live Your Best life Choosing the slow road

Greg Liston encourages us to slow down, embrace our limitations and rethink what it means to #liveyourbestlife.

I

want to live the best life I can. I want to experience everything I can, do everything I can, achieve everything I can. I think we all want that. Surely our devotion to God requires nothing less than us living extraordinary lives, filled with radical adventure, being as passionate and excited and fervent as we possibly can be. That is what it means to be a Christian, right?

The challenge is that an extraordinary life is extraordinarily hectic. People of all ages proudly declare, “I am just so busy.” But, with so much to fit in, the only way to catch up is to speed up. And when you speed up you miss things. Constantly rushing means you miss nearly everything. The psalmist was right in saying “in vain they rush about...” (Psalm 39:6 NIV). Turns out that those of us who burn the candle at both ends aren’t nearly as bright as we think we are. A busy life is a barren one.

So what if we didn’t “carry the burden of being an extraordinary Christian”?1 What if we accepted our limitations and ordinariness? What if we deliberately

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slowed down to catch up—with God, with each other, with ourselves? Perhaps we need to redefine what we mean by living our best life?

Is ordinary enough?

Graduation speeches often repeat familiar themes: set goals, work hard, get up when you fall. However the most memorable graduation speech I ever heard said almost exactly the opposite. Entitled ‘On the other hand’, this speaker argued that such common graduation advice wasn’t wrong, but it needed to be complemented with equally important messages. We should also be flexible, enjoy now and accept failure.2 Sermons and books, particularly those for young people, repeatedly declare that God has created us for something extraordinary. Following Jesus is about living a radical lifestyle, so dream big, attempt great things and make an impact. They are full of words like relentless, fervent, passion and sold out. These days, normal doesn’t seem enough for God. Can you imagine a youth camp brochure with “ordinary” emblazoned across the front?

Prixel Creative/lightstock.com

Such lofty aspirations aren’t entirely wrong, but they aren’t entirely right either. Perhaps all this superlative language has fooled us into thinking, quite mistakenly, that God expects something more from us than our normal, everyday life. But the clear message of the New Testament is that God is incredibly interested in your ordinary life: “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going‑to‑work, and walking‑around life—and place it before God as an offering (Romans 12:1-2 MSG).

Paul also writes “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you” (1 Thessalonians 4:11 NIV).

Clearly, there is an ‘on the other hand’ message that needs to be heard: there is nothing wrong with being extraordinary, but God also thinks being a normal, everyday human is special and unique. That is why he became one.

Life at walking speed God may think ordinary is enough, but our culture certainly doesn’t. The Oxford Dictionary recently added two words to its mammoth English repository. FOMO (fear of missing out, 2015) and YOLO (you only live once, 2016). Both these additions speak to our underlying cultural angst. We aim to experience as much as we can, wherever and whatever

that means. But what if life isn’t measured in experiences?

Simplifying is always dangerous, but most would agree that love is core to Christianity. And love is not made up of moments, but lifetimes. Love, by its very nature, is not something that can be hurried. The Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama explained this in a masterful book called Three Mile an Hour God. His simple (and dangerous!) point was that God works and love grows at walking speed. He wrote, “Love has its speed... It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed... It goes... at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.”3

L O F T Y A S P I R AT I O N S A R E N ’ T E N T I R E LY WRONG, BUT THEY A R E N ’ T E N T I R E LY RIGHT EITHER.

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Baptist / F E A T U R E

It is our limitations that make us human, a part of God’s creation.

Of course, living at three miles an hour is scary. More than just the culturally stoked fear that slowing down risks missing out, living slowly means knowing others—and them knowing you—more than is entirely comfortable. Having said that, seeing exactly what is wrong, and right, with the people closest to you and choosing to walk beside them anyway, recognising they are doing the same with you, is as close to a working definition of love as I can think of.

FOMO and YOLO ignore the fact that this life is not all there is. Our life extends not just beyond death but beyond us. This cultural anxiety is simply our latest attempt to break free of our creaturely limitations.

But it is our limitations that make us human, a part of God’s creation. Our human limitations make relationships non‑optional. They are the very reason we can call God our Father.

Transformation takes time Our human limitations don’t always seem like a blessing. Particularly when we are trying to keep up with all the heavy demands our modern day, schedule-packed, technology‑toting world puts on us. But Jesus understands a demand-filled life. He may not have had an email account or a cellphone plan but he knew what it was like to have everyone wanting a piece of him. Just before the feeding of the 5000, for example, the Bible talks about Jesus and the disciples being so busy that they didn’t even have time to eat (Mark 6:30).

What set Jesus apart was not his context but his priorities. “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest,” he said in response (Mark 6:31 NIV), and a little later that

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day he went up into the hills to pray alone (Mark 6:46). For Jesus, life at walking speed was not inevitable; it was a choice.

It is a choice for us as well.

Obviously we cannot go back to a time before cars and computers, but we can choose how best to use the gifts we have been given. It is not always easy, though. Choosing to slow down might affect our career options or our salary. It could annoy or disappoint those we work with. But the benefits far outweigh the risks.

There is an important lesson here for those seeking to nurture leaders.

The current trend towards seeing leadership development as the quick and efficient acquiring of ‘a very particular set of skills’ is short-sighted.

Leadership is fundamentally about character, and character grows slowly.

Leaders need to be nurtured, and you cannot nurture someone quickly.

Leadership that is rich in character and integrity cannot be ‘picked up’ on the side while you are primarily doing something else.

We could imagine a situation where God snapped his fingers and we were all instantaneously transformed into the image of Jesus. But God, in his wisdom, chooses a different approach. Our transformation process happens slowly, little by little. The more we learn to look to Christ, the more the Spirit makes us like him. Perhaps, if the Spirit chooses to work in us slowly, it would be wise for us to choose that speed of life as well. “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16 NIV).

Ordinary is extraordinary We normally hear words like limited, ordinary or slow as synonyms for substandard. But God doesn’t see it like that. God the Father created us as intrinsically and intentionally limited human beings. And with these limitations, and perhaps because of

them, he proclaimed us very good.

God the Son chose to become an ordinary human being in Jesus.

Rather than shunning or surpassing our ordinariness, he embraced and accepted it. And God the Spirit deliberately transforms us slowly.

He chooses the slow road, where community and character grow in and among us incrementally as we increasingly look to Christ.

Living an extraordinary life is a burden God has never placed on us. What God asks is that we live our lives—our limited, ordinary and slow lives—in him. After all, the extraordinary event has already happened. God has become human.

The limitless has become limited. The extraordinary has become ordinary.

Eternity has entered time. We are not called to repeat the incarnation, but to participate in it and to live our lives in the light of it. This is precisely what it means to be a Christian. And that is our best life and our highest calling.

Story: Greg Liston Greg lectures in systematic theology at Laidlaw College and previously pastored at Hillsborough Baptist Church and Mt Albert Baptist Church. He has one beautiful wife, two incredible children, two hefty Ph.D.s, attends Mt Albert Baptist and cooks awesome roast potatoes. He encourages people who want to explore this topic more to see the website and free video at livegodspeed.org/home.

1. Julie Canlis, A Theology of the Ordinary (Wenatchee: Godspeed Press, 2017), 50.

2. Susan Lane, “On the other hand”, (Speech, Lynfield College Festival Awards, 2017).

3. Kosuke Koyama, Three Mile an Hour God (London: SCM Press, 1979), 7.

Baptist / R E F L E C T I O N S F R O M C R A I G V E R N A L L

THE

strength O F R E L AT I O N S H I P S Sharing our commitment to the kingdom and mission

At the 2018 Hui, in his last official address as National Leader, Craig Vernall reflected on the importance of relational intelligence in our movement and how that has been fostered during his tenure in that role. What follows is an abbreviated version of his Hui presentation.

B

aptists are unique inasmuch as our movement is one of church congregations, not priests. This means the local congregation is the authority within a church, with each church congregation speaking into the wider movement. Consequently, our strength will only be found within the strength of our relationships in our shared commitment to the kingdom of God and the mission of Jesus both locally and overseas.

Relational intelligence Baptists are intentionally light on doctrine. This allows for churches to interpret Scripture within their own setting. Of course, this risks potentially destroying the fabric that binds us together, but Baptist churches live within this tension.

To be Baptist and to be a healthy movement requires from each of us a high level of relational intelligence (emotional IQ).

Therefore, it’s important for Baptists to understand their own doctrinal positions as well as be conversant about another Baptist church’s point of difference. This allows for healthy and respectful discussion. We don’t have to agree with each other, but when we choose not to understand another’s point of view we’re left with intractable dogma. This raises the emotional temperature but doesn’t contribute to the level of relational well-being of our churches.

Maybe a helpful illustration explaining relational intelligence is to reflect upon Gamaliel’s position when he was challenged about the message the disciples were spreading in Jerusalem after Pentecost. Gamaliel said, “Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39 NIV).

The National Leader’s role So, within this framework, how does one lead a Baptist movement? Let me illustrate from my experience.

Media once asked me for a comment about a social issue. It was a simple question requiring a simple, uncontroversial answer. However, within the day, one of our pastors phoned me, saying I was not the Baptist ‘pope’ and had no authority to

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Baptist / R E F L E C T I O N S F R O M C R A I G V E R N A L L

speak on behalf of New Zealand Baptists. About two years later the same pastor rang me to ask why I hadn’t made comment on another social issue, as other church leaders had done. So, on an issue that suited his preference, he wanted me to be a pope! I got off the phone with one of those ‘you just can’t win’ grins on my face.

By design, our Baptist movement is a network of relationships. These relationships are founded upon our commitment to the mission of Jesus. Therefore, the responsibility of a Baptist leader is to strengthen these relationships and to ensure that the resourcing of Baptist leaders is of the highest quality. The Baptist National Leader doesn’t carry executive authority but does have moral persuasion. I believe this is more effective in the longer term and allows the will of the churches to moderate the leader’s authority. In practice it is a safety mechanism for us all.

So it was through this lens that I spent my energy as the Baptist National Leader.

Regional relationships I was surprised at the level of disconnection that our churches claimed. The further north or south from Auckland one got the less franchised the church or pastor felt. This may be real or imagined but perception is reality.

The establishment of Regional Mission Leaders (RML) who serve through Baptist regional associations has given more life and purpose to our associations. In their roles they are also connected to our ministry departments, who serve us from the National Centre.

Connection is important, but mission is vital. The RMLs serve in a dual role: at times they have to retreat into conflict resolution, which we cannot avoid. However, this level of connection is a vital blood supply bringing life to our regions.

Resourcing pastoral leaders The Baptist Union entered into two important relationships with Carey Baptist College. Firstly, we shared the funding for the Director of Ministry training. With Jonny Weir’s appointment we saw it necessary to have Jonny meet regularly with the Baptist ministry heads and the RMLs. This gives Jonny an up‑close connection with our churches’ ‘coalface’ concerns. This has gone a long way in helping Jonny to train pastoral leaders for the real time challenges pastors are facing.

Secondly, the transfer of our Baptist pastors’ registration process to Carey has given an enormous boost to support for our pastors. The establishment of the Carey Centre for Life Long Learning has been a real win for our movement.

Bringing the professional development of our church leaders under the Carey mantle will continue to strengthen our learning.

The establishment of the annual LEAD conference in Lower Hutt has also helped serve the relational and training

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BY DESIGN, OUR BAPTIST MOVEMENT IS A NETWORK OF R E L AT I O N S H I P S . outcomes we’re looking for. We’re taking New Zealand leaders seriously and bringing local leaders in to serve us in our mission to New Zealand. We have a lot to learn from each other.

Bicultural and multicultural relationships In the same way, our bicultural and increasingly multicultural partnerships are becoming part of our Baptist tikanga.

The Waitangi Hui in 2014 became a launch point for us to learn about, and now participate together in, a bicultural expression for our meetings. Education removes the fear of what we don’t understand. So, over the past few years we’ve heard stories about early missionary contact at Waitangi, we’ve grieved with the people of Parihaka about their loss, and have been graciously welcomed by the Rātana church. All of these encounters help us understand what it means to be the church in New Zealand.

Our bicultural commitment also creates a safer place for migrant churches to become part of, because we celebrate difference and appreciate the God-given culture of different nations.

Our commitment to ethnic churches has increased with the Northern Association and the Baptist Union both providing support to these new New Zealanders through Lindsay Jones and Steve Davis. New Zealand is a nation of cultural diversity. God calls our churches to reflect those in our neighbourhood. We need to embrace and make room for all the different nationalities and cultures that make up our nation and our churches.

Remaining true to the mission Society is changing rapidly around us. Without locking ourselves into the 20th century, Baptists need to stand firm about the centrality of Jesus. Our communities need to embrace fresh ways of telling his story. Secular humanism is not delivering on its promises. It’s a nice way to think but a horrible way to live. Therefore, our Christian communities must hold onto their purpose and be a celebration of God’s ability to transform the human heart.

New Zealand Baptists are challenged by our lack of baptisms and declining attendances on Sunday. We need to take this seriously and ensure we remain true to Jesus’ mission. We all know that evangelism, discipleship and expressing the kingdom of God is what we’re called to do.

So, let’s never lose heart because God will build his church.

Faith in God is easier than having faith in his people. I want to challenge our Baptist family to support and endorse the younger leaders with points of difference that are growing amongst us. They need an older generation’s support in the same way that we’ve had. God believes in them and so must we. Leadership being passed from generation to generation is an opportunity for God to refresh our movement with vision and energy.

Let’s pray for and endorse what God is doing.

Final words of thanks It’s been a privilege to serve and represent New Zealand Baptists as their National Leader over the past seven years. I want to thank many people who have supported me over my tenure as leader.

The church family at Bethlehem have been sacrificial in their desire to fill gaps that I left. My ability to serve part-time is a credit to the maturity of many staff and leaders. I’ve also been supported and mentored by those who have gone before me— leaders who have given me time and an example of what it takes to lead, particularly leading in the vagaries of a Baptist setting.

I want to give a special ‘shout out’ to the ‘473’ team who work so tirelessly to serve us—NZBMS, Carey Baptist College and the Baptist Union crew— and also to the RMLs who’ve become my co-workers to the breadth and length of our nation.

Most importantly I want to thank my wife Michaela and my family for all of their support.

Finally, I want to thank the Baptist family for allowing me to lead and minister amongst you over these past

Study God’s Word in 2019

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Story: Craig Vernall Craig is Senior Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church and has just concluded seven years’ service to the New Zealand Baptist movement as National Leader.

Deepen your faith, explore God’s calling on your life and become better equipped to serve him in your workplace, church, and mission field.

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seven years. I’m pleased to still remain as a pastor within this family and look forward to what I trust will be a fruitful time ahead.

In 2019 special focus streams will be available

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Baptist / N E I G H B O U R H O O D & J U S T I C E

Leading with

justice Creating ripples of change

Throughout Scripture we see God’s call to those who follow him to care for ‘the least of these’, to overthrow oppression, to beat swords into ploughshares, to fellowship with those on the outside of society, and to speak for those who cannot. Bonnie Robinson looks at the part that church and other leaders play in overcoming barriers to social justice.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. — Martin Luther King Jr1

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called to justice, and leaders are called to support others in this task. As leaders, then, be it in church, caring services, employment, or our own communities, how do we enact this core part of our faith? How do we lead with social justice?

A vision for social justice Social justice can be a daunting prospect, maybe best left to professionals, those interested in politics, or government. Yet at its heart, justice is about relationships, between people and with God. Justice rights wrong relationships and builds an environment, structures and systems that enable right relationships to flourish.

As leaders, our role is to build these right relationships and to work overcoming barriers that get in the way of these, at every level: personal, community, societal and even worldwide.

Anthony Harrison/lightstock.com

IN

the 1960s my father, a young Presbyterian minister studying in the USA, travelled south to a small church to hear Martin Luther King Jr preach.

As Rev Dr King stood to speak, rocks started pounding on the roof; outside the church, people opposed to civil rights were trying to drown him out. But he preached on, and my father said, even if you could not hear every word, you knew the gospel was being spoken.

The Rev Dr King continued to preach and outside they ran out of rocks.

When I look at great Christian leaders through history it seems that justice is at the heart of leadership, because justice is at the heart of the gospel. God listens to the cry of the oppressed (Exodus 22:22) and responds in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy (Hosea 2:19).

So there’s no getting out of it. People who love God are

At its heart, justice is about relationships, between people and with God. Having this vision and understanding of social justice makes a difference to how we lead. At HBH Senior Living where I work, a few years ago we changed the wording of our organisational statements to include the words “meeting the needs of vulnerable older people, through the compassion, love and justice of Jesus Christ”. This led us to ask, who amongst older people is vulnerable right now, and what is our role in meeting their needs? We realised that one of the most vulnerable groups of older people were those who needed low‑cost rental housing. We knew from research that, statistically, not owning a mortgage‑free home by retirement makes you more likely to live in poverty and to struggle to meet health and well‑being needs. We also knew this group was growing.

Wearing our social justice lens, as an organisation we committed to making a difference. For some time we were not sure how we would actually do this. Then last year, a small social housing village was put up for sale.

Knowing that in this part of Auckland if it was sold to a developer it would be lost forever, HBH stepped out in faith and purchased it, totally debt-funded.

Long term we plan to develop the site and provide even more housing.

Without our vision of justice for vulnerable older people, would we have taken this step? Maybe. But leading with a vision for social justice made it very clear—we were called to do this. As leaders of this organisation, my team and the board have all learnt through this experience. We have knowledge we didn’t have before, and we are developing new skills to manage this new part of our service.

Social justice grows you. Which is how it should be because, as leaders, one of our tasks is to support people and organisations to grow.

A decision-making framework In my years of leading social service organisations, I have found a simple framework that helps me as a leader to think through decisions from a social justice perspective and to grow my ability to build right relationships. This is the See - Judge - Act framework.2 See: observe the world around you.

• What is happening to people?

(Find out; go outside your normal information sources.)

• What is this doing to people?

• Why is this happening?

Judge: what you see in the light of gospel values, the values of your church, community or organisation.

• What does Scripture say about what is happening to people?

William Wilberforce, who helped bring about the end of slavery in Great Britain, worked tirelessly for 40 years, never knowing whether he would live to see this mission completed. He knew that his task as a leader was to plant such a strong vision of God’s justice around slavery that it would be continued by many others until God’s work was done.

As leaders everything we do is partial. We create a vision, set a plan and grow support, but we never on our own complete anything.

Leadership is always collective. What is important is to accept the challenge of our part. As Mother Teresa is often attributed as saying: I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.

In responding to God’s great call for justice, what ripples will your leadership make?

• What does the experience of the church and the community say?

• What do you think should be happening?

Act: to make right relationships, between people, communities, and nations.

• What exactly do you want to change—what is your long‑term goal?

• What actions can you take now— your short-term goal?

• Who can you involve? Who can help?

Working through these steps helps us to see more clearly the issues that need leadership.

The leader’s task As leaders working through social justice, we will often plant seeds and never see the plant grow to maturity.

Leadership is about being in for the long haul, which may be generational.

One of my all-time leadership heroes,

Story: Bonnie Robinson Bonnie is the CEO of HBH Senior Living (previously called Howick Baptist Healthcare), a Baptist organisation providing a range of housing, community and residential care services for older people in Auckland. She is currently studying towards a Doctorate of Professional Practice focusing on the place of social justice in leadership decision-making.

1. This quote was used by Martin Luther King Jr but seems to originate with Theodore Parker, a 19th century Unitarian minister who called for the abolition of slavery.

2. There are many versions of this framework. This version is based on one from The Poverty and Justice Bible, Bible Society New Zealand, 2015 (Insert page 8).

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Baptist / C H I L D & F A M I L Y

FAITH

formation IN THE HOME Bringing God into the everyday How can we raise children and teens to become lifelong followers of Jesus? Family Pastor Jan Ozanne and Senior Pastor Andrew Brown say the process is easier, and often more successful, when there are faith formation partnerships

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between parents and churches.

PARENTS AS leaders

I

will never forget the moment I held my first daughter in my arms. In an instant life dramatically changed. I was head over heels in love and 100% committed to being the best parent I could possibly be.

But who defines what that looks like? We soon discovered there were conflicting ideas about what it means to be a parent. I felt the pressure to follow a list of ‘don’ts’. Don’t let her eat sugar!

Don’t let her watch TV! As she got older, parenting became all about the experiences we could provide—swimming, music and dancing. Being a good parent seemed to be about being busy. And in the busyness, the spiritual was neglected.

My husband and I both grew up in non-churched homes and we had no idea how to take leadership of our children’s faith formation or even that it was our responsibility. We had no role models for how to lead our children spiritually. Of course, we wanted our children to know God and choose to follow him, but we naively thought this would just happen because we were active members of the church.

When I read Mark Holmen’s Faith Begins at Home, my eyes were opened

to the concept of spiritual parenting.

I realised that God’s plan for parenting was that families would reflect his love and pass on faith in the home.

Scientists are discovering more and more about the importance of the early years and how foundational these are for all areas of life. God created childhood to be a time of life which moulds us, and this is true of the spiritual too. Who shows our kids what a life lived in relationship with Christ looks like? Who shows how following Jesus impacts the reality of daily life? Those we live with are in a prime position.

But is this yet another pressure on already stressed parents? It doesn’t have to be. The Bible reveals what this parental leadership can look like.

Deuteronomy 6:7 paints a picture of extended families talking to their young people about God in the everyday rhythms of life: when sitting at home, travelling, in the morning and at bedtime. Psalm 78 illustrates the power of telling stories about “the glorious deeds of the Lord”, revealing to our children the God who is real and active in our lives. This is illustrated in the ritual of the Passover, where children ask, “What does this ceremony mean to you?” and the adults of the

household answer by telling the story (Exodus 12:26 NIV).

These examples show faith formation in the home, not as another chore on the already overwhelming to-do list of parenting, but as an integrated and intentional part of family life. The question becomes how can parents, as the spiritual leaders of their family, add a God moment to what they are already doing?

It is vitally important parents take on spiritual leadership of their families but they are not meant to do this on their own. Parents need a church to partner with them.

Story: Jan Ozanne Jan is the Family Pastor at Otumoetai Baptist Church in Tauranga and is the Children and Family Ministry Coach for the Bay of Plenty. She is married to Phil and has four children.

CHURCHES AS equippers

E

very once in a while, there’s a fact that just leaps up, hits us square between the eyes and then changes our life forever. Around the time my son turned ten, I watched a presentation that showed two piles of balls. One pile had 3,000 balls in

it and the other just 40. The latter represented all the hours the church has available in one whole year to shape a child’s life. The 3,000 balls represented the hours parents have available within a year to spiritually shape their child.

The conclusion was pretty clear.

We needed to invest in our skills as

Christian parents to spiritually nurture our child. But the big question was how to do this.

Every Christian parent in New Zealand society today faces this same opportunity and dilemma. The reality is that the world in general, Sunday School, and even Christian schools, aren’t going to be able to

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Baptist / C H I L D & F A M I L Y

build the kind of foundations that children need to remain lifelong followers of Jesus. It is ultimately the family who will have the greatest long‑term influence upon a child’s faith. The good news is that the church family can equip and empower parents in this vital task.

About eight years ago Pakuranga Baptist introduced the Faith@Home1 programme at our church. Four times a year the parents and children of particular age groups meet during our regular service time to look at an age‑related topic that impacts their spiritual growth at home. The very first topic for the parents of infants is how to begin a regular practice of blessing their kids each day. Later topics include the practices of sharing highs and lows, reading the Bible together, attending worship as a family, giving and serving together, handling media use, and how to talk about sexuality.

This year we introduced an annual

‘Marriage Night’ on communication so married couples can take their family development even further.

We can’t claim that this has solved every faith problem under the sun.

However, what we have observed as pastors is that there is marked difference between those families who have engaged with the programme and those who have not. The spiritual maturity of their children is often much higher.

The point here is not to promote any particular model, but simply to say that it is possible for the wider church family and parents to work together in a way that sees intergenerational foundations built within Christian families. This has a synergistic effect.

Not only are children better equipped for lifelong faith, but they also go on to bless and strengthen every church they and, God willing, their descendants are a part of.

So, if this is important, what one

step can your church take next to equip parents to spiritually parent?

Story: Andrew Brown Andrew is the Senior Pastor at Pakuranga Baptist Church in Auckland and is currently completing his Master’s thesis at Carey Baptist College, on the topic of spiritual growth. He is married to Nan Yong and has one son.

1. Baptist Children & Family Ministries has developed a Faith@Home resource to help churches equip families. This resource is freely available on their website at baptistcfm.org.nz.

Or email the team for details childrensministry@baptist.org.nz.

LEADING BY example: A TEACHING MOMENT Earlier this year, two teenagers were killed in a car accident in Pakuranga. The father of a family at Pakuranga Baptist Church that tries to live their faith out at home describes a teaching moment he shared with his sons.

“I took George and Joshua to show them the accident site because the sheer dynamics of it were almost overwhelming. Arriving in the car park under the building where the car had finally stopped, there were three teenagers. One of them, a Year 9 girl who was obviously hurting, wanted to tell us the story and the back story. We asked if we could pray for them and they willingly agreed.”

The father and his sons then left, but a friend had baked scones for them, and the children wanted to go back and deliver the baking to the teens at the crash site.

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“Arriving, we found the numbers had swelled with older teenagers there, all sitting or standing in the gloomy car park. We announced ourselves and our connection with the girl we met earlier, gave our condolences and left. They thanked us nicely for the scones.

“The following evening I visited the car park to invite them to our Holy Spirit encounter service, but they were gone—to some place better, I hope.”

This family not only prayed for the families of the deceased, but for the grieving teenagers too.

The parents were modelling their faith in prayer and generosity; they also created opportunities for their children to experience those faith habits themselves.

“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” —Proverb 31:8-9

Justice and compassion at the heart of HBH Senior Living Caring for older people in the Howick community— including the vulnerable and marginalised—has always been an integral part of HBH Senior Living’s mission. And the recent purchase of Stevenson Village means that even more older people will have the security of good care and a roof over their head, says CEO Bonnie Robinson.

Formerly called Howick Baptist Healthcare, HBH Senior Living was founded by the local Baptist congregation in 1977 and retains strong links to neighbouring churches.

Motivated by the compassion, love and justice demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ, HBH Senior Living’s mission is to meet the needs of vulnerable older people through care services that are excellent, compassionate and responsive.

Initially this was achieved through the establishment of a rest home and hospital and over time, has grown to include community services, independent apartments and HBH Senior Living’s much-loved day programme.

Today, HBH is recognised as a model of excellence in senior care and living.

In 2017, an opportunity to act further for older people in the local community presented itself when Stevenson Village, a 36-unit social housing village, was put up for tender.

“The village was founded in 1974 by the then mayor, Sir William Stevenson and the RSA, and has provided a unique and valuable service to the community for over 40 years. We feared that in the current housing climate, if we didn’t purchase it, it would be commercially developed and lost forever,” says Bonnie Robinson, HBH Senior Living CEO. Since ownership has moved to HBH Senior Living, the tenants at Stevenson Village have remained in their units and now have access to support services and activities.

Acting for older people, not for profit.

The purchase of Stevenson Village was driven by a desire to protect the homes of the existing tenants and a growing awareness of the escalating need for affordable social house for older people.

As a not-for-profit organisation, Bonnie says HBH Senior Living is trying to challenge the view that older people are just a commodity or source of profit.

“We believe that everyone deserves a roof over their head: it’s a basic necessity of life. Our mission is to provide older people with faith-based care services and buying Stevenson Village means we can continue to put caring first, every day and in every way.”

A service of Howick Baptist Baptist Healthcare Healthcare Ltd Ltd

Baptist / C U L T U R E

The multitude from every Steve Davis looks at the advantages and disadvantages of a migrant church constituting as a stand-alone church community, especially in our New Zealand context.

N

ew Zealand has experienced unprecedented immigration in the last few years. Both migrants and refugees have started their own faith communities here, usually using the heart language of their homeland. This influx of believers will have contributed to the 2013 national census results in which 29% of respondents identified as Christian.

These migrant faith communities serve as a repository of their own culture, language and spiritual heritage. They give practical support to those who are already resident in New Zealand, and a place of belonging for those who come after them. Their children grow up in a space in which their cultural heritage is maintained and celebrated.

Stand-alone Migrant faith communities often desire to craft an organisational structure that gives them more permanence and functionality within New Zealand financial law and practice. But many of them feel isolated in their new land and seek to pursue an affiliation with a family of churches.

As the Baptist Union of New Zealand, we have engaged in conversations with many such communities, particularly those that have a baptistic background. We have been blessed by many migrant and refugee churches joining the Baptist Union these past 10 years.

We recognise the aspirations of groups wanting to form their own legal identity as a faith community, and exercising

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the rights and privileges of their faith practice in a land that holds to the freedom of religion as a basic human right.

But the question of the sustainability and viability of such independent communities is being asked more and more, due to several factors: • The skill sets and compliance regulations required to be a viable New Zealand organisation are high; even majority-culture churches struggle at times to meet these criteria.

• The opportunity to grow and flourish and to be self‑perpetuating can be limited. For instance, if a particular ethnic group arrives in New Zealand and then immigration quotas change for that group, their primary source of monocultural growth can be easily cut off, unless they go into ‘Antioch church mode’ and cross cultures to evangelise and grow.

• The second-generation needs to navigate the challenges caused by living simultaneously in their multicultural school world and their monocultural faith world.

WE NEED EACH OTHER AND WE ARE A BLESSING TO ONE ANOTHER.

Prixel Creative/lightstock.com

nation

Embracing diversity, sharing life

Partnership Instead of being a stand-alone community, partnership with an existing Kiwi/multicultural church offers the following: • Initially, sharing the administrative and compliance requirements is a big boost for the newly formed migrant/refugee church, as long as good relationships and a well understood Memorandum of Understanding is in place.

Transparency of financial matters and appropriate accountabilities means a greater measure of trust of the leaders from the wider faith community—often migrants and refugees are from countries where corruption and nepotism is rife.

• Both/all of the congregations of such a partnership benefit from an influx of ‘mission DNA’ forged in a different context—from places where being a follower actually is costly! We need each other and we are a blessing to one another as we share our experience of Jesus in our lives. We are better equipped for mission to our culturally diverse neighbourhoods, and can relate to that wider spectrum.

• Many of the leaders of these newly formed faith communities are bivocational, and many are lightly educated. Carey Baptist College’s response to the challenge of training the emerging leaders of these faith communities gives a stronger foundation for the growth and health of those communities.

Does such a partnership demonstrate more fully the kingdom of God in all its diversity and richness, as found in Revelation 7:9, and as taught in word and deed as we read the New Testament? Does this testify to the wider society that difference does not mean we need to fear one another, but instead that we can embrace those differences and connect with one another as fellow human beings sharing our life journeys?

Do such partnerships assist the faith development of the second generation? That is to say, can the second generation navigate cultural and identity issues in a community sensitive to the heritage of the immigrant community, and yet also discover pathways towards understanding their contributions and responses to Kiwi society?

Let me leave you with this quote: The gospel is not safe in any culture without a witness within that culture, from beyond itself...

In every culture the message of the gospel is in constant danger of being compromised by the value system that supports that culture and its goals. The stranger to that culture can instinctively identify those points of surrender and call the community back to a purer and more authentic faith.1

Story: Steve Davis Steve is National Team Leader for the Baptist Churches of New Zealand’s Multicultural Inclusion Ministries.

He and his wife Lyn recently concluded as co-pastors of Ormiston Community Baptist Church, a multicultural church in Auckland.

1. Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 165-166.

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Baptist / L E A D E R S H I P

r e v e t a h W d e n e p p a h to the

? m a e t One fo

d all fo r all, an

r one

Western Christianity, including in New Zealand, is facing a crisis in the face of ever-growing secularism. Trevor Geddes believes that, as for any team in trouble, the solution lies in going back to basics.

I

James Coleman/unsplash.com

magine a rugby match where the coach rushes onto the field, grabs the ball out of the hands of the half back and takes charge of his or her team’s game. Later they do the same with a winger—in fact they keep popping onto the field and taking over. Assume for the moment that the rules of the game were vague enough to allow such a thing to happen!

If the coach is a star player in their own right, some of the supporters will probably support the coach’s actions, but what will be the long-term consequences for the team?

Or imagine the captain of a team insisting the ball always be passed to them before it gets passed to another player. Or that before the half back or any other team

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Importance does not equate to prominence in the kingdom. member passes the ball to another or kicks the ball downfield, they need the captain’s permission. What would such a team performance look like?

The natural reaction is, of course, “Hang on, that’s not the role of the coach! That’s not the role of the captain!”

Role confusion!

We have at least a rough idea of the role of a coach or a captain in sport, but what about when it comes to churches and those who lead them?

For example, is the pastor, or the senior pastor in the case of a larger church, a coach? Or the captain of the team? Or the star player?

Have you noticed how sometimes a church is referred to by the name of the person ‘leading’ it? But few, even in Dunedin, think of the Highlanders rugby team as ‘Ben Smith’s team’.

And we expect them to perform well and probably win—not all Kiwis have this luxury!—whether he is available to play or not. Sure, we enjoy his play and praise his ability, but many of us from the South particularly enjoy the effect he has on the players around him and how he celebrates their success. Most of the game we don’t even notice him.

Yet when I am out of Dunedin and attending a church, often what I see in church services leaves me with the feeling that the ‘team’ were mostly absent that Sunday. The pastor keeps popping up: giving a key notice, taking a key prayer, giving the message, leading communion—some denominations even make it a rule that this must happen—and closing the service. It leaves me wondering, “Whatever happened to the team?”

When I read the letters to the churches in the New Testament,

leaders of any form are rarely mentioned and, even then, seldom by name. That does not make leaders unimportant because importance does not equate to prominence in the kingdom, but it means they saw church differently back then.

What needs to change?

So, is there another way for the modern church to operate? And what would need to change? I suggest the following.

1. Leaders need to find significance in things other than their own performance. They need, like a team coach, to gain their greatest satisfaction out of the team itself, and to find the greatest joy when they are least noticed because the team does well.

Sure, the discerning will recognise a well‑coached team, but most won’t notice them.

This is much more difficult than it sounds. Church leadership puts leaders in front of people. Inevitably their own performance is put in the spotlight. Church leadership often attracts people who want to stand in front of others and be in the spotlight, though of course this is not true of all who lead churches.

It is time to ponder how this can be changed. There is a natural human model to draw from: parents derive great pleasure in their kids doing well. They often take more pleasure in boasting about their kids’ performance than their own. Maybe church leaders need to adopt more of a parent outlook, as Paul did with his churches.

However it happens, leaders need to find significance in things that encourage and promote the team, not themselves.

And this needs to apply equally to other members of a pastoral team, to elders, worship leaders, etc.

2. Church attendees need to see themselves as part of a team.

As followers of Jesus we need to

learn to play our part to the best of our ability and then to celebrate the team’s performance. For it is not only those appointed to lead churches who are tempted to seek their own prominence. In other words, it becomes about the kingdom for all of us, with an understanding that Jesus wants his whole team to be in the game.

And to believe him when he says that whoever humbles themselves will be exalted and whoever exalts themselves will be humbled (Matthew 23:12).

Jesus built his church on team We need a paradigm shift, a new way of thinking. And leaders will have to lead this change, by learning to excel in building and promoting teams without thinking of themselves.

At the centre of this lies the need to remember who the church really belongs to and who really does lead the church—at least when it is operating as it should. If we really took our time to listen to him, laying aside our agendas and our desire to be significant in the eyes of other people, I believe we would start a revolutionary change. And because God is into team we will rediscover team through him.

That will be a great journey! Being in a good team is a wonderful thing. God speaks to such teams.

Story: Trevor Geddes Trevor led the team at Dunedin City Baptist for 33 years, co-leading with Bruce Elder for the last five years, before stepping down in February to move on to other things. One of those other things he and his wife, Helen, are involved in, is the education of children with special needs, here and in Asia.

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Baptist / H U I 2 0 1 8

Hui delegates gathering for the pōwhiri

Josie Te Kahu signing-off as 2018 Baptist Pr

The 136th Assembly of the Baptist Union of New Zealand and the 133rd Assembly of the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society (NZBMS) were held 8th to 10th November 2018. Our sincere thanks go to our gracious hosts at Palmerston North Central Baptist Church, and also to Hokowhitu Baptist Church, which generously hosted the Chaplains’ Retreat Day and Women’s Breakfast events.

Thursday

Rātana celebrations Prior to Hui, Baptist delegates were invited to Rātana Pā to attend the plaque unveiling marking the 100th anniversary of the Holy Spirit visiting Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana. Many took the opportunity to participate in this event and also in the Pōwhiri Ngā Haahi Katoa the previous day.

Pōwhiri Hui officially commenced with a pōwhiri held at the Palmerston North Conference and Function Centre.

Rangitāne o Manawatū are the mana whenua for Palmerston North. The words of one of their 19th century leaders, Te Peeti Te Aweawe, were recalled: “Kua kaupapa i au te aroha mā koutou e whakaoti” (“I have laid the foundation of love for you to build upon”). These words reflected the spirit of partnership that the iwi hoped would

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characterise relationships into the future. Likewise, Hui is a time to gather together in partnership, under the cloak of peace.

Josie Te Kahu, outgoing President Josie Te Kahu recalled how she began her journey as President by inviting people to “have a cuppa” with her.

She had 26 such requests during her tenure, although she regretted she was not able to fit in all the visits she had hoped to make.

“It has been a privilege to serve our Baptist movement over the last two years, but in particular as the President this year. It has given me so much insight into our movement, sitting on the Assembly Council, Mission Council, the Carey Board, and attending all the hui. I have enjoyed meeting lots of different pastors.”

Newly commissioned President and Vice-President taonga

resident, surrounded by her family

Beulah Wood commissioned as 2019 Baptist President

Moasic Morningside—new church commission

Commissioning new Baptist fellowships

Nelson Chin Baptist Church—new church commission

She thanked the leaders of Assembly Council and Mission Council, and affirmed them in the decision-making role they play. She also thanked the national support team, ministry heads, and Craig Vernall for his service as National Leader.

Josie paid special tribute to her family. “They supported me all the way through. It never was a hardship. They released me to attend a lot of hui,” she said.

Addressing delegates at the close of her speech, Josie said, “Whānau, it’s been a blast! I’ve enjoyed myself. Now it’s somebody else’s turn. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Beulah Wood, incoming President Beulah Wood’s address as the new President of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand and the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society was titled ‘The Power of the Yoke’.

“Let us be true yokefellows”, she said, referencing the Apostle Paul. An abbreviated version of her speech is on page 26.

New churches and fellowships Two new churches and three new fellowships were welcomed into the Baptist Union: Churches • Mosaic Morningside (Auckland) • Nelson Chin Baptist Church (Nelson) Fellowships • Chin Agape Christian Church (Wellington) • Golden Sands Baptist Church (Papamoa) • Te Rongopai (Pukekohe North)

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Baptist / H U I 2 0 1 8

Worship at Central Baptist Church

Women’s breakfast

Karen Wilson

Friday

Women’s breakfast The guest speaker at the Baptist Women’s breakfast held at Hokowhitu Baptist Church was Karen Wilson (see below).

During her spirited talk, Karen said, “There is life to be had that is everything it is meant to be, and there is life that is settling for average and letting ‘the thief’ rob, kill and destroy.” She challenged women to pursue the purpose God has planted in their hearts and to stand firm in their faith, allowing God to fight their battles. They should accept who God has designed them to be and put down masks of perfection, she said.

Mark & Karen Wilson—Unleashed to be a witness Mark Wilson is in a leadership role for Baptist Churches Western Australia. Karen is the National Director for Australian Baptist Women’s Ministry.

Sharing personal stories and basing their core message on Acts 1:8, the couple spoke about believers being unleashed in a series of widening contexts. This starts with ‘Jerusalem’, i.e. where we are—our homes, families, streets and workplaces. Then it moves on to ‘Judea’ (our ministry in churches, schools, hospitals, etc.), to ‘Samaria’ (areas of difference, sub-cultures, and among marginalised people), and then to the ends of the earth.

“When you find people at the ends of the earth, you either give or you go,” said Karen. “We’ll have all the time in the world to worship God and to fellowship with the saints when we are in heaven. None of us gets to say no to being evangelists to the ends of the earth.”

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Andrew Picard

Daphne Marsden

Andrew Picard—Baptist identity: dead or alive, is it wanted?

Andrew is a lecturer in Applied Theology at Carey Baptist College. He said there has been a surprising increase in interest in Baptist identity recently. He presented five freedoms or ways of being, as a way of understanding what it might mean to be Baptist. These were: • Freed in Christ: walking together—making a covenant with God and with one another.

• Freed through Christ: seeking together—gathering together to seek Christ’s will and to obey it.

• Freed for Christ: worshiping together—believing that when diverse voices come together to worship God and walk together in God’s ways, God smiles.

• Freed with Christ: uniting together—Christ sets us free in and through relationships with other people and churches, not free from them.

• Freed under Christ: witnessing together—being committed to seeing individuals and society transformed by the gospel.

Daphne Marsden—Domestic abuse in churches Every year the Baptist Research and Historical Society hosts the Sutherland Lecture at Hui. This year’s speaker was Daphne Marsden. Daphne’s Master’s thesis was on the world of Christian women navigating domestic violence.

She has also recently published a book on the topic, entitled Dishonoured and Unheard: Christian Women and

Mark Wilson

Ross & Cindy receive long service recognition

Greg receives Lionel Stewart Scholarship

Derek receives long service recognition

Hui MCs—Leonnie & Greg Motu

Domestic Violence. Her research led to the conclusion that a sounder basis is needed for understanding, responding to, and preventing domestic violence within Christian homes.

New Zealand statistics tell us that between 33% and 39% of New Zealand women experience physical or sexual violence from a partner in their lifetime. Police tell us they are responding to an incident of family violence every four minutes.

The rates of domestic violence in the church community are the same as in the secular community, said Daphne.

However, when a Christian woman experiencing domestic violence seeks help from her faith community, she may not get the help she needs. She is likely to be asked a series of faith-related questions that she has probably already posed to herself: “Have you prayed about this properly?

Have you forgiven him? How have you contributed to the conflict? Have you been a good witness or example? Have you been committed? Didn’t you promise to stay for better or for worse? Doesn’t the Bible say we have to suffer for our faith?”

Each of these questions, Daphne said, is undergirded by, and justified with, traditional understanding of certain scriptures dealing with forgiveness, women remaining silent, and wives’ submission to their husbands.

“Domestic violence in our church communities breaks the heart of God. I welcome the opportunity to invite us to consider our pastoral responses and what we can do to work towards prevention,” said Daphne.

Mark Wilson—Unleashed by the Holy Spirit for mission Mark asked delegates to imagine what it would be like if all New Zealand Baptist pastors, chaplains, ministry leaders, and their spouses, were unleashed by the power of the Holy Spirit in a fresh and new way for mission.

“Think what a local church would be like if its people were radically devoted to Christ, totally committed to each other in love, and relentlessly dedicated to reaching those outside the family of God with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said. “It would be an unstoppable force for good, not only in the local community where you are, but it would be an inspiration to other churches. It would be a testimony to God’s unfailing grace. It would be a church against which the gates of hell would not prevail.” He said for this to happen, we need prayerful, Holy Spirit‑empowered gospel preaching that asks people to respond to Jesus.

Long service recognition Long service recognition was given to Derek Pyle for 30+ years of pastoral ministry, and to Ross and Cindy for 30 years serving in South Asia. At the current time, they are NZBMS’s longest serving overseas personnel.

Lionel Stewart Scholarship The Lionel Stewart Scholarship seeks to encourage New Zealand Baptist pastors to further the work of bicultural reconciliation. The 2019 Scholarship was awarded to Greg Motu, of Hosanna Dannevirke Baptist Church.

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Baptist / H U I 2 0 1 8

NZBMS skit—East Asia

Lizzie & Joel, commissioned overseas staff

Leor Sarkar

NZBMS skit—South Asia

Saturday

NZBMS Rachel Murray introduced the 2019 theme for Prayer and Self Denial, which is ‘Where God leads’. She then interviewed Alastair Hall (Senior Pastor, Manukau City Baptist Church) about the experiences and impressions he gained through spending several weeks visiting NZBMS’s various works overseas. The interview was interspersed with various NZBMS personnel acting in short skits that gave a taste of what life is like in each of the fields where our workers are located. A series of videos following Alastair (Arnie) on his travels will be among the Prayer and Self Denial resources. For children who participate, there will also be a ‘Where’s Pastor Arnie?’ illustrated map.

The commissioning and recommissioning of overseas personnel also took place during this session.

Leor Sarkar Leo Sarkar is the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Baptist Church Fellowship (BBCF). He has been in this role for 17 years. Both his grandfather and father had long associations with NZBMS. Leo talked about Bangladesh’s demographics, the extent of BBCF’s work, and the challenges that the country faces.

When it was established in 1919, BBCF had 11 churches.

Today it has 525 churches and more than 800 staff.

BBCF’s work ranges from pastoral, children’s ministry and youth discipleship training, to running a professional medical centre, maternity hospital and nurse aid training. They also operate a convention centre that can accommodate 600

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Heather & Gary, recommissioned overseas staff

David Allen—Vice-President

people, and have 14 hostels with 700 children. These are not orphanages but provide safe accommodation and quality education for ‘second generation’ children. Many of BBCF’s pastors have come from such homes.

Challenges include rising extremism, government restrictions on bringing in foreign funds for church work, political unrest, natural disasters, and the one million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh.

Farewell to Craig Vernall The farewell to Craig Vernall as National Leader began with Rob Stacey, Chair of Assembly Council, asking Craig a series of questions about his seven years in this leadership role and the changes that have happened within the New Zealand Baptist movement in that time. Rob also asked Craig to look ahead at what may be coming our way.

Craig said diversity is our ‘new normal’, not just in terms of us celebrating our cultural differences, but also in embracing different ways of ‘doing church’. He also said, “God is giving us back our roots,” as demonstrated, for example, in regional re-engagement.

Looking to the future, Craig said secularism is failing miserably and that’s sad for society because people get hurt, but it is a positive for the church. “People are made for relationships, with God first and with one another. If we can work hard at building God-honouring integral communities, our churches are going to be those lights on a hill as we move forward.” He said a number of moral issues loom on the horizon. Although the Christian voice needs to be heard

Craig Vernall’s farewell

Haka honouring Craig Vernall

Newly registered Baptist leaders

The one bag of rubbish!

Handover of pūtātara from Central Baptist to South West Baptist

Craig Vernall giving his farewell message

at some level politically, he believes our call is to be servants to those in need. “People will never take that responsibility away from us because no one else wants to do it... The role of the church is coming back to us,” he said.

Tribute was paid to Craig’s wife Michaela and their family, and to the team at Bethlehem Baptist Church, for supporting Craig during his time as National Leader and for the sacrifices they made in him taking up the role. Craig then gave his final message as National Leader (see page 7 for an abbreviated version of this). Four leaders from across the Baptist movement followed this by speaking about their appreciation of Craig’s leadership style and capabilities.

The farewell concluded with the removal of the National Leader’s korowai and tewha tewha from Craig and the symbolic placing of these in the hands of Assembly Council until the appointment of the new National Leader.

Listening Hui report Mike Crudge acknowledged Rob Stacey and Josie Te Kahu’s commitment to the Listening Hui process and thanked Assembly Council for coming up with the initiative. He mentioned some of the feedback that had been received since the report was released.

Josie said there were missing voices from this initial Listening Hui, for example those of young people and many of our multi-ethnic, emerging churches. However the data that had been collected would be helpful in moving forward as we carry on the engagement process on a regular basis and involve more people. She explained how that might be

done at local church, cluster/regional association, and wider audience levels.

The session concluded with an opportunity for delegates to make comments about the Listening Hui process or about issues raised in the report.

Newly registered Baptist leaders 19 newly registered Baptist leaders were acknowledged (nine in absentia).

David Allen, Vice‑President David Allen has been voted in as Vice‑President for 2019.

David grew up at Mt Albert Baptist Church and was later called to ministry in the Middle East, which is where he met his wife, Helen. Since David came back to New Zealand 10 years ago, he has served as interim pastor for a number of churches in Auckland. He has also been involved in helping elderships understand governance.

Zero waste—para kore Hui ended with just one bag of rubbish! Most waste was recycled or composted, with left-over food donated to local charities.

Handover of pūtātara A pūtātara was handed over from the leadership of Palmerston North Central Baptist Church to that of South West Baptist Church in Christchurch, who will be our hosts for Hui 2019.

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Baptist / H U I 2 0 1 8

The

power

of the yoke

B

ullocks with yokes were integral to our New Zealand pioneering days, and I saw them often in India where I worked for more than 25 years.

The yoke for one Single person yokes can be made of timber, carved to suit the human wearer, like those that once enabled milkmaids to carry two full buckets of milk. Or they can be like the carefully selected bamboo ones still used in Kathmandu, West Bengal and East Asia.

A yoke is valuable. It enables an otherwise impossible task. It may even make a task easy. Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). That verse has meant much to me. The tasks God has given me—writing, teaching on family in India, committees, teaching preaching—can be stressful. At times I struggle or fail. Yet I know they fit right for me. I like them, while some friends would hate them. Well, I would hate many of theirs.

The yoke for two I imagine Jesus in the carpenter’s shop, making balanced, fitted yokes for his neighbours’ oxen. Jesus thought a yoke such a blessing that he offered a yoke to his best friends.

Perhaps he would pull with them in the task. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest

For her Hui address, our new President, Beulah Wood, drew messages from the remarkable biblical symbol of the yoke. This is an abbreviated version of her speech.

for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). And Paul saw achievement, comradeship and trust pictured in a yoke. He called one of his companions in Christian work “my true yoke-fellow” (Philippians 4:3 KJV). When people work together like that, they achieve much more than they could separately.

We may apply this to both our work for God and our marriages. The gift of marriage can empower a couple to cling to each other at the depth of their being with complete two-way respect and two-way love, enabling deep mutuality in all of life and leisure.

For that kind of partnering, Paul told the Ephesians, “Submit to one another” (Ephesians 5:21 NIV). That is a blessed yoke.

And in this nation, another meaning of two pulling together can be that we recognise that coming through the portal of the bicultural journey, we will find a strength that is right for greater justice and manaakitanga. We would be lacking without it.

The yoke for a team Then I also see a broader application.

This land of ours was cleared for roads and brought in for farming with the aid of bullock and horse teams ploughing, carting and logging. Jesus knew about bullock teams. In one parable, a man who refused to attend a feast said he was trying out five yoke of oxen—ten animals who pulled together. Paul’s “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 6:14 NIV) has in view a yoke as a commitment to another, a covenant, and this is

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how we are, as members in our local church, in our associations and in our union of churches.

Paul wrote of a team of men and women pulling together in Christian work, and he loved that joint effort and companionship. “I ask you, my true yokefellow, to help these women who have labored with me for the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers...” (Philippians 4:3 BSB).

If we are yoked together as members of Baptist churches, what does that yoke do? With it we can do more than we ever could separately, while appreciating that companionship. We have a covenant.

Let us use it to inspire us to pull together as Baptists in New Zealand.

Story: Dr Beulah Wood Beulah is the President of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand and the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society.

After missionary service in India and the death of her husband when they served in Nepal in 1980, she raised her four daughters in New Zealand. Beulah later returned to South India as a writer and lecturer in a theological college seconded by Interserve and NZBMS, focusing on preaching, women and family issues.

rawpixel.com/unsplash.com

Our stories Baptist Chaplains’ Retreat Day About 30 people attended a one-day Baptist chaplains’ retreat hosted by Hokowhitu Baptist Church on 7th November.

Alan Jamieson was the keynote speaker. Alan is currently Senior Pastor of South West Baptist Church but spent some years in the New Zealand Air Force and was the Baptist advisor on the military chaplains’ advisory board for a time.

Alan talked about five massive changes, or losses, in the world, and how this has moved us from a stable world to a ‘liquid’ one. These are the losses of meaning, belonging, hope, financial control and reality. To successfully navigate this fundamentally different world, he suggested that we need to find a big ‘we’—a trust in the collective (community)—and a ‘long now’, i.e. living in ways now that are positive for our long-term future.

Later in the day, Wyatt Butcher, a mental health chaplain, talked about the thinking and motivation of the increasing numbers of people who describe themselves as having no faith. He mentioned four major influences on this largely Western phenomenon: disenchantment, disillusionment, globalisation and humanism. However, even if churches may be declining, chaplaincy is growing, he said. Referring to Jesus’ comment about ‘the least of these’ (Matthew 25) and Abram’s call to ‘go out’ and God’s promise to bless all people through him (Genesis 12), Wyatt said chaplains go to people and bless those whom they serve.

Chaplains—Stuart Hight and Peter Olds

Interspersed in the retreat programme were short talks from Baptist chaplains working in a variety of settings: prison, mental health services, community and military.

They described what a typical day might look for them.

This ranged from literally rubbing shoulders while working alongside staff in a ship’s compact kitchen, to the more commonplace staff meetings and reports involved in a large not-for-profit organisation.

There were several other types of chaplaincy represented at the retreat, including police, sports, hospital and tertiary.

Regardless of the context, one chaplain said they are all like farmers, “Sowing seeds wherever we go.”

The event organiser, Paul Askin, plans another chaplains’ retreat for 2019 and is looking at other ways Baptist chaplains can connect with one another throughout the year.

The Baptist magazine hopes to feature more about the work of chaplains in the future, commencing in February 2019 with a look at a Navy chaplain’s life. If you have a chaplaincy story to share, get in touch.

v.134 no.6 † rua tekau mā whitu 27

Baptist / O U R S T O R I E S

Graduating Pastoral Leadership and Youth Pastoral Leadership students and spouses

God of creation, we praise you, we thank you, What a night of celebration we have had, what a year we have had!

God of creation, God of the Carey grades that we hope have been As, Bs and Cs, God of the midnight maccas runs, the coffees and teas, textbooks, study buddies, and all the other things that lead to degrees...

Not your normal way to start a benediction but the Carey SENDing is not a normal event! The SENDing is the most fabulous of all Carey events. It is a concluding celebration of the previous year’s journey. Friends, whānau, current students, alumni and staff joined together, as students were recognised for their achievements and completion of Intermission, Mission Track, and Pastoral Leadership and Youth Pastoral Leadership training. Each unique element brought glory to God, from the chilling haka pōwhiri, to students sharing their life-changing reflections, listening to the Karen choir, honouring staff service, and the presentation of awards. We celebrated, laughed, sung, listened, gifted, laughed some more and prayed. Before we feasted, each person was sent with a blessing and a challenge we all can benefit from...

Graduating Intermission students

Karen choir

May we each know God’s tender love and care, be challenged daily to fight for justice, courageously take risks in Jesus’ name, and listen to the Spirit continuously as we run, walk or barely creep through the highs and lows of life.

Finally, may we all relish life, accepting the lavish love of our God, may we all have the wisdom to pause, remember and celebrate in all things. Amen.

Story: Rachel Roche

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Whānau, friends, students and supporters

Baptist Foundation grants On 5th October 2018, the Baptist Foundation hosted a dinner in Auckland for its grant recipients. During the evening, guests shared stories about various neighbourhood initiatives the foundation has helped to fund.

Since April 2015 the Baptist Foundation has dispersed nearly $430,000 in almost 50 grants across the Northern Association region. Just over three-quarters of the grants have gone to churches, with the balance to trusts or other Baptist organisations. The grants panel who reads and decides on funding applications comprises Andrew Brown, Colin Hopkins, Peter Browning, Shelley West and Stephen Parker.

A wide range of project types have been funded, although the largest category has been youth. Within that category, the funding has included grants for leadership development, 24/7 Youth Work staff, lounge space, meals, equipment and an after-school club. In other areas, grants have been given for ESOL, budgeting, housing support, conference sponsorship, parenting resources, a toy library and other community projects.

Assistance also has been provided for capital projects, such as improvement of op shop facilities and equipment for a social enterprise.

What an amazing national Hui we have had, and what a blessing to be a part of so many encouraging and, I think, defining moments in the life of our Baptist movement. From the celebration of Craig’s leadership among us and our inspired speakers, to the recognition of new ministers, and the fact we could see our total waste to landfill be one bag of garbage, I think we engaged at a new level.

A personal highlight for me was the way in which we reflected and interacted with one another over the Listening Hui report. I sensed a new kaupapa emerge that will help

Laingholm Baptist’s grant was for food and equipment for its youth small group dinners

“In 2016 we recognised we had few applications from smaller churches, especially in Northland. We contracted Carolyn Hanson to make a survey by visit. Coming out of that work was a recommendation to resource applications for the smaller churches. Consequently, the Baptist Foundation decided to employ two part-time contractors, Didi Skinner based in Whangarei, and Mairi Barrett in Auckland, to offer this resource. This has worked well and in the more recent grant rounds we have seen a greater number of applications, especially from Northland churches. They have also been able to assist churches to access funding from other sources for other projects,” says Stephen Parker.

To find out more about Baptist Foundation grants, email foundation@baptist.org.nz. NB Grants can only be given for Baptist initiatives in the Northern Association region.

to positively define us as a Baptist whānau. I want also to acknowledge those who, with such Christlike grace, love and humility, embraced those who held diametrically opposing views.

Ka mau te wehi!

In other news, by the time this article is published, our national leadership search team will have conducted interviews and will be engaged in a critical discerning process. Your prayers would be highly valued. Our first meeting with our new Assembly Council team members will take place in December. I wonder if it is time for a name change for this governing body in light of where we now find ourselves?

After our Hui I was able to sit with our core leadership of Regional Mission Leaders and ministry heads for two days, to reflect, celebrate and plan together. I have come away encouraged that we are in good hands

as a movement, and that the Spirit of God is speaking and leading among us.

There is much to look forward to in this next year ahead as we lean into who we are as a Baptist family.

Ngā mihi nui Rob Stacey Assembly Council Chair

Assembly Council acts as the Assembly between annual Baptist Assemblies (Hui) and provides leadership for our Baptist movement. It is responsible for establishing policies and practices consistent with the determinations of Baptist Assembly and the well‑being of the movement.

v.134 no.6 † rua tekau mā iwa 29

Girls’ Brigade turns 90 Caversham Baptist Church in Dunedin hosted a function for two of its most stalwart Girls’ Brigade officers in September 2018.

Glenys Whipp was honoured for her 55 years’ service and fellow officer Mrs Jennifer Box received a Life Membership for her 50 years’ service, having been National Commissioner as well as International Vice-President.

The event was one of several held this year to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the introduction to

New Zealand of what was then known as the Girls’ Life Brigade. Horace and Ada Grocott, Baptist missionaries returned from Bolivia due to ill health, were instrumental in establishing both the Girls’ and Boys’ Brigades in New Zealand, at Caversham Baptist.

For more about the history of the Girls’ Brigade movement, its early days in New Zealand, and the 90th anniversary celebrations go to baptistmag.org.nz.

Story: Gwyneth Arnold

Orakei’s 75th Orakei Baptist Church celebrated its 75th anniversary on Sunday 9th September. It was a time to honour the people who established the ministry in the dark days of World War II, and who in hope and joy reached out to the community. They ‘punched well above their weight’ in those early decades, with hundreds of local children in the Sunday School and regular outreaches into the community.

There was a time of great fellowship after the anniversary service, where memories were shared, both good and bad, and where in honesty together the present church focused firmly ahead.

At the service, the Reverend Dr Brian Smith gave a biblically challenging encouragement to keep the focus on the mission of the church. More people now attend each of the four-weekly Bible Study groups than attended

30 toru tekau † v.134 no.6 baptistmag.org.nz

the church itself a few years ago. New life has returned through prayerful lifting up of the good news of the Saviour.

ESOL classes to connect to the large English second language community have begun and are starting to bear fruit. The Bible studies have lifted up the Lord and the Word and the church is functioning as a true lighthouse into the community. People around are noticing that life has returned.

We are here for the long game and prayerfully face forward to hear and obey the Lord’s instruction for this church community in its local neighbourhood for the next phase of our church’s life. For more about the church see orakeibaptist.co.nz.

Story: Dr John C McEwan

Otago Daily Times

Baptist / O U R S T O R I E S

Directory > In Memoriam CHILDREN’S PASTOR

Roger Peter Spackman: Made every day an adventure 12 April 1965 – 26 August 2018

Born on the mission field where Roger’s parents had been sent by Te Atatu Baptist Church, Roger’s life was devoted to Christ from the very beginning. It was no coincidence he ended up pastoring there some 30 years later.

Originally volunteering at Birkdale Baptist Church as a pastor’s aide, Roger met his wife Debbie there in 1984, asking her to marry him just six weeks later. Truly a match made in heaven, and not a single quiet day in their 30+ years of marriage.

Roger showed incredible dedication to all aspects in his life, from his pre-church day-job of 18 years, to his dedication to his family, his church, his community and to spreading the love of Christ.

Roger loved everybody, from all walks of life, and never passed judgement. He loved unconditionally, despite the hardships that people, and especially pastors, face.

His fierce love of Debbie, and his never‑ending love for his children, grandchildren and foster children, will be a legacy long remembered.

Roger lived life to the fullest. Any time there was an adventure to be had, or a good story to be made, was when he was most in his element. Even in the mundane daily grind, Roger still found joy in the small pleasures of life as well, and was most at home spending time in nature.

Despite battling with physical and mental illness for over two decades, Roger never let it get the best of him. He would say he would “constantly draw on the strength of the Lord.” Even though he spent several months mostly bedridden near the end, his time spent praising and worshiping God still brought him more joy than anything in this world.

Roger will be sorely missed, by his vast extended family, Te Atatu Baptist Church and the broader community. A life of breaking stereotypes, loving more than humanly possible, and daily adventures.

What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God (Acts 20:24 MSG).

Blenheim Baptist Community Church are looking for someone to join their growing and lively church family in the role as a Children’s Pastor.

The Children’s Pastor has a key role in the mission of BBCC, seeking to partner with parents and caregivers and their role as the primary source of spiritual direction for their children.

The ideal person will be a God‑centred, self-starter as well as a team player with a heart and passion for children and their families. Experience within a church-based children’s ministry environment is desired.

Applicants ideally will have theological training or equivalent or be prepared to undertake this.

Remuneration will be based on the experience and qualifications of the successful candidate.

FOR A FULL JOB DESCRIPTION, CHURCH VISION STATEMENT AND APPLICATION FORM PLEASE EMAIL admin@blenheimbaptist.org.nz

v.134 no.6 † toru tekau mā tahi 31

<

Directory FUNERAL SERVICES

SENIOR LAWYER

PASTOR

I have a legal practice in the coastal, rural, Bay of Plenty town of Opotiki. The firm has been established for over a century.

LET US HELP YOU THROUGH...

Dignity, sensitivity, and respect are the hallmarks of H Morris Funeral Services and we are proud to be able to provide funeral services to suit your needs and financial circumstances.

Our staff are available to you twentyfour hours a day to help put in place funeral plans, provide advice, and take care of all of the details to make the service meaningful and appropriate.

We now concentrate on property, commercial, estates and Māori land with virtually no court work.

There is a strongly developing Māori economy to the east.

The work is challenging and interesting.

Snell’s Beach has traditionally been a retirement area but this is changing as young couples move into the area. This change is now being reflected in the church as we are in a season of growth.

We are looking for a Pastor who will:

The firm’s culture cares for the holistic needs of the client.

• enjoy building relationships with families and help them to become committed followers of Jesus

I want someone with a view to succession planning who is interested in taking up a position where you do have job satisfaction.

• love to build a life giving church family that will reach out to the local community

CONTACT IAN PETERSON IN CONFIDENCE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED 07 315 6314 ian@pottshodgson.co.nz

31 OCEAN VIEW ROAD, NORTHCOTE 09 489 5737 office@hmorris.co.nz hmorris.co.nz

GAY & CHRISTIAN

SENIOR PASTOR

• be challenged by the potential for growth.

FOR MORE INFORMATION EMAIL jandcleaver@hotmail.com

AFFORDABLE HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION HAVELOCK NORTH

PONSONBY BAPTIST

Gay & Christian support & discussion group monthly meetings

ponsonbybaptist.org.nz/gay-and-

Darfield Baptist Church are about to commence looking for a new senior pastor. Further information will be made available in the next issue.

christian-information

darfieldbaptist.org.nz

027 279 4461 office@ponsonbybaptist.org.nz

32 toru tekau mā rua † v.134 no.6 baptistmag.org.nz

Arohanui Church offers two selfcontained units with off‑street parking.

(One sleeps three and one sleeps five.) $60/Single Adult, $80/Couple, $25/Extra Adult pp. $15/5-14yrs.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE PHONE MARGARET 027 326 4363 | mrameka1@gmail.com

Glo bal Mis si on

Photo of the month Shanti* is the face of this year’s NZBMS Christmas Angel Appeal. Shanti lives in a large city in South Asia where the people have many needs— financial, emotional and social—that NZBMS is working to meet. Through the Christmas Appeal, you can be a part of what God is doing in the life of Shanti and those around her. Visit tranzsend.org.nz/donate. *not her real name.

TOG ETHER W E CA N RE A C H T H E W O RL D

v.134 no.6 † toru tekau mā toru 33

Baptist / G L O B A L M I S S I O N

A word from Rachel WHAT DOES THE BIRTH OF JESUS MEAN FOR YOUR COMMUNITY? We’re just weeks away from Christmas and, as the paraphernalia and advertising starts to invade letterboxes, shops, and end of year plans, it’s all too obvious that the real reason for Christmas is missing. Christmas is recognised in a variety of ways around the world, but many would never connect it with Jesus. Even here in Aotearoa New Zealand, if even known, the name of Jesus is often just that—a name. For believers, the birth of Jesus is critical and irrespective of where we find ourselves at this point of the year, we need to take the time to remember who he is and why he came.

Many of our overseas personnel are in locations where a knowledge of Jesus is minimal—that’s why they are there! We asked them to share, through this year’s Christmas Angel appeal, the impact that the birth of Jesus can make where they are.

For my community, the birth of Jesus means care and compassion for the poor and oppressed.

Caring for the Caregivers Tiredness, culture-shock, homesickness— it can be tough living in another country, especially when those you live among are poor and often struggling to survive. As the Baptist family of churches, we have commissioned and sent a number of workers to overseas nations. We promise to support them, but what does that mean? Gay Cochran, NZBMS Pastoral Care Worker, provides some tips on how

Dignity and respect regardless of race or gender.

an overseas worker can best survive in

A place of refuge and a God from whom to draw strength.

their new surroundings—those of us at

A closeness with God that is special and unique.

For my community, the birth of Jesus means stronger family relationships.

A journey of reconciliation and transformation.

home can learn from what she shares.

And, Lizzie, who works in South Asia, shares some things that have kept her going while working overseas.

Atonement and forgiveness for wrongs committed.

Direction and guidance from a loving Father.

For my community, the birth of Jesus means no more guilt and shame.

Freedom from fear and superstition.

The end of idol worship and worldly religious practices.

An eternity of joy, peace and praise.

What does the birth of Jesus mean for your community?

Join us, in our neighbourhoods in Aotearoa New Zealand, in Asia and the Pacific, and around the globe, as we share just how powerful the birth of Jesus is for our communities.

Ngā mihi nui and Meri Kirihimete, Rachel Murray, General Director

Register Online

tranzsend.org.nz

This is Ground Control to Major Tom, “Take your protein pills and put your helmet on…”

Imagine you wake up to find yourself in a strange room. It’s 6am. You are hot and sticky; a fan is whirring overhead. Unusual sounds—car horns, voices, coughing, bells being rung—push their way through the windows.

Venturing outdoors, sweat drips into your eyes. As you walk, you step around folk asleep on the pavement.

At 10am, your workday begins. Most of your colleagues do not speak English. They work hard and their chatter is, for the most part, conversational in tone but there are also moments when you know something is up. You can neither understand nor help out; you just watch helplessly.

Your new normal is to live one moment at a time and you do the best you can, never certain what is coming next.

At morning tea, you are a minority of one. You endeavour to communicate using the new words you have been learning only to be met with puzzled looks, giggles, and friendly smiles. The frustration of the moment causes you to reach instinctively for your phone to text your best

N Z B M S

-

R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

Looking from the Other Side…

Sometimes, living amidst the chaos and intensity of Asia, it’s easy to momentarily forget the massive team of people supporting us in Aotearoa. Let me share three things people have done that have made a real difference over the years:

mate but before you can press ‘send’, it dawns on you, hidden away in a different time zone, they are unavailable.

Returning home at 7pm, your basic cooking facilities remind you of holidays spent camping. You eat dinner before flopping into bed and praying—“God, please help me.”

How does someone care pastorally for cross‑cultural workers living in this zone?

It’s a team strategy. For those serving overseas, when it comes to practical concerns, the people in your new community are the ones most helpful when seeking out advice and encouragement.

Most are well aware of the pressures impacting on you. As the first port of call for meeting your pastoral needs, find someone you gel with—someone who has been around this perplexing place longer than you have—and be open to both sharing and listening.

Family and friends back home in New Zealand make up part of your support team also. Whānau who know you well can offer appropriate comfort, humour and encouragement. In a similar way, mentors from your sending church, people who know your unique gift mix and quirkiness, will be aware of what things will be a strength or a challenge for you. As you share your story they will sense what is the right thing to do or say. But it must not be a hit-or-miss thing; home supporters need to develop a proactive strategy to care for you.

At the same time, your church is gifted with a window into your new world, where people from your world are brought alive through shared stories of their particular joys and suffering. As your church listens they can sense the longing of God to bring healing and wholeness, to end evil and suffering. By your serving, your church is awakened and propelled to being more aware and caring for a people different to themselves.

As NZBMS’s Pastoral Care Worker, I listen for the caring quality of this multi-dimensional communication: worker to colleagues, worker to whānau, worker to home church and other support people. I catch up with staff regularly, to check in on the ‘temperature’ of their well-being. I trust ground control (friends, family, and the local church) will stay engaged with Major Tom and think deeply about ways to encourage and be a conduit for prayer, love and connection. After all, when it comes to supporting those involved in overseas mission, we all have a part to play.

1. Prayer. When groups and individuals have committed to praying for us and our neighbourhood, we have felt incredibly held—that’s no small thing on days when circumstances threaten to overwhelm us.

It’s wonderful that, on occasion, these praying groups contact us to ask how we are, what prayer needs we have, and to offer words of encouragement. Also, before Joel and I married, a young family prayed for me every night. It meant so much that they would make knowing me and upholding me a part of their family life.

2. Visiting. It’s a breath of fresh air when young people come to visit the freedom businesses. Their raw energy and new eyes help us see the city afresh again.

Also, young people are usually up for a good social time even if we don’t know each other well. Hanging out with visiting Kiwis outside of our everyday work intensities is a welcome diversion.

3. Goodies. A care package never goes astray. (Actually, sometimes it does... the local postal system is fairly erratic!) The goodies inside the care packages are always great, but the words or pictures people have taken time to put together have an even greater value.

Story: Lizzie, Tranzsend worker in South Asia

Story: Gay Cochran, NZBMS Pastoral Care Worker

v.134 no.6 † toru tekau mā rima 35

Baptist / G L O B A L M I S S I O N

Christmas Where We Are Christmas is so much a part of New Zealand and most other Western cultures that it’s difficult to imagine December 25th passing without being surrounded by family, eating way too much, and enjoying a public holiday. We asked some of our Tranzsend folk to share a little of what Christmas is like where they are.

There is no Christmas holiday where we are; nor is it a time of gift giving or family get-togethers—that all happens at New Year. While a few of the Catholic churches will erect nativity scenes, any Christmas decorations placed around public areas will be Santas, rabbits, reindeer and the like.

Of course, for Christians it remains a time of celebration.

We will join the local Anglican congregation for a Christmas service. Then we will invite folk from our Oasis church who are staying here over Christmas back to our home.

Each person or family will bring food from their country of origin; we will provide New Zealand roast lamb, roast vegetables and, of course, pavlova. Because our church is made up of people from all over the world, one of the evening’s highlights will be talking about our various family Christmas traditions.

From Neil and Barb in

N O I S S I M

East Asia

TRIVIA

th’s the Ear What is gain ulation p o p t e n ond? per sec Answe

ge 38 r on pa

36 toru tekau mā ono † v.134 no.6 baptistmag.org.nz

Because Christmas Day is not a public holiday, everyone goes to work and life continues as normal. Shopping malls put up big Christmas trees and decorations—it feels strange seeing snowmen and other winter things when it’s really hot outside—but that is more about getting people to buy stuff than it is about Jesus. As Christians, it feels funny that believers must go to work on Christmas Day, but they will often get together in the evening for a service or an evangelistic outreach.

We still celebrate, though. In our family we do advent countdown and the Jesse tree throughout December, and light a candle every Sunday. At school, we are doing a Christmas play, although it’s actually about a trip to the North Pole. On Christmas Day, we spend lots of time on Skype talking to our family back in New Zealand. We open presents, we eat yummy food and have other members of the Tranzsend team over for a meal.

This Christmas Day, there is a combined church service that we will attend. We will also bake cookies and give small gifts to friends and neighbours to say Merry Christmas.

What’s really cool is that sometimes we get invited to schools to talk about the true meaning of Christmas.

From Noah, Miles and Theo in South East Asia

N Z B M S

For believers, Christmas is a joyous time of year. Churches are decorated with lights, tinsel, and stars—sometimes even a nativity scene. Where we live, however, there are many religious festivals throughout the year. So, the majority of people will see all this as just another one without fully understanding its meaning. They will see the lights and festivities and use Christmas as a reason to party. Believers, however, will use it as an opportunity to go out on the streets and sing carols.

Every Christmas, on the rooftop of Love Calcutta Arts, we have a grand celebration with Priya and staff. At the Serampore College, we have a presentation of carols from all the different represented states of this nation.

Afterwards, we will join with students and staff for a dinner, which is held sitting at long tables in the garden, before visiting friends at their homes.

The transformation that has occurred in the lives of some of the women in our freedom businesses is huge.

With our first Christmas only one woman knew what Christmas meant. Now, when we celebrate, many women have experienced the New Life so they put together a very moving dance. The new-found joy radiating from their faces, makes me humbly give thanks to God for the opportunity he gave for us to work here.

-

R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

In our region, the real celebrations are the two Eids, which fall in June and August. It is these religious times that most people focus on. For the relatively small number of Christians, Christmas is important but it is not easy to celebrate openly. Christmas Day is, however, a national holiday so there is some opportunity to quietly observe it.

Amongst the city folk we lived with, most would endeavour to travel back to their home village for Christmas.

Christmas is becoming more evident but, like in many Western cultures, it is becoming increasingly commercially‑orientated, rather than a religious event.

Christmas cards are available but tend to be very secular— an open promotion of the real message of Christmas would not be allowed. All in all, it is a very sterile version of a New Zealand Christmas.

From Gary and Heather who have just completed a period of working in South Asia

From Peter and Leonora in South Asia

R EAD M ORE

about the work of Tranzsend at tranzsend.org.nz. v.134 no.6 † toru tekau mā whitu 37

Baptist / G L O B A L M I S S I O N

SMALL BITES

Heather, Gary & Murray recommissioned to New Zealand

Lizzie & Joel commissioned to South Asia

SO LONG FOR NOW… Five Tranzsend workers who have been on home assignment are returning to their work overseas— please pray for: • Peter, who is returning to East Asia to resume his work. Alongside the formal work Peter is involved in, he has an amazing ability to get alongside people in need and has seen lives transformed simply by being a friend.

Thanks to everyone who supported and encouraged the work of NZBMS during last month’s Hui. Here are some of the mission highlights: • BMF AGM and Mission Prayer Day on Wednesday.

• NZBMS presentation on Saturday morning from Rachel Murray, Alastair (Arnie) Hall and the NZBMS team— launching Prayer and Self Denial 2019.

• Fantastic talk from Rev Leor Sarkar from BBCF, who was the guest speaker from Bangladesh. Leor shared encouraging and challenging stories from his work in Bangladesh.

• Ross and Cindy, who are returning to South Asia to resume their work in support of the local churches, in team leadership, and in education.

• Honouring overseas mission personnel—recommissioning Colin and Tania, Georgia and Daniel, Gary and Heather, and Murray to New Zealand and releasing them from service overseas.

• Commissioning Joel and Lizzie, and Charlie and Jo (in absentia) for service in South Asia.

• Joel and Lizzie, who have recently married and will return to South Asia to work at The Loyal Workshop, one of our freedom businesses and a work relocation for Lizzie (formerly with Freeset).

• Honouring Ross and Cindy for 30 years’ service in South Asia.

CHRISTMAS TO DO

Keep informed—you can receive regular newsletter updates from these and any of our other fieldworkers simply by contacting the office. Email info@tranzsend.org.nz.

MISSIO

HUI HIGHLIGHTS

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TRIVIA ER A N S West’d 4.3

are an eaths per There d nd 1.8 tion a bir ths = net popula le d p n o o se c 2 . 5 pe gain of second. r pe

38 toru tekau mā waru † v.134 no.6 baptistmag.org.nz

LIST

FF Give to the An nual Christmas An gel Appeal— This Christmas, as we celebrate the bir th of Jesus, we invite you to join us in celebrating the wo rk of the Lord in Asia through the An nual NZBMS Christm as Angel Appeal— tranzsend.org.nz/app eals/xmas.

FF Sign up for a su ppor t newslet ter— Contact the NZBM office and ask to rec S eive a regular news letter from one or more of our workers; a great way to keep in touch with what’s going on an d to focus your pra yer.

FF Buy a Marketpla cers product for Christmas— A Marketplacers gif t means life to those who would otherwise be trapp ed in poverty—visit ma rketplacers.co.nz to see the full range of fair-trade gif ts.

FF Ensure your ch urch is registered for 2019 Prayer an Self Denial—Prayer d and Self Denial is fun and informative, and makes a dif feren ce. Check with your pastor or missions team to make sure your church is regist ered.

N Z B M S

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R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE NZBMS, through Mission World, presents the following opportunities to join with God’s mission in our world by joining with Tranzsend or one of our other strategic mission partners.

• Paediatric Physiotherapist (Mongolia) with Interserve: to serve in a development centre offering intensive physiotherapy and/or speech therapy for disabled children. Also to train local physiotherapists.

• Community workers (Bolivia) with Pioneers: work alongside existing churches to minister to at-risk children and young people in urban centres.

• Mission servers (South Asia) with Tranzsend. To be the next generation of servers in Bangladesh. A range of skills and opportunities are possible. Is this you?

• Dormitory Helper (Senegal) with WEC: for the boys’ dormitory of an international school. Duties include care for students, assistance with homework and supervision of out-of-school activities.

• Creation Care (Philippines) with OMF: Develop relationships in the community that lead to opportunities for community-owned creation care activity.

• Finance Manager/Accountant (Thailand) with SIM: Support and assist the ministry leadership that serves the WEC region made up of 6 countries.

• Mission experience placement (PNG) with MAF: opportunities of 6-12 months for those contemplating long term service. Potential roles in Business Administration, IT, Support services, Maintenance, Videography, Hospitality, Construction.

• Bible Storytellers (South Asia) with Wycliffe: a five week adventure called Proshikkhon, learning about relevant storytelling in cross cultural environments.

For more information and to express an interest email info@missionworld.org.nz or phone 09 526 8446.

part Of Thank you for being

GtOdry’s sO

Visit www.tranzsend.org.nz/appeals/xmas to learn more about our Christmas Angel Appeal