Baptist Magazine v136 n2

Baptist Churches of New Zealand

baptistmag.org.nz

Take them to the cross!

Breaking down walls

“That’s just the way we do things!” part 2

A little child shall lead them

BEING THE (WELL-WASHED) HANDS AND FEET OF JESUS † 2020 NZBMS STAFF CONFERENCE

| A p r i l / M a y 2 0 2 0 | v. 1 3 6 n o . 2 |

ONLINE Recently added ELECTIONS FOR THE ELECT A reflection on Christians and voting and getting better at talking about politics.

~ CALEB HAURUA

THE HEART OF CELEBRATION IS REORIENTATION Responding to public worship with God in mind, through prayer, presence and proclamation.

EDITOR Linda Grigg linda@baptistmag.org.nz GLOBAL MISSION EDITOR Greg Knowles GRAPHIC DESIGNER Rebecca McLeay PRODUCTION MANAGER Kathryn Heslop

~ DR JOHN DOUGLAS

BOOK REVIEW A review of Alcohol: A Dangerous Love Affair.

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Baptist Churches of New Zealand PO Box 12149, Penrose, Auckland 1642, New Zealand +64 9 526 0338 — Front cover photography Junie Jumig — 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.™ — 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.

Distributed through local Baptist churches in New Zealand and dependent on their contributions.

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CONTENT 04 A word from the editor As I write this, New Zealand is in lockdown in response to the COVID-19 situation. They are difficult times for us all, as we face what we hope will be a temporary phase before life returns to normal, or even a modified type of normal.

However, as Rachel Roche writes, alongside the more commonly reported challenges it presents, the coronavirus provides opportunities for churches to respond in positive, life-giving ways. Read her article on pages 26-27.

First up in this issue, though, is a follow-up to Charles Hewlett’s February article, about the culture of New Zealand Baptist churches. Hear from five people with views on what they would like our churches to be known for. Do their comments resonate with you? What values would you like to see our churches demonstrate, especially in this current situation? Don’t forget you can continue the discussion online for most of the magazine’s articles. Go to our website baptistmag.org.nz, search for the Baptist article you wish to comment on, and scroll to the bottom to ‘leave a reply’.

Don’t miss Alan Jamieson’s first column in the magazine as the new general director of NZBMS, and read about the NZBMS conference held earlier this year in Vietnam (pages 34-35).

Also in the Global Mission pages of the magazine is Lynley Capon’s article about Prayer and Self-Denial 2020’s theme of ‘Mending the Mess’. She says, “Our deep longing is to see the mess of this world fixed. The power to mend the mess lies with Jesus—his suffering, death and resurrection bring hope for the lost, healing for the broken‑hearted and restoration of fractured relationships.”

How appropriate, then, is Ben Carswell’s Easter reflection, urging us to “Let us make sure that in our conversations, our sermons and messages, we take people to the cross; that we get to Jesus and point to his finished work on the cross. Let’s not leave him there, for he has risen, but let’s ‘take them to the cross’, which is at the heart of all Jesus has done for us and all that we believe.”

~ Blessings to you Linda Grigg

07 13 14 16

REFLECTIONS FROM CHARLES HEWLETT

“That’s just the way we do things!” part 2 OUR STORIES

PROFILE

Meet... Cam Hill EASTER REFLECTION

Take them to the cross!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Breaking down walls A little child shall lead them Let’s all celebrate

26 28 3o 32 33

HEALTHY RESOURCES

Being the (well-washed) hands and feet of Jesus WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?

Worship in te reo Confessions of a sex addiction counsellor COMMUNIQUÉ

DIRECTORY

GLOBAL MISSION

2020 NZBMS staff conference We’re in this together Stories Opportunities to serve

Baptist / R E F L E C T I O N S F R O M C H A R L E S H E W L E T T

“ That’s just the

waythings!” we do

Bringing honour and glory to God

04 whā † v.136 no2 baptistmag.org.nz

Rebecca McLeay

PART 2

In the previous Baptist magazine, Charles Hewlett reflected on some of the things he would like Baptist churches in New Zealand to be marked out by: being Jesus-focused, thankful, innovative, audacious, contagious and prepared to give up their rights for others. This time he invited a few Baptists to share what they hoped our faith communities would be known for, and this is how they responded.

ANDY SHUDALL (Titirangi Baptist Church) I hope we’re known for our grasp on Scripture and Scripture’s grip on us. If we love Christ, we love his Word; if we love his Word, we obey him. Bonhoeffer said only the one who obeys believes, and only the one who believes obeys.

Baptists began in radical obedience to Scripture, standing apart from the cultural norms of their day. Love of Scripture is what marks us as a movement.

It is to be the joyful, careful, deep, decisive, warm and loving immersion in God’s Word in our life together that shapes us.

This is to be seen in our intimate gatherings of two to three, as well as in our large worship services, where time is allocated according to priority— God’s Word being given the space it needs so that we might hear the Spirit’s voice, experience his power and know his transforming love.

SARAH BUCKWELL (Royal Oak Baptist Church) I would hope that New Zealand Baptists would be known for warmly encouraging diversity within the body of Christ.

As God continually breaks out of the boxes we can subconsciously create, God quickly becomes far bigger than what one person or group can testify to. To be known for being a culture that encourages different voices to be heard and taken seriously. A culture that seeks an understanding of those who are different to what we might be comfortable with, and finds a unity in Christ through that seeking. To see New Zealand Baptists come together united in our diversity in a way that honours our God and continues the mission set out for us as God’s people.

MATT RENATA (Church of Ihumātao) With Jesus at the heart of everything we do, Te Hāhi Iriiri o Aotearoa (The Baptist Churches of New Zealand) should be known as a tribe/denomination that strives for genuine unity and diversity in the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12 (NIV) says, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” Sounds easy enough, right?

In 2020, where division, deception and disillusionment are bringing destruction and decay to the body of Christ in Aotearoa, we must be a movement that’s fuelled by the love of Christ and striving for unity in every aspect of who we are. We must reflect the diverse nature of Christ’s love and display the manifold wisdom of God to the world. Could Baptists be known to love well, be unified of one Spirit, and embrace diversity, weaving our people together interdenominationally, culturally, ethnically, gender- and age-wise, and beyond?

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Baptist / R E F L E C T I O N S F R O M C H A R L E S H E W L E T T

MIKE SIMPSON (Dunedin City Baptist Church) When people enter our churches, whether it be Sunday morning or any other ministry, group or event, their first impressions last.

For years we collected ‘yellow cards’ filled out by people new to our Sunday service. Time and again their feedback was about what they felt more than what they heard, and what impressed them was being genuinely made to feel loved, accepted, welcomed.

Beneath this impression is not merely friendly door greeters but a whole community bound together in love, bearing with and opening their lives to one another, practising forgiveness and reconciliation, and looking out for the ‘new person’. The adopted family of God. A new community rubbing shoulders (and rough edges) as we seek to minister within and without.

It must have been what seekers and new disciples discovered in Jesus’ ministry and in the early church.

John 13:34‑35 sums this up: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

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HELEN STURGEON (Ilam Baptist Church) At Ilam Baptist, when we dedicate a baby we say, “You are loved, and you are wanted.

There is always a place for you in God’s family.”

I would love for New Zealand Baptists to be known as people who create spaces where people experience this, whoever they are, wherever they are from, and whatever their story is.

I would love us to welcome and be open to all people, to drop our egos and our need to be right, and to notice where the Spirit of God is working in each situation.

I would love New Zealand Baptists to be known for supporting the equality of women in leadership and in every area of church and community life.

I would love us to listen well, offer grace and always be pursuing God’s shalom in everything and for everyone.

That we would do the journeys of life with each other and those around us.

I would love for us to stand with people who are suffering, not with quick answers but with patience and courage to be the presence of Christ in these hard spaces.

Closing thoughts I wonder how you would respond.

What are the characteristics you would like the Baptist communities you are part of to be known for?

I encourage you to discuss these things with the people you do life and ministry and mission with.

What are you known for? Do we need to make any changes? It is my prayer that the Baptist Union of New Zealand would bring honour and glory to God in all that we do.

(If you missed part one of my reflection on this topic, you can read it online at baptistmag.org.nz/ the-way-we-do-things.)

Story: Charles Hewlett Charles is the national leader of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand. He is often heard saying, “I love Jesus.

I love the Bible. I love the gospel.

I love the church. And I love mission.”

Follow Charles Hewlett: /charles.hewlett.nz /charles.hewlett

Our Stories

A God-given opportunity Our nation is in the midst of a housing crisis. Down in Christchurch the housing shortage isn’t quite as bad, thanks to a flurry of post-quake builds. However, there has been red-hot pressure on the city council to improve the quality of their council housing and the care they provide to residents.

It’s one thing to point the finger at the state for their handling of the crisis, but it’s something else to act to make a difference. Oxford Terrace Baptist Church was given such an opportunity when the chance to purchase 10 one‑bedroom units of council housing landed in our lap on 31st July 2019. During the course of transferring their entire stock of council housing, the council offered these units to local Baptists for purchase, thanks to a historic Baptist connection to the houses.

Housing was already on our minds as a church, featuring heavily both in our history and in our ongoing post-quake rebuild plans. As a congregation, we agreed we wanted to provide safe, warm, affordable community housing in answer to the housing issues facing New Zealand.

It seemed like God was holding us to our word. The catch was we only had a few weeks to come to a decision.

We rapidly got to work. Inspections were done, earthquake repair work costed, insurance sought, and finance secured through Christian Savings. A proposal was brought to the church to borrow the funds to purchase these properties. It felt like a tall order to ask our members to agree to such a rushed proposal. But they discerned over two church meetings that God had provided us with an unmissable opportunity. On Sunday 29th September 2019 an almost unanimous vote was passed to borrow $1.3 million to purchase the units.

Since then we have partnered with VisionWest Community Trust to manage the existing tenancies and work with residents to foster strong community life. It’s a story of Baptists working together—church, bank and community trust—to act in an area of need. God has held us to our word and given us an opportunity to make a difference.

Contributor: Andrew Meek

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

Belmont Baptist feeling blessed I want to say they are like knights of old riding in on white stallions to save the day.

But trade the horse for a couple of camper vans and the sword for a skillsaw and paintbrush and you have the quintessential champions of maintenance and the ideal handywoman/handyman team.

Belmont Baptist Church might be typical of a smaller church community that has suffered through the pains of rising and falling membership, and buildings that dearly need love and attention. Although there was a willing crew to attack the sizeable jobs, the need for skilled and well-organised assistance was the missing ingredient.

Enter MMM New Zealand, a unique ministry of skilled professionals serving the body of Christ in a super-practical, super‑generous model.

Belmont Baptist relies heavily on the rental income from an old villa, now divided into two flats, to supplement the generosity of its faithful membership. Although weekly expenses are modest, pastoral staffing and maintenance of a large property would be impossible without the additional revenue stream. Time has taken its toll on the church’s fixed assets and a significant property improvement report in 2018 indicated an alarming ongoing and remedial cost to bring the buildings up to date.

When Malcolm the MMM team leader arrived with Pauline and Ronnie in tow for a two-week project, they immediately assessed, assembled and jumped into action. Ably assisted by Belmont stalwarts Franz, Tom, Leanne, Martha, Don and Rose, (and a backstage crew of lunch makers, home bakers and hospitality givers), the MMM crew stripped, chipped, sanded and prepped the building for a shiny new coat of paint.

The fiscal blessing, massive. The experience, incredible. The legacy, immeasurable. The conversations, inspirational. The willingness, heart‑warming.

MMM really are well‑grounded heroes!

Contributor: John Peachey

08 waru † v.136 no.2 baptistmag.org.nz

Welcome to Dr Christa McKirland In late January 2020, Dr Christa McKirland joined Carey’s staff as lecturer in systematic theology. Christa has been a Research Fellow at the Logos Institute at the University of St Andrews in the UK, where she received her doctorate in analytic and exegetical theology. Christa founded and is the executive director of Logia, an organisation created at the invitation of the Logos Institute to support women pursuing postgraduate theological education.

Originally from Georgia in the United States, Christa has a rich Baptist heritage and a deep love for the local church. Her research has focused particularly on theological anthropology and the crucial role of the Holy Spirit for understanding human purpose and flourishing.

Christa is married to Matt. They have two children, Raya (4) and John (1). Christa enjoys playing basketball and would love to learn how to play rugby.

“We’re delighted to welcome such a gifted theologian,” says John Tucker, Carey’s principal. “Christa brings to Carey a deep love for Jesus, a strong confidence in the scriptures, and a vision for forming Christian leaders who can serve faithfully and effectively in today’s world.

Christa instinctively brings the resources of our faith into conversation with the realities of our context and the practices of Christian life and leadership. The obvious alignment between Christa’s calling and Carey’s mission is exciting, and we look forward to working together in service of the gospel.”

Join the movement to end homelessness!

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VisionWest, one of Aotearoa’s leading Community Housing providers, are seeking a Regional Lead Tenancy Manager to manage our team in Auckland. Join a faith-led organisation, bringing hope and supporting transformation to whānau experiencing the challenges of homelessness.

Tenancy Management experience is essential along with team management experience.

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Building Hope Together

Whakapūmau Ngātahi i te Manawa Ora

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

Alcohol: a dangerous love affair George Seber, a retired statistics professor and a long-standing member of Windsor Park Baptist Church, has just published his 21st book, titled Alcohol: A Dangerous Love Affair.

His interest in the subject began when his co-author, Dr Graeme Woodfield, encouraged him to join the executive of Group Against Alcohol Advertising many years ago.

“I got involved in writing a submission to the Law Society, who were tasked with making legislative alcohol suggestions to the government, and sending a submission to the select committee on alcohol. I also researched a chapter on substance addictions for my published counselling book, as I had become a trained counsellor, now of 17 years’ experience. I realised that alcohol was destroying individuals, families and the community, and that government legislation was totally inadequate.”

Sir Geoffery Palmer, in a foreword to Alcohol, writes that the book “deserves to be a bible for policy makers”.

However, George says the book is intended for anyone who drinks alcohol, or who has a family member who does.

Even moderate drinkers are at a health risk, he says, because alcohol is carcinogenic.

You can read a review of Alcohol: A Dangerous Love Affair on our website: baptistmag.org.nz/alcohol. 

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Baptist Leaders’ Retreat 2020 On the 19th and 20th February 2020, 50 Baptist leaders came together for a retreat centred on the theme ‘That’s just the way we do things’. We had representation from Assembly Council, Association chairs, regional leaders, the Baptist National Centre, Carey, NZBMS and the Mission Council, Baptist Women, Christian Savings, the Multicultural Inclusion Ministries team, Manatū Iriiri Māori, Orbit, young adults, new leaders, Baptist Youth Ministries and Children and Family. It was so great to have a wide diversity of voices in the room!

We discussed a range of important topics led by experts in various fields: Lisa Woolley and Fred Astle shared a challenging message on cultural bias: people judging the outside world through a narrow view based on their own culture.

They highlighted the bicultural journey that VisionWest Community Trust and Glen Eden Baptist Church have been on and explained the kaupapa Māori framework they have adopted for their work.

Grant Harris took us on a journey of innovative leadership.

“The action or process of innovating is crucial to the continuing success of any organisation,” he quoted someone as saying. Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul were innovators. For the sake of the gospel, and so that we may share in its blessings, we should not be scared of change or innovation! (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

Forty of the leadership team at The Render Gathering, a Baptist church in Manurewa, hosted us for an incredible and inspiring night of food, music, multimedia and conversation. They shared with us something of their remarkable journey over the past three years. What a generous, grace-filled community!

Dean Kimpton and Mark Powell shared an exciting methodology for how we may review our resources in order to be good stewards. To achieve our purpose of bringing redemption, reconciliation and healing through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must position our resources to achieve the maximum return for the Kingdom.

As leaders of different Baptist Union ministries, we talked about how we might better associate together in our roles for the purpose of seeing Baptist faith communities thrive.

We were encouraged to read Amos 3:3!

My challenge to our leaders and to you is this: to give up our rights for the rights of others, Mark 10:35-45.

I encourage you to read through this passage, which highlights a conversation between Jesus, James and John about leadership in the Kingdom. We have three choices: self or others, power or service, and comfort or suffering.

Note the contrast in attitudes in verse 35 to verse 45. As Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (NIV).

Contributor: Charles Hewlett Baptist National Leader

v.136 no.2 † tekau mā tahi 11

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

Orbit… supporting the edges of the Baptist movement I read this book some years ago that really took my fancy: Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. It’s the story of how Hallmark Cards created a department for their ‘experimentals’—those who would try new ideas and live outside of some of the ‘rules’ of the main organisation, while being supported and resourced by it.

In a Christian context, this creative space orbits the main body, or centre, which brings the richness of tradition, wisdom and learning through the ages, while the orbit or edge brings energy, challenge and new learning.

The edge seeks new ways to be relevant to a current generation, and new models of living that impact for the Kingdom. The edge can also help us do some reinvention in times and

situations like COVID-19, when we are going to have to get more creative and more local!

So now the Baptist movement has Orbit! After discussions last year we realised that, as a Baptist movement, we have lost some of those from the edges as they haven’t felt understood or supported by us. Local churches have felt the tension of how to communicate with those who are pulling against the traditional order of things.

The Orbit catalyst leadership team of Dave Tims, Nigel Cottle and I want to help us hold that tension between centre and edges so we get the best of all. Last year we held the first Orbit retreat called Te Ara (the way), bringing together those experimenting with neighbourhood communities, intentional households and

social enterprise.

The Baptist Churches of New Zealand now employs Dave (of Urban Neighbours of Hope) for one day a week, to provide personal mentoring and support around the country. Nigel (of Mosaic Morningside and Crave Café) brings his expertise of social enterprise and community transformation to an inner city neighbourhood.

If you want to know more, invite us to your Association meeting, cluster or leadership team meeting! We want to support pastors with their own orbit space, as well as those wanting to grow something in new neighbourhoods where we currently have no local churches.

Let’s love our edges and see them thrive, challenge us and change us!

Contributor: Ruby Duncan

We are live!

Did you know that most of the Baptist magazine content is also available on our website? There you can read • inspiring stories about churches active in their neighbourhoods • profiles of Christians living out their faith in practical ways • thought-provoking reflections on faith and life • news from Baptist churches around the country and from Baptist workers overseas • reviews of new books.

Want to have your say? You can continue the discussion on topics raised in online articles by using the ‘leave a reply’ section at the bottom of each article. You can even submit letters and story ideas to us by using the ‘submit’ function.

Check out our website baptistmag.org.nz now and sign up to our e‑newsletter too! (Find the ‘Sign up’ form in the right-hand sidebar.)

The Baptist magazine­—encouragement and inspiration to help you step out in faith.

>

Baptist / P R O F I L E

meet…

Cam Hill

co-founder of Good Neighbour

Cam Hill and his wife Christine attend Bethlehem Baptist Church. He is the community impact manager for Good Neighbour Aotearoa Trust. This is his story.

What is Good Neighbour about?

Good Neighbour provides practical help for people, no matter what they are going through. We have project teams that do backyard clean-ups, house moves, and such like.

We provide low-cost firewood, have 160 garden plots in our community and in schools, run the third biggest food rescue service in New Zealand, and have just started an MSD-funded service called ‘Living Well in Your Home’ that provides holistic wrap-around support. We also have a commercial kitchen that prepares meals using rescued food and a training programme that mentors boys.

We want to inspire people in New Zealand to live better lives by seeing the need of people next to us and responding with generosity, compassion and kindness.

A lot of people want to help but they just don’t know how or where. So, one of the things Good Neighbour provides is opportunities for volunteers.

How and why did you get involved?

I used to work for Cool Bananas, a Christian-educationin-schools programme. After about 10 years there, I felt I wanted to do more for the community but I wasn’t sure what exactly. I wanted to open my heart to what other people are doing, because sometimes you ‘catch’ stuff.

So, I went with two others to visit Freeset in India and then we went up into Nepal, where we visited several different NGOs. One was called Good Neighbour. I wrote that down and thought, “Wow that is a great name. If we ever do something, maybe that’s the name!”

Back home, my house got broken into a couple of times by the same young guy. I went to a family group conference and put up my hand to be his mentor. I didn’t get a lot of time with him before he was moved to another programme in the Waikato, but he opened up the neighbourhood to me.

He knew why all the young people were walking around in my street at 2am; he knew what was happening with the gangs. When I went to his home to take him some food,

there was not a salt and pepper in the cupboards. The huge need in our community was suddenly made clear to me. So that gave us the motivation and we just began to do what was in front of us, and it has developed from there.

The organisation has come a long way in six-anda-half years. Give us some idea of the scale of your current operation.

We do 3000 project hours in the community annually.

Our firewood depot has 250m3 ready to go, to support 100+ families this year. (They pay a small amount for the wood and help with delivery on one of our firewood days.)

Our food rescue service collects and processes 10 tonnes of food a week, re-distributing it to 50 local organisations and charities. All this work is only made possible with input from local businesses, funders, around 400 volunteers and 12 staff.

This is about more than just being kind, isn’t it?

A lot of church focus is on ‘come to us’ but Christians are also called to go and look for ways to be Jesus in our community. God is already working in community; we’ve just got to join him in what he is already doing.

When we serve people—we’ve given them food or firewood, have done their backyard or moved them—then we can have those conversations: “Have you ever thought of what you are doing with your life? Have you thought about what Easter is about?” They are not offended; the walls don’t go up, because they know who we are, they know our heart and they know we can be trusted. So, we just work with people at their stage of life. I believe, in time, the harvest will come.  Cam is happy to answer questions or make presentations about Good Neighbour. Contact him at cam@goodneighbour.co.nz.

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

Take them to the

cross!

W

hat are the essential places to see or must-do experiences you recommend in New Zealand? I’ve no doubt that at some point, friends have asked you, “What should we see? Where should we go?” Or maybe you have even had the challenge yourself of deciding where to take them.

From Cape Reinga to Bluff, our islands are full of places that visitors really must go. At risk of offending someone, for me Abel Tasman, the Bay of Islands, Tekapo, Central Otago, Rotorua, Wai-O-Tapu, Te Papa and Hawke’s Bay are all on the list, as well as many other suggestions of places they could visit if time allows. Usually these requests come with unfeasible time challenges and geographical impossibilities: “We’d like to see Milford Sound on our final day, but have to be back in Auckland for late afternoon.” You get the idea...

Whenever I’m asked where should we take people, I have one place that I suggest they must go to, if at all possible. In fact, it’s so good and so special, I recommend it to everyone. But I really think every New Zealand Christian should make the effort to go at least once in their lifetime.

Take them to the cross! More specifically, take them to Marsden Cross in Oihi Bay, in the Bay of Islands.

Marsden Cross marks the birthplace of Christianity on our shores—the place where te rongopai was first proclaimed. It takes some time and a fair bit of effort, but each time I’ve been there I’ve found it to be worthwhile.

On Christmas Day 1814, the words “Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy for all people—a Saviour has

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been born, Christ the Lord!” were heard for the first time in English and te reo Māori on these shores.

For me, the place has special resonance. My whakapapa goes back to the same home village in Yorkshire, England, as the preacher that day, Reverend Samuel Marsden. Back in Yorkshire, there are two monuments commemorating the work and witness of Marsden, both here and across the Tasman. When my wife and I were exploring moving to New Zealand to serve as missionaries, following in the footsteps of Marsden was a significant part of the calling for us.

Marsden was far from flawless as a character, but his burden and intent were right: to introduce the good news of the gospel of Jesus to all the people of Aotearoa.

Later on Christmas Day, having proclaimed the good news, Marsden wrote in his diaries: “In this manner, the Gospel has been introduced into New Zealand; and I fervently pray that the glory of it may never depart from its inhabitants, till time shall be no more.”

Our history, marred and broken though it is, is one that shows that prayer has, thus far, been answered as the gospel has taken root and its glory has not departed these islands.

Why take them to the cross?

Our Christian whakapapa in New Zealand goes back to the message of Jesus in Luke 2:10 arriving on these shores on Christmas Day 1814. But sadly, for many of us, that’s where we’re happy to leave it. We’re happy to say we follow Jesus; we’re happy to call ourselves

Junie Jumig

Christians. We’ll gladly share the good news of great joy and say it’s for all people. But are we happy to take people to the cross?

As we gather to celebrate Easter together, I’ve observed that, as Christians in New Zealand, we’re happy to talk at Christmas of Jesus the baby in the manger, we’re mostly comfortable to talk about his teachings, and we’re even happy to have a cross in our churches, but so rarely do we actually take people to the cross. And yet, through the pages of Scripture, we see the cross is at the heart of all we believe; it’s at the core of what Jesus accomplished.

Let me ask you directly—what place does the cross hold in your life? What place does the cross hold in the ministry you’re involved with? I am convinced that if the cross isn’t central to all we are and all we proclaim, we have a deficient gospel.

For at the cross, Jesus suffered and died, and took on himself the sin of the world. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross...” (1 Peter 2:24). I love the way Paul so helpfully explains what happened on the cross: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV). We cannot have the Christian message without the Christ of the cross.

As one songwriter put it, “Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free; for God, the Just, is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me!”1 The Apostle Paul was convinced of this himself.

Writing to the Corinthians, he articulated this belief, saying, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was

with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2, NIV). Imagine that—Paul’s sole focus for his life was on communicating the message of the cross of Jesus Christ—that “we preach Christ crucified...” (1 Corinthians 1:23, NIV).

This Easter, let us commit to being people who come back to the cross. People who resolve to know nothing, except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Let us make sure that in our conversations, our sermons and messages, we take people to the cross—that we get to Jesus and point to his finished work on the cross. Let’s not leave him there, for he has risen, but let’s ‘take them to the cross’, which is at the heart of all Jesus has done for us and all that we believe.

Reflection: Ben Carswell Ben Carswell serves as national director for Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship and previously served as senior pastor of Hutt City Baptist Church. He’s a ‘Yorkshire Kiwi’ and has lived in Lower Hutt for the last 12 years. He is married to Jen and they have three children.

1. Bancroft, Charities Lees. “Before the Throne of God.”

v.136 no.2 † tekau mā rima 15

Breaking down walls Embracing differences and diversity It had been over a decade since Mt Albert Baptist Church had held a church camp when the idea for another such getaway was raised. Amy Williams explains why the camp was resurrected and how it helped a congregation of more than 30 ethnicities come together at a crucial period in the church’s life.

MT

Albert Baptist Church has nearly 400 people and is a diverse intergenerational community with people who were born in about 30 countries from Asia to Africa.

A long-running building project

meant the congregation had been meeting in the church hall while its main auditorium was rebuilt. They’re due to move in this April.

“We recognised that the church is in a time of transition moving to a new building, which is disruptive and limits our space on Sundays for people to connect with one another,” says

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Lead Pastor Steve Worsley.

The solution? Plan a series of lunches after Sunday services throughout the building project, ending with a finale: church camp. It was planned around a theme of ‘breaking down walls’ between young and old, different cultures, and church old-hats and newcomers.

Teresa Bradley

Baptist / F O O D F O R T H O U G H T

More than 200 people attended the church camp at Willow Park one weekend in December 2019.

“I think there was a real hunger for it. I’ve been involved in a number of church camps before and at times it was really hard to get people to sign up, but this time I didn’t have to push it hard from the front,” says Steve.

The camp tied into the church’s vision to be an inclusive community.

“The feeling among our international group was that we’d rather be a church that works really hard at helping internationals integrate,” says Steve.

“At the same time, the other part of that vision is to help Kiwis understand what it’s like to come from these countries.

“We wanted to put tools in people’s hands to understand themselves better and how they could relate with people from different cultures.”

Enter the keynote speakers If you’re holding a church camp and the theme is breaking down walls, who do you call? Someone with a metaphorical sledgehammer—or in Mt Albert Baptist’s case, two people.

Matt and Rachel Renata moved to Auckland from Wellington last year to start a new degree, majoring in indigenous theology.

They both know what it’s like to grow up feeling like outsiders in their own country, New Zealand, and told their story at the church camp.

“On my dad’s side I can go all the way back to our waka and own that story and then on my mum’s side I’m a second-generation Kiwi, so it’s really weird to hold these two things in balance,” says Matt, who is of Māori and Indian descent.

His parents had both tried to adopt the Pākehā way of life.

“I was born into that world and it was a struggle for Mum and Dad because the Māori wouldn’t accept the Indian side and the Indian wouldn’t accept the Māori side, so for quite a long time there was a huge division in my family,” he says.

Rachel shares a similar story, being of Japanese, Māori and Pākehā descent. She says her high school Māori teacher told her she was too white to learn the language.

“I had family members saying you’re too white to be Māori and my Japanese side saying you’re too Māori to be a part of us. I had this weird thing where my family were saying you’re not enough of us to be us,” she says.

“I was in the limbo zone of

“IF A BIG PART OF OUR CHURCH’S V I S I O N I S I N T E G R AT I O N O F D I F F E R E N T C U LT U R E S T H E N W E B E T T E R G E T TA L K I N G A B O U T I T.” v.136 no.2 † tekau mā whitu 17

Baptist / F O O D F O R T H O U G H T

“If we really embrace diversit y, what would that do for the church? ” ‘where do I fit if I’m not Japanese and I’m not Māori? Maybe I should just embrace my Western side, but I’m visibly not Western either.’”

Rachel says, over time, she felt God telling her to embrace her diverse ethnic roots.

“Once I started learning about them, God started showing me that he’s given giftings to each group of people and it’s for us to pursue those or not.”

Breaking down barriers Look around Mt Albert Baptist on any given Sunday and you’ll see the community is as diverse as that in the local shopping mall, with a key difference—an opportunity to connect without being socially awkward.

Even so, Steve says it’s easy for people to slip back into talking to the same people each week at church.

“If you don’t re-cast the vision for something like that then everyone goes back to their old habits. If a big part of our church’s vision is integration of different cultures then we better get talking about it,” he says.

During the church camp, the Renatas spoke at a series of talks held in the evenings and mornings. These sessions gave people opportunities to explore their own backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses, as

well as invite others to share about themselves.

They talked about being willing to listen to others. Matt says breaking down barriers is about getting to know who you are and owning your God‑given identity and where you belong. He referenced 1 Corinthians 12:4‑31, which talks about how there are varieties of gifts, services and activities, and how each person “is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

“Our differences enhance each other; it’s not a sacrifice to accept someone’s difference. If we really embrace diversity, what would that do for the church? Would it still look the same if we truly embraced differences and diversity?”

Rachel says sometimes churches try too hard, getting people to say hello and move on to the next hello.

“We were trying to get past the name collecting and towards the importance of feeling heard and feeling seen,” she says.

“Within churches we have this big opportunity to push past barriers that are set within our social climates.”

Rachel says a willingness to connect with others of different backgrounds is the first step, then the how comes next.

3 tips

“My biggest passion is that everybody has something that’s worth using and everybody’s enough right now. We all have things that could stop us from connecting with others but actually we’ve all got something that is worth connecting with,” she says.

After more than 20 years in ministry in different parts of the country, Steve says he’s held many church camps, sometimes with a sense of panic as the date looms, due to difficulties getting people to come along.

He says Mt Albert Baptist’s camp worked well because people wanted to connect with each other on a deeper level outside the Sunday services.

“When people want to do it, it comes together easily but if you have to push it, it’s harder. There is so much to gain from church camps.”

Contributor: Amy Williams Amy is an Auckland-based journalist who writes about topics ranging from business to lifestyle for a variety of publications. She also freelances for RNZ in the newsroom.

Follow Amy at: facebook.com/amywritesnz twitter.com/amywilliamsnz

to a successful multicultural camp

1. Start your planning early and bring in a small team of people from a mixture of ages and ethnicities so you get a wider range of ideas and your team can enthuse their circle of friends.

2. Create teams with mixed ages and cultures that are in a competition throughout the camp and plan activities to build team spirit and encourage competition.

3. Have someone appointed to be present in church over a number of weeks prior to the camp taking place, to explain what is actually going to happen there. This lessens the chances of awkward surprises and misunderstandings.

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lead them

Children on mission for God

Patsy Way was on the pastoral care team at Windsor Park Baptist Church for six years before transitioning to director of their children’s ministry, WindsorKids, in late 2017. She is now pastor of children’s ministry. Here she talks to us about this ministry and why she believes children should not be overlooked as ambassadors for Christ.

W

hen you think of children and mission, what comes to your mind?

Growing up, I was told we had to support our missionaries overseas. I always understood ‘missionaries’ to be people who leave their homes and families and go and live on

a little island somewhere, because, as a kid, those were the missionaries we were supporting at our church. But I have learnt that everyone is a missionary. For me, children and mission means children on a mission to share the love of Christ. I want all kids to know that you don’t have to leave the place you are in to be a missionary.

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Prixel Creative/lightstock.com

a little child shall

Baptist / F O O D F O R T H O U G H T

I want all kids to know that you don’t have to leave the place you are in to be a missionar y.

How does WindsorKids help children to see themselves as missionaries?

I am passionate about children learning to recognise the voice of God that is already in them. So, we are big on asking our kids, “What do you want to do for mission and serving this year?”

WindsorKids sponsors five children through Freeset.

We have what we call the Givings Monster, which is a vacuum cleaner that is made to look like a cute little monster. The children get to come and hold their hands out and the monster sucks up their offerings. They know those offerings go to help the children at Freeset. We have profiles of the sponsored children, what schools they go to, their favourite colours, their pets, etc., so that our kids know these children are real, like them. They write letters and birthday cards to the Freeset children and we pray for them.

At the end of this year, we will transition out of some sponsorship, as our kids have said they want to do something for children in New Zealand. For me it is great that they are starting to think of local mission as mission too.

We also do two or three Serving Sundays a year, where the kids decide how they want to serve their community.

This year they have chosen to do a car wash for people at our church, weed the gardens, and go on a prayer walk around our neighbourhood and place handwritten cards in people’s letterboxes.

We keep telling them, “You are a missionary wherever you are. Wherever you are planted is where you can show the love of Christ.”

The Givings Monster sucks up children’s mission offerings

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We will often get them to share in little groups how they have shared the love of Jesus that week, or how they can be a missionary the following week. The assumptions are sometimes hilarious: “My friend always has peanut butter sandwiches, so I am going to give them my Vegemite sandwich.” That kid may love peanut butter and not want Vegemite! But the heart behind it is: “I want to give what they need.” They are starting to look for ways to show the love of Christ.

And it is not just child-to-child mission, is it?

We are in a world where we are seeing more and more children bringing parents to church, not the other way around. Families who are late often say, “We weren’t going to come today but our child said, ‘No, it’s church; I have to come.’”

We especially see parents who are new immigrants in our area wanting a good foundation for their kids. Even if they don’t believe in God themselves, they send their kids to church. Our rule is that the parents have to stay on the property during the service, but often they won’t go in the auditorium; they might sit in the café instead.

A lot of people are against that but I don’t care. Give me your precious kids to look after and teach about God! Then you start to see those kids telling their parents what they have learnt, and often the parents start going into church themselves.

Some of the parents don’t want to go to church but still volunteer to serve on the WindsorKids security team.

Often within a few weeks there they are, singing the songs and joining in on prayers. So, it has flipped around now, I think, and these kids are ministering to their parents.

This year we intentionally started a segment on Sundays called ‘More Than Me’, which is basically showing our children the bigger mission of the church.

Most of the church and Windsor Park’s ‘business as mission’ staff are rostered on to come into WindsorKids one Sunday each. They talk about how they contribute to the wider mission of the church and their own relationship with God, and then our kids have the opportunity to pray for them.

What are the plans for WindsorKids?

When I took over the role, I felt that God gave me a multi‑year plan that has fitted so well with what Windsor Park overall has been journeying through with the PressingOn series.1 The first year we focused on processes. We spent a lot of time working on our safety manuals, making sure we were up to standard, introducing security teams and getting ahead of where we could see safety requirements were headed.

The second year was welcome, which fitted really well with the overall church theme of ‘InVisible’—living in exile,

particularly how even though we are not of this world we are missionaries in it and we need to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. An important way we can do this is by making visitors and regulars feel welcome and like they are at home. So, we made sure we had really good welcome teams, a friendly environment, and that all the leaders knew the kids’ names, and we hosted events that families feel they can bring their friends along to.

This year is strengthening families. The church’s focus is ‘Thrive’. For me, strengthening families fits in there.

Tell us more about this year’s priority of strengthening families.

A lot of our families are first-generation Christians. They have never grown up in a Christian home so they have no idea how to spiritually parent their children. We love intergenerational learning, so we have created a teaching series called Propel, which is a course that will be held on four Friday nights a year, for parents and kids to come to together. The parents will learn how to spiritually parent their children and it will give families the opportunity to brainstorm how they are going to serve, and how they can do things like devotions and bring prayer into their everyday family lives.

Sunday used to be a day when nothing much happened, a day that you spent with your family. Now it is not like that at all. Even churches with the best children’s programmes in the world are seeing a dramatic drop in attendance because of sports, kids’ parties, etc. So, this year we are looking at how we can live out our motto of ‘Sunday is only one day’ and do church outside of Sundays. For instance, we are starting up Messy Church on Saturday afternoons.

WindsorKids is also purposely putting staffing hours into our biggest mission fields: mainly music, ICONZ, Windsor football league, Small Fries Christian Childcare Centre, caféwindsor, and so on.

Any final thoughts on children, God and mission?

Never underestimate a child and how much they already know. I’m constantly surprised at the depth of their understanding of who God is, of who God is to them, and of how they already have a relationship with him.

C H I L D R E N H AV E G O T SUCH A POWERFUL V O I C E …T H E Y A L R E A D Y ARE THE VOICE OF T H E I R G E N E R AT I O N .

Children have got such a powerful voice. Adults always talk about children being ‘the voice of the future’. But if we keep looking to what they are going to be in the future, we ignore who they are now. They already are the voice of their generation.

The Bible says to teach a child the way they should go and they will never turn from it. Yes, sometimes they do walk away from Christ and the church. But statistics show that a huge majority of those who came to Christ before they were 10 years old will return.

God says seeds that he plants are not wasted, so it’s having the faith that that is true. And OK, we may never see the fruits of our labours. But whenever anything goes wrong in children’s ministry, whenever a leader pulls out or something happens, I always feel God say to me, “As much as you love these kids, and as much as you care about this ministry, I care infinitely more. These are my children. This is my ministry. I am going to take care of it.”

Contributor: Patsy Way Patsy has been part of Windsor Park Baptist Church since emigrating from South Africa in 2008. She is passionate about creating a safe and fun environment where children can learn what it means to do life and faith together whilst experiencing the transforming love of Christ. When she’s not at work you’ll find her either blending tea for her tea business or exploring Auckland beaches and mountains.

1. PressingOn is a network of Baptist faith communities who share teaching resources. For more information go to windsorpark.org.nz/windsor/pressingon.

Take outs...

1. What voice do children in your faith community have? How are they involved in your missional work?

2. Is there another way for you to ‘do church’ outside of Sundays that would enable busy families in your neighbourhood to participate?

3. What help could you give first-generation Christians to spiritually parent their children?

v.136 no.2 † rua tekau mā tahi 21

Baptist / F O O D F O R T H O U G H T

let’s all

celebrate!

Prixel Creative/lightstock.com

Re-membering the body of Christ

22 rua tekau mā rua † v.136 no.2 baptistmag.org.nz

Helen Brereton believes celebrations—both the events themselves, and the work associated with celebrating—strengthen communities. They do this, she says, by reinforcing a shared identity and generating enthusiasm for its ongoing purpose and mission. Here she outlines three personal suggestions for celebrations our churches might like to consider.

I

recently began a new interim pastorate, and on my second Sunday, I preached a message on the benefit of spiritual habits. As I prepared resources on various spiritual disciplines, I was reminded of two decommissioning and commissionings I recently attended.

I pondered how the symbols, words and actions of these special ceremonies helped shape, nurture and inspire the people that participated in them. I thought further on the celebrations we regularly undertake in our congregations: weekly celebrations of birthdays and anniversaries; special family celebrations of communion, welcoming new babies, and a saint’s graduation to eternity; and our important annual celebrations of Christ’s incarnation and resurrection, and Pentecost.

Thanksgiving, praise and exultation sit at the heart of each celebration as we remember what God has done for us and through us. As we commemorate God’s goodness to us, and as our joy and delight bubbles over and infuses the honour we offer

up to him, our remembering again ‘re‑members’ us as his body.

Identity, unity, well-being This repeated re-membering is important if our faith communities are going to thrive in the years ahead.

McMillan and Chavis1 have identified five factors that contribute to a robust sense of being part of a body or community of people. They are a sense of belonging, identity-defining symbols and boundaries, participation in community life, having needs and desires met through the community, and shared emotional connections within the community.

Regular celebrations are symbols that work to preserve group history and impart identity. These symbols promote social cohesion, a shared spirit of unity and a continued commitment to group well-being.

So, what are the celebrations your community observes regularly, and how does this celebrating shape and reshape you and the community you belong to?

Here are three different, and potentially new, annual celebrations for you and your community to consider.

THANKSGIVING, PRAISE AND E X U LTAT I O N S I T AT T H E H E A R T O F E A C H C E L E B R AT I O N A S W E R E M E M B E R W H AT G O D H A S D O N E FOR US AND THROUGH US.

I stress these are just my own personal suggestions and are not official proposals in my capacity as a member of Assembly Council. Each of these presents an opportunity to intentionally celebrate Jesus at work in us, and through us. Which of these Sundays might your local congregation need to celebrate most in the next 12 months?

1

Covenant Sunday Each year our nation celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Our nation’s founding document was considered a covenant by many of the Māori signatories to the treaty. As Baptists, covenant is central to our way of being; at our best we are covenanting communities watching over each other and walking together in the ways of the Lord.2 Individually, our personal covenant commitment to Jesus is sealed through the waters of baptism in front of members of the covenanting community; and as a community we covenant with each other through the practice of membership.

This covenanting as a community continues when we stand and commit to supporting a newly married couple or to supporting new parents to raise their children in the ways of the Lord. Likewise it happens when we commission a new pastor or missionary, and when we welcome a newly formed fellowship or newly constituted church into the New Zealand Baptist family.

So how might an annual Covenant Sunday celebration—perhaps the Sunday closest to February 6th— shape and form individuals and

v.136 no.2 † rua tekau mā toru 23

Baptist / F O O D F O R T H O U G H T

congregations over time? A Sunday for celebrating the various covenants in our individual lives, and in the life of our faith community. A time to remember and recommit to promises made at our baptisms, our entry into membership, our weddings, at child presentations, and at commissionings.

A time to celebrate the growth we have experienced as disciples, as members, spouses, parents, friends and champions—and to speak our gratitude to Jesus for his faithful ministry to us over the past 12 months.

Could this Sunday also provide an opportunity to examine how well we are covenanting as citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand, and to celebrate how Jesus is faithfully covenanting with the people and land of this country we like to call God’s own?

2

Foundation Sunday In your Sunday services you may hand out chocolates to celebrate ‘belly button’ birthdays, and maybe baptism birthdays, but how many of us celebrate the day that our local congregation was birthed?

Have you heard of an Ebenezer stone? This stone was placed to remind the Israelites “Thus far the Lord has helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12).

Samuel’s action of marking and remembering God’s faithfulness has

HOW MIGHT C E L E B R AT I N G WHO WE ARE A S A F A M I LY OF CHURCHES AND MISSION ENTITIES… SHAPE AND FORM US?

long struck me as useful for the local faith community.

Do you know when your church was born or officially welcomed into the Baptist fold? You may already have your own Ebenezer, a foundation stone that marks a significant date in the story of your church.

Consider what good fruit could emerge if every year, on the Sunday closest to your congregation’s foundation date, you had a celebration of all that Jesus has done for you over the past 12 months?

A Sunday to celebrate prayers answered, lives saved and changed, outreach activities undertaken, new initiatives launched, volunteer service faithfully given, budgets met and building projects commenced, new members and attendees welcomed into the family, and a year’s worth of marriages, births, baptisms and memorials!

Friends, how might an annual Foundation Sunday inspire joy, build trust and unity, and re‑energise your shared purpose as a congregation?

3

Union Sunday On 9th October 1882, at a conference in Wellington, 15 delegates representing 10 of the 25 existing New Zealand Baptist churches, were led by the Lord to form the Baptist Union of New Zealand.

After 138 years of associating, the Union now comprises 242 fellowships and churches, and an increasing number of Baptist mission entities, located as far north as Mangonui and as far south as Owaka.

Over these years, God has used his Baptist people to do mighty things in and for the world he loves! We have seen Jesus use us to reach thousands of people, we have seen lives changed, and generations baptised.

At his direction, we have nurtured, taught, commissioned and sent young and old into mission and ministry—at home and abroad, at school, at work and in the communities we love.

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How do we as individuals, as congregations and as a family of churches celebrate what God has done, and is doing, across the wider Baptist family? While our Baptist whānau events do a fine job of showcasing God’s faithfulness to our churches, they are only enjoyed by a small fraction of our people. So, what might a Union Sunday—that Sunday closest to 9th October—produce in the way of good fruit?

How might celebrating who we are as a family of churches and mission entities—united under Christ—shape and form us? How might it help New Zealand Baptists face the future together, and unite us and inspire us to keep faithfully proclaiming Jesus and his Kingdom to those in our neighbourhoods and beyond?

Contributor: Helen Brereton Excited by good sci-fi, great bush walks and delicious global cuisine, Helen is a 1st-gen Baptist, married to Nigel and mum to three adult sons and a soon-to‑be daughter-in-law. She currently serves as interim pastor at Kaikohe Baptist Church and sits on both Assembly Council and the Northern Association board. Helen says, “What gets me out of bed each morning is excitement at the opportunities Jesus keeps giving me to help people and congregations live more fully into the freedom for which Christ has set us free!”

If you are keen to think more about celebrating, then check out John Douglas’s new article ‘The Heart of Celebration is Reorientation’ at: baptistmag.org.nz/the-heart-ofcelebration-is-reorientation.

1. D W McMillan and D M Chavis, “Sense of community: a definition and theory,” American Journal of Community Psychology 14:1 (1986): 6-23.

2. Stephen R Holmes, Baptist Theology (London: T & T Clark International, 2012), 156-157.

Easter on Shine Celebrate Jesus’ ultimate act of love with Easter movies and shows for the whole family

SHINE ON DEMAND

Plus catch up on your favourite Easter features online

shinetv.co.nz

Freeview Channel 25 Sky Channel 201 Vodafone TV 700 or online at shinetv.co.nz

Your Kiwi Christian Channel

Baptist / H E A L T H Y R E S O U R C E S

Being the (well-washed)

hands &feet of Jesus “As panic and fear grip our nation, the church is rising up like never before.” “Local churches unite with radical plans to care for sick and elderly.” “Messages of hope line our footpaths.”

Did you read those headlines on Stuff? No? Well, Rachel Roche’s hope is that you will. She says that while everyone is calculating statistics and stocking the pantry, the church is rising up.

T

his is the most exciting time, as we are part of a movement responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in a positive life‑giving way. The history books are being written and I wonder what will be said about you and your church community.

Why is this important?

Many of us are excited about this opportunity. Do not get me wrong, I have been extremely sad. I have had my few tears as my graduation that I have worked six years towards has been postponed. I empathise with those concerned about the rise in unemployment, domestic abuse and the mental health prognosis. However, we know the end of the story is filled with joy and hope. We can see God is working in new ways... or are we

“ O ne ge ne ration comme nd s your w ork s to a nothe r, the y te ll of your mi g ht y act s .”

just finally listening?

No matter who we are, or where we are, we can impact those who do not have hope.

Together we can be Jesus’ (well-washed) hands and feet in this situation, but more about that later.

Church historian Kevin Ward observes that New Zealand traditional churches appear to follow the decline occurring in Western nations and the impact of this decline is extensive.1 However, Ward claims there is not one way ahead for the church, and leaders need to be encouraged to experiment with new forms of church. He suggests existing structures may need to change, or new ‘fresh expressions’ of the church could emerge.2 In a webinar George Wieland of Carey’s Centre for Mission Research and Training recorded in August 2019,

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Ps alm 145:4, NI V he said, “Now, instead of picturing a church building, imagine the households of members of this faith community as the primary locations of the practice and growth of faith.

What would be different?”3 Ward and Wieland’s prophetic words are for a time such as this.

Although the concepts of fresh expressions and church at home have been around for years, a new opportunity has opened up. The church is meant to be journeying with people. The church has never been a building. Now we have no excuses or comfort to fall back on as the way forward will be different.

Recently I have had several conversations with people about hope and faith in ways that I have never experienced before. Churches are reinventing themselves as they are moving online and basing themselves in homes. Online groups are wrestling with what life looks like to move from ‘me’ to ‘we’. People are being encouraged to connect with and check on their neighbours. These stories are new and fresh, and people need hope more than ever.

Depression and anxiety already invades our society. On a scale of one to 10, how anxious have you felt when reading COVID-19 updates, hearing a friend has lost their job, or looking at the empty flour section in the supermarket? Research shows those suffering from depression and anxiety can counter the social and spiritual imbalance with a connection in community. This requires a collective response rather than an individualistic problem-solving mindset.4 Simply put, this means once again becoming part of one another in an inclusive community is beneficial to the individual and the community.

What story will be told?

In a world obsessed with selfies, self‑preservation and selfish gain, imagine a story emerging of selfless embrace, inclusion and love. With every action and inaction, history is being rewritten right now. Imagine if each community, house by house, person by person, was being touched by the love of Jesus. You might say I am being idealistic or unrealistic when we are struggling to keep our own life afloat. Reality check: this story is not about us, our ability to cope, how we survived and our life hacks. This is God’s story and we are his partners.

He has chosen us, he is our strength and he is the author. God has not given us a Spirit of fear but of power, love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7).

We have hope in a Saviour who has been on Earth, who understands, and who knows.

The world is watching and waiting.

Let us give them something good to talk about. Let us change the news headlines. Now is the time for us to act so the stories that outlast us will have some exceptional content.

Resources and ideas As the COVID-19 situation changes in New Zealand, the Baptist National Centre is sending email updates with helpful advice to pastors, chaplains, church administrators and treasurers, regional leaders, Association officeholders and other Baptist leaders. Churches can also access COVID-19 resources via the intranet on the Baptist Churches of New Zealand website. These include various Ministry of Health guidelines, employment advice from Gaze Burt, information on how to prepare an online strategy for connecting with congregations, and faith and theological responses to the COVID‑19 situation. There are also ideas for responses being shared informally among Baptist pastors and leaders in their closed Facebook group.

Here are a few simple action points I suggest for faith communities and households to do within lockdown requirements:

• Write letters and ask children to draw pictures for rest home residents. Check first with the rest home as they may have restrictions on materials sent into their facilities.

• Offer your unused church buildings as a welfare centre to distribute food and supplies.

• Collect up unused smart phones, type up instructions in 16pt font and deliver to households struggling to connect with others and watch church online.

• Write Bible verses of hope with chalk on the footpaths in front of your homes.

Come up with creative crazy cool ideas to bless, encourage and meet the needs of those around you.

Pick an idea and go for it. Please share your stories of kindness, healing and transformation. We have the privilege and exciting challenge to be involved in loving others courageously to glorify God and tell of his mighty acts.

• Letterbox drop with a phone number to call for prayer, dropping off essential items, or to chat.

• Think of ways to show support and appreciation to your local medical centre. You will not be able to just drop in, so get creative.

• Partner with seniors’ support networks to find people with most need of a phone call, supermarket shop or prescription delivery.

• Help another household prepare for a few days when they can’t get out of the house (money for food and water, care packages, etc.).

• Pray at 2pm each day for two minutes for revival, transformation and healing in our land (Acts 2:42).

• Set up a Facebook support page for your community.

Contributor: Rachel Roche Rachel works part-time for Carey as field education and internships coordinator.

She recently finished her Master of Applied Theology. She lives in rural Pukekohe with family, and plenty of produce and farm animals to keep the freezer and fridge full.

1. Kevin Ward, The Church in PostSixties New Zealand: Decline, Growth and Change (Auckland: Archer Press, 2013), 11.

2. Ibid., 225-230.

3. You can view George Wieland’s webinar on the Book of Acts at player.vimeo.com/ video/365656163.

4. Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression and the Unexpected Solutions (London: Bloomsbury, 2018), 83-84.

v.136 no.2 † rua tekau mā whitu 27

Worship in te reo I was involved in organising a praise and worship seminar held at Westgate Baptist Church in October 2018. Dave Garratt, Bruce McGrail, Cliff Edmeades, Sheree Harkness and many others spoke at the seminar. One of the themes to come out of the meeting was the need and desire to incorporate more te reo Māori in our worship, along with karakia, pōwhiri, and the use of poi, etc.

In 2019 the New Zealand Government launched the $12.2 million Te Ahu o te Reo Māori programme.

This pilot programme aims to get teachers and school support staff to speak more te reo in the classroom, from early learning level through to secondary schools.

Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis was quoted as saying, “This is part of nation-building...

Te reo Māori, in fact, Māori tikanga and culture is an important part of who we are as New Zealanders and Te Ahu o te Reo is an important part of that kaupapa.”1 So, my question is: what is the church doing in the area of te reo and Māori tikanga? Surely, we are the place for restitution, restoration and renewal... and revival! Some churches may be already embracing te reo, but are we as a wider group being deliberate in our intentions to embrace our heritage? I believe the church has fallen behind in its acceptance of both te reo and sign language. (Did you know that, although it is the most commonly language spoken in New Zealand, English is not recognised in law as our official language? Te reo Māori and New Zealand sign language are our only two official languages.)2 Songs are such a simple way to demystify the Māori language and get people singing in New Zealand’s native and official language. So, with that said • do you want to join me and others in discussing ideas of how to encourage the use of more te reo in our worship?

tikanga and history that could help Christian songwriters and musicians? And indeed anyone interested in karakia, pōwhiri or any other aspect of incorporation.

• do you want to collaborate on writing worship songs incorporating Māori language?

I am not a professional musician; all I have is five loaves and two fish... but the Lord can turn any offering we give into a feast for 5,000. Let’s make a plan!

Reflection: Andrew Graham Andrew grew up in Blockhouse Bay and attended Blockhouse Bay Baptist Church, was married at Valley Road Baptist Church and has led worship at various churches, including more recently at Westgate Baptist Church. He travelled to the USA in the 1990s and started a music ministry (Dovesong Ministries) and continues to help churches and small groups journey deeper through praise, worship and creative ministries.

You can contact Andrew at soccernz@gmail.com.

Ko Anaru toku ingoa.

Ko Ngati Kereama toku hapu.

Ko Maungakiekie toku maunga.

Ko Manukau toku moana.

Ko Captain James Cook toku waka.

Ko Koterana toku iwi.

Ko Edinburgh toku marae.

• are you willing to share your experiences of walking this journey?

1. www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/112035496/ government-launches-122m-programme-to-bolster-tereo-mori-in-classrooms.

• do you have some knowledge of te reo or Māori

2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_New_Zealand.

28 rua tekau mā waru † v.136 no.2 baptistmag.org.nz

James Barr/unsplash.com

Baptist / W H A T ’ S O N Y O U R M I N D ?

Confessions of a sex addiction counsellor In 2007 I’d only been qualified as a counsellor a few years when this good-looking, 30-something guy walks into my office. He explains that he wants help as he just can’t stop watching porn and masturbating. What really did my head in was when he told me he was in his second year of theology studies. So one minute he was studying the Word of God and the next masturbating to porn.

Porn myths This seeming incongruence really caught my attention and sent me on a learning journey that I’m still on 13 years later. Over this time I’ve seen a number of porn myths debunked, such as: 1. “Real disciples of Jesus don’t use porn.” According to a 2014 US-based survey, 64% of men use porn at least monthly compared to 54% of self‑identified born-again Christian men.1 So following Jesus doesn’t make much difference to American men’s porn use. Why would it be any different here?

2. “It’s just a male thing.” It’s conservatively estimated that a third of regular visitors to adult sites are women.2 Pornhub’s 2019 insights show that nearly 40% of its New Zealand viewers identify as women.3 3. “Porn isn’t a big issue in New Zealand.” New Zealand is ranked 13th in the world (per capita) for page views on the Pornhub website.4

4. “It’s mainly a teenage boy thing.” One source indicates nearly one third of New Zealand Pornhub visitors are aged 25 to 34.

5. “A little bit of porn never really hurt anyone.” According to Psychology Today, two separate studies show that over 50% of divorces in recent years mention porn use by one of the spouses as a major contributing factor and 69.6% of partners or spouses of sexual addicts reported PTSD symptoms as part of the initial disclosure episode. There is also evidence that porn use rewires the brain to the point that the user prefers masturbation to sex with a real person—a fact which has created an epidemic of erectile dysfunction in men in their 20s.5

Recovery I haven’t met a Christian porn user who hasn’t prayed, sought deliverance, read Scripture and genuinely pursued freedom from this addiction. This ‘white knuckling’ approach more often than not increases feelings of shame and powerlessness, which fuels the cycle of porn use.

For many, humbling oneself to get specialised professional help is the first step towards recovery.

Depending on the severity of the addiction, it’s common for a person to be in active recovery for a number of years. This will normally include a mix of being in a group, counselling, having accountability partners, a formal therapeutic disclosure, a rites of passage experience, couples therapy and helping others.

Reflection: Andrew Connolly After four years working in Asian squatter communities with YWAM and Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor, Andrew settled in the Helensville area in 1996.

Since then he has completed a number of qualifications including a B.Min and a M.Ed. (Hons) Counselling. He has worked as a counsellor with men, young men and their families since 2002. He specialises in transitions, spirituality, spiritual and sexual abuse, sex addictions, clearing anger, parenting, contemplative spiritual practices, debriefing and community development. A longer version of this article is on our website: baptistmag.org.nz/confessionsof-a-sex-addiction‑counsellor.

1. Proven Men Porn Survey (conducted by Barna Group), located at www.provenmen. org/2014PornSurvey.

2. “The Overlooked Population: Women and Sexual Addiction,” Marnie C Ferre: NCLAP, www.nclap. org/overlooked-population-womensexual-addiction.

3. “Breaking Down Porn,” Henry Talbot et al: Office of Film and Literature Classification, www. classificationoffice.govt.nz/assets/ PDFs/Breaking-Down-Porn.pdf.

4. ibid.

5. For articles on porn addiction and its effects on sexual intimacy, see www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/ inside-porn-addiction.

Resources www.thefreedomfight.org www.thelightproject.co.nz www.sasa.nz www.fightthenewdrug.org www.nzcca.org.nz www.apsats.org www.counsellingcreatively.co.nz

v.136 no.2 † rua tekau mā iwa 29

Baptist / C O M M U N I Q U É

boundaries that we need to maintain. Not easy! We are loving the strategic focus on loving Jesus that Charles our national leader is delivering for our movement, and so too our National Centre staff. Pray for them! They are doing good work on our behalf, such as gradually preparing for Hui 2020, and helping us as we become more and more a movement of thriving faith communities.

The February meeting of the Assembly Council was a compressed 90 minutes! We squeezed it in during the annual Baptist Leaders’ Retreat held at Takanini. The AC team spent quite a lot of our two-day retreat looking around the room of about 50 people, and thanking God for what we saw: servant leaders telling their stories; innovative ideas in response to challenging situations; emerging and younger people able to find a space and participate in the conversations. What strikes me as the chairperson, reflecting on our meeting this time, is grace.

Diverse views often come out; but just like on the paepae, our commitment to one another under the headship of Christ, and our desire to remain faithful to our Baptist ethos of liberty and the priesthood of all believers, allows us to process things with great care. Our agenda is slowly tweaking towards a greater connection to the governance

God’s best for you Chris Chamberlain 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.

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Gospel Perspective/lightstock.com

100 Years Ago

The Kingdom of God. When is it? Where is it?

Jesus made his contemporaries, who thought they

but his fang is not blunted, nor is his poison vat

knew all about the Kingdom, jump. One of His

dried up. You transport drunken slummers to model

sayings must have had an effect like the sudden

dwellings. They turn them to pigsties unless in them

discharge of a pistol in a quiet church. They came

the new idea is rooted. God could rend His skies

to ask Him when the Kingdom should come...They

and come in Christ to reign over this awed earth. But

expected Him to say, “Next year,” or “In twenty

what would be the use as yet? ...While greed, and

years.” He dropped this bomb among them, as

vanity, and lust, and heartless competition are ruling

He cried, “The Kingdom of God cometh not with

factors in private and civic, and national life, what

observation, neither shall men say, Lo here, or lo

could the forcible establishment of the Kingdom do?

there, for the Kingdom of God is within you.”

Would not these evil forces, which tore down Arthur’s

The Kingdom in Man. Our Lord meant that the great final Kingdom of God cannot be erected outside of man by a mere fiat, or by a rending of the Heavens, or by an Apocalypse.

It must be in man before it can be over him. Let us make this perfectly clear. Our environment creates superficial differences. It is not adequate for the deeper problems of our nature. You can modify the aggressive stripes or spots on the snake whose lair is among leaves or reeds, in brilliant tropical forests, by transplanting him to a mono-coloured habitat.

But he remains a snake. The pigmenting of his skin is adjusted to meet the demands of his environment,

Kingdom, tear down God’s? The Jews on the battlements of Jerusalem were saying, “When will the Kingdom of God appear?” Our Saviour said, “Never, while Pharisees strut and posture, while priests make merchandise of religion, and while hypocrisy soils the sacred floor.” The Kingdom coming to such a, people, as the prophet saw would be like the sun breaking into a cave peopled by owls and bats. The Kingdom cannot come as a splendid world-wide fact till it is established IN enough people to form its nucleus. Whether there are enough now in the world only God can say.

Baptist magazine, April 1920 (abridged)

v.136 no.2 † toru tekau mā tahi 31

Directory CHILDREN’S AND FAMILIES’ PASTOR

DELTA WHĀNAU CHAPLAIN We seek a 0.5 FTE chaplain for Delta Baptist Community Church and Delta Community Support Trust.

You must be friendly, warm, patient, respectful, passionate about social justice, and a collaborative team member. Training and experience in pastoral work, discipleship and preaching/teaching is required.

ENQUIRIES TO PASTOR MARY

We are looking for a Children’s and Families’ Pastor who will lead and encourage children’s and family ministries within Eden Community Church and the wider Eden community.

pastormary@deltacommunitybapstist.org.nz

TRAINING DAYS FOR COMMUNITY CHAPLAINS

This full-time position commences in Mid 2020.

Become a connection between your church and the people in your community Training Days for Community Chaplain Training Bay of Plenty ...... 2 May Canterbury.......... 16 May Dunedin.............. 20 May Southland........... 23 May Whanganui.......... 6 June Auckland ............ 13 June Nelson................ 20 June Wellington .......... 27 June Whangarei.......... 25 July Rotorua............... 1 August Gisborne............. 15 August Hawkes Bay........ 22 August

PHOTOGRAPHERS FOR BAPTIST MAGAZINE We require volunteer photographers who can submit stock images for general use, and/or take commissioned photographs of people and events.

TO FIND OUT MORE EMAIL linda@baptistmag.org.nz WITH SOME SAMPLES OF YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY THAT SHOWS YOUR RANGE OR SPECIALIST INTEREST. Please note, we are not looking for scenic or nature photography.

Belmont Baptist is a small but growing faith community planted in the centre of a diverse area on the North Shore of Auckland. We are a thriving community, enthusiastic and united in our desire to serve and bless our neighbourhood. We have recently launched a before and after school programme and our youth group extends beyond church families.

Initially, this role is to be part-time but with potential to grow to be full-time.

FOR MORE INFORMATION EMAIL admin@edencommunitychurch.org

Applications close 14th April 2020

PASTOR

Time: 8.30am to 5.00pm CONTACT ANGELA 027 446 7736 info@communitychaplains.org.nz www.communitychaplains.org.nz

32 toru tekau mā rua † v.136 no.2 baptistmag.org.nz

Belmont is a suburb undergoing development and population growth.

It is serviced by buses and ferries and sits between lively suburbs and beaches.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE EMAIL bbc.callcommittee@gmail.com

GAY & CHRISTIAN

PONSONBY BAPTIST

Gay & Christian support & discussion group monthly meetings 027 279 4461 office@ponsonbybaptist.org.nz ponsonbybaptist.org.nz/gay-andchristian-information

Glo bal Mis si on

Photo of the month At every NZBMS Staff Conference, each overseas team member is prayed for by a teammate from another context. Here Priya, general manager of Love Calcutta Arts, one of our South Asian freedom businesses, is prayed for by Andy and Ro, part of our South‑East Asian team. Read more about the conference on pages 34-35.

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

v.136 no.2 † toru tekau mā toru 33

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

A word from Alan THREE DAYS IN… I am writing this three days into the role as NZBMS general director.

It’s a real privilege to be part of our 134-year story of Global Mission.

So much has gone before; new paths have been pioneered, people have come to faith, been discipled and healed through our prayers and giving, and through the love of those who have physically joined global communities. I look forward to more lives transformed and more faith communities encouraged and supported.

The Auckland team have made me very welcome. Some things are already changing to enable us to operate in a leaner way, including the following:

2020 N

STAFF

• After years of committed service, Paul Thompson and John and Susan Osborne have retired from NZBMS. John continues as director of some of our overseas companies as we transition them to new ownership or find new directors as appropriate.

• Our accounting will be overseen by Winston and Liz at the Baptist National Centre, supported by Shayla in the NZBMS office.

• We have, in the past, sold product from a number of overseas businesses. We’ll continue to look for ways to do this that involves holding less stock and needing less administration.

I’m working three days a week for NZBMS. Andrew Page has moved to four days a week. Initially we will be focusing our energy on four key areas: 1. A review of NZBMS as the basis of re-visioning, forming a new strategy and re-structuring for the future.

2. Improving ways to communicate with churches and encourage them in global mission.

3. Improving all our systems so we become the best sending agency we can possibly be.

4. Maintaining the projects and care of people from our churches who are working overseas.

In January, I was in India with the team that will carry Freeset into its next chapter. It was an exciting time. I’m aware that many of us have feelings of loss and pain around these changes but want you to know they were necessary. Although differently structured, the work continues with the same ‘Freeset heart’ for the exploited and poor. The expat team includes nine NZBMS people who need our support and encouragement as they continue to serve.

Finally, if you’re a global mission team leader or pastor, I want to know how best to communicate with you about the review process and what you’re doing globally. Please let me know what would work for you—email: alan.jamieson@nzbms.org.nz.

Tama tu, tama ora, Tama noho, tama mate, Kia kaha e hoa ma! Don’t be discouraged, give it heaps my friends!

Ngā mihi nui Alan Jamieson, General Director

34 toru tekau mā whā † v.136 no.2 baptistmag.org.nz

Over New Year, the NZBMS staff conference, held in Hoi An, Vietnam, brought together our NZBMS family for a time of reflection, inspiration and relationship building. Working overseas can sometimes be rather isolating and, for some of those attending, this was the first time they had met members of the NZBMS team based in other countries.

Each day’s programme began with songs of praise and a message from Carey lecturer, George Wieland. The team were then given the opportunity to share the ways in which they see God working within their communities—a time of true inspiration and encouragement.

Each overseas team member was prayed for by a teammate from another context—a practice that greatly affirmed and showcased the friendships created over the time spent together. Time was also given to provide feedback on, and pray for, NZBMS as a whole.

Thank you to all those who prayed for and supported the conference.

N Z B M S

-

R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

ZBMS

CONFERENCE Below, three conference attendees share what the conference meant to them.

From Cindy in South Asia The NZBMS Conference was a chance to feel part of the larger NZBMS team and community. I especially wanted to see the New Zealand staff and Mission Council to talk about some things. I so appreciated that opportunity, and their willingness to listen. I’m sure the work will be better if we are in good community and relationship with each other.

It was good to be warm for a little while (so cold here this winter) and breathe some cleaner air again. I struggled with the luxuriousness of it all at first, but it seemed churlish not to enjoy it, so I did!

I cracked a rib though, so perhaps the health benefits were mixed!

It’s always good to sense and experience a little more of what New Zealand is doing and maturing into, so for me, the focus on the bicultural journey was very positive.

It was so good to have Tsao and Ginny there. They’ve been working with us and Tranzsend for nearly 20 years, so having them as part of the community felt complete and right. I loved catching up with Priya again and hearing her dedication and passion, sensing what is happening in Thailand, catching Peter’s warmth, and hearing what God is doing through each team member. I love that part of the retreats.

The service of the New Zealand team was a blessing to the spirit. They’d put in a lot of thought and work—I just finished the Gingernuts so the blessings carried on back into the work!

From Sophie in South Asia As relative newcomers to the field,

attending a staff conference was a great unknown. We’re getting used to unknowns by now, and have adjusted to holding our expectations lightly.

To our pleasant surprise, we found Vietnam felt comfortingly familiar to our adopted home, yet we were there to share in a very Kiwi experience that was rich in elements of our birth land’s culture. We sang waiata, connected with some of the rich history of Aotearoa, ate Gingernuts and Whittaker’s chocolate, and spent time with a host of familiar faces.

Throughout the day we mingled with others who experience many of the same joys and struggles that we face—it was freeing to be with a bunch of people who just ‘get it’.

Some of the attendees were long‑serving cross-cultural workers. The stories they shared were humbling and inspiring. Their years of experience are a precious resource, and one that I’d be wise to draw on in future.

Until the daily sessions started, we didn’t realise how thirsty we were for teaching. We were treated to well‑researched, encouraging presentations that spoke directly to our lived experiences of mission. I was so inspired that I’ve enrolled in a Carey webinar series, eager to dive deeper into that great wealth of knowledge that I found so sustaining at conference.

From Winston, Baptist National Administrator Kia ora whānau, i whakamānawa ki au ki noho me whanaungatanga me hui me Te Iwi Kaikawe Rongopai o Ngā Hāhi Iriiri o Aotearoa. It was an honour to sit with, gather with and hang out with the NZBMS team.

It was inspiring to listen to our overseas workers share stories of their mission and how they were working hard learning languages. To hear how they are making the gospel relevant to the people they were reaching and doing life within their communities.

Our workers embrace different ways of living, speaking, eating and relating to others. They do church differently. They show God’s love to his people, putting the interests of others far ahead of their own. They are doing unto others and valuing others far above themselves, all for the sake of the gospel.

As Baptist leadership discuss giving up our rights for the sake of others and Mark 10:43-44, I heard and saw clear, living examples in the lives of our mission representatives. What a blessing to be part of this, and how blessed are we to have God working so clearly through our NZBMS team.  v.136 no.2 † toru tekau mā rima 35

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

We’re in this together Setting up a church missions programme Last month, we talked about the six roles of a missions committee. Some churches don’t have a missions committee, or have one that is in need of revitalising.

Here are some practical steps to take to establish a missions programme as part of your church life.

Each edition, in this column, someone associated with NZBMS reflects on one of the themes surrounding Prayer and Self-Denial 2020. This month Lynley Capon reflects on our second theme, ‘Mending the Mess’. Lynley and her husband, Peter, previously served with Tranzsend in South East Asia.

We can clearly see that the world is in a mess: economic inequalities through unemployment and poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, war, millions of displaced people, environmental degradation, devastating climatic events and so on. Should we be surprised at this situation?

When Adam and Eve sinned, God told them the consequences would be toil and pain, heartache and distress, desire and oppression.

Every day, our Tranzsend workers in Asia are dealing with such issues plaguing the communities God has called them to live among. And we must remember that these field staff, like us, are human, needing God’s grace at work in their own lives. We are like cracked pots holding the treasure of Christ within us.

Our deep longing is to see the mess of this world fixed. The power to mend the mess lies with Jesus— his suffering, death and resurrection bring hope for the lost, healing for the broken-hearted and restoration of fractured relationships.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). He has chosen our field workers to be instruments for change as they do his will within hurting communities. A song we sometimes sing says, “Touching heaven, changing earth.” May we in New Zealand pray daily for our workers, that they have time to regularly meet with Jesus, touching heaven as it were, so that they can be a force for changing earth.

May we all, with our missionary staff, be the visible evidence of Christ’s transformative presence, meeting the lost, the neglected and the broken people, and so mending the mess.

36 toru tekau mā ono † v.136 no.2 baptistmag.org.nz

1. Make sure you’re convinced about missions yourself.

2. Evaluate the current situation. Identify key people within your church who are interested in mission and invite those people to meet together to pray for missions.

3. Begin to draw up a strategy of where you want to go.

This should include things like: • Priorities for the mission team. What areas of missions will the church seek to be involved in—unreached, education, social needs, local, foreign, other faiths, etc.?

• What type of missionaries will be supported— just church members, denominational missionaries, etc.?

• How will this be funded—giving, budgeted, faith promise?

• How will levels of support be determined?

• How will the team motivate the congregation?

4. Provide studies about missions for your small groups and ask your pastor to preach about missions.

5. If you don’t already have contacts, choose one or two suitable mission workers and introduce them to the congregation. Start by learning about their work and regularly praying for them.

6. Launch your missions programme with a focused week or weekend.

7. Determine how much regular support you can afford (by faith) and build it into your church finances.

8. Never stop communicating the missions vision with your congregation, and encouraging them to be involved.

9. Keep promoting your mission workers. Remember, not all missionaries are good preachers. Find creative ways of allowing the non-communicators to share with the church. In larger congregations, it may be necessary to form smaller interest groups for individual missionaries.

10. Whatever you do, don’t lose sight of the fact that mission was God’s idea. That, through Jesus, he has challenged us to take the gospel to all corners of our world. Good stewardship demands that we are organised to do just that.

N Z B M S

-

R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

STORIES

Stories of Treasure and Transformation

Seeing people encouraged

We love sharing the different ways God is transforming the communities we are a part of.

In this month’s edition of ‘Stories’, we feature two reports from South Asia.

Seeing people grow It’s been a great joy to see former students step into teaching roles within the school. It’s not an easy road for them as they are still very young and not trained teachers, but they’ve risen to the challenge and are growing and developing their skills daily. We now have three GEMS graduates working as part-time teaching staff in the high school.

They need a lot of encouragement as it isn’t an easy job, especially because they’re not much older than the students they teach.

One such young person is K. Once one of my students, she is now a colleague having just joined the high school staff as a teaching assistant, with the possibility of taking over my geography class in the future. She had a difficult start to her teaching as one of our teachers had to leave suddenly, and K had to take her classes. She managed brilliantly. Please pray for continued guidance in her life and for her to grow and develop according to the plans our Father has for her life.

One of last month’s highlights was a weekend away with the ladies who work in the building we live in. Nineteen ladies, their husbands and children, plus our group of foreigners meant 85 people. We went to the beach, a place many were seeing for the very first time.

The trip, which involved cars, a ferry, a train and a jeep-type taxi, took 12 hours overnight.

As families were handed keys to their hotel rooms, we went with them to make sure everything was okay. Now, these families live in homes that measure about 2m by 3m.

When they saw their rooms, which were three or four times the size of their homes, they were both amazed and a little overwhelmed.

What followed was a weekend filled with moment after moment of joy as these families, whose lives are usually a mundane routine of cook‑work-clean-repeat, were suddenly able to just have fun—jumping in and out of the waves, climbing on top of a camel, purchasing shells or necklaces as they relaxed in the sun. The sense of freedom was tangible, and it was wonderful to watch it rapidly unfold. Even the husbands, who can be problematic, were on their best behaviour, something which has continued even after the return home.

From a Tranzsend worker in South Asia

N O I S S I M

TRIVIA

orld’s of the w ed % t a ag Wh tion is popula or less? rs 24 yea 38 Answe

ge r on pa

From a Tranzsend worker in South Asia R EAD M ORE

about the work of Tranzsend at tranzsend.org.nz v.136 no.2 † toru tekau mā whitu 37

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

AGNES ALCORN (April 1920 – February 2020)

SMALL BITES

Agnes Alcorn, a true servant of God, passed away at the Lansdowne Home in Howick on February 26th, aged 99.

Agnes and her husband Rev. Bob Alcorn served with NZBMS in Bangladesh during 1949-1966. Through the Christian Literature Centre, they were instrumental in establishing Nabajug, the only non-denominational Christian magazine in Bangladesh. The magazine continues to be published today.

MISSION COUNCIL 2020 Please pray for Mission Council, the governing board of NZBMS. Elected by the Baptist family of churches, the current board is (left to right): Rāwiri Auty, Susan Barrett (co-opted), George Wieland (co‑opted), Lyn Davis, Alan Jamieson, Sharon Dando, David Allen (Chair), Graeme Osborne, Nigel Cottle and Andrew Page.

SPECIAL PROJECTS UPDATE At last year’s Hui, four special NZBMS projects were launched.

These projects are • Keeping Families Together (South-East Asia) • Daily Devotional Reading (South-East Asia) • Christian Literature Centre commentaries and magazine (South Asia) • Freeset Salary Subsidy project, subsidising employment at Freeset (South Asia).

Since the launch, a significant amount of interest and support has been received for the Freeset Salary Subsidy project. Operating for over 18 years, Freeset now faces significant challenges. Currently in the process of merging with two other organisations, it does not have enough orders to provide work for all the women employed.

NZBMS have agreed to subsidise the employment of 82 women during the merger transition period.

The estimated financial need is $2,500 per woman, per year (82 women to be subsidised in the upcoming 2019/2020 year). To date, $110,170 has been received.

For more information about any of these projects, visit www.tranzsend.org.nz, or scan the QR code, and scroll to ‘Special Projects’.

38 toru tekau mā waru † v.136 no.2 baptistmag.org.nz

OASIS UPDATE, EAST ASIA Alan Moos, from Colorado, has been appointed pastor of Oasis International Church, Macau, a position previously held

by Neil Perry (NZBMS). Alan and Christine arrived in Macau just a few days before the government shut down all public gatherings, including church services, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. So, Oasis held its Sunday service via the internet using Zoom!

Please pray for Alan and Christine as they settle in to life in Macau, find accommodation, and complete the final steps to processing their work permits (once the relevant government departments reopen). Alan and Christine have previously worked in mainland China, so they are familiar with some of the challenges they will face as they settle in.

DHULIAN FIRE— PLEASE PRAY Five women from Freeset’s Dhulian factory live in an area that was devastated by a large fire in late February—three women lost everything.

Please pray for the staff in Dhulian. Pray that the community will work together to look after each other and rebuild their homes. Pray for Priya and Subhendu MISSION (Freeset unit leaders) as they support the staff and the wider (40.6% a re community.

25 - 54 y aged ears)

TRIVIA ANSWE R

40.9%

N Z B M S

-

R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE Whatever you do—whatever your skills—whatever your level of education— there will be a role for you somewhere in the world of overseas missions.

Tranzsend is serving amongst needy and marginalised communities in South Asia, East Asia, and South-East Asia, among some of the least-reached people groups on the planet.

LONG-TERM:

SHORT-TERM:

NEW ZEALAND-BASED:

We are currently looking for people from all walks of life who are committed to Christ and willing to prepare themselves spiritually, professionally and interculturally for long‑term service.

We would love to hear from you if you have specific professional skills (such as building, engineering, teaching, business, social work, counselling) you can offer short-term, for anything from three months to three years.

Are you a retiree willing to spend part of each year overseas? Or a New Zealand-based teacher willing to make a short trip to Bangladesh and mentor a Bangladeshi teacher via skype or email? We need skilled teachers, business mentors, and more!

Interested?

Email info@tranzsend.org.nz, or phone Andrew Page on 09 526 8444 for more, no obligation, information.

sunz ENGAGE: - kupu ki oku - waewae He rama tau

Daily Bible Reading App

Daily Audio Bible Reading New audio, readings and questions are posted in the app each day. Use this to support your personal Bible study or even use this together as a group or family.

Download audio readings You can download all the bible readings in the app so you can listen to them offline if you're on the go.

Available in Maori As well as English, all the daily readings and scriptures are available in Te Reo Maori.

The whole Bible in an app While you may have a Bible app on your device already, you can access the Bible without the need to leave your audio bible reading for the day.

Available for FREE on all mobile platforms

For more information please visit www.sunz.org.nz/engage