Baptist Magazine v136 n3

Baptist Churches of New Zealand

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LIFE AFTER LOCKDOWN Eyes still fixed on Jesus

Tūtaki Taku community meal

A politics of heaven

A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES † LIFE WITH COVID

| J u n e / J u l y 2 0 2 0 | v. 1 3 6 n o . 3 |

ONLINE Recently added BOOK REVIEWS CENTRED ~ Reviewed by TIM HODGE BLESS YOU HEART ATTACK FOR BEING IN MY LIFE ~ Reviewed by MICHAEL REDDELL

LEADERSHIP IN LOCKDOWN Three leadership lessons a senior pastor has learnt, and is learning, during a pandemic.

~ GRANT HARRIS

THE NECESSITY OF SEASONS A reflection on why, just like in nature, seasons are necessary for our ongoing growth.

~ MATTHEW THORNTON

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E B I R C S B SU

EDITOR Linda Grigg linda@baptistmag.org.nz GLOBAL MISSION EDITOR Greg Knowles GRAPHIC DESIGNER Rebecca McLeay PRODUCTION MANAGER Kathryn Heslop ADVERTISING Fiona Maisey advertising@baptistmag.org.nz SUBSCRIPTIONS Sushila Neilson subscriptions@baptistmag.org.nz FINANCE MANAGER Winston Hema — Baptist Churches of New Zealand PO Box 12149, Penrose, Auckland 1642, New Zealand +64 9 526 0338 — Front cover photography Prixel Creative/lightstock.com — Scripture Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) 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 (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001

by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

— 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 Politics and COVID-19 are hot topics in the media right now, and we touch on these too in this issue.

In “A politics of heaven” (pages 26-28), Jonathan Ayling asks, “Is it possible that even in such a place and time as this, God will be exalted in our nation?”

Read why he believes the answer to that should be a resounding “yes”.

While COVID-19 undeniably deposited a road block in the path of many a plan, Baptists have been innovative in finding ways to overcome the challenges. There are too many such stories to fit in one issue so we have chosen just a few. Read these in the Our Stories section of the magazine, starting on page seven, with an account of virtual spiritual retreats.

We know there has been, and will be, grief and distress here in our country as a result of COVID-19.

However, as Alan Jamieson reminds us, “we are all in the same storm; but we are not all in the same boat”. Read his reflection on this and hear from some Tranzsend workers who share what life in lockdown has been like in countries without the financial, health and government resources that New Zealand is blessed with. This and much more is in the Global Mission section of the magazine, commencing on page 33.

In the months, maybe even years to come, there will be many questions around responses to the pandemic, whether they were right or wrong, too late or just in time. But in the hearts of many people there will also be the aching question of “Why?”. Why did this happen?

Why so much suffering? Greg Liston looks at this in his article on page 15. I want to leave you with his words: “God knows there are many questions left unanswered.

But here is the true and final defeat of the evil, hurt and suffering that has happened over the last few years. Not just that God is in it with us, but that all of our suffering will be humbled and transformed to serve a new and greater good.”

~ Blessings to you Linda Grigg

07 14 15

REFLECTIONS FROM CHARLES HEWLETT

Eyes still firmly fixed on Jesus

OUR STORIES

PROFILE

Meet... Mikayla Williams

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Life after lockdown Learning from our history Tūtaki Taku community meal “How’s that working for you?”

A politics of heaven

29 30 32 33

COMMUNIQUÉ

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?

A whole new world of possibilities

DIRECTORY

GLOBAL MISSION

Life with COVID We’re in this together Alan’s updates 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

Eyes still

Jesus Following in his steps

04 whÄ â€ v.136 no3 baptistmag.org.nz

LUMO-The Gospels for the visual age/lightstock.com

firmly fixed on

There is much important discussion happening about COVID-19 and the future of ministry and mission. Charles Hewlett shares why he thinks it would be a tragedy if we blindly step straight back into what was before.

I

hope that Baptist churches will be prepared to reprioritise existing activities and give space to innovation. However, as we do this it is essential that we continue to keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus. 1 Peter 2:21 (NLT) reminds us, “He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.” Jesus reveals to us the things we must value, what our priorities should be, and how we should act.

Here are five things about Jesus that are currently shaping my leadership practice.

1

Compassionate When we have our eyes on Jesus, we see someone who is deeply moved by the suffering of others—a person who clearly entered emotionally into people’s situations. When that man begged Jesus to heal him of his leprosy, “Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him” (Mark 1:41, NLT). When the crowds were confused and helpless because of corrupt leadership, Jesus “had compassion on them” (Matthew 9:36, NLT). When a large crowd following him ran out of food and were hungry, Jesus said, “I feel sorry for these people” (Mark 8:2, NLT). Luke records that when Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem, “he began to weep” (Luke 19:41, NLT).

I wonder when your compassion last caused you to weep. Was it because New Zealand has the highest death rate for teenagers in the developed world? Or maybe because Māori are over-represented at every stage of our criminal justice process? Maybe it was because one in five children live in households without access to enough food? Or because 40% of New Zealand police time is spent attending family harm incidents?

Heavenly Father, we thank you that not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without you knowing.

Jesus, thank you for reaching out your hand and touching the person with leprosy. Holy Spirit, please soften our hearts. Awaken our compassion and help us to weep again.

2

Others-centred When we fix our eyes on Jesus we see someone who was others-centred. Jesus was a person driven by service. When James and John requested

positions of power and comfort, Jesus replied, “But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43‑45, NLT).

How destructive the need for power and prominence can be! “I’m happy to serve, but as long as I get noticed” or “If it’s not done my way then don’t expect me to be involved.”

When we fix our eyes on Jesus we soon see that real power is found in loving service, and not in dominating others. It is about being prepared to take second place, and to give up our rights for those of another person.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for loving others so much that you sent your son into the world. Jesus, thank you for setting aside the privileges of deity and becoming human for our salvation. Holy Spirit, help us to look out for one another’s interests and not just for our own.

3

Valued all people Over the years it has been interesting to watch people’s attitude to my disabled children. My children often get defined in terms of what they can’t do or what they don’t have. “Isn’t it a shame that they can’t...” or “It‘s such a pity...” people say. And sadly, many struggle to see beyond the wheelchair and the disability to the person who is sitting in the chair. They can’t begin to imagine that Janelle and James may have something to offer or give to them. And I watch them get excluded— socially, in decision making, with resource allocation, and often in people’s priorities.

When we fix our eyes on Jesus we see someone who spent time with those who were deemed unsuitable or inferior. He was a person who actively reached out to marginal groups. There were no boundaries between insiders and the outsiders. All people were valued.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that every human being is fearfully and wonderfully made. Jesus, please forgive us for the times we have looked down on people and written them off as useless. Holy Spirit, help us to look hard for goodness, and to value people not only for what they can do.

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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

4

Challenged the status quo When we read our Bibles it’s made clear to us that justice is at the heart of God. It’s not just some new trendy interpretation of the gospel the emerging generations have concocted. Psalm 82:3 (NLT) reads, “Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.” Isaiah 1:17 (NLT) reads, “Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed.

Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.”

So it is of no surprise that when we fix our eyes on Jesus we see someone who was prepared to challenge the status quo. He was a person who protested and brought awareness to gender inequity, religious hypocrisy, political corruption, racism, hate, prejudice, exclusion and social injustice. Luke 11:42 (NLT) reads, “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”

Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that your Kingdom is founded on righteousness and justice. Jesus, thank you that your gospel has the power to bring down social and economic oppressors. Holy Spirit, give us both wisdom and courage to confront evil. Help us to make right what is wrong.

5

Restored broken lives When we fix our eyes upon Jesus we see someone who restored broken lives. I like the fact Jesus wasn’t just all talk and no action. When he saw a large crowd, he not only had compassion on them, he healed their sick (Matthew 14:14). When Jesus came across the man with the evil spirit he didn’t run away. Rather, he spoke and “the evil spirits came out” (Mark 5:13, NLT). When people confessed their wrongdoing to him he didn’t just judge them and say how bad they were doing; rather he said, “Be encouraged...

Your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2, NLT). Jesus’ actions

JESUS’ ACTIONS RESULTED IN TRANSFORMATION: HE ACTUALLY RESTORED WHAT WAS BROKEN.

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resulted in transformation: he actually restored what was broken.

Instead of just feeling sorry for the homeless, let’s work with others and provide permanent, secure and appropriate housing. Instead of just blaming the government for unemployment, let’s help people find a job. Instead of judging others in financial hardship, let’s assist them to regain control of their finances. And instead of just talking about what is wrong with the mental health system, let’s proactively help people receive the support and tools they need for coping.

Heavenly Father, we claim the promise in the Bible that you will make all things new. Jesus, thank you that you have provided a way for our relationship with God to be restored. Holy Spirit, give us creativity, energy and the resources needed to bring renewal to the people and places we are part of.

Final thoughts While I am excited about the opportunities for the church post-COVID-19, I am not overly interested in the programmes, technology and configurations we must adopt. As national leader I won’t be prescriptive on these things... and anyway that’s not how Baptist ecclesiology works!

However, I will be obsessive about the type of people we must be and the foundational values that must shape the way we act. Compassion, service, valuing of others, confronting oppression, and restoration are not optional extras for the follower of Jesus.

Contributor: 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 Virtual spiritual retreats As a pastor in ministry, I have found that it is vital for my spiritual well-being to make time for spiritual retreats, where my time with the Lord has nothing to do with messages or programmes I need to prepare. These have often been opportunities to get away and spend some time in nature and refresh my soul.

As a coach, I began providing retreats each year for leaders. These were great times of refreshing for all concerned, often providing healing for some nearing burnout.

Last year I ran two physical retreats based on the practice of ‘fixed hour prayer’. These retreats really enriched the attendees and I prepared to offer one again on 18th March 2020.

Then COVID-19 happened...

Two attendees were self-isolating.

I knew it would be beneficial for them, so I decided to connect online. I sent through printed material ahead of time and we connected virtually a few times throughout the day to look ahead at the next set of readings, share and pray.

It worked so well that after the initial week of lockdown, I decided to offer the retreat again using Zoom meetings. In connecting with many pastors, I could see the stress they were experiencing. These

were exactly the sort of times when Jesus would go away from the crowds to be alone with God. I have now run five virtual retreats, with 29 leaders from Kaikohe to Invercargill. I thank God for putting this tool into my hand for such a time as this.

If you are interested in connecting with one, email me at candrmoodie@gmail.com.

Contributor: Raewyn Moodie Children’s and Family Ministry Coach Northern Baptist Association

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

God is an equal opportunity employer I have a Bachelor of Applied Theology and a Diploma in Pastoral Leadership from Carey. Technically I haven’t graduated yet because COVID-19 restrictions did not permit the normal graduation ceremony in April. My children and husband getting to see me capped is something significant for us as a family after the difficulty of studying. Therefore I opted not to graduate in absentia, and will instead wait till the next graduation is held.

Carey gave me and my fellow students the opportunity to think about the church for three years. We have thought about what is good about the church. We have thought about what might be broken about the church. We have thought about the ways in which Te Wairua Tapu might be calling us to be the church in different ways.

These discussions and thoughts have been a catalyst causing me to see the church as God’s idea, not ours. They also gave rise to a big question which needed settling: can God—no, is God—calling me, a woman, to lead his church?

Would God call a mother of three young kids to commit herself to the church?

I was raised in a home with equal partnership between my parents. I saw Dad cooking as much as Mum, and she led us just as much as Dad. Yet underneath I had a big question of the validity of my call, simply due to gender.

It took God himself asking me at Hui three years ago, “How come you say your husband is called first to be a father and a husband and yet you bless him working 50 hours a week?” God challenged my double standards and I had to reply, “OK, you are right.” I had nowhere left to run. God has called me.

Joel 2:28-29 says that God will pour his Spirit out on all. Men and women. Old and young. Mature and childlike.

We are living in strange times.

I believe the Spirit is calling many unexpected people and motivating our young women, our old men, our older women, and those living in the margins. Do we listen to what he is saying? Do we tell those people there is a call on their life? Because often, like me, they are fearful to act on his calling. God places us in community and then he uses us to encourage and empower and equip each other.

To graduate at a time like this was sad! We had looked forward to the celebration of the work. But it also meant I again had to do business with God. His is the validation that I must seek and also be satisfied with. Likewise, it is his leading that I follow in the work we do now. My call meeting was postponed due to COVID-19, and again this means I can’t escape that the calling on my life is from him, and the work given to me at this time, paid or not, is also from him.

Contributor: Monique Lee

Refugee pilot expanded South West Baptist Church in Christchurch and Gleniti Baptist Church in Timaru are two churches that sponsored refugee families under the New Zealand Government’s Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship (CORS) category. The intention of the pilot was to provide an alternative form of admission for refugees to New Zealand, to complement the Government’s annual quota.

Included in Budget 2020 was funding to extend the CORS pilot for a further three years from 1st July 2021, with the first cohort of 50 refugees arriving in July 2021, and 50 more in July 2022 and July 2023.

We will hear more about this development in the August issue of the Baptist.

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

TheoPsych grant In April 2020, Carey received news that it had been awarded US$14,986 (which at the time of writing is just under NZ$25,000) through Fuller Theological Seminary’s TheoPsych project. This initiative seeks to bring theology and psychology into conversation, especially on the question of what it means to be human.

While theology has wrestled for centuries with what it means to be human, the behavioural sciences are yielding more and more explanatory data that enhances how this works in daily life. Put differently, theology can provide a metanarrative for human flourishing, but psychology offers mechanisms at work within the human person, surrounding the person, and in broader cultures that contribute to this flourishing.

For instance, one strong theological story is that God made humans to need relationships: relationship with Godself, with other humans, with non-human creatures and with the rest of creation. However, these relationships form developmentally. Psychology can help unpack that development and how relationships can be robustly formed, as well as what can sidetrack their development.

Beyond the academic content of the award, Carey was chosen as an institution that desires to embody doing integrative theology. Clear evidence of Carey’s commitment to integration can be found in our ‘Towards 2030’ strategic plan. The fourth of our five priorities is “Strengthening our commitment to integrative theology. In recent years we have been developing a distinctive and compelling approach to theological study, one which is responsive to our students’ context. In the years to come we want our curriculum and pedagogy to demonstrate much deeper engagement

with the needs of our church and society.”

This award contributes to that priority, helping to lay groundwork for even more avenues for integration.

While the content of the application and the institutional priorities were important for receiving this award, the third critical key was distinctive to Carey’s commitment to biculturalism in all that we do. Given how new the integration of theology and psychology has been, and given that it has primarily engaged Western ways of doing theology (and likely, Western ways of doing psychology), there is a wealth of new knowledge yet to be discovered in a culturally‑integrative, integrative theology. We are fortunate at Carey to have Dr Sandy Kerr, the kaiārahi-rangahau Māori, or Māori research associate, as our guide to thinking biculturally about our research and methods. Dr Kerr is an invaluable resource to dialogue about the methods and approaches that will be undertaken in this project as we seek to do this in culturally embedded ways.

The funding from Fuller Theological Seminary’s TheoPsych project will help us develop webinars and course content examining culturally-integrative, integrative theology and its implications. We hope you will stay tuned for these developments and join us in this exploration together.

Contributor: Christa McKirland Lecturer in Systematic Theology, Carey

Be transformed renewing your mind through Scripture in community at Carey Semester Two begins July | Scholarships available | Start the journey today

carey.ac.nz

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

COVID-19 & lessons learned about food insecurity The COVID-19 crisis has seen an unprecedented demand on food banks throughout New Zealand. That’s led VisionWest Community Trust, part of Glen Eden Baptist Church, to think about the issue of food insecurity and how things might need to change as we enter the recovery phase and beyond.

Between 26th March and 1st May, VisionWest fed more than 18,000 people with over 4,800 food parcels, gave away over $732,000 worth of food, and were gifted 2,200 volunteer hours by staff from VisionWest and other West Auckland organisations.

“Meeting the sudden increase in demand was a massive challenge for us,” explains Brook Turner, head of community services development at VisionWest. “Our first challenge was to pivot from being a traditional ‘come in and pick up a food parcel’ service to a delivery service where food parcels were delivered to those who required them. Our second challenge was maintaining the food supply, and the third is yet to be faced.

“Moving beyond COVID-19, we have a challenge and a wonderful opportunity to redesign how we support community whānau with food. The question is, at the end of this crisis, how do we dismantle a person’s reliance on food parcels? How can we help individuals and whānau gain the skills, opportunities and knowledge they need and

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empower them to become self‑reliant?”

Brook sees this as an opportunity for all churches and social service organisations.

“There are real opportunities here for churches and other groups. Many have food banks that do a great job.

But what would it look like to take that food and add more specific social supports around it?

“We have fast-food outlets, but we can also have ‘fast‑food charity’ where people show up, grab a parcel and leave. In a situation like that, there is not enough of an exchange of a relationship to enable journeying together to a place of life transformation. And that’s what we now have in New Zealand—an opportunity to enable life transformation. An opportunity to help people beyond the simple provision of food.”

It’s this desire to enable self-reliance that has led VisionWest Community Trust to a kaupapa Māori approach of walking with people through their times of vulnerability— building a reciprocity into the way support is given so that any sense of a power imbalance disappears as whānau and trust journey together as equals, each one helping others with the individual skills and abilities they have.

For more on this topic, listen to an interview Brook Turner did recently with Rhema at: rhema.co.nz/shows/days/ item/12434-food-support-services. 

Eastgate launches online op shop Like any other retail outlet, Eastgate Op Shop had to shut its doors when the COVID-19 lockdown took hold. The unexpected silver lining of the closure was that it gave staff time to launch a long-held plan—an online store.

For 18 years the op shop has served Eastgate Christian Centre’s Pakuranga, East Auckland, neighbourhood by providing affordable furniture, clothing and bric-a-brac.

Profits from the business support the church’s ministries locally and overseas. A dedicated ‘donating container’ sits alongside its 1500m2 store, containing furniture set aside specifically to give to families experiencing hardship. Free clothing is given to those in need, and a prison librarian comes once a month to choose books for prisoners, also at no charge.

When New Zealand’s COVID-19 alert level three came into being, most shops were still not permitted to open but they were allowed to trade online. Eastgate Op Shop staff realised it was the opportune time to create their web‑based store.

“We had one week to get everything up and running.

It was mostly furniture and little bits of bric-a-brac because the variety is too huge to put everything online,” says Jacques Van Staden, the op shop’s manager.

Staff made contactless deliveries and also had a contactless pickup area in their car park. During the closure they also did a few quotes for WINZ, with one large delivery to a woman who had no furniture in her new house in Wellsford, more than 90km away.

Jacques says the online store will remain even when the

country goes to alert level one, especially for people from the farthest ends of Auckland’s stretchedout region.

“I think most people’s shopping habits will change.

People will be a bit more cautious about going out and buying stuff and being in the public. Most of the bigger items are so easy to buy online and get delivered to your house.

“But then we will still get those regulars who come and spend two or three hours in the store, shopping and getting all the small treasures.”

Whether online or in person, Jacques has no doubt that the op shop serves a greater purpose than just making money.

“The one thing I say to our staff in the morning is that we are here to do the Lord’s work. Just by having a chat to some of our customers who come in or listening to some of their problems, in some ways that is a good ministry for us, to just give back and lend a hand. The feeling you get from that you can’t really get at any other workplace. We are so blessed to be part of this organisation.” 

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

Easter Camps:

from lockdown to long-term faith Unprecedented—who’s heard that word before?

New Zealand Baptist Easter Camps have weathered nation-stopping storms and terrorist attacks, have been postponed, police protected and shortened—but never cancelled.

Ever since the first Baptist Girls’ Easter Camp held at Steyne Avenue, Plimmerton, in 1917, Easter Camp has been an important event in our collective Baptist event calendar.

Until this year. As a result of a global coronavirus pandemic, and a level four alert to “go hard and go early” to stop the spread of COVID-19, for the first time in over 100 years, Easter camps were cancelled... sort of. But through incredible collaboration and creativity, Easter Camp directors passionately pivoting to a new way of providing camp, and youth pastors and young people willing to engage with Easter Camp and each other in a brand new way, Easter camp didn’t only happen, it did so with style, authenticity and passion to retell and re-engage with the Easter story of Jesus from everyone’s own living room.

Why are Easter Camps so important?

While it would have been easy to simply cancel and wait for next year’s camp, it was immensely important for our Easter Camps to still go ahead.

Every youth pastor knows that the young people they take to Easter Camp gain something much more valuable than fun memories and stories of late night experiences with God. Instead, teens return from camp with a desire to be in Christian community, a hunger to learn more about Jesus, and the assurance that faith makes a difference in their lives.

Numerous studies about the effectiveness of Christian camps have found that a teen’s value of belonging to a church both increased and persisted after attending camp, along with knowing they could turn to Christian friends or adults at church in times of need. Campers also participated more frequently in devotional practices including Bible study, prayer, church attendance and conversations with their family about faith. Even more amazingly, those who attended Christian camps as teenagers were significantly more likely in their young adult years to participate in group Bible studies and university religious groups, and to attend church, than those who never attended summer camp.

Which is why Johanna Vannathy, Central Easter Camp director, has no hesitation in answering why she worked so hard to create an online and live ‘watch party’ in partnership with Southern Easter Camp.

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“The night our Prime Minister made the level four lockdown announcement was the same day we had a pre-camp meeting in Wellington. We talked about the idea of online camp. Then we took a step back to consider our mission.

We knew we still needed to achieve our mission for Easter Camp—connect young people to God and each other through the Easter message. So we decided to give people as much of an Easter Camp experience online as possible.”

Easter Camp online Blue Bradley, Northern Easter Camp director, had already put a lot of work into this year’s camp. But because this year’s Northern Camp was going to present speakers in a way very different from other years, providing a ‘live’ online camp wasn’t possible.

So he dug into the archives of past Easter Camp messages, well aware that most teens would never had heard these outstanding messages before. So Northern provided a camp with a diverse range of speakers for each night and morning of a ‘normal’ Easter Camp weekend.

Conversely, Central Easter Camp combined with Southern Easter Camp for a live Easter Camp experience. Speakers from both camps pre‑recorded and shared talks from their homes, amazing

animation created to retell the Easter story was created, and MCs knitted all the elements from both camps together seamlessly.

And even though it was online, all camps upheld and celebrated their Easter Camp traditions. The ‘toastie shack’ became a toastie-making cooking show; dance parties and themed nights still happened as young people dressed up and set up tents in their back yards and living rooms; and young people got together as youth groups in Zoom chat rooms to dance, worship and watch highlight reels of this and past years’ camps.

Midday seminars and workshops were also offered.

And while teens did feel the loss of not being at camp this Easter, online Easter Camp also provided some positive surprises. Many youth pastors found that they had some of the most meaningful discussions with their young people during small group discussions than they’d had for a long time. Something about the online format made it easier for teens to talk.

Adults who had not been to camps in 10 years watched and reconnected with their old youth pastors. And for the first time ever, parents even got to ‘go to camp’ and get a sense of what their own kids experience (all without the cold nights and long lines for hot chips and coffee).

How youth ministries engaged Jess Lovatt, youth pastor at Mt Albert Baptist Church, put together a full Easter weekend programme. She organised watch parties of the morning and evening Easter Camp sessions, which were followed by Zoom small groups with the teens’ leaders. They also ran their own Zoom seminars every day, including a Holy Spirit seminar, which was a real highlight for a number of the teens. The youth group live-streamed together every day, which included telling the Easter story, fun challenges and online interaction. They even did a Zoom 80s dance party and a Kahoot quiz night in the evenings.

Jess states, “We had great engagement from the teens. Many of them expressed how thankful they were that there was still something for them to engage in during Easter.”

Jasmine, a new member of Mt Albert’s youth group, found online Easter Camp a great way to meet and connect with people.

“I definitely got to know people in my small group. We had really good conversations about the seminars we watched. It was a highlight. So was the Zoom 80s dance party. I was definitely sceptical about it. Were people going to dance in front of their laptops or something? And people did! It was a really good time.”

Jess says, “It was amazing to hear from a number of the teens how God had moved in their life and how much they had learnt that weekend despite not being able to physically go to Easter Camp. We saw young people receiving and sharing words from God and prayers being answered. We also had a number of teens recommit their life to Christ over the weekend.”

Jess offered an observation that sums up the importance of why the work to provide online Easter Camps was so important: “Because God is not limited to our limitations and because he still wanted to move in our teenagers’ lives, [he showed] that while we were distant from each other, God is not distant from us.

Therefore I saw [online Easter Camp] as a huge opportunity to help our teenagers engage in the Easter story in a new way.”

Contributor: Brian Krum National Team Leader Baptist Youth Ministries Note: Many of our Easter Camps went into debt as a result of cancelling camp.

If you would like to support your regional camp, contact your association and ask how you can help.

For research on the importance of Christian camps, see The Journal of Youth Development’s article “The Fundamental Characteristics and Unique Outcomes of Christian Summer Camp Experiences” by Jacob Sorenson.

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>

Baptist / P R O F I L E

meet…

Mikayla Williams volunteer

Mikayla Williams grew up in Hutt City Baptist Church. For the last two years she has volunteered with the Australia/New Zealand division of Dignity Freedom Network, whose mission is to prevent and combat human exploitation in India. This is her story.

What does DFN do?

The main focus of Dignity Freedom Network (DFN) is working with Dalits (those discriminated against by the caste system) and young women trapped in ritualised prostitution in the ‘Jogini’ practice.

As a worldwide network, we support the Good Shepherd schools throughout India, providing education to those at risk of exploitation. Our teams travel to villages preventing dedications of young girls into prostitution, and providing alternatives. Rescued and rehabilitated Joginis often lead these teams, providing education, legal aid, safe housing, economic empowerment and medical camps, all undergirded by the hope of the gospel.

Those of us working in New Zealand help facilitate the fundraising activities here, as well as spreading the word about the story of the Dalits and what Kiwis can do to help.

I decided to sponsor a child in one of the schools. I also approached the CEO and offered to start running prayer meetings from Auckland. As time went on, I was able to help with organising other projects to fundraise and spread the word.

What is your role?

My main role is facilitating the Auckland prayer meeting.

For the past two years I have manned a stall at Festival One, providing information to people about what DFN is doing in India, as well as at various churches and fundraising events. At the time of writing, I am organising a fundraising clothes swap event in Auckland that will take place when it is safe for gatherings again. I have also been helping the Melbourne team with administration to facilitate the work being done to combat COVID-19 for marginalised groups in India.

What keeps you motivated?

I think many times when I am working with DFN, I get more out of it than what I give. This might sound strange, but I think this is often what happens when our hearts are really invested in the work we are doing. I often don’t feel like going out to lead prayer meetings and stand at tables for hours on end, but every time I do, I am amazed at the people I have met, connected with, prayed with, and the collective passion we share for India. The ways God has moved in my own heart as well as in the work itself is what drives me to stay motivated in this role.

What got you involved initially?

I had just come back from a mission trip in India when the CEO of DFN came to speak at my church about the organisation and their life-changing work in India. When I heard her speak about the injustice that the Dalits face in India, I knew that I wanted to do something to help.

How can people find out more about DFN and its work?

I would love for people to reach out if they have any more questions. For more information visit dfn.org.au or email info@dfn.org.nz. We invite you to follow our campaign on Facebook / Instagram. 

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Have you visited any of the projects?

I haven’t visited any DFN projects yet (hopefully later on this year). However, I have travelled around India and Nepal, and witnessed many of the injustices that DFN are trying to tackle. A particular issue for me is the prevalence of human trafficking in that region, which is why I love what DFN do to reach out to vulnerable girls in their villages, prevent them from being exploited, get them out if they really need to leave, and provide them shelter and opportunities.

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LIFE AFTER LOCKDOWN Making sense of suffering

Two earthquakes and then a massacre in Christchurch. An eruption at White Island. And now a pandemic, a nationwide lockdown, and a massive economic recession. New Zealand has endured a great deal in recent years. Greg Liston looks at the ‘whys’ of suffering.

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he natural response to repeated and ongoing traumatic events like these is almost always shock. On being faced with such a calamitous sequence, expressing grief is natural, appropriate and necessary.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, many helpful articles were written that validate expressing such raw emotion.1 Most note how the scriptures, and particularly Psalms (the Bible’s songbook), provide an immensely valuable resource for doing this, e.g. “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1, NRSV).

As this season has taught us, in the middle of suffering, “a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little

human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.”2 As New Zealand collectively picks itself up off the canvas, though, and as the grief and shock of another body blow begins to subside (even if just a little), other questions and emotions arise. Primary among these is how do we make sense of these awful events? How can we process them so that together we continue to endure?

While the biblical narrative affirms and even encourages grief in the midst of suffering, that is not all it says. There is more insight offered. The following paragraphs (probably much too simplistically) condense the biblical plotlines

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Sufferin g may be the inevitable consequence of sin and senselessness, but God does not leave u s to suffer alone. on suffering into three key truths. My prayer is that recognising and affirming these truths will enable us to “hold firmly to the word of life” together (Philippians 2:16, NLT).

Not the way it’s supposed to be The way the world is now is not the way it was ever supposed to be. This is the first truth to recognise and affirm. God never wanted his beautiful creation to be saturated with evil, hurt and suffering. What this means is that suffering is intrinsically senseless.3 It is insane to think otherwise. Sometimes you can see the senselessness right on the surface, as with the Christchurch killer who had no clear goals and achieved nothing with his murderous actions. Sometimes the chain connecting the senselessness to suffering is more complicated, as with the COVID-19 virus.

But let’s be clear on this: the senselessness is ours.

Acknowledging this truth is neither popular nor comfortable.

I believe Christianity ultimately offers immense comfort.

But such comfort stems from a recognition of humanity’s culpability. Suffering is rooted in our senselessness. The word the Bible uses to describe this is sin. Those three ideas—senselessness, suffering, sin—wind together through Scripture like an intricately spun cord. The Bible talks about how we all have this vein of senselessness running through us (Romans 3:23). It talks about how our senseless sin has a cosmic, worldwide impact (Romans 8:19-21). And it talks about how sin and senselessness always eventually leads to suffering (Genesis 3:8-19). How could they not? If you have a wonderful, intricate, interconnected, perfect universe and one part of it breaks, then every other part must be affected too.

So, rather than us shaking our fists at God and asking him why all this has happened, perhaps it is more justified for God to ask us why we have allowed all these bad things to happen. “What have you done to this wonderful world I gave you?” But he doesn’t. “Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way.”4 Suffering may be the inevitable consequence of sin and senselessness, but God does not leave us to suffer alone.

He’s in it with us The Bible does not promise that we will not suffer. In fact, it virtually guarantees that we will (See Isaiah 43:2 for

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example). Suffering is not new, and it is perhaps only in our hermetically sealed Western luxury that we could ever fool ourselves into thinking it is unusual. We live in a senseless, sin-filled world, after all. But what the Bible does promise, and repeatedly, is that even in the midst of a world drenched with suffering, nobody suffers alone. God is in it with us. Christianity makes the extraordinary and unique claim that God in Christ suffers with us.

The best evidence for this is the cross. The cross is where the intertwined cord of sin, senselessness and suffering ultimately leads, and also where it finally gets unravelled. On the cross, Jesus is maliciously and unfairly targeted, just like the victims of the Christchurch massacre.

On the cross, Jesus is isolated and separated from his loved ones, just like those affected by COVID-19. Do you see? He’s in it with us.

The Bible often talks about our suffering as being like fire (see 1 Peter 1:6-7, 4:12-13 for example). Of course, this is just a metaphor, but once it was much more. During Israel’s exile, three people were literally thrown into a fiery furnace.

That story ends with the king who was responsible looking on in terror, shouting, “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god” (Daniel 3:25, NLT).

Does it help to know that God suffers with us? While it may not definitively explain why suffering occurs, it does, at the very least, show us what the answer cannot be.

“It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition. God took our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself.”5

Senseless but not pointless There’s more. For those whose minds and hearts are consumed with grief, this next truth can be almost too much to hear. The Bible doesn’t merely affirm that God suffers with us; it also declares that God redeems our suffering.

In other words, our suffering isn’t pointless. So many people live lives that are so hard. The hopeful couple longing for the child that never came. The spouse watching a loved one slowly give way to Alzheimer’s. The small business owner whose huge efforts and expense have been obliterated through the shutdown. Here is God’s promise, especially for these people. Heaven is going to be so much greater

ALL OF OUR SUFFERING WILL BE HUMBLED AND TRANSFORMED TO SERVE A NEW AND GREATER GOOD.

because of what you have gone through. Your suffering is not in vain.

How do we know? The best evidence is the cross (again).

On the cross, you see Jesus enduring unimaginable evil and suffering. And what comes of it? Resurrection! Eternal life! Glory! Not just for Jesus but for all those who believe.

As Paul says, “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54, NRSV). Swallowing doesn’t just destroy; it transforms. Swallowing food fills us with life and energy.

So, if death is swallowed up in victory, it isn’t just destroyed or defeated; it is transformed into fuel for the eternal life that is coming.

Think it through. If Jesus’ resurrection happened (and it did) that means we too will be resurrected (and we will). The only possible conclusion is that everything we have suffered will be swallowed up and transformed. C S Lewis explains this well: “They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.”6 God knows there are many questions left unanswered.

But here is the true and final defeat of the evil, hurt and suffering that has happened over the last few years. Not just that God is in it with us, but that all of our suffering will be humbled and transformed to serve a new and greater good.

That is the truth of what the Bible affirms and that is what Christians believe.

Contributor: Greg Liston Greg lectures in systematic theology at Laidlaw College and previously pastored at Hillsborough and Mt Albert Baptist Churches. He has one beautiful wife, two incredible children, two hefty PhDs, attends Mt Albert Baptist and cooks awesome roast potatoes.

1. See for example N T Wright, “Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To” in Time https://time.com/5808495/coronavirus-christianity.

2. C S Lewis, The Problem of Pain (London: Fontana, 1957), viii.

3. Note that saying suffering is senseless does not mean that it is purposeless. (See the last section in this article, for example.) Rather what is affirmed is that suffering ultimately, even if not always directly, stems from senseless actions.

4. Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 199.

5. Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Scepticism (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2009), 30-31.

6. C S Lewis, The Great Divorce (London: Fount, 1977), 62.

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Learning from our history

Understanding world views in mission

Bruce Patrick examines a dramatic incident in New Zealand’s colonial mission history and the example it gives of the importance of understanding others’ world view perspectives.

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MS missionary, later bishop, Octavius Hadfield had a close encounter when, at the age of 25, he was almost tomahawked by a chief, Te Mātia. This occurred at Ōtaki during Hadfield’s first weeks on the Kāpiti coast. He and his mission were endorsed by what tangata whenua saw as an act of God; his mana was established and the progress of the gospel enhanced. Many years after this incident took place, Hadfield wrote the story:

Matenga te Matia was a chief next in rank to Te Whatanui. He was a hard man, not perhaps cruel, but not very considerate of the lives of others. When Te Rauparaha incited Ngatiraukawa to attack Ngatiawa in September, 1839, just before my arrival, Te Matia was the man he enlisted to organise the war...He lost caste by this expedition and its results. He occasionally, on Sundays when I had prayers with and preached to the converts, came for the purpose of making a noise and interrupting us. On one occasion this interruption went rather too far. On the following Monday I walked to his abode for the purpose of remonstrating with him. I found him in his garden with several of his people. But he took no notice of me. So I sat down on the ground and thoughtlessly took up a piece of kumara and bit it. This was on my part an infraction of a tapu. It afforded him an opportunity, which perhaps he had been looking for, of ridding himself of me and my proceedings.

He rushed at me with his tomahawk, and was about to strike me as I sat on the ground, when his daughter, the wife of Te Whatanui’s eldest son Te Roha, and Morowati, son of Kiharoa, an important chief, immediately came and placed themselves between me and my assailant, placing their hands over my head so that it became impossible for him to strike me without first striking them. Others then came forward. After some time his rage abated, and he sat down.

I then endeavoured to explain that I, as a foreigner, who had not been long among them, was not aware that I was doing anything offensive.

But before I could finish my explanation the Maori priest, Hereiwi, who had gone through his karakia making the kumara ground tapu, interrupted by pronouncing a curse upon me which was necessarily to lead either to my death, or to my removal from Otaki. In the evening several of my friends came to me in very low spirits. They wanted to know what I intended to do, and what I thought would be the effect of the curse. I assured them that I should take no notice whatever of the curse, but should go on with my work as usual. They expressed a fear that, having been degraded by the curse, no one in future would pay any attention to what I said or taught. They then left me. Early next morning I went to Waikanae. On my return after a few days’ absence, I learnt that Hereiwi had died during the night after the affair in the kumara garden. This produced a profound impression on the natives, who attributed his death to his cursing me. In vain I endeavoured to explain that I had heard from some Englishmen who knew him that he had been suffering from a complaint in his lungs, and that his death was occasioned by the rupture of a large blood vessel. Not altogether convinced they resolved not to meddle any more with me, but to allow me in future to disregard all their tapu ceremonies, and go where I liked. After that Te Matia and I were on friendly terms, at least we lived in peace. Many years after that Te Matia was baptised and named Matenga, and became a regular communicant.1

Supernatural power Anglican Bishop David Pytches related an incident he observed in Chile where he served as a missionary.2 A mentally ill woman in the town of Petraco was violent and a menace to her community. Her family eventually consulted a group of evangelical Christians in the town, who called in a pastor from a neighbouring town. He came. He prayed simply and publicly for her: “I cast this spirit from you in the name of Jesus.”

The woman fell to the ground but soon stood and was praising God for her deliverance. Many who knew her were convinced of the power of God and they also became followers of Jesus Christ. David Pytches concluded, “This is a Biblical pattern. The church of God will grow wherever there are manifestations of God’s power.”3 Yale University historian Ramsay MacMullen wrote Christianizing the Roman Empire, AD 100-400 as an objective secular historian.4 He showed that the supernatural power of God continued to be manifested after the time of the apostles. Researcher C Peter Wagner agreed: “Historical research is showing that there never was a time when miracles ceased, particularly on the frontiers where the gospel of the kingdom was penetrating new groups.”5 One curious feature of the Te Mātia incident related

by Bishop Hadfield was the naturalistic interpretation he himself offered to those who concluded they had

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“The church of God will grow wherever there are manifestations o f G o d ’ s p o w e r .” witnessed God’s intervention.6 In their animistic world view, it was obvious to them that the Creator God himself was upholding his servant who had come among them. They had witnessed a power encounter: the Creator God of Hadfield was more powerful than the atua of Hereiwi.

The excluded middle While professor of anthropology, religions and South Asian studies at Fuller Seminary Los Angeles, Paul Hiebert addressed this world view issue in an article in 1982 when he identified what he called the ‘excluded middle’.7 He began by pointing out that when John the Baptist’s disciples came to Jesus to ask if he was the one (Luke 7:20), the response of Jesus was not a carefully reasoned argument but rather a statement about his works of power in curing the sick and casting out demons.

As a missionary in India, Hiebert had no experience of this dimension.

Like most Western Christians, he said, he had a two-tiered world view. There was an upper tier where God reigns, the cosmic power in the universe.

There was a lower tier of everyday life.

But in India their world view included a middle tier of spirits, demons, lesser gods, curses, ancestors, ghosts, magic, witchcraft, mediums and the miraculous.

This middle tier was also present in the pre-European world view of the Māori. “The middle zone is very real to them”, said Hiebert speaking of three billion people in many cultures and countries around the world.

Surprisingly, Hiebert concluded, “So long as the missionary comes with a two-tier world view with God confined to the supernatural, and the natural world operating for all practical purposes according to autonomous scientific laws, Christianity will continue to be a secularizing force in the world.”8 Later in his ministry, Hadfield predicted the rise of indigenous religions among Māori. He saw this as an inevitable response to their disillusionment with English Christianity in the light of the Land Wars. What he may not have seen was that the world views of Hauhauism and the Rātana and Ringatū faiths were consistent with the pre-European Māori three‑tier world view and the three‑tier world view of the Gospels and the New Testament itself.

Whatever Hadfield’s theology in regard to the death of Hereiwi, the people of the region (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa and other iwi), saw the tohunga’s death as evidence that Hadfield proclaimed the living God whose power could intervene in their affairs. Hadfield was given great respect as a person of undeniable

“SO LONG AS THE MISSIONARY C O M E S W I T H A T W O -T I E R W O R L D V I E W. . . C H R I S T I A N I T Y W I L L CONTINUE TO BE A SECULARIZING F O R C E I N T H E W O R L D .”

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mana among them, and elevated above all restrictions of tapu. The impact of the gospel was accelerated throughout the region and within several years, thousands had become lifelong followers of Jesus Christ.

Contributor: Bruce Patrick Bruce with his late wife Jinny was senior pastor of Wanganui Central Baptist and Auckland Baptist Tabernacle.

Between these ministries he was Baptist home mission director and founder of Vision New Zealand (now NZ Christian Network). Before retirement he had several short-term ministries.

He is currently an Otago University research student.

1. Octavius Hadfield, Maoris of By-Gone Days (Gisborne: H.W. Williams, Te Rau Press, 1902), 3-4. (Note: spellings in the extract are as per the original text.)

2. David Pytches, born 1931, was Anglican bishop of Chile, Bolivia and Peru. He was also vicar of St. Andrew’s in Chorleywood, England. He authored many books and is founder of New Wine conferences.

3. C Peter Wagner, The Third Wave of The Holy Spirit (Ann Arbor Michigan: Vine Books, 1988), 91-92.

4. Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire: AD 100-400 (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1984).

5. C. Peter Wagner, The Third Wave, 82.

6. Jay Ruka, Huia Come Home (Raglan: Oati, 2017), 30-31. In his helpful discussion of world view, Ruka shows how in the 1700s and 1800s enlightenment thinking shifted a Christian world view in the direction of scientific rationalism.

7. Paul Gordon Hiebert (1932-2007) was an American missiologist. He has been described as “arguably the world’s leading missiological anthropologist”.

Hiebert authored numerous books, making a major contribution to the field of missiology. He is quoted by Jay Ruka.

8. C Peter Wagner, The Third Wave, 30-35. See also chapter 7, “The Power Source for Missions”, in C Peter Wagner, On The Crest of The Wave, Becoming a World Christian (Ventura California: Regal, 1983), 123-142, which offers a global sweep of contemporary evidence of supernatural ministries and the resulting growth of the church.

TUtaki Taku Community Meal Walking through the open door

What began as a simple room hire has evolved into a vibrant ministry that feeds people physically, socially and spiritually. Jacky Gartner, Thomas Hendricks and Martin Armstrong of Taupō Baptist Church share the story of the Tūtaki Taku Community Meal.

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person from another church approached Taupō Baptist Church (TBC) in September 2017, to ask whether we had a room to hire to provide a weekly meal for homeless people in Taupō.

As a result of the strong and enthusiastic vision to provide this meal, and the community involvement and advocacy of the organiser, Monday night community meals began in December 2017.

As the TBC congregation heard about what was happening, they came along to assist

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Jacky Gartner

–

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

The Lord's provision is evident in the way that the meals occur weekly… despite an 'actual budget' of only $40 per week.

in setting up and packing down, as well as sitting and engaging with the diners. A year later, the founder and organiser had to move from Taupō, and was looking for someone else to take responsibility for running the meals. A member of our staff, Thomas, who had been assisting at the meals for a while, stepped up and asked for the church’s backing in taking on this role. After discussion of how this would be managed, TBC absorbed the community meals as another one of its ministries.

Taking ownership has meant that we are now able to include a five-minute devotion each week after everybody has been served their first course.

This task is given to people who can effectively communicate to the wide range of people that attend. They may share a personal testimony or a simple Bible story about the love and grace of God.

A real community effort We receive donations of food from restaurants, cafés, dairies, a bread store and supermarkets—a community effort that makes it sustainable. Our own people, plus folk from other churches and the wider community, assist with food preparation, setting up tables and cleaning up afterwards.

Some of our diners also rock up early to help with the set-up, and a particular group stay most weeks to help clean up and pack down.

Our weekly commitment to produce this meal, as well as the generosity and reliability of our team—particularly Allen, our main chef—is a credit to all involved. It is also a testament to the depth of interest and need in the area. The Lord’s provision is evident in the way that the meals occur weekly, even throughout holidays, despite an ‘actual budget’ of only $40 per week.

We’ve even had a local business owner approach us about starting to contribute toward our meat purchases.

We believe we have served over 400 different individuals through this ministry so far, with extended whānau

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starting to come more regularly in the six months prior to the COVID-19 lockdown. Our average weekly attendance was around 65—and up to 95 at our special Christmas dinner— with at least one new person turning up each week. We look forward to resuming the community meal as soon as we can after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Spiritual nurture We are building a new intergenerational community with these people. Regulars are given their own name tags, which they proudly wear. We have seen many of them attend our other outreach ministries: ‘The Well’, our drop-in centre on a Wednesday afternoon; CAP release groups; men’s breakfasts; and our regular church services.

In the first term of 2020 we ran an Alpha course immediately after the meal. Guests received a hot drink as they headed in to view the video in the auditorium. Then dessert was served before they joined their discussion groups with experienced small group leaders. About 17 folk from the meal regularly attended Alpha, along with others from the church and small group leaders, making a total weekly attendance of around 35.

We had a person commit their life to Jesus during the first weeks of Alpha, after attending our fortnightly ‘Revive’ Sunday evening gathering. Another man from the meal is now a regular Sunday morning attendee and is soon to be baptised. There are many needs in our community and this is proving to be a way of reaching out to the poor, the oppressed and the lonely in a kind and loving way.

God’s reconciling work is being

carried out on so many levels that it’s difficult to keep tabs on all the ways these folk are experiencing restoration and renewal in their life. This is something our team is working to address through intentional discipleship and follow-up in this next season after the conclusion of the Alpha course.

Connecting people Tūtaki taku means ‘meet me’. Our team recognises that Jesus wants to have an encounter with each of these individuals, and frequently this leads them to have an encounter with us as individuals and a church family as well.

There is a wonderful opportunity to see our community lifted and built‑up through improved social skills, engaging in casual conversation with those around them, appropriate table etiquette, and battling anxiety, loneliness and a lack of self‑confidence, etc. We look for the treasure in each willing participant and endeavour to let them know that we genuinely value, accept and care about them.

Initially all that we had to do was to recognise that the Lord was opening a door to us and to walk through it with him. This opportunity was not on our radar, in our vision or our budget and couldn’t have been programmed into our normal activities at the time.

We serve a creative, compassionate God. His ways are not always our ways, but through radical obedience and a preparedness to step out of our comfort zones we can be Jesus to those around us. “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” (Matthew 25:40, NLT).

Contributor: Jacky Gartner Jacky is the administration manager at Taupō Baptist Church. Living on a 20-hectare lifestyle block with husband Doug enables Jacky to follow her love of animals, particularly her dogs and providing a home and support to rescued feral cats.

Contributor: Thomas Hendricks Thomas is TBC’s community coordinator.

He’s a Southern Boy at heart, with a fond appreciation of kai, be it slow-cooked pork, livermush, or Cheerwine™... and God’s creation. He loves rafting, hiking, and intriguing kōrero with strangers and old friends alike.

Contributor: Martin Armstrong

W E S E R V E A C R E AT I V E , C O M P A S S I O N AT E G O D . H I S WAY S A R E N O T A LWAY S O U R WAY S .

Martin is married to Helen and they have three adult children. He has ministered in Taupō since 2017, in Tauranga for 13 years and Azerbaijan for three years. Prior to that Martin was a career secondary school teacher and taught with his family on Niue Island, in Brunei on the Island of Borneo and in New Zealand.

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“How’s that working for you?”

Finding freedom, experiencing peace

How does a young adult in 2020 learn to cope with the stress and anxiety of the world?

How do they resolve the unease they experience, and instead live in the promise of peace and joy found in Jesus? Rebecca Hoverd shares her learnings from a course designed specifically for this purpose.

faith wake/lightstock.com

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recently read some comments that said our heavy and constant use of the internet leaves us aware of many problems in the world but with almost no way to solve them.

Additionally, the overwhelming amount of content that we have instant access to leaves us with input overload and endless distractions. It is conditions like these that sometimes leave me thinking there’s no wonder we have such an increasing prevalence of anxiety amongst our young people in New Zealand.

Many of my friends, both those who follow Jesus and those who don’t, are passionate about working for justice. We want to right past social wrongs and fight for equitable practices. The problems of our world tug on our heartstrings but we can’t fix everything. We are left feeling confused about our own privilege, anxious about what we can do to help, and perhaps unsure of where Jesus is in this.

Enter Soul Tour Over one weekend in February 2020, I got to do a Soul Tour Team Builder course, along with the leaders in our youth ministry at Windsor Park Baptist Church. Basically, Soul Tour is a course for young adults to grow in their faith and work on some of their core beliefs in a group setting.

The course presenters, Matt and Belinda Stott, have backgrounds in theology and counselling, respectively.

Combining a thorough but easy-tounderstand curriculum with real-life examples, they talked us through several concepts and topics. These included how we accept responsibility for our lives, core assumptions we have about ourselves, and unbearable feelings and core emotional needs.

Personally speaking, I was a bit unsure and nervous about doing Soul Tour. I already had an idea of a few things I wanted to work on in myself. I didn’t know how emotionally deep the content would be. The idea of being as vulnerable as I had imagined in front of 50 or so young

adults from my community did scare me a little. But working on ourselves is important and if something might help me be a better person, then why not?

In the end, I found the course topics to be hugely relevant in my life and as I serve at church, in study, and in my relationships with God, my boyfriend, friends and family.

Theory vs reality Early on in our course, Matt Stott commented that the curriculum is not based on what works in theory, as if we were rational people to whom the theory should ‘theoretically’ apply.

Playing on a Dr Phil-esque quote— “How’s that working for you?”—Matt said theories on how to improve our thoughts, emotions and behaviour are wonderful hypothetically, but unfortunately they don’t really work in effecting real change in people’s lives.

I understood and agreed with that sentiment. While at times I had a few thoughts such as “But shouldn’t we deal with that first?” or “Shouldn’t the person I have a conflict with instead fix

We a re l e f t fe e l i n g c o n fu s e d a b ou t our own privilege, anxious about what we can do to help, and perhaps unsure of where Jesus is in this.

this thing?”, I realised that in reality we are imperfect people and what sounds good in theory often doesn’t play out in reality.

As young adults, many of us have been through significant things already, with diverse experiences that have formed us into equally diverse adults. It’s far more realistic (and biblical!) to see that the world isn’t perfect, and that the people who live here are just as layered and complex as we each are.

Learning contentment During the course, I was encouraged by the fact that there was no expectation that we would be transformed into people with no problems and an impeccable ability to handle anything life throws at us. Instead the idea was shared, and embodied by Matt and Belinda themselves, that we could be a little bit more content in life, and equipped to better understand and process the good and bad, and the small and large things that happen in life.

I learnt how to unpack some of the lies the world tells us about our identity and how to live with a bit less stress. For example, I don’t need to find my identity in what other people think of me, or my individual success and achievements, or put pressure on myself to always measure up to what society deems as right. Instead, I can enjoy doing things for my personal enjoyment, and ultimately find my self-worth and identity in Jesus. I saw I could gain the sort of contentment that I see in the people I love who really know and trust Jesus. I know I want and need that, and I know my young adult community wants and needs that too.

Emotions not always trustworthy What I also enjoyed learning is that while I like to think I can be thoughtful, considered and sometimes logical, I know my emotional reactions to what I perceive as injustice can overwhelm me. The world sometimes puts out this idea that we can trust our emotions, that our feelings are justified and reliable, and, ultimately, an authority to dictate our behaviour. However, trusting our feelings without question can be hugely problematic.

I found that Soul Tour helped me to question what is happening below the emotions. What thoughts do I have that result in these emotions? What beliefs or assumptions, further down at a subconscious level, have I perhaps misguidedly bought into and which cause these not so helpful thoughts?

A way to unpack these emotions can be to consider what you are telling yourself: is your emotion based on the truth or what someone else has said?

Subconsciously, are you believing your worth comes from other people and so letting their opinions fuel your thoughts and emotions?

Jesus, our hope and our guide It’s not a secret we live in a flawed and broken world. We read about it in our Bibles and we see it out our own windows. As a young adult who follows Jesus in today’s world, I know I am not the only one who wants to do something to make this world a more just and equitable place.

That ambition, along with the pressure and expectations we place on ourselves to perform the way we think the world expects us to, certainly causes stress and anxiety. Learning to unpack the lies you may believe about yourself, or learning how to

process the grief you experience as we navigate this crazy world may help you find freedom and enjoy life to the fullest, as Jesus promised. Remember, he told us we would encounter trials in this world but to take heart, for he has overcome the world.

Contributor: Rebecca Hoverd Rebecca is a young Aucklander who studies law, loves coffee and enjoys writing as a way to process her thoughts and ideas. She is a member of Windsor Park Baptist Church, where she serves in the youth ministry and helps to run a community blog called Rhythm.

at a glance • Soul Tour is a six-day course for young adults, focusing on personal development in a holistic approach. The aim is to help participants gain skills to better understand their own mind, emotions and behaviour.

• The curriculum is adapted from David Riddell’s Life and Counselling Skills course, drawing upon Christianfriendly understandings from various disciplines including psychology, philosophy, counselling and theology.

• Soul Tour has also been adapted into a 12-topic Team Builder course option for churches and organisations, which usually takes place over a weekend.

See soultour.co.nz for more information.

v.136 no.3 † rua tekau mā rima 25

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

A politics of heaven Christ, our Priest-King

As New Zealand once again enters into an election period, referenda on drugs and death, education policy changes, and the value of family Jonathan Ayling

are all on the agenda. Jonathan Ayling explains why he believes the church must boldly embrace its call to “enlighten the darkness”.

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P

salm 46 concludes with an often difficult commandment, and also a sustaining promise:

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

(Psalm 46:10‑11, ESV).

There is divine comfort in rest of this kind: that the name of the Lord will be exalted in our nation, for the Lord is our fortress. A great passion consumes my life for the name of our Lord in our country, and this is a precious thing.

Yet if I allow this to lead me into a place of struggling, striving and stressing in my own strength, I insert a crippling dose of self into my desire to see God made great.

A trust in the sovereignty of God, which will always exalt the name of the Lord, gives us a heavenly hope that nourishes our souls, even when our circumstances defy this faith. This rest is not a passive thing; this hope-filled rest is a spirit-enabled place of active trust that accepts God’s invitation for us to work with our heavenly Father, but not be crushed by its unbearable weight. His call is for the weak and weary-laden, promising rest; his yoke is easy and his burden light (Matthew 11:28, 30).

Joshua the high priest This hope is particularly dear as we look at the state and direction of our country. Is it possible that even in such a place and time as this, God will be exalted in our nation? As brick after brick is wrenched from the foundation of our society in the name of individual sovereignty, freedom of choice and endless self-promotion, some begin to ask whether Christians should even associate with politics anymore.

I find encouragement in one of the lesser known biblical characters who would heartily respond, yes, even in our day and age, the Lord will use

us to exalt his name. Even through the brokenness of politics, godless policies and self-interested power, the name of the Lord will resound.

Joshua the high priest is not a particularly well-known biblical character, yet this priest, graced with the crown of the king, provides for us an example of planting our feet on the Rock as we seek to straddle the line between the Kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms of earth.

Returning from Babylonian exile, the people of Israel didn’t feel that they had much of a moral high ground to stand upon. The land of Israel had been a symbol of the chosen nature of the Jewish people, yet they had been torn from it. The high priest was supposed to serve in the glory of God’s temple, but it had been destroyed. Surely, in this place, at this time, the name of the Lord was not exalted.

In a vision from the Lord, the prophet Zechariah said the following: Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said...“Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments...

Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts...”

(Zechariah 3:3,4,7, ESV).

Frederick Brotherton Meyer, the British preacher and friend of D L Moody, writes concerning the filthy garments Joshua is clothed in, that our “sense of shame becomes more acute when we stand before the Angel of the Lord...The more we know of God, the more we loathe ourselves and repent. What is to be done under such circumstances?

Renounce our priesthood? Disclaim its God-given functions? No: remain standing before the Angel...He has power to make our iniquity pass from us, and clothe us with change of raiment—that white linen which is the righteousness of saints.”1

Joshua stood clothed symbolically in the sins of his people, and through grace he was clothed anew. As politics is a human enterprise, it is infused with the sinfulness of man. For those of us who work in it, we acutely feel the corruption that surrounds us. Like many Christians, at times I wonder whether we should just wash our hands of the whole thing. Yet, rather than distancing ourselves from the impurity of self-advancing power, Christ would have us shine a light, to walk differently, to be cleansed and clothed anew in white linen: his righteousness.

Enlightening the darkness Zechariah went on to prophesy over Joshua: “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD...It is he who shall...bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne.

And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zechariah 6:12-13, ESV).

The calling of Joshua, the high priest, upon returning from exile in humiliation and brokenness was not to shirk

IS IT POSSIBLE T H AT E V E N IN SUCH A PLACE AND TIME AS THIS, GOD WILL BE E X A LT E D I N O U R N AT I O N ?

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

back from the impurity of his condition and hide. Rather, he was to allow the presence of God to cleanse him, and from there he was called to sit as a priest on the throne, governing in his God‑given clothes of righteousness, and allowing God to exalt his name in power.

This scripture is prophetic. Another priest-king would one day come and become the Temple of God, itself, then ascend to heaven where he will rule the cosmos in the fullness of time. The name Joshua was common among the Hebrews, right up to the time of Roman occupation, when another Joshua was born, named according to the Greek form of the name: Jesus. While our perfect High Priest is already seated in the heavenly places, a day is coming when his kingship will be fully realised, and he shall rule and reign with justice and peace, cleansing politics for all time and establishing a Kingdom that will

have no end. Until then, let us not grow weary in the work of the Lord.

As with Joshua the high priest, we too must embody Christ. The iniquity and darkness is not a reason to renounce the call of God to enlighten the darkness. As New Zealand returns to the polls this year, we will be deciding not only on who will represent us and lead our country for the next parliamentary term, but also on important social questions: whether we should legalise euthanasia, and whether recreational cannabis should be allowed.

The church must not abdicate its responsibility to be a voice in these times, but must stand, resting actively in the power of God, to bless our nation with the light of Christ. The politics of heaven must come and transform the kingdoms of earth, as we serve as royal (kingly) priests (1 Peter 2:9). As we rest in the promise of God to exalt his name in our

nation, let us allow him to cleanse us and anoint us again to influence our country, that it might be led in righteousness and the fear of God.

Contributor: Jonathan Ayling Jonathan Ayling works as an advisor in Parliament, and has been particularly involved in work opposing legislation regarding euthanasia, drug reform and abortion. He has postgraduate degrees in politics and theology, and travels widely speaking in churches on the conversation between politics and faith.

1. F B Meyer, The Prophet of Hope: Studies in Zechariah (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2004), 43-44.

Finding Food for every Family Since late March 2020, VisionWest’s food support demands have tripled.

As a result, every week VisionWest is supporting close to 4000 whānau with it’s food service.

We work to connect whānau who need food to our key workers who hear the story behind the food needs. These key workers ensure that whānau can access the other supports critical for them to rise beyond dependence on a food parcel, and realise a brighter future for themselves and their whānau.

The Food Support Service remains one of VisionWest’s most under resourced areas, while supporting thousands of households in our community.

We rely on donations from the public to staff and operationalise this service.

visionwest.org.nz

Baptist / C O M M U N I Q U É

The last Assembly Council meeting was way back on the 2nd of April. It’s fair to say that quite a lot has happened since then... We met via Zoom (hands up who hasn’t used Zoom?) and as it was just before Easter, a significant portion of our time was spent talking, praying and listening as the plight of our various Easter Camps was unpacked.

Charles Hewlett led us in a reflection from Romans 12, with observations about our movement and the good responses our churches had been making to the pandemic. We spent time strategising about the possible financial challenges that might arise for our churches in the early stages of the pandemic. It was helpful for us to hear about the global challenges of the pandemic from Alan Jamieson in his new role with NZBMS, and we also took the opportunity to hear from Kaihautū David Moko as to the specific challenges he saw appearing.

Since then, we have also snuck in an extra meeting midway between our bi-monthly ones, as a way of keeping abreast of the pandemic’s effects. It has been notable just how brilliant our National Centre staff have been in these unusual times, particularly in communicating with our movement. Thank you to Winston Hema, Kathryn Heslop and the team from our National Centre. Thank you also to Charles for representing and leading our movement in these times. The Assembly Council certainly share concerns about the negative effects of the pandemic, but underlying these concerns are many threads of hope. God continues to call us to be a movement of thriving faith communities!

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.

New Wellington regional leader Kia ora koutou. I’m excited to have started a new role with the Wellington Baptist Association as their regional leader. The original plan was to move to Wellington in July 2020. However, COVID-19 changed things somewhat, so instead I began the role part-time in May, remotely from Taranaki. I will increase to full-time when the time is right and we move to the Wellington region.

I come into this role with 20 years’ experience as a Baptist pastor. I trained as a youth pastor through an internship at Hutt City Baptist and then worked as a youth pastor at Otumoetai Baptist in Tauranga for seven years. From there I went to Carey to complete my Bachelor of Applied Theology and the Diploma of Pastoral Leadership. After graduating, I took up a position as the senior pastor at Northpoint Baptist Church in New Plymouth. I have also served on Assembly Council for several terms at different times over the years.

I am really looking forward to working alongside Charles Hewlett as our national leader and the other regional leaders around the country in this role. I am also privileged and excited to be working with the pastors and leaders of the churches of the Wellington region.

The focus of this role is to encourage churches to be marked out by robust leadership, the growth of disciples, effective mission, authentic worship and the development of healthy resources. Fiona and I feel a strong sense of the Holy Spirit’s call to serve the Kingdom and our Baptist movement in this way for this next season. I would appreciate your prayers during this time of change for our whānau.

Ngā mihi nui Mike Warring

v.136 no.3 † rua tekau mā iwa 29

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

A whole new world of possibilities On my blog mikecrudge.com I’ve written before about problems with Sunday church services as our primary expression of Christian faith—they can be inauthentic and lacking actual service, leading many Christians to become disengaged from the faith community. COVID-19 has forced us to do something different with our gatherings, and I hope there is no going back to what was.

Affirming the importance of regular Christian gathering, below are the thoughts that came out of my household when thinking about our local church and what post‑lockdown gathering as a church together could look like. Maybe one or more resonates for you too.

Keep the traditional time-slot of Sunday mornings Practising Christians generally block out a few hours of their time on Sunday morning in order to ‘do’ church together.

Often events outside of this time-slot are sporadically or badly attended, as people’s lives all look different. Because meeting collectively to be the church can be hard at other times of the week, let’s use the Sunday morning commitment time that we have corporately made and see what we can do with it.

People do what they see Typically, being a practising Christian is seen as going to church services in church buildings on Sunday mornings.

‘Worship’ is often just seen as group singing of Christian songs during those same services. Let’s expand our appreciation and experience of being Christian together by expanding what gets done/seen when we are together.

• Pray together en masse Have you ever turned up to a pre-service or mid-week church prayer meeting to be one in a group of seven or eight people? (I know, seven or eight people praying together is an excellent thing!) We (the collective ‘we’) want people to pray together. So, one Sunday morning each month, during the church ‘slot’ (e.g. from 10am to 11.30am), why not gather and pray together—as one, in small groups, intergenerational, intercession, for healing, confession, for mission... No sermon, no singing, just praying. Imagine everyone in your church community

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praying together for 90 minutes, 12 times a year! I have never experienced that before in any local church I’ve been part of.

• Love our neighbours together We want people to love their neighbours. One Sunday morning each month, gather to serve the neighbourhood together. The ideas are endless, and need to be hooked into meeting the identified needs of the local community.

For example - cooking meals for a communal freezer, to give away when needed - working bees at people’s places who are shut in - visiting a rest home - picking up litter - doing jobs for local schools or community groups.

• Diversify our communal worship of God We want people to worship God together. One Sunday morning each month, gather for curated worship, drawing on church tradition: singing, formal liturgy, contemplation, engagement with Scripture, ministry of the Spirit. We demonstrate/teach and practise the expansiveness of Christian communal worship, ancient and future. Skills in leading this aren’t always present in local churches, but there are people and excellent resources that can help.

• Learn together We want people to learn. One Sunday morning each month, gather to learn. For example - teach the Bible (unpack Scripture) - enliven Christian thought and history (train us in theology) - inspire our action (resource us for mission).

What pedagogy would you use to do this well in your particular faith community?

• The sermon evolved We could also continue our learning via weekly input.

Rather than a weekly sermon in Sunday church services, let’s continue to have weekly sermon-like content (earthed and coming out of the local context), but shared each week for individuals and groups to consume in their own time (video/audio/text) and then reflect on and interact

Marynkin/lightstock.com

with together (in home groups, life groups, households, on social media, etc).

Most of us probably already listen to other content during the week (podcasts or news while walking to work, for example). I would gladly add local content from my church community. Before COVID-19 I missed every alternate Sunday sermon as I would be in another part of the church building with our toddler; I often listened to the sermon online later in the week.

• Foster a culture of generosity We want to be intergenerational and have a culture of generosity. One Sunday morning each month, gather in a way that embraces and affirms all age groups together.

There’s no reason why other examples given in this article wouldn’t also have this as a concern, but why not emphasise this monthly? Once a month everyone gathers to intentionally appreciate and affirm the differences within.

Once the culture becomes generous this need not be an actual focus.

• Come on and celebrate!

We want to gather for massive celebrations, around food and in hospitable spaces, for events such as Easter Sunday, Pentecost, the start of Advent, Christmas, baptisms, etc. These are times where a large indoor space would probably be required, which could be rented within the neighbourhood in order to earth them into the local community. Some of these could include other local church communities in the area or, in the case of New Zealand Baptists, other churches that associate together in the region. Blue Moon Sundays could be another reason to gather for these celebrations. I’m thinking ‘party’ here. Imagine an Easter Sunday where 50,000 followers of Jesus living in Auckland filled up Mount Smart Stadium to celebrate together the risen Christ!

Different resources for a different rhythm In time, this new rhythm to our gatherings may require different spaces or building designs. We might find we no longer need an auditorium arrangement (rows of seats and stages), but something more flexible. We may not even need our own space for large gatherings, but could meet

in other spaces in our neighbourhood (e.g. school halls, performance spaces, town hall, community centres), thus releasing the current building/footprint/land/resource for some other purpose.

Church buildings are not the hub of community life—do you know what is the hub in your neighbourhood? The shops and the schools are the focus of my local community.

What spaces might our church partner with here?

How might this happen?

We’ve seen massive disruption since the COVID-19 lockdown began. Working differently has been a tiring experience for many. But the urge to return to business as usual need not influence our imaginations and decisions as we embrace the future.

Pastors, elders, team leaders, deacons—start floating a few scenarios of the things you’d like to see change as a result of the COVID-19 experience. Call for people to pray and share. Socialise what emerges.

If you don’t have an official ‘church leadership’ role, you are part of the majority in which any change relies upon your willingness to be open to and engage with. What can you imagine? What is the vision God is laying on your heart?

Many of the church leaders I know long for this kind of engagement from the people they serve—so start sharing!

Contributor: Dr Mike Crudge Mike facilitates the Carey Centre for Lifelong Learning (lifelonglearning.nz) which primarily exists to resource and support people in church leadership roles (formal and informal).

He has been a pastor in two church contexts and now, with his household, attends their local Baptist church.

This article is adapted from a post titled “Sunday church after COVID-19” on Mike’s blog and is used with permission: mikecrudge.com/2020/05/20/sunday-church-after-covid-19.

v.136 no.3 † toru tekau mā tahi 31

100 Years Ago The King’s Son The sensation of last month was the Royal visit. The heir of an hundred kings has been amongst us. In that young man, Brunswicker and Stuart, and Tudor and Plantagenet, and Angevin, and Norman are consummated...

There are certain legends and traditions that lie round the Prince of Wales that seem to us to be fingerposts. We shall gaze at them. That an Englishman should be Prince of Wales is an anomaly based on a brutal conquest. It was on the hills of Wales that the patriot Britons stood at bay before the advancing Norman. With Snowdon as their central citadel, and under their Prince, Llewellyn, and cheered by their bards, they fought the good fight and failed. Their taming by the Plantagenets was bloody work. When it was at last complete, the chieftains gathered at Carnavon Castle to swear allegiance to their new overlord. As they waited, the Queen, who was at Carnarvon, was delivered of her first-born son. The king, in his armour, took the babe in swaddling robes, and going forth to the chiefs, cried to them, “Eich Dayn,” which means, “This is your man.” Exactly that is the message of the Christian Church concerning Him of whom the Prince is a shadow. No Plantagenet in Carnarvon Halls, settling a conquered country by the theft of its princedom for his son. but something to which that is paltry. There are angel voices singing over the stableborn babe of the pauper woman, “Glory to God. this is your Man.” There is also the voice from the heavenlies what time the Carpenter had “swept out the fragrant shavings from the workshop door, and gone upon His way to save the world.” Over that completed cycle of the perfect life, over His toil as workman, and employer, and wrestler with the shop-problem, the voice cried, “This is My Son.” “Eich Dayn.”

“This is your Man.” It is His judges’ voice on Gabbatha. Appalled by the selfless purities and royal nobleness of his victim, Pilate cried his.

“Here is your Man,” and it echoes yet. It is the voice of ten thousand times ten thousand as they circle the throne about. One like to the Son of Man is at the centre of heaven’s adorations. “Eich Dayn.” Hero worship is the oldest and most blameless of human idolatries. It has one secure resting place. Fasten the clinging ivy of your adoration to a human hero, and you may find the tree fall, or your tendrils will overtop it, and fall back frustrated. It is the Man who is our Man who satisfies the cries of the human heart for leadership and for lordship.

The coming of the Prince throws into emphasis the glory of His coming. “Eich Dayn.” He is our Man. Baptist magazine, June 1920 (abridged)

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Gospel Perspective/lightstock.com

Directory PHOTOGRAPHERS FOR BAPTIST MAGAZINE

We are seeking volunteer photographers who can submit either stock images for general use, and/or (where location permits) take commissioned photographs of people and events.

Suitable candidates need to have a good understanding of what makes a ‘good’ photo and be able to take direction. Submission does not guarantee publication, but all photos published will be acknowledged, and the photographer will retain copyright over their work.

If you want to find out more, or wish to send some samples of your photography that shows your range or specialist interest, contact the editor.

EMAIL linda@baptistmag.org.nz Please note, we are not looking for scenic or nature photography, but people and journalistic-style photography.

GAY & CHRISTIAN

PONSONBY BAPTIST

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

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Glo bal Mis si on

Photo of the month The COVID-19 pandemic has changed lives across the globe. In this edition, one overseas worker from each of the regions we work in shares what it was like for them and the people they live amongst.

Read more on page 34.

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

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

A word from Alan SAME STORM—DIFFERENT BOATS It is true, we are all in the same storm; but we are not all in the same boat. As the pandemic sweeps the world, the ability of different countries to ride it out will depend on their government, health services and economic condition. Here in New Zealand, we can be grateful for our isolation, our Government’s quick decision making and our relative financial strength. The countries our NZBMS staff work in are not so fortunate.

In New Zealand, we talk of keeping two metres apart.

That’s easy here with only 15 people per kilometre; Bangladesh has 1,300, India 450, China 150, and Thailand 136.

In New Zealand, we are concerned about what will happen when the wage subsidy runs out. In India, over a third of the workforce are day labourers, living hand to mouth, often with families to feed and little or no savings. For many, the hunger virus is way scarier than the COVID virus. In New Zealand, we are told to wash our hands regularly and thoroughly. The poor of the world often live in slums where toilets are shared and clean water is not available.

In New Zealand, there is health care, testing regimes and the ability to track contacts. For most of the world, these are not available. In New Zealand, people can be self‑isolated—international arrivals are allocated hotel rooms and considerable medical expertise is invested into caring for the elderly. For most of the world, this is not possible.

Here in New Zealand, churches run services online, connect through Zoom, and phone individuals to check on their welfare. Across the world, church infrastructure and communication are often rudimentary, meaning many Christians are isolated from the support and prayers of others.

This is a time when the world and churches across the globe need our prayers, our encouragement, and our financial support. Remember how Paul described the churches of Macedonia in his day, “...during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For...they voluntarily gave according to their means and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:1-4, NRSV). This is our “ordeal of affliction” and time for us to shine as individuals and as church communities.

Tama tu, tama ora, Tama noho, tama mate, Kia kaha e hoa ma!

Don’t be discouraged, give it heaps my friends!

Alan Jamieson, General Director

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LIFE WITH COVID It’s not long ago we had never heard of COVID-19; now the lives of most of the world’s population have been affected by it in some way or another. We asked a Tranzsend member from each of our fields to tell us a little about what life in lockdown was like for them.

Jo and Charlie work in South Asia We have been confined to our home with five housemates, venturing out only for food and medicine. It’s been an interesting few weeks.

Foreigners were initially blamed for bringing the virus to the city, and were shouted and hissed at, but this has now stopped.

Outside, we’ve noticed the streets are significantly quieter, although a number of people are still out and about, some gathering in small groups to chat. Social distancing at the market is not really being practised, but there has been a police presence lately.

At home, our daily lockdown routine includes house exercises in the morning, followed by a 10‑minute well-being meeting where we check in with each other. These have helped with house tensions and created a sense of community.

Once the lockdown is over and our staff can safely return to work, stringent safety measures will need to be put in place. In this city, a virus like COVID-19 can spread like wildfire, and we must take every precaution, especially for those who are most vulnerable.

Ro and her family work in South-East Asia In March, morning temperature checks began at the boys’ school and at stores we frequent— COVID-19 was becoming a reality in our part

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R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

Kate Trifo

N Z B M S

of the world. Overnight, foreigners were no longer mere curiosities—we were now given suspicious glances by passers-by. Things were changing daily and we worked hard to keep up with developing government restrictions.

We moved quickly to provide relief parcels, including thermometers, to families in our Keeping Families Together project, and then, once groups of people were no longer able to meet, to local pastors. Then, as a staff team we watched, prayed and waited to see what opportunities to safely serve would arise.

It is likely that economic hardship will be the greatest impact in our area. Large numbers of people have returned from the capital city to be with family and it is yet to be seen if they can return to work as many businesses have closed, perhaps never to reopen. Many people are finding it difficult to source an income, creating huge stress for families in this area.

We are continuing to prayerfully consider how best we can walk alongside these families in a sustainable and life‑affirming way through the months and years ahead.

Peter works in East Asia The epidemic arrived suddenly, on the eve of the region’s biggest festival. All activities and festivities were immediately cancelled, and we retreated indoors. As society ground to a halt, we eased into what would become weeks of indoor living.

When we began to re-emerge, life had become very complicated indeed. Fences and physical barriers made of fabric, tarpaulins, bamboo, piles of discarded rental bikes, roofing iron and construction barriers had been erected all over the city. Checkpoints, temperature checks and access passes became the new normal.

As the virus spread internationally, things became even more complicated, bringing some very unpredictable conditions for people from other countries, who lived locally.

Personally, the extra time indoors gave me the push I needed to try something new, furthering my attempts

at learning a local dialect. Through a language-learning website, I met with a local guy online, just to chat, using this dialect. Learning more has helped me navigate the complex environment here during the pandemic, and I hope it will help me in the future in building relationships amongst young people with disabilities and their families in this city.

Cindy and Ross work in South Asia We just squeaked into the country before the chaos and went straight into quarantine. As our time of quarantine ended, lockdown began.

Nearly two months on, it sometimes feels that life consists of: get up, go cross-eyed at the computer, then go back to bed! We are grateful to have Murdina Barrett and the Czepanski family with us. We have lunch, do some exercise and read the Bible together. Our bubble is also a great help with the work. We are focused on completing the accounts and putting some input into our e-learning. Murdina is cleaning the office and sorting out files, while the Czepanskis are helping with accounts and digital stuff.

The Czepanskis also do our shopping, complete with protective face masks. At the markets, apart from people moving away, they have not experienced any ‘foreigner’ prejudice, but we know it exists. Superstition and fear go together to build some scary and unhelpful behaviours.

We try to be as sensible as we can, not going out and trying to maintain social distancing when people come in.

We believe we should be here and we trust God to look after us. Things do not look good for many, however, as the economic crisis is going to be way worse than the virus.

Perhaps it will be more difficult after lockdown? Who knows?

One thing we are sure of—God is in this, working out things for good for those who love and trust him.

Please continue to pray for each of our Tranzsend staff and those they work among, especially during the time ahead when things will be hard for many. 

v.136 no.3 † toru tekau mā rima 35

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

We’re in this together

Each edition, in this column, someone associated with NZBMS reflects on one of the themes surrounding Prayer and Self-Denial 2020. This month Susan Barrett reflects on our third theme, ‘The Perfect Picture’.

Susan served with Tranzsend in South Asia and is a current member of Mission Council.

The last few months have been both a whirlwind of chaos and a haven of quiet all at once—sometimes in the same day or even in the same hour. I, for one, have swung between enjoying the silence and sunshine in my house, to madly waving at any human being who is not my flatmate.

In the midst of these extremes, NZBMS has had some big decisions to make. While many of us have been struggling to adjust to a new normal, those we have sent to represent us in some of the most vulnerable neighbourhoods on the planet have wrestled with a huge question: “Should we stay and walk through this with our friends, taking considerable risk in doing so, or should we return to New Zealand?” Answering this question is even harder knowing that poverty is set to increase at alarming rates.

Prayer and Self-Denial is a way to enter the tapestry God is weaving, and, whether we stay or go, we are still invited into it. There is no doubt this crisis affects us all in significant ways. But, unsurprisingly, the people who have most often modelled hospitality to me are those who I often thought had the least.

As we wrestle with the challenges of our new day-to-day, who do you see as being most vulnerable? Now is the time to prioritise generosity to the majority world. As you pray, what is God saying? We invite you into this question alongside our friends who have come home, and those who have stayed, and encourage you that it is possible for vulnerability and generosity to co-exist.

Overseas communication in a digital age It’s amazing to think that, not too long ago, some overseas workers packed their belongings into coffins instead of suitcases before waving goodbye to everyone they knew, knowing they’d never return home. Then came an age when a mail service made communication possible, although sometimes letters would take several weeks to arrive at their destination.

Now, in this digital age, communication is instantaneous. What does this mean to individuals and church missions committees and the way we relate to our overseas workers, especially in nations where there are restrictions on religious freedom?

Never let security concerns stop you from contacting your overseas workers or promoting their work within your church. Mission work is challenging, and your words are an encouragement, as are the prayers of you and your church. We need to be careful, however.

In a digital age, the words we say and write are often monitored and, with social media, they can be spread quickly. Whether you are communicating to or about your overseas workers through phone calls, church newsletters, emails, blogs, packages, social media comments, or some other means, here are some guidelines to help keep your overseas worker and the people they work with safe: • Check with your workers on the best way to communicate. Ask if there are any specific guidelines for the country where they serve.

• Limit your use of ‘Christian’ words. Don’t use terms like missions, missionary, church, evangelism, Jesus, the host country’s religion, etc.

• Don’t criticise the government of the host country or its policies.

• Don’t mention the names of other overseas workers in the host country or identify people who might be interested in Christianity.

• Don’t send church bulletins, Bibles or any other ministry-related material.

• Don’t repost emails, letters or comments from your workers online, or forward them on without permission.

N O I S S I M

A I V I R T

ry is t count ding In wha a e r nity sp Christia stest? fa 8 Answe

36 toru tekau mā ono † v.136 no.3 baptistmag.org.nz

ge 3 r on pa

N Z B M S

ALAN’S UPDATES A lot has been happening lately. Alan Jamieson brings us up to date with some of the goings on.

Transition of Freeset businesses to a new entity To date, the transition agreements have been decided and finalised. Once the required entities and governance are complete (we are halfway there), transitioning of staff will begin. Rebranding is anticipated by the end of the year, when the transition should be completed and Freeset entities will be closed. Presently, India’s COVID-19 lockdowns, and worldwide loss of sales, are delaying progress.

What’s the Freeset focus in this pandemic?

The pandemic has impacted Freeset staff, increased the health risk to communities, and made it harder for the most vulnerable to feed themselves. In response, Freeset has committed to paying full wages for the duration of the lockdown, and to distributing 20,000 cotton facemasks and 20,000 free meals to the most vulnerable local communities.

Investigation from Hui During the 2019 Baptist Hui, a motion was passed, the essence of which was, “NZBMS Mission Council urgently investigate the possibilities of helping 48 women who have been made redundant in Murshidabad due to the withdrawal of Freeset.”

Following an investigation, a report was given to Mission Council who wants to support and encourage these women. Discussions with the women showed there was interest in starting a ‘Local Cooperative’. This has begun and approximately one-quarter of the women have chosen to be involved. Freeset is financially supporting a one-year trial by continuing to pay a manager, subsidising expenses, and helping with logistics through the trial.

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R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

Dhulian Fire Response Thanks for all your help as we stood together with our community in Dhulian. Together we managed to • provide meals when needed • offer a safe space to mourn and share together • donate emergency lighting as required • purchase food and clothing • provide emergency accommodation • help secure long-term accommodation and assist with required deposits • renew much needed personal documentation • replace household essential items like beds, dressers, cooking utilities and gas bottles.

One of the best things was replacing the schoolbooks, uniforms and stationery needed by students, meaning they could return to school and begin rebuilding their lives.

Thank you for your support so far—we haven’t finished yet. We have plans to run a community carnival to help return some of the joy to the community. That will have to wait until the COVID-19 crisis is over but will provide even more reason to celebrate together. Hopefully, we will also be able to celebrate in our newly repurposed building. Any remaining funds will be allocated towards this so that it can continue to serve the community for the years to come.

Finally, I want to mention some of our great people. Priya, Subhendu, Ruth and Supriya formed the frontline of our response and did a remarkable job, managing both logistical and pastoral responses with compassion and grace. As soon as we are able to resume some sort of travel again, we look forward to sending this family on a much‑needed holiday together.

Thanks, team.

In different ways, we have been able to support the 150 families impacted by this fire. Now, like the rest of us, they face a new crisis in COVID-19. Please continue to remember them in prayer as we all go through this together.

v.136 no.3 † toru tekau mā whitu 37

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

SMALL BITES

REMEMBERING STEVE SMITH It’s with sadness that we acknowledge the passing away of Steve Smith, in Melbourne on Tuesday, 31st March 2020, after a long illness.

Steve and Merilyn Smith served with NZBMS for 11 years, from 1976 to 1987, in Chandpur and Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh. In recent years Steve served on the (Asia Pacific Baptist Federation) APBF/ APBAid committees.

Of Steve’s time in Bangladesh, co-worker Paul Thompson commented, “We certainly appreciated Steve’s time as Bangladesh team leader, and his pastoral care of the rest of the NZBMS staff in Bangladesh.”

On hearing of Steve’s passing, Thomas Tuhin Dad, secretary of the Brahmanbaria Baptist Church, wrote, “Steve Smith didn’t only come to Bangladesh as a missionary who believes in Christ, but as an example for hundreds of people to follow. He consistently stood by the poor and needy. We all know that it is easier said than done, but he was the other way round, so it was easier done than said for him and he has done plenty in favour of humanity, through his persistent effort in making people stay happy.”

WHO’S WHERE? With the COVID-19 crisis, the following overseas workers made the decision to return to New Zealand: • Kerry & Annie

• John & Helen

• Peter & Leonora

• Carol

• Ryan & Sophie, Spencer & Emerson

• Josh & Robyn, Luke, Alex, Kate

• Joel & Lizzie

• Paul & Sarah, Mikayla & Malachi

38 toru tekau mā waru † v.136 no.3 baptistmag.org.nz

STUDENT SPONSORSHIP UPDATE For those who have inquired about how the COVID-19 situation is affecting the hostels in Bangladesh and India, students have returned home, but still need prayer and support.

The decision was made to contribute 1,000 taka per month towards the family of each student, to help them with food shortages.

The money given by regular sponsors continues to go towards supporting the students and the hostels, for when the students return.

Our sponsorship coordinators ask that we pray for wisdom, guidance and miraculous provision for the poor; that families would be strengthened and communities built up; that healthcare staff would be protected.

For more information on student sponsorship, email sponsorship@tranzsend.org.nz.

TAX RECEIPTS Receipts for donations to NZBMS have been sent by email to those with email addresses. Those whose email address we do not have will be sent a receipt by post. If you have not received a donation receipt, please contact the office at info@nzbms.org.nz or call 09 526 8444.

MISSION

TRIVIA ANSWE R

China—10 ,000 n

converts ew every da y.

(World E van Researc gelization h Centre )

N Z B M S

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R E A C H I N G

T H E

W O R L D

OPPORTUNITIES TO PRAY These are interesting times for our world; they are times when, however difficult life may be for us, there are nations whose people will face greater poverty and hardship.

People from the New Zealand Baptist family of churches live and work in some of these nations. Now, more than ever, is a time when our prayers are needed to encourage them and their work.

Please use these three headings as a basis for your prayers for our overseas workers and the people they live and work with.

SAFETY AND EFFECTIVENESS: Pray for the safety of those working overseas for NZBMS and other mission agencies. Pray also that they would have God-given wisdom to recognise the needs around them and be effective in meeting those needs.

THE LOCAL PEOPLE:

THE LOCAL CHURCH:

Pray for the local people, that they would have access to basic necessities during their time of lockdown and afterwards.

Pray specifically for the poor in nations like India and Bangladesh.

Pray that, in some way, they would see the light of Christ.

Pray for the local church in the regions where NZBMS is working.

It has always been NZBMS policy to partner with local churches and pastors, some of whom are now disconnected and struggling.

Pray that this will be a time of spiritual and physical strengthening.

If you want to receive regular prayer updates, email Jonny at info@tranzsend.org.nz and ask to receive our weekly prayer email.

Matthew

6:10

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