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LUTHERAN CHURCH OF NEW ZEALAND UPDATE Pitopito Kōrero o te Hāhi Rūtana o Aotearoa 8th July 2013

Kia tau ki a koutou te atawhai me te rangimarie o te Atua

願 父 神 所 賜 的 恩 惠 和 平 安 與 你 們 同 在

Grace and peace to you from God

SPEAK OUT FOR GOD; DOES THAT RING A BELL?

During this weekend just past (6th & 7th July) I was privileged to join with the members of St Pauls Lutheran Church in Christchurch to celebrate 25 years of God blessing them and allowing them to be a blessing in and to the suburb of Burwood.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was being able to present St Pauls with the bell from St Johns Halcombe which recently closed. However, we discovered during the weekend that the bell is still on its way … so I spoke to a large picture of a bell that Pastor David put on the PowerPoint screen instead.

I spoke about how church bells have primarily been used to call people to worship, and I made a connection with how the people of God are called and claimed in their baptism to be one of the means by which others are called to worship and to fullness of life in Christ.

Just over a month ago the St Johns bell rang for the last time over the village and surrounding farmland of Halcombe in the lower central North Island.

For the majority of the 138 years of St John’s Lutheran Church, this bell called people to worship and called people to life in Christ … or as Thomas Merton would say in his Thoughts in Solitude –

  • The bell says “rest in God and rejoice.”
  • The bell says "Christ is risen, Christ is risen!"
  • The bell says "God is good, salvation is not hard.  His love has made it easy!"

I’m not sure exactly what the members of St Pauls are going to do with this bell … whether it will be hung outside in a bell tower, or inside the building somewhere as a tangible reminder of the season of God’s good ministry at St John’s Halcombe.

Whatever they do with it, I encouraged them to allow the bell to remind them of the call and claim that God has placed on you as his people in this particular location … to be a community of faith that is –

  • Going in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the people of Burwood, Christchurch and beyond, making them disciples of Jesus Christ: knowing Christ; growing in Christ; serving Christ; sharing Christ; worshipping through Christ (St Pauls Mission Statement).

And my friends wherever you’re reading this, whatever congregation or community of faith you belong to you … this sort of thing should ring a bell. You already know this; this is the Mission Statement of God … it’s out there, just like a bell ringing … it’s public … it’s you, in the power of the Holy Spirit announcing to the world, announcing to your community that you exist to be the means by which others are brought to know and to live in Christ.

We read in the Word –

  • But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you – from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted (1 Peter 2:9-10, The Message).

So speak out for him, ring a bell; tell someone about Jesus!

Here is the (slightly modified) prayer we prayed as we handed the bell over at Halcombe just a few weeks back –

  • We thank you heavenly Father, for calling many to worship by this bell in the village of Halcombe, and we thank you for continuing to call us by your Holy Spirit to worship you. Continue to use this bell both to call people to worship here at St Pauls and as a reminder to this community of faith and to us all that you alone O God are good, and that you have chosen us to call others to the only good and abundant life there is … life in Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

LET’S SEE HOW THEY’RE DOING

We read in the Acts of the Apostles –

  • After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing” (Acts 15:36, New Revised Standard Version).

Planning is well underway for Shannon Hood and me to conduct an every-congregation-in-the-LCNZ visit in September. It’s a bit of a health-check visit, as the Word above says … we’re coming to see how you’re doing.

This visit grows out of the LCNZ Summit, facilitated by Shannon in 2010 –

  • WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT? It gave an opportunity for approximately 50 people from around the LCNZ to be asked questions by Shannon that got us thinking about how we could be most effective in sharing Jesus with the people of New Zealand.
  • WHAT HAPPENED? We were excited that God invited us to wrestle with the ways in which we are being his people – the Church … and we started asking what we might need to change in order for us to be able to do this.
  • WE SAID Let’s do it better! And we identified 5 initiatives to work at – 1. Increase Spiritual Depth 2. Increase Leadership Capacity 3. Improve Communications and Engagement 4. Develop a pro-active Mission Culture 5. Leverage our Assets to support Ministry and Mission
  • WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NOW? We’ve invited Shannon back, so that he and I can visit every congregation in the LCNZ to offer encouragement and support as each congregation considers the initiatives and works towards being a place where the love of God comes to life.

Information has been sent out to all pastors and leaders in LCNZ congregations in the last few days, and you’ll be able to read more about it in the next issue of the Olive Tree.

If you’re a member of the LCNZ, I encourage you to set aside the time when we will be at ‘your place’ and be prepared to be there when we visit, so that you can be part of God’s exciting future for his Church.

UPDATE ON PASTOR JOHN DAVISON’S FATHER

As many of you know, Pastor John’s father, David, has spent some time in hospital in recent days with a heart condition. Many of you have prayed for David during this time, and I’m delighted to share with you a recent email update from Pastor John on Saturday 6th –

  • Hi everyone, an update on my Dad, David Davison. Dad went home from Wellington Hospital late this afternoon. The pace maker was successfully installed yesterday. We thank God for his treatment and pray that his health continues to improve. Thanks again everyone for your prayers on his and our behalf. God bless. John.

THE HALCOMBE OFFERING

On the day when we closed St Johns we invited the LCNZ to contribute to a special thank offering which would go to a ‘new start’ ministry – the Village Bank in Cambodia. That offering amounted to $3000.

The new Executive Secretary of Australian Lutheran World Service, Chey Mattner recently wrote to me –

  • Dear Pastor Mark, Thank you for your email! 138 years is a very long time, and it’s hard to imagine the sadness of saying goodbye to a church where there must be so many stories and memories. That the people of St John’s and the Lutheran Church of new Zealand decided to think of others rather than themselves at this time is a good lesson for us all. We’re humbled with the gift and look forward to expressing our thanks in a more formal letter in the next week or so. Please pass on our thanks to those who contributed to this. In Christ, Chey Mattner.

LAY-WORKER POSITION AVAILABLE

Please be advised of the current lay worker position available: Warrambui Retreat & Conference Centre – Camp Director – Full Time. For further details go to: http://www.lca.org.au/employment-opportunities.

ON YOUR HEARTS – THE GROW MINISTRIES NEWSLETTER

Here is the web link for the June edition of On Your Hearts – the Grow Ministries newsletter (sorry for it reaching you a little late) – https://www.faithink.com.au/docs/on_your_hearts_june2013.pdf

Articles in the June edition include:

  • Learn, Play & Serve: Model all of these faith forming elements in your children’s and youth ministry--encourage families to be involved in service and fellowship events together within your learning/teaching structure. “For it is not a question of whether we are faith teachers or not, the question is what faith are we teaching.”
  • Renaming and Reclaiming a Faith Practice. An article by Debbie Streicher, an associate of Faith Inkubators and Vibrant Faith Ministries. “Providing tools and resources for people doesn’t mean they’ll ever use them. As a congregation, we became more intentional in everything we did.”
  • Re-thinking Child, Youth and Family Ministy: Grow Ministries first National Conference—5-6 September 2013, Brisbane, QLD. Guest presenters include Pastor Greg Priebbenow, Lead Pastor St John’s Lutheran Church, Bundaberg and Monty Lysne, Director of Discipleship Ministries, St Peter’s Lutheran Church Loxton.
  • H2H Training and Information Day: Saturday 7 September 2013. Brisbane, QLD. This is the day following the National Conference and will be filled with great information for the new and existing congregations. Monty Lysne, former H2H Director for Faith Inkubators US, will facilitate this day—don’t miss this great opportunity!
  • The Lord’s Prayer: On Sunday 28th July the Gospel reading is Luke 11:1-13—Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer. Spend some time during this week or the month of July praying The Lord’s Prayer in different ways…lots of suggestions on the back page!

Blessings, Jodi Brook – National Director of GROW MINISTRIES, LCA Child, Youth and Family Ministry

THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS; THE NEXT FEW

On Sunday 30th June I attended the Farewell Service for Dr Michael Semmler, retiring President of the LCA at Faith Lutheran College in Tanunda.

On Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd July I participated in the debrief interviews with pastors who graduated in late 2011, and on Wednesday 3rd, I participated in the first round of interviews with this year’s graduating class.

This weekend, Leanne and I will be attending the Installation Service for Bishop John Henderson in Hahndorf (near Adelaide). From the 21st-25th July I will be attending a College of Bishops’ Retreat in Brisbane, and then will attend a Mission Director’s meeting (also in Brisbane on the 25th and 26th July.

ANNUAL LEAVE

I am now on two weeks annual leave until Saturday 20th July. During my leave - if you have an administrative or urgent pastoral care need - you can contact the Assistant Bishop, John Davison (07 8395768) or the LCNZ Administrator, Robert Hagen (04 3852540).

Kia noho a Ihowa ki a koutou; the Lord be with you.

+MARK

Pastor Mark Whitfield BTh MSM

Bishop of the Lutheran Church of New Zealand / Pihopa o te Hāhi Rūtana o Aotearoa


Visit the Lutheran Church of New Zealand website

PO Box 12470, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

P: +64 (0)4 3852540 E: admin@lutheran.org.nz W: www.lcnz.org.nz

 
Visit the Lutheran Church of Australia website

197 Archer Street, North Adelaide SA 5006

P: +61 (0)8 8367 7300 E: admin@lca.org.au W: www.lca.org.au

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