August Newsletter
The lost art of reading
I grew up at St Timothy’s Anglican Church in Christchurch (my parents are still there, 60 years later). Regular attendance at Sunday School was rewarded with shabash cards—Urdu for “well done”. Five shabash cards earned you a book. So, from a young age, I was introduced to C.S. Lewis’s Narnia chronicles, Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword, Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place, and the groundbreaking stick-figure illustrations that brought The Good News Bible alive for me.
Those hard-earned shabash cards sparked a lifelong love of reading. This month, I have the pleasure of sharing my
“I’ve been reading” in this newsletter.
Reading offers glimpses into the lives of others, stirs the imagination, and both confronts and comforts. But it is, sadly, a dying art. A leadership programme I helped to establish 15 years ago included a reading list of 24 carefully curated books, one a month for two years. The reading pile is now much reduced, podcasts predominate, and we seldom stray far from the best-seller lists. If you fall behind, you can always try faking it with an AI-generated book summary; devastating for the authors among us.
In today’s attention economy, social media, streaming, and gaming compete for our focus. The quiet, self-directed art of reading suffers. Yet we are individually—and collectively as the body of Christ—impoverished when we fall out of love with books. So if it’s been a while since you last lost yourself in a good read, I encourage you: pick one up and see what happens next.
Two small requests, please:
1. Among our community are several published authors. I’ve just read:
- The Circle: Careers with Impact by Steven Moe; his picture book for adults, The Apple Tree, is beguilingly profound.
British Philanthropy in the Globalising World by Roshan Allpress
Perfect in Weakness: Disability and Human Flourishing in the New Creation by Maya Whittaker – both newly published and highly praised.
If you’ve published a book, article, or podcast you’d like us to promote, please let us know.
2. We’d also love to hear your “I’ve been reading” recommendations—please do get in touch if you’re open to sharing.
Ngā mannakitanga
Chris Clarke
CEO
P.S. If you haven’t yet discovered the Libby app, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Free to anyone in New Zealand with a library card, it offers thousands of e-books to borrow—including most of the titles mentioned above.
Lunch and Learn
Christian Communication Principles for our Cultural Moment
It's not too late to join our next Lunch and Learn webinar with John Watson, Founding Director of Good Mahi.
Drawing on his background in journalism and PR, John will introduce the Seven Guiding Christian Communications Principles—blending biblical wisdom with practical tools to help Christian organisations communicate clearly and faithfully.
Date: Friday, 29th August
Time: 12:00–1:00pm
Lunch and Learn
Legal "Ask me Anything"
Join us this September for an interactive “Ask Me Anything” session with Steven Moe, Partner at Parry Field Lawyers and expert in “for purpose” organisations.
We will cover any legal topics you bring; feel free to send your questions in advance
Steven also hosts the Seeds podcast (426 episodes and counting) and Board Matters podcast for the Institute of Directors. Don’t miss this chance to tap into his expertise.
Date: Monday, 15th September
Time: 12:00–1:00pm
Boardcraft – Governing for Impact
Last month, 27 participants attended the first of two governance workshops led by international governance expert Dr Peter Crow. It was an outstanding and fast-paced day, filled with practical advice, insightful anecdotes, and good humour. The afternoon focused on a crisis-governance case study and the key lessons for leaders navigating challenging times.
The second workshop, taking place in early August, will build on this foundation and explore how Jesus shows up in the boardroom.
We’re open to hosting further governance forums if there’s interest and are also planning a dedicated workshop for board Chairs, led by Peter Crow.
If you’re interested in either opportunity, we’d love to hear from you.
Save the date for 'Good News for Aotearoa'
Encouraging Evangelism across New Zealand
We’re gathering evangelists, gospel workers, and ministry leaders from across Aotearoa for two catalytic days — and we’d love you to be there.
It will be a time to be encouraged and inspired in your work for the Lord, as well as an opportunity to meet others from across the motu who feel called to share the Lord’s heart with those around them.
Speaker: Jon Hori
Date:
10–11 October 2025
Location: The Journey, Greenlane, Auckland (1 Marewa Road, Greenlane)
Cost: $80 per person (waged), $50 (unwaged)
Purchase your tickets below or read more in our information pack.
Wilberforce Foundation Christian Leadership Scholarships
Applications close soon
The Wilberforce Foundation Scholarship Committee grants scholarships to students who show leadership potential in the Christian sphere.
Scholarships are granted for a 12-month period.
Learn more on our website
Applications close: 15th September
Lunch and Learn
Good News: Sowing Seeds of the Gospel in Your Context
If you couldn’t make it to Good News: Sowing Seeds of the Gospel in Your Context, the recording is available—click below to watch it.
This session brought together a fantastic panel of ministry leaders who shared how their evangelism training can help equip your team to share the good news of Jesus with confidence, care, and clarity—no matter the context.
Panellists included:
– Esther Greenwood & Isaac Graham (Christians Against Poverty)
– Kevin & Lisa Wood (Athletes in Action / Tandem Ministries)
– Micah Thompson (Catalyst Movement)
– Brian & Stephanie Bullen (The Wayfinders)
If you’d like to go deeper, you can also sign up for further training with any of these amazing organisations.
In this section of our newsletter, we invite a leader within our network or team to share what they've been reading lately.
This month, Chris Clarke shares his must-read books for Christian leaders. Here are a few of his top recommendations — but first, a little about Chris.
About Chris Clarke
Chris oversees and manages all aspects of the work of the Wilberforce Foundation. He also functions as a key support to the leaders and organisations that partner with the Wilberforce Foundation. organisations.
Remember if you’ve published a book, article, or podcast you’d like us to promote, please let us know.
We’d also love to hear your “I’ve been reading” recommendations—please do get in touch if you’re open to sharing.
Kāwai: Tree of Nourishment - Monty Soutar
This is a wonderful work of historical fiction. It covers the period from pre-colonisation Aotearoa through to the arrival of the missionaries and the signing of te Tiriti o Waitangi. Soutar, a historian by profession, draws on diaries, letters, oral traditions, and archaeology in his rich yet unflinching depictions of warfare, family and village life, conflict, and utu. His chapters detailing the arrival of the missionaries and the gospel of forgiveness are reason enough to read the book.
A detail I especially appreciated was the use of bilingual dialogue, with direct speech first presented in te reo Māori, followed by English translations. Kāwai: Tree of Nourishment is the second book in the Kāwai series, with the third yet to be published. You can jump straight in with the second book, as each volume largely stands alone.
The Scandal of Leadership - JR Woodward
Growing up in the 1980s charismatic renewal, I received a lifetime’s worth of principalities-and-powers theology and ever since have tended to shy away from giving too much credence to these themes. That is, until I heard J.R. Woodward speak at this year’s Little Revolutions conference.
The Scandal of Leadership is a summary of his PhD thesis, in which he explores themes of power and control and their contribution to recent high-profile ministry failures. I enjoyed being reintroduced to the writings of Wink, Stringfellow, and Girard, and their analysis of the powers. Scattered throughout the book are some wonderful examples of missionary leaders—such as Oscar Romero—who modelled the even-more-scandalous leadership of Jesus.
Woodward’s aim is to present a robust theology of the powers and to unmask their presence in church life. He argues that the only path for Christian leaders is to adopt a self-emptying spirituality, one that reshapes their desires and forms them as Christlike servants.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder - David Grann
I’m a big fan of narrative non-fiction, and this one is hard to beat. It recounts the tale of a disastrous 18th-century British campaign to capture a Spanish galleon, which ends with the crew of The Wager shipwrecked off the coast of Chile. Many months later, a bedraggled, half-starving group of survivors turns up in Rio de Janeiro. They are hailed as heroes until a few months later when a second boat arrives carrying even more emaciated sailors, including the ship’s captain, who accuse the first group of mutiny.
Meticulously researched and beautifully written, David Grann's book tells a gripping tale of heroism and despair, scurvy and starvation, mutiny and murder. This is held together by an extraordinary court martial tasked with determining what really happened and who should hang.
Read it for the story alone, but especially for the powerful themes it explores: the hubris of empire, the limits of loyalty, the abuse of power, courage, and cowardice.
The Starbridge Series – Susan Howatch
Seldom do I reread novels, but this series I’ve read three times. Across six books, Susan Howatch recounts the history of the Church of England throughout the twentieth century. All of the various main characters represent a different theological tradition, from the pre-war optimism of liberal theology and Anglo-Catholicism through to the charismatic renewal of the 1980s.
Each central character experiences a crisis of faith, often self-inflicted, and is offered a redemptive moment. Not all take it, and their families and congregations bear the consequences.
Start at the beginning with Glittering Images—the story of a gifted young bishop who seems to have it all, but is ultimately undone by his own ego and ambition.
C S Lewis: A Life - Alister McGrath
I’ve read most of the biographies on C.S. Lewis, and this is undoubtedly the best. What sets it apart is that Alister McGrath, formerly Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford, examines all of Lewis’s archival material. It paints a far more complex, eccentric, and impulsive picture: a Lewis who taught medieval English literature by day and wrote best-selling theology and children’s books by night.
Expect your rose-tinted glasses to lose some of their tint as McGrath explores the reasons behind the growing estrangement between Tolkien and Lewis. I loved the hints of autobiography hidden in plain sight within the Narnia books. You will also be moved by Lewis’s lonely passing (and perhaps bored witless by an extended chapter challenging the date of his conversion!).
That criticism aside, I loved this book. It gave me a much more rounded and humane understanding of C.S. Lewis—and of God’s grace in his life.
Love Wins – Rob Bell
Few Christian books have stirred as much controversy as Love Wins by Rob Bell. Published in 2011, it became a New York Times bestseller, ended Bell’s pastoral career, and sparked global debate about heaven, hell, and the nature of God’s love. That's some foreword.
Personally, I find N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope and The Day the Revolution Began more theologically satisfying. But when an old friend told me he couldn’t believe in a God who would separate a loving parent from their children for eternity, I knew where we needed to begin.
Now, we’re reading Love Wins together over Zoom—just a chapter or two at a time. Bell is asking the same questions my friend is wrestling with. It’s a challenging read for someone from my tradition, but his closing words still move me 14 years on:
Love is what God is,
Love is why Jesus came,
and why he continues to come,
year after year to person after person.
… May you experience this vast,
expansive, infinite, indestructible love
that has been yours all along.
May you discover that this love is as wide
as the sky and as small as the crack in
your heart no one else knows about.
And may you know, deep in your bones, that love wins.
Wilberforce Community Newsletter
If you have any announcements, stories, or events you’d like to share with our community, please send them to us.
All articles should be sent to news@wilberforce.org.nz
Deadline for article submissions: The 9th of every month.
The newsletter will be distributed on the 16th of every month.
Thank you for your continued engagement, and we look forward to hearing from you.
