Ngā mihi nui ki a
koutou katoa o te parihi o Kaeo-Kerikeri Union, o ngā hāpori o
Whangaroa me Kerikeri hoki.
The prospect of
continuing on as your minister has got me pondering seriously, as
well as revelling in the delight of being able to stay. It's good not
to have to start again. But I know there need to be new starts here,
and important changes for us to make to ensure we are a sustainable
mission venture. I will definitely not be cruising to retirement!
When we left Methven
nearly ten years ago, I didn't want to leave, but parishes have often
felt it best to have a change of minister. Some in the parish would
be ready for change even if others would rather not.
Five years ago at
the first extension of my appointment I imagined getting to this
point in time and knowing it would be best to move on. Even though
we wouldn't want to leave and many strong relationships in parish and
community would have been built up, it would be right to go. It would
save the debate and the awkwardness, the mixed feelings with some
wanting me to stay and some ready for a change. And, if the wider
community really wanted me to stay, my choosing to go could save the
“bad look” of the parish saying “no”.
Of course, five
years ago I imagined that the new facility in Kerikeri would be
completed and bedded in as a great community venue and home for our
services.
Because that hadn't
happened, the circumstances required a rethink. Hence my first
expressing some time back in the privacy of church meetings a
commitment to stay on for the long haul, if I was wanted. As we
looked at the challenges of both the finances and the need to break
new ground in the kind of facility we were building, it seemed only
fair to commit to the hard work of making it work.
The decision to stay
on – and for the parish to keep me on – until 2019 therefore
needs to be a catalyst to re-think expectations. In some ways it
needs to be as if a new minister were starting. There's benefit in
the fact that we've got to know each other pretty well, and we can
build on what seems to me a good level of trust and shared vision, so
it's much easier than starting totally afresh.
The biggest risk is
that we expect only continuation of what we are familiar with.
These extra years
are our chance to find the way to turn into congregations that are
viable for the long term. We are not competing with other churches
who attract the numbers to belonging and believing. If that's what we
were, we would be best to heed Jesus' call to unity and merge with
them. We remain a separate strand in the fabric because we can offer
the gospel where it's not getting to now.
Our viability
depends on our point of difference as a church: connecting in a
unique way to people outside the walls of traditional church.
Traditional church
is a group of members who meet together, pray, sing, and socialise
together, and care for one another and for others. Many reading this
have long experienced church like this and find it very important in
their lives.
When we see church
only in this way, there is a real concern that, unless we get more to
join the group, our aging church family will get smaller and smaller
and eventually die away. The only known option to survival therefore
seems to be to get more members of the group.
Now, I didn't say
“club”, but that is one of the dangers of seeing church only in
this way. It is what we have inherited from the years in the mid 20th
century when church was a social success, before it became just one
among many social activities of choice.
Now the world is
different. Church can be caring family AND it can reclaim what it is
supposed to be – disciples (followers) of Jesus working together on
what he started. For the church to survive it must, before all else,
stay true to its mission of being Christ for the world around it.
Be the body of
Christ first and later we'll find ourselves needing to count the
numbers who want to connect to the body (to make sure there is room
for them).
My challenge to us
is to be a warm and caring body of people whose “welcome” means
two things: feel free to join in with who we are and what we do
together AND make yourself at home at our place, make our place your
place.
If our life together
is such that we offer space for people to grow, regardless of creed
or culture or anything else that usually divides us, then people will
want to join in.
In the words of Sir
Hemi (James) Henare of Otiria:
Tāwhiti
rawa tōu haerenga ake te kore haere tonu. Nui rawa ōu mahi te kore
mahi nui tonu.
We
have come too far not to go further. We have done too much not to do
more.
Shalom,
Robyn
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