Kia ora All Saints

This week, we shift from our season of Eastertide to Ascension and towards the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. During this time, we join with the global church by participating in the 'Thy Kingdom Come' movement, a global prayer movement with a focus on praying for our world and for five people we know who we want to see come to know Christ.

So, who are the five people you are praying for? Friends? Family? Neighbor? Foe? Come, Lord Jesus!

This week, Rebekah Butterfield is preaching the last week of our Thy Kingdom Come series: save us from the time of trial! Deliver us from evil! This is a massive piece; the rubber meets the road here; from what are we being saved? What evil is in our world that we need delivering from? What about the nice things we like to do? Isn't that just who I am?

As we discussed the way she would teach this passage this week, Rebekah beautifully weaves in Jesus' own moment of living this out on his way to the cross: Dad, father, papa, please, honestly, if there is any way, let this cup pass, don't make me do it, you know I will but honestly, please. Of course, Jesus is referring to Jeremiah 25:15 and Isaiah 51:17, knowing the cost of our turning away from God.

This isn't condemnation; this isn't punishment for us! This prayer is a prayer of love, beauty, and grace! Come close to me; let's connect, offer yourself up, let the Lord protect you, and go with you. The greatest lie the devil ever told us was that we could do it alone! Never, we need the Lord, we need the Holy Spirit, and we need Jesus.

As we come to 9 am and House Churches this Sunday, come ready to lean in. Be confronted with the power of this prayer and the way it guides us to pray.

Next week, we start our 48-hour prayer vigil. Beginning on Friday at 10 am and going all the way through till 10 am on Sunday. Our Prayer vigil team encourages you to sign up for a slot of two, come alone, or gather others to go with you. There will be stations to guide you during your time. Quiet ones, action-based ones, and creative ones. We encourage you to really be open and prepared to hear from the Lord during this time; if you are sitting there thinking you don't know how to hear from the Lord, or The Lord doesn't speak to you, take a deep breath and prepare to be surprised there is no magic formula.

Travel safely if you are heading away for the long weekend. If you are in a House Church, I am praying for you and your group as you dive into this week's scripture. And if you come along to the 9 am service, I will see you there.

Love in Christ

Kia ora All Saints

I was struck this week at the depth of several conversations I have been having with people about the hunger and thirst for deep, lasting discipleship. Deconstruction has been a buzzword for the last several years; with the rise of influencers on the internet and big-name personalities that have documented their "Deconstruction" journey, there have been a sleuth of books about what is "deconstruction", and how it's been around since the dawn of time, think Adam and Eve int he garden with the serpent, questioning Gods truth to them. Overwhelmingly, one of the key antidotes to something or someone breaking apart your faith, and it reinforced over and over again, is our ability to learn, memorize, and understand scripture in our own lives and the lives of our community.

It's with such heart that I notice the rise in groups choosing to dive deep into the bible together, whether young adult groups, elderly groups, and all in between. Church, the word of the lord, is pressed upon us; it's in these places that we hear God's truths to us, identify freedom, liberation, and unity with Christ, we see how God has never given up on us. It's from this place that we can rebut the questions the evil one throws at us in an attempt not to remodel our theological house but to rip the whole thing down.

I recently read through a book called "The Deconstruction of Christianity," which I highly recommend if you are interested in or have people in your life wrestling with breaking down to nothing their faith in God.

It's from this place that I am in awe of our journey deeper into prayer together as a parish, through the Lord's Prayer, as we see a team of people set up our prayer vigil, as we look to the coming of the spirit at Pentecost, and as we pray for and support a team of people here at All Saints to set up, run and disciple through the 24/7 Prayer course coming soon.

Come, Lord Jesus.

I would love to highlight a few key dates on your calendar.

We have our Matariki Working bee coming up very soon on Friday, 20th June. We will be working around the grounds both inside and out; we will have a significant focus on the outside but will have enough jobs inside for those less mobile.

Please book Parish Camp for the weekend of Sept 26-28 into your calendar. Book your leave at work or from your rest home social club, and get your sleeping bags and your Bibles ready! It's going to be loads of fun.

Love in Christ

Kia ora All Saints

I have been pondering the phrase "Practice what you preach." We have all heard, thought, said, cussed, and muttered it. I was profoundly struck this week when I felt like it was put well and truly into action by Summer (a heroine of the faith in my eyes). God has called her and pressed upon her life a call to leadership, no doubt! And yet here she was saying, "For a season, I am going to take a break from vicaring and leadership to get myself and my family set!" What a radical stand, a moment that didn't just happen, one that required wrestling with oneself, family, and God, but one that will have a phenomenal impact for the kingdom going forward. One that resists the prompt of the evil one that says, "you'll be fine, why don't you carry on?", "Don't stop, otherwise people will think ill of you, right?", "You are your work, aren't you?", "Don't take a rest, God called you, didn't he? And you're meant to lay your life down at all costs."

Yet even the greatest biblical characters, even the Lord himself, said Hang on a minute, I need to take a break! Jesus withdrew to be with God, Elijah broke down and God tended to him, Jesus, following the wilderness, had angels come and tend to him. God is a restorer, a healer, a comforter; This has never been more evident in this season from one of our leaders. Take heart, everyone. Be inspired. As we seek unity with Christ, we are going to respond by serving and offering our lives, we cannot help it because we are compelled to serve the King, as Tony Hill mentioned on Sunday, but we are going to be redeemed, restored and healed at the same time and we cannot do that alone, we need God each other and ourselves.

Last year we looked at what it means to be an authentic community of Jesus followers, and this is a great example. Seek the comfort and support of others, and never be too proud to reach out.

Paul writes in Second Corinthians about asking the Lord three times to remove the thorn from his side, and the Lord responds with this; But he said to me, 'My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

You might be in a season of wrestling at the moment, you might be preparing for a season of wrestling, you might have just come through one and feel liberated and restored, wherever you are, know that in your weakness, he is strong and his grace is sufficient.

Gather with your people, read the word of God, pray together, and let's see God's Kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven.

Praying for you always, excited to see you Sunday at 9 am, or as you gather your House Churches, dig deep together, and I can't wait to hear the stories of God at work.

Love in Christ

Kia ora All Saints

Every time I prepare for and preach the word of God to the parish, that and this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, my heart is profoundly impacted and transformed. This series we have started and are journeying through on the Lords Prayer has been incredibly powerful. The pace of going slow and unpacking what it means to pray and how to pray and why we should pray is so rich. On Sunday, when Martha and I were leading our children at house church, there was a spirit of distraction when we were reading the bible together. We had a moment where we stopped and talked about the power of the bible and it being the word of God, and how we should pay attention to how it will impact our lives. We noticed a genuine shift in the attention and depth of these 5-10 year olds listening to the word of God.

In this same vein, I have been convicted recently about my own reverence or treasure for the word of the Lord, what am I going to do first thing in the day, is it scripture or the internet? The word is a lamp to my feet (Ps 119:105). Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Col 3:16)

I found myself each day, instead of reaching for my phone, reaching for the word of God for 5 minutes, sometimes a bit more, I get interrupted by the kids. Just the practice of making the first thing in the day the word of God has made a massive shift. There is power in the word of God. I recently stumbled across 22 questions John Wesley would ask alongside his morning devotion (Linked here), which are confronting and challenging but incredibly transforming. I encourage you to ask some of them.

This week, we have a special announcement at both services, so we encourage you all to be there for that if you can. (Find out more on Sunday)

This is a reminder to start signing up for the prayer vigil before Pentecost. (Link here)


Praying for you always, excited to see you Sunday.

Love in Christ

Kia ora All Saints

This week, I was fortunate enough to have a Zoom lunch with a friend who lives in another town; we asked each other what was inspiring one another at the present moment. As part of his answer, my friend went on to reveal this beautiful image of being abandoned to Christ; we are a blank canvas for God to paint on, as he is painting, not observing the painting but feeling the brushstrokes. I found myself sitting there wondering what that might be like. I started to imagine a blank canvas; was it a thick brush or a thin brush? What was God painting? The essence of our conversation was about not trying to control things but letting God control them.

As we work our way through our Lord's Prayer series over this season of Easter, we come with this posture. God is in control, not us; we are the canvas, and he is the artist; let us feel his brushstrokes.

It was such a gift to preach the word of God on Sunday, and I look forward to week 2 of our series this coming Sunday as we gather both at 9 am and in our House churches. We will be reading from Matthew 6:5-15 looking at specifically Matthew 6:9 "This, then, is how you should pray:
"'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

If you are interested in listening to week one, please click here; we are now recording our sermons in audio-only and uploading them to Spotify as a way for people to listen more easily and access them more readily.

Our Prayer Vigil team is well underway with preparations for our 48-hour prayer vigil leading into Pentecost.

You can start to sign up here for a slot, a reminder that they are one-hour slots minimum; you can either do them alone or with a group of people (unless pre-arranged, there is no joining random slots last minute. )
More information will come regarding the prayer vigil in the coming weeks.

Sign up here

Do you have a heart to serve? On May 25th, we are gathering all Ministry teams for training and team building. After the 10:30 am Central Gathering (lunch provided), gather your teams, invite others to join, and let's have some fun.

Love in Christ,