Deacons Letter 17th September

​Kia ora All Saints family!

I (Guy) have had two really challenging and exciting conversations this week. One with several people from the diocese, and one with a new friend from Te Pīhopatanga o Te Tai Tokerau (Maori Diocese of Northland). In both of these where we were talking and dreaming around how to best continue to be the church in this environment when the worship in the Temple – in big gatherings - is not a viable option. There is a Maori proverb that says Ka mua, ka muri: Looking back in order to move forward. For us in this environment it’s important for us not to think of some new snazzy way of doing things but rather about looking backwards to go forwards. We have felt that during this time the establishment of house churches is our greatest vehicle of discipleship and stability as a parish.

This week I sent out a detailed newsletter on how this is going to be rolled out over the parish and how you can get involved. You can find that here.

As we establish this house church network in our parish we are excited by the way we can continue to connect with each other and our communities. There are three things that we feel are really important to the culture that is being embedded into our parish and our groups; these are UP, IN and OUT. UP = our relationship with God, Jesus centred, reading the word of God. IN = Authentic community, discipling one another, sharpening one another, connecting, relationship. OUT = Being missional, reaching those in our community, creating on-ramps for people who don’t know Christ.
Our passion and desire is to see each person , family and group grow and be discipled closer to Christ, closer to each other, and closer with the community around us.

We know this is big and new for most of us so I want you to please feel free to call or email me if you want to chat through anything that stands out.
 
Every Blessings,
Guy, Summer, Emily and Andy.