Vicar Letter - 14th April 2023

Kia ora All Saints whānau
 
Easter has been and come for another year!!... or has it? Of course not! Easter goes for 50 days following Easter Sunday. What a treat. A good excuse to eat hot cross buns and easter eggs for a significant period of time, sounds good to me (Guy)! Oh and we celebrate the 40 days Jesus was on earth before he ascended to heaven and the 10 days between that up until Pentecost where we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

It always feels like the start of the year starts with a hiss and a roar! Before we know it we are into Lent and Easter and we blink and suddenly we are saying to each other “it’s April already, Lord have mercy” I mean I literally had that conversation this week.

Take a deep breath! Lean in! There is a bunch of things for us to dig into as a community coming down the line, that are both invitational and challenging.

Something ive been thinking about and this letter wont do it justice so am keen to flesh this out more with individuals and groups; is what is God calling me into as an individual and part of a team? Where are we going as a community and where are we resting in God in preparation of where God is calling us.
Something that is easy to fall into is the perpetual waiting… We don’t want to fall into the trap of drifting along not knowing, waiting, wondering and isolated from others. We are called to be in community, to walk this road together, we talked recently about discipleship and what that means in regards to whole of life and doing that alongside others, allowing each other to speak into our lives. How are we discerning Gods will for us together. As individuals, alongside our friends, as teams, missional communities reaching out to our communities, as a parish together as we establish and live out our DNA as missional disciples.

There is real excitement and joy as well as fear and trepidation as we live out our call as missional disciples of Christ. We know that Gods love drives out fear (1 John 4:18) and so what is holding us back from living out that call to reach out to those around us? Whether through community engagement, conversations, or action.
As we go through the Easter season together, leading up to the celebration of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and onwards through the year, let us not sit in the wondering, waiting or unknown, let us walk firmly in the hope that we profess and let us dream and scheme with one another about how we can get involved in a group/team/ministry that is going to push and pull us each closer day by day to the risen Jesus! What an adventure!

There are a number of ways to get involved in the Parish as part of our regular rhythms and worship together, Sunday Gathered worship engagement, House Churches, Midweek Hospitality, Childrens ministry, Rest home support. Or maybe you are passionate about starting a team of people who are out in our community building relationship and sharing the good news with people seeing their lives transformed in Jesus. Out on the edge of the parish, not alone being rouge, but with a team of others who are also heeding the call to reach those around them. We are use to being in the centre where everyone is gathered together but what does it look like to mobilise our people to the edges.

We are all part of the body of Christ and we all have a role and a part to play in the building of the Kingdom.

May we be renewed by the good news that Jesus died and rose again for us that we might have life, and may we be impassioned and emboldened to share that with those around us.

There is a lot for us to lean into and loads of places to find community where we can wrestle with what God is saying to us and what we are going to do about it.
 
Lean in, walk that road together, discover the risen Jesus together. 

If you want to talk more about where you might find a place to serve and live out your faith, feel free to email me and we can grab coffee! (got to spend that allowance somehow.)
 
Nga mihi
Guy