Vicars Letter - 11 August 2023

Kia ora All Saints whānau,

I write this sitting in a motel room in Whangarei. I am here officiating at a New Zealand vs Australia Hockey Test series. You can watch it on TVNZ+ if you would like to follow along. It is to qualify for the Olympics and there is high drama and a seriousness about the test series. A seriousness to do the thing they were set about from their coach to do.

I have been reflecting recently and Bishop Justin spoke about it at Training Day. All over the world people are experiencing the same things: tiredness, lack of hope and a complex world. These are making the gospel hard to live out and even more hard to share. The key is we need to be passionate disciples of Jesus (All Saints Mission Statement). If we are as passionate about the gospel as the Australian hockey team are about qualifying for the Olympics - what would change?

So then it is about how do we become passionate disciples?
Lets reconsider the gospel message - have we got it right?
Lets pray to God to give us passion and confidence.
Lets continue to push in and stretch ourselves to day by day try something that pushes our faith. 

We (as Co-Vicars) continue to hope that our rhythm here encourages spiritual growth and transformation (the next part of our mission statement). As we gather in smaller groups we can study the bible, discuss faith and help hold each other to account to press into God and his ways. As we gather for worship and communion we can be reminded of God's grace, his provision and that in the end it is his praise that is important. As we push into Go Sunday we can remember that our faith is not meant to be a holy huddle but is to push out into spaces and transform our city, community and others. 

So I encourage you this week to continue to take one step in your faith and ask God to help you again step into that. As we each do that, we will communcally do that and try and live out that mission statement:
Passionate disciples devoted to Christ's kingdom transformation.