Vicar's Letter - 31 June 2022

Kia ora All Saints Whanau,

Last week we began our series on 'The Kingdom of...'. It is a series looking at the people who Jesus pronounces as blessed. He is talking to a crowd of people who would have thought of themselves as not worthy, thrown out, people who are unimportant, no one is looking to them for answers - these are the people who Jesus pronounces are the first to recieve in his Kingdom.

This week I also virtually attended a session on the idea that small groups change the world and in fact it is a major part of what Jesus focussed his time on - 12 people. It also talked about how we are naturally wired to look and spend our time focussing on the crowd.

It reminded me of the reason we believe in House churches and small groups. These are the places of transformation for us as Christ followers. These are the places where we are pulling each other along on the journey. These are where community and discipleship happen. What encouraged me about this is that we are doing this really well at All Saints. If you are not in one then please reach out and we can help you find a house church to be a part of.

This week Guy is bringing us the Sermon on 'Blessed are those who mourn.' Be sure to pick up a booklet if you havn't, not got one already and follow along with our series.

Coming up we are going to be looking at what does our future look like her at All Saints. What is the Flight Path going forward? We are inviting everyone in the Parish to help us with this task. There are 6 sessions designed to look at our Parish from 6 different perspectives including our profile of our Parishioners, our community we find ourselves in, our gifts and talents and our resources plus a few more. We want to do these six sessions starting June 24th at 3pm to 5pm with dinner afterwards. Kid minding will be provided and as many people as possible participating will get us the best result!

For now I will be praying for our House churches this week and may you be blessed in all you do.

Mā te wā
Andrew Spence