Church

The Director of the Leadership Development Network, the Rev. Murray Robertson, spoke on the "glass ceiling" of church growth at a recent network gathering. The following is a summary of his talk. .................................... Two things have struck me about churches in New Zealand. Firstly, a huge level of churches are imploding. A major factor in many is that the leadership is controlling, rather than empowering. Second is the mystery of glass ceilings. Why do churches grow to a certain point and then stop for no apparent reason? Although I don't think the ultimate goal should be numerical growth, but to be effective agents for the Kingdom. If we do this, churches will grow. There seem to be four principal ingredients driving growth in a church:
Preaching. I don't think preaching is valued in our culture. In many churches I have visited, the senior pastor was not doing the preaching. I don't think you will find a thriving church where preaching is not valued. It's through preaching that vision gets communicated. If you don't have vision, you get frenzy. A sense of belonging. There needs to be an adequate small group ministry to connect people. A commitment to mission. Without mission, you are just spinning the wheels. Structure. Structure - the way the church is organised - is a problem in many places. The structure may be adequate at first, but as the place grows, the structure does not change, which can inhibit growth. As a rule of thumb, every time...

The South Sea Evangelical Church (SSEC), based in the Solomon Islands, has severed ties with one of its ministers, Michael Maeliau, because of what it considers to be heretical teachings. The Church's bishop, Matthias Lima, said the leadership of SSEC has had discussions with Mr Maeliau over a number of years concerning his teachings. However, he had chosen not to change his position, and the Church no longer recognises him as an ordained minister. The national director of visionnetwork, Glyn Carpenter, said he is saddened by this development. Mr Carpenter also serves as the current chairman of the South Pacific Evangelical Alliance, which is the regional body of the World Evangelical Alliance. At one time, Mr Maeliau was president of the Evangelical Fellowship of the South Pacific, which was the previous name of the South Pacific Evangelical Alliance. As chairman of the SPEA, Mr Carpenter is well acquainted with the history involving Mr Maeliau. Mr Maeliau had left the EFSP in 2004 after issues were raised about some of his teaching. He had continued to run prayer assemblies around the Pacific, but considerable tension had developed in some of the island nations over issues that have obviously now come to a head. The name change to SPEA was caused partly by the need to make a distinction between the two movements. Mr Carpenter said he was sorry to see the situation had reached the point of the SSEC publicly announcing their position regarding Michael, but he hoped they...

The Inter Church Working Party and Anglican Tax Unit has just sent out its latest review of motor vehicle rates, as follows: The vehicle reimbursing rates are based upon the 2009 AA review of costs. We are not proposing any change to the rates we calculated last year and have reproduced below the 2008 update Memo. The 2009 AA survey shows an overall reduction in costs of about 9%. Much of the reduction in costs comes from lower financing costs (ie, lower interest rates). Our formula gives less weight to financing costs as often the church is bearing at least some of this cost, and so our calculation is less sensitive to reductions in this area. In the context of the wide range of circumstances these rates are used the small changes in costs are not significant, and the existing rates as below are still fair to employer and employee. The suggested (maximum) reimbursement rates be the following (present rates in brackets) -
• up to 14,000 km annual running for all purposes - reimburse work running at 65 cents (64 cents).
• up to 20,000 km annual running for all purposes - reimburse at 53 cents (52 cents).
• up to 26,000 km annual running for all purposes - reimburse at 46 cents (44 cents).
• for mileage beyond chosen band range - reimburse at 25 cents (22 cents). Alternatively, the flat rate of 36 cents (32 cents) per km can be paid for unlimited running (ie without the need to record annual mileage and be concerned about exceeding a chosen band). Notes: Read More...

Religious liberty is not in imminent peril in the West. In both global and historic terms, countries like New Zealand enjoy a healthy measure of religious freedom. But there is no need for complacency.

These slides formed part of a presentation by Visionnetwork National Director Glyn Carpenter at the Equipt Conference (April 2009) co-hosted by the NZ Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, and Nazarene churches, and the World Methodist Evangelism Institute.

Ever since the concept of “city church” was explored as a major theme at the 2008 Vision Network Congress, I have become even more convinced about its importance for New Zealand.  Jesus’ prayer for unity “that the world will know ...” has a clear application among churches in a city (or town or nation) as well as within the individual churches themselves.But I am equally convinced about the importance of pastors, ministers, and other Christian leaders (e.g. local government, business, and education), discerning how God might work this out in their particular town or city, rather than trying to apply any one prescription or formula.We have put a lot of emphasis to date on city-wide prayer summits and regional roundtables.  These are still important and we look forward to many more in months and years to come.But God can always be doing different things with different groups, so it is useful to consider alternatives.Two alternatives which emerged in forums at the end of 2008 are strategic planning and conversations. Some groups are “primed for action”. This doesn’t mean they don’t pray or converse together.  It may be that they feel they've already done enough of these in other settings.  Or maybe they are wired to sense or outwork the presence of God in different ways.  Whatever the reason, they are groups ready to think through issues of strategic planning, and move to action.Other groups may need to grow relationships through conversation. This is a highly...

Wednesday November 26, about 20 Christian leaders from around the nation gathered at the Baptist Tabernacle to pray and dialogue regarding unity in our  towns, cities and nation. There was representation from Tauranga, Hamilton, Lower Hutt, Wellington, Christchurch, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Northland, and various parts of Auckland. Leaders were encouraged as they met and listened to other leaders, some of whom they had not met before. All had a similar desire to see a greater realisation of oneness in Christ’s body in New Zealand. Regarding the way forward phrases were heard such as, ‘cooperation not competition,’ ‘relationship and trust are vital,’ ‘we must resist the tendency to function independently,’ ‘repentance is a key to freedom and oneness,’ ‘worship and prayer are essential,’ ‘only the Holy Spirit can bring true oneness.’ Glyn Carpenter shared regarding Vision Network and what it has to offer the church in the nation as a connecting point, a base for, raising issues, dialogue, support etc. The day finished with participants partaking together around the Lord’s Table. A final comment was made, ‘We need more forums of this kind on a regular basis.’  Colin Shaw 

18 leaders from sectors including disabilities, evangelism, marketplace, church, cross-cultural mission, conflict resolution, environment, sports, community, theology, and music, gathered together in Auckland to discuss ways to bring about Christian transformation in New Zealand society. The discussion was facilitated by Glyn Carpenter, national director of Vision Network, and based around a presentation by Viv Grigg of his paper "Envisioning a Cultural Revitalisation". Much discussion focused on the amount of structure implied in the paper. Some leaders found the amount of structure useful while others found it too prescriptive. The conclusion on this issue was that some situations called for more structure than others, and some personalities were more comfortable with structure than others. As with the men of Issachar, the challenge for leaders is to "know the times". Those gathered were challenged to engage the key points in the paper, particularly the need for theological reflection on issues within their sector and the identification of a core group of leaders who can develop a vision for their sector and strategise how to move that vision forward. There is a plan to meet again in 2009 to discuss activity across the sectors. To view the discussion document click on the link below http://www.visionnetwork.org.nz/the-church/cross-cultural-mission/234-envisioning-a-cultural-revitalization.html Glyn...

The following comes to you as one of a series of papers drawing from the chapters of the recently published Vision Congress ‘08 book New Vision New Zealand Volume III.

A Study Guide on "The Church as a Redemptive Community" chapter by Murray Robertson in the 2008 Vision Congress book.  Lindsay Jones is developing these study guides for pastors and lay people looking to apply the material from the 2008 Vision Christian Leaders Congress.