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Rest. Connect. Be Refreshed: CCCNZ PastorLink Retreat

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Growing a mustard seed culture

Lyndon Frost is 5-months into a new role at Te Awamutu Bible Chapel—there’s a huge amount he could be doing, and likely is, but I'm delighted he’s chosen to meet weekly with two blokes in their early 20s, each are FAT… Faithful, Available, Teachable.  With one young guy he’s reading 1 Samuel—exploring what type of literature the book is, how the book points to Christ, and what heart issues the Holy Spirit is revealing. With the other young guy ...

1000 God Stories in 2019

Chapel Hill Community Church in Waikato is collecting 1000 God Stories in 2019. What’s a God Story? Those moments where we notice God at work in our lives, in big ways and small ways.  The Chapel Hill community has committed to simply asking together: ‘What is God doing in our lives?’ and being prayerfully expectant to see the ways he is active. "It’s about seeing God’s fingerprints in every area of life," says pastor Philip Renner. The church has set up a special email ...

Person first, pastor second

“I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Romans 1:11-12 There is a shared desire among many pastors—to be loved as a member of the church family first and as a pastor second. To be loved and cared for as an individual or couple in the first instance rather than having every relationship being under the label, title, and role of pastor. Pastors and pastor...

Developing leaders and planning for succession

By Jeremy Suisted Over the past six months, I’ve noticed that almost all of the churches across our movement—big and small, urban and rural—are struggling with the same issue. Leadership development and succession planning.  We can tend to focus on developing our own leadership skills and capabilities, and yet neglect focusing on transitioning our leadership.  This is a gap in many of our leadership teams—and one that takes dedicated time and energy to overcome. The...

After the Nelson fire

Hope Community Church (HCC) Lead Pastor Daryl Bay reflects on the way God has been at work in their church and in their community over the past two months—since a major bushfire in the Nelson-Tasman region swept over 2343 hectares to become one of the country's biggest blazes.  “After the Nelson fire, the firefighters were concerned about ‘hotspots’—unseen embers buried deep in the ground which were at risk of being fanned into flames and then a blaze. When you think ...

After the Fire

Hope Community Church (HCC) Lead Pastor Daryl Bay reflects on the way God has been at work in their church and in their community over the past two months—since a major bushfire in the Nelson-Tasman region swept over 2343 hectares to become one of the country's biggest blazes.  “After the Nelson fire, the firefighters were concerned about ‘hotspots’—unseen embers buried deep in the ground which were at risk of being fanned into flames and then a blaze. When you think...

This year's YOUTH SUMMIT: Longevity

If you’ve ever been through the process of replacing a staff member who has resigned, you’ll know it can be a difficult and costly process. Not only are you faced with having to rework a job description, advertise for applicants, interview them and then make a decision, but you’re then having to prop up a ministry and then help a new person transition into a role without the ministry suffering.  If you’re employing a youth pastor or if you have a valued key leader who is doing an ef...

FIRST Training

One of the most satisfying experiences for any elder or pastor is to watch a young person in their church come to faith, begin a journey towards leadership, and then to go on to begin making a real impact for the Kingdom. As leaders, we have a responsibility to not only hope and pray it happens – we need to be willing to be proactive and do all we can to make it happen.  Every church needs to be looking at ways to help young people discover the exciting truth that God wants to u...

PRAY FOR CHRISTCHURCH

Please be praying for the people and families affected by the tragic events unfolding in Christchurch this afternoon, Friday 15 March. Please pray for the medical staff at the hospital as they care for the wounded, and for the police as they protect the public and seek the perpetrators. We are horrified by the violence and hatred of this event, and utterly condemn the evil motivating it. We stand in grief with our Muslim neighbours at this time.   ...

Leadership Links

Leadership is a journey, and one in which we want to continue growing our skills in. When a leader’s growth plateaus - or worse, stagnates - the people they are leading are the ones who suffer. Paul urged the church at Colosse to work with all their hearts at whatever was in front of them. If you’re a leader - that includes your leadership. There’s no shortage of fantastic books and online resources to help up-skill your leadership, but we wanted to share a few that we’ve found helpful i...

Manawatū District Rally Camp 2019

It’s Sunday morning at 9 am. 130 Rally children and 40 leaders are at Forest Lakes on the Kāpiti Coast. The children and leaders are from rallies in Levin, Feilding, Marton, Crossroads (Palmerston North), Kingston Street (Palmerston North) and Church on Vogel (Palmerston North). The kids are laughing, singing, and competing with each other. There’s a fantastic vibe in the room. Amazing puppets, fantastic multi-media, and fun games set the scene as children’s evangelist Ray Cooper&nbs...

Three things to help engage young adults

By Coaching Coordinator Jeremy Suisted In 1964, Bob Dylan crooned that “the times they are a-changing.” In a world of nuclear missiles, television, jet-travel and a growing consumer market, Dylan recognised that the world he was part of was wildly different to the environment his grandparents were accustomed to. 45 years later and we would think that Dylan’s sentiment was a little too conservative. The times don’t seem to just be changing—they seem to be constantly in flux, with ne...

PREPARE

Here'a downloadable resource available to email or print for a young person you know who might be preparing to leave home for uni or training in the near future. ...

Responding to terror with clarity, hope and the comfort of the gospel

In 1 Timothy 4:1-3 Paul gives Timothy a wise framework to face a demonic and destructive teaching, a clarity about what confronts him and the comfort and hope in the gospel to respond.In seeking clarity, Paul identifies the source of the destructive teaching, how it spreads, and what it teaches. It’s a thoughtful way to approach what now confronts us as a country. On Friday we entered a new New Zealand.  The massacre of 50 people and the injuring of almost 50 more is an unprecedente...

Who are the next generation of leaders among you?

The team at Hope Community Church (HCC) in Nelson took a month out to pray and seek to see where God’s Spirit might be leading them to grow as a church. They listened. They waited.  During this month, one of the elders—who was also serving as Outreach Pastor—sensed the Holy Spirit prompting him to go out from HCC to serve at another church nearby: Tasman Bible Church. He told the elders at HCC and they continued to pray and seek God.  That week, an elder at Tasman Bible...

CHANGE THE UNIVERSITY, CHANGE THE WORLD

Dunedin is one of New Zealand’s most ‘infamous’ student cities… burning couches, wild parties, creative thinkers, and people studying medicine… So, what does day-to-day life look like for those serving in Christian ministry to students at Otago? Rongopai Editor Sophia Sinclair caught up with Jandre Niehaus, who—along with wife Micaela—is a Team Leader for Student Life; and with Simon and Rosie Sim, who work with Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (TSCF). Both ...

Waitangi Day Reflections 2019

As part of their CCCNZ commitments PastorLink Enabler Kerry Rickard and Ambassador Mark Grace had the privilege of attending Waitangi Day 2019. "What a joy! The green shoots of new growth and new life in the treaty relationship evident 5 years ago at Waitangi are budding across Waitangi Day 2019 in so many ways.  At the heart of that is the work of the Spirit of God working through the gospel and the people of God.  Some of the buds include: 140 Christians from a group who have volunte...

Youth leadership Development Day: Canterbury

A big thank you to Rutland Street Church for hosting a combined CCCNZ churches Youth Leadership Development Day. Youth Leaders and Children's Leaders from four churches across Canterbury came together for a day of training and teaching. Interested in hosting something similar in your region? We'd love to chat! Give Youth Enabler Murray Brown a call: 027 841 5321...

Youth Leaders: How ready are you?

Check out CCCNZ Youth Enabler Murray Brown's helpful checklist for Youth Leaders/Pastors to prepare for the year ahead... are you ready for 2019? Download the printable PDF here....

An Unexpected Opportunity

In July 2017 Reuben and Evelyn Smith began to pray and seek the Lord’s guidance over a two-year plan for their family’s future. Motivated by their love for the gospel and spurred on by a heart for Paraguay (where Evelyn was born and grew up) they committed to regularly praying and connecting with local leaders there, with the plan for Reuben (who works as a high school teacher) to make several trips over to bless and encourage the church. During this time God worked unexpectedly to bring Sou...

How God used an earthquake to bring two churches together

Immediately after the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, Rutland Street elder Lincoln Rout attended a gathering of pastors and church leaders. During the meeting Baptist leader Murray Robertson encouraged leaders in the west of Christchurch to connect with leaders on the east—where quake damage was the greatest, and the communities hit the hardest. “As I looked across the room it occurred to me that I knew of assemblies out east, and their leaders typically wouldn’t have been p...

Connection Point

CCCNZ Communications Manager Sophia Sinclair caught up with Matt Cameron and Alistair Pike from Church Street Chapel in Timaru to learn more about how a local hostel for international students became a connection point for multi-cultural ministry. Tell me a bit about the history of the hostel and how it all runs: how many students, and how long has there been a connection with the church? The hostel was bought in about 1995 by a member of the local fellowship, Mr David Bruce,  who then sol...

A tribute to former CCCNZ Board Member Ian Elliott

It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge the death of Ian Elliott, aged 72, who passed away suddenly and peacefully on Tuesday 8 January 2019 at Waikato Hospital after a short illness.  Ian was a vibrant and active member of our trust board, having only recently stepped down, he remained a strong supporter of CCCNZ.  We valued his wise counsel and insight, and he will be greatly missed by the CCCNZ wider community. Ian was a man of faith in Jesus Christ and this was the fo...

God qualifies the called

In 2016 Mihiwai and Renata Te Aho decided to approach the assembly and elders about running a youth night at Tauwhare Gospel Chapel. Mihiwai and I have lived at Tauwhare Marae for 32 years. We have four sons and six grandchildren. Mihiwai and I fellowship at the Tauwhare Gospel Chapel which is located at Tauwhare Marae. Both Mihiwai and I believe God has called us to do his work to help our youth get to know about Jesus, for it was when we were young that we too heard about Jesus at youth night...