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The God of the harvest

By CCCNZ Ambassador Mark GraceIn Luke 10 Jesus sends out the 72.Jesus spells out the dangers and difficulties. The mission is dangerous.They are sheep amongst wolves. It’s difficult.  The sent disciples are reliant on others for hospitality.But the thrust and focus of Jesus' words is not on the dangers or the difficulties of being sent. Jesus’s focus is on the God of the harvest and the One who is sending them.We see God the Father, God the Son, and God the...

Are we being scattered?

By CCCNZ Ambassador Mark Grace Delta Level 2 is seeing more of us meeting together outside our facilities than in them. It’s plausible that there are new Covid variants coming. It’s possible intermittent lockdowns and level changes will continue. Is this our new normal? Are we being scattered? In Acts 8 God scatters his Church. What can we learn?  God is at the centre In Acts 1:8 Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit and states “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea an...

A disorientating time

It’s a disorientating time. Jessica O'Connor and Dion Reynolds were young Kiwi trampers who went into the Kahurangi National Park in Nelson/Tasman on May 8 2020. They got disorientated in thick fog. 19 days later Search and Rescue discovered them. Once Jessica and Dion knew they were lost they had a choice, either give into distraction and keep wandering, or concentrate and stay in one spot. In this time of disorientation I need to choose between distraction and concentrati...

Faith not Fear

"Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.” Acts 27:23–26An angel explains to Paul he must face Caesar but not fear him. Caesar who leads Rome, the ...

The resurrection changes everything

"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead our preaching is pointless and our faith is pathetic." 1 Corinthians 15:14 Where I grew up, I’d often see cars in driveways on blocks without wheels, the hood up and with no engine. Powerless and going nowhere. That’s the image of our faith, hope and future if Christ isn’t raised. Our faith is powerless, it’s pointless and we are to be pitied, if Christ isn’t ra...

Getting over ourselves

CCCNZ Ambassador Mark GraceIn 1 Corinthians 15:8-11, God’s grace to Paul leads to grace-fuelled gratitude, and this gratitude leads to Paul getting over himself! In verse 8, God’s grace comes to Paul in the person and presence of the risen Lord. In verses 10 and 11 God’s grace leads Paul to a recognition of who he was, gratefulness for who he is, and this leads him to get over himself incredibly quickly. Paul recognises who he was, but rests his identity in who Jesus is...

Jesus shows up

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 Jesus shows up. Jesus died. Jesus rose. The Scriptures validate it, and Jesus’ resurrection appearances attest to it… Jesus shows up to Cephas, then to the twelve, then the 500, then to James, the apostles, and lastly to Paul. The Risen Lord Jesus shows up. Jesus shows up to Peter, who had denied him only days earlier.Jesus shows up to the twelve. The bewildered, dazed, and confused disciples.Jesus&...

Of First Importance

CCCNZ Ambassador Mark GraceI do love these verses from 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve".At our heart, we are a movement of independent churches working together to point people to Jesus, through the gospel from the Scriptu...

Finding our identity in Christ

I was chatting with a couple of mums at a church camp recently. We talked about the growing pressure to be running your kids to sports, drama, arts activities... the list is endless! There seems to be a growing pressure to have your kids at everything.  Before the pandemic, experts identified that retirement savings were at risk. Why? Because of the level of travel photography on social media. The pressure to buy.The pressure to experience. The pressure to provide opport...

By this gospel you are saved!

"By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain". - 1 Corinthians 15:2 I appreciate this verse has three parts, but this morning, with the fire on and the sun about to come up, I got stopped at the first part: “By this gospel you are saved”.  Wow.  God, by his Spirit, saved me through Jesus’ death and resurrection. That never gets old to me! I know what I was saved from, and it’s...

Renew, Replenish and Reconcile

A Weekly Wrap from churches, campsite, support ministries and people around the wider movement, with CCCNZ Ambassador Mark Grace.  Over the next three months I’m going to begin each weekly wrap with a short note from 1 Corinthians 15.  'Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believ...

WOVEN TOGETHER: New Annual Report online

My mum had a much-loved kete. A kete is a woven flax bag. She would take it everywhere, especially to our family marae, Rangitahi Marae at Matata. She made it on the marae, and so it took on special significance for her. To make her bag, mum took each strand of flax and carefully wove them over and under each other, every fold increasing the strength of the bag as a whole.What’s remarkable about the bag is how ordinary it is—regular East Coast flax, woven together to become something spe...

AUCKLAND NEEDS NEW TYPES OF CHURCHES

By CCCNZ Auckland Mission Enabler Lui Ponifasio...

STREAMS OF LIFE ON THE AIRWAVES

Jeewan Dhaara means ‘stream of life’ in Hindi. It’s a fitting name for the Indian radio station streaming from LifeChurch Manurewa, filling South Auckland’s airwaves with testimonies, Bible teaching, prayer and gospel-saturated music. And like true living water, its presence has something of the supernatural to it. To start with, LifeChurch’s congregation is primarily Samoan but the station’s audience is Indian and Pakistani. Christopher and Dolly Kirubakaran met while working at Far...

TOGETHER WORKS BETTER: Encouraging Church Connections across New Zealand’s largest & most diverse city

Richard Fountain | CCCNZ Auckland Enabler When I was nine years old, I crawled under our house and found an old clock in a dusty box of junk. I happily dismantled the inside of the clock until screws, cogs and switches lay everywhere. I had one of those ‘what am I going to do now?’ moments. It was easier to leave all those pieces on the floor than to put in the time, energy, and skill to make it back into a clock that served its purpose again! Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland is such a diverse ci...

Sharing the back story: A legacy of nurture & generosity in Auckland

Movies use flashbacks, a cinematic dip into the past to explain the context of the story. In life there is always a back story—one of God at work. However, awareness of these stories can pass us by; even age does not guarantee insight. Service, love, and generosity can become invisible in routine. As Joshua led the nation of Israel through the dry riverbed of the Jordan River and into the land of Canaan he called them to take stones and set them up as signs, prompts for the people who expe...

YES, NO

CCCNZ Ambassador, Mark Grace...

TIME FOR A REST?

Imagine music with no rests. Continuous noise. Think elevator music on repeat—but even worse than that—no rests even within the music itself. Unceasing, constant sound. No pauses, no sustaining of notes, no breathing space. Music created with no rests would be hard on the ears, generate anxiety in the heart, and leave the listener overwhelmed and wanting to switch off and step away from the ‘music’ altogether.Why do we live cacophonous lives with no rests? We hurry from one thing...

A Hunger for More

Jackie Millar doesn’t often hear the words “joyful” and “prayer” together. But when joy is associated with times of communion with God, she says it signals to her that he is bringing people to life spiritually.  And even though this year has been marked by periods of social isolation, CCCNZ’s Prayer Coordinator says she has seen surprising signs of a culture of prayer in New Zealand’s church communities. “COVID has been a hard thing for many people,” she says, “but hones...

GROWING TOGETHER

“Over the last three years we’ve had our biggest growth; in unity, in people coming along, and in people growing in spiritual maturity.” At the end of 2017 the leadership of the Hukanui Bible Church bought a bulk order of Bibles and set the challenge - let's read through the entire Bible together in one year as a church.By the end of 2018, 60-70% of people from the church were reading through the Bible together. The youngest readers were 11-12 years old, and the oldest in their 70s. T...

THERE'S HOPE

Matthew 1:18-2:18 reminds us there is hope in a horrible year. Mary knows a horrible year. She’ll wear the stigma and shame of her pregnancy every day. The sideways looks, the pity, the growing distance between friends, conversations cut short.  Joseph knows a horrible year. The disappointment, the disgrace of Mary’s pregnancy, the shame and stigma that belongs to her now belongs to him. The Magi know a horrible year. These scholars/astrologers travel the difficult, months-long journ...

CHURCHES & CAMPSITES WORKING TOGETHER

Mark van Wijk grew up in a Christian home, regularly attending Sunday services. But the memory he has of coming to faith took place at a kids camp at Moirs Point in Northland. Many of his significant memories, as well as some lifelong friendships, trace back to Christian camps.  So it isn’t surprising that the community pastor for Summit Church in East Auckland is also involved with local Willow Park Christian Convention Centre. Over the past five years, he and Summit Church have intentio...

KEEN TO GROW IN MINISTRY TO FAMILIES?

Children and Family Ministries Enabler Julie McKinnon launched E-QUIP a few months ago. E-QUIP is an online-based training discussion group for people serving in Children and Family Ministries. Participants work through a book, then meet regularly via Zoom to discuss each chapter, set goals, share ideas, and encourage one another. Rongopai editor Sophia Sinclair caught up with three participants to hear more about E-QUIP works and what they’ve found helpful. Viki Johnson is employed full-time ...

GOD AT WORK

Rongopai Editor Sophia Sinclair caught up with Craig Barrow, Lead Pastor of City Bible Church in Hamilton to chat about how God is at work in the people of Kirikiriroa, Hamilton.  This year has been a pretty strange one for lots of churches and ministries, what have you noticed since the COVID lockdown?  Like other churches here in Kirikiriroa, we’re noticing a lot of people searching since lockdown—it’s not unusual to have 3-4 families visiting each Sunday. People have had t...

Auckland Regional Prayer Gathering 2020

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night at our Auckland Regional Prayer Gathering. 10 churches with people from across Auckland were represented as we came before our great God together in repentance, praise, prayer, and petition. A BIG thank you to all who contributed, and to Howick Community Church for hosting us....