CCCNZ Ambassador Mark Grace joins Russell Grainger from PastorLink in sharing the news about PastorLink's new season:
Dear elders and leaders,
For 21 years PastorLink has served Pastors from churches with an Open Brethren Heritage.
One of the significant blessings of PastorLink has been the annual Pastors' and Spouses' Retreat held in Taupo. As a local church pastor the PastorLink Retreat has been a constant blessing to me. I am immensely grateful for Russell Grainger’s leadership of PastorLink, his support and care of pastors and his input into my own life.
Over the last year CCCNZ and the PastorLink team have been exploring the future. We’ve recognised we want to see: A relational network of pastors meeting across the country locally, regionally and nationally
- Mentoring and coaching of pastors
- A national leadership team of pastors
- Systems and supports to see the raising up of new pastors
- A network of recognised local support for pastors in need
- The dynamic sharing of resources and across the CCCNZ movement as others learn and grow
- An annual northern and southern Pastors’ Retreat for pastors and their spouses, along with a suite of other events and activities especially for pastors.
To make this vision a reality we’ve made the decision together to bring PastorLink into CCCNZ. This will make it possible for PastorLink to take advantage of the resources of CCCNZ and to more easily work towards this vision.
As Russell and I have chatted about this transition we’ve agreed that I (Mark Grace) will take up the leadership of PastorLink. As part of this process of transition I’ve asked Kerry Rickard--a Pastor at Kingston Street Community Church (KSCC) in Palmerston North--to invest in the development of the national leadership team and its implementation of the vision. Kerry will join the CCCNZ team 1 day a week (on secondment from KSCC) to do this.
Kerry comes from a long background in education and has more recently been a school principal. He is part of the eldership team at Kingston Street Community Church and has a passion for his own church family, and for pastors across New Zealand. We are delighted he is able to be involved.
We want to assure you that PastorLink will always be run by pastors for pastors, one of the founding kaupapa of PastorLink.
I’m delighted that Russell and the team will continue to give shape to the annual Pastors' and Spouses' Retreat and we are looking forward to Russell’s continued wisdom and input.
We are grateful to God for Russell and the team’s quiet, faithful service to us as pastors, and to the movement over 21 years and their passion for pastoral health.
It’s our prayer that the humble, Christ-centered, gentle, caring DNA of PastorLink given to us by the team and evident throughout its first 21 years would be the hallmark of the next 21.
Therefore, we’d value your prayers over the coming year. Please give thanks for all that God has done in and through PastorLink over the last 21 years and let’s ask him to do “more than we could dream or imagine” in the next 21.
If you’ve got any questions don’t hesitate to give us a call.
Warm regards,
Mark Grace & Russell Grainger.
