Leslie Scott (left) and Rebekah Reeve (right)
Rebekah Reeve and Leslie Scott met at the Ministry Summit in May 2021. Rebekah is the Worship Director at The Orchard church in Te Puke and Leslie serves as Communications and Music Coordinator on the staff team at Birkenhead Community Church (North Shore, Auckland).
Leslie met Rebekah’s co-worker Dot Trewhitt during the Admin Track, and when they were sitting down to lunch Rebekah joined them:
“When I found out that Bex is one of the music leaders at The Orchard we quickly realised we had a lot in common and the conversation just flowed so naturally. We are both so passionate about our music teams and music as a ministry... we were sharing stories back and forth and talking about tips and tricks we’d learned and just the joy we find in worshipping and leading the congregation in music”.
It was encouraging to meet someone similar at Summit, says Rebekah, “…it connected two pools of knowledge/experience, within the same ‘stable’ of thinking. When you find someone who fundamentally thinks the same and who reasons through problems with the guidelines and goals that you also go by, that speeds up the process of getting to know someone and makes helping each other more efficient, and fun!”
When they returned home at the end of Summit, Rebekah and Leslie started texting and using the video messaging app Marco Polo to share about their work at church, their music teams, favourite worship songs, and their kids and families.
“Since Summit we’ve been in touch heaps,” says Rebekah, “initially with lots of back-and-forth yarns and ideas related to ministry, but in a personal/family-life way as well. We’ve both been able to offer help, encouragement and just a listening ear to the other a whole lot”.
During the mid-year school holiday break, Leslie and her family stayed in an Airbnb just 12 minutes away from Rebekah.
“We both have three kids close in age and they all got on just as fabulously as their mothers! We went to The Orchard Church with them on Sunday, then spent the rest of the day together with our families. We spent every day with their family while we were there—playing at parks, swimming at hot pools, going on train rides...”
These kinds of connections are so important to have across the CCCNZ movement, says Rebekah:
“Just having a sounding-board on-hand to text ideas/problems to and to hear how they deal with that issue in their church can save so much time and planning. Even flicking basic things like spreadsheets, formatting, program run-sheets etc. These things all take so much time to think through and make changes to, so why not share the work we’ve done in one area with another church who are seeking to do the same? It saves everyone time, and probably money, and ultimately it helps build the Church nationwide”.
Leslie agrees, “I’ve found so much value in our connection and feel so blessed to have been at Summit and connected with Bex and lots of others from other churches. One really cool thing that’s happened since then is, with Bex’s encouragement, I started leading worship on Sunday at BCC—something I’d felt called to do for a while, but hadn’t had the courage to do before. It was amazing having her help me to take this step and praying for me every step of the way”.
