Napier Baptist

Last week I was asked, as a recent graduate of Carey Baptist College, by Charles Hewlett (Director of Ministry Training at Carey), to write a brief article (250ish words) on how Carey prepared me for pulpit ministry at Napier Baptist. It was for a College publication called The PLer (that gives information about Pastoral Leadership training at Carey) to go out to NZ Baptist Pastors. I was honoured to be asked, and a little daunted, but found I really enjoyed reflecting on the question. Below is my brief entry:

Someone once told me that preachers can tend to fall into two categories: those who have something to say but don’t know how to say it and those who know how to say it but have nothing to say. I can assure this person that Carey College tries very hard to produce preachers that have something to say and know how to say it. Whilst Carey, importantly, places high emphasis on learning the art of preaching, it prepared me in a much deeper way for pulpit ministry. Carey prepared me through Biblical studies, Systematic Theology, Church History and Pastoral studies. In Biblical studies I was not given a bag full of sermons to use in ministry but rather key tools that helped me to deeply exegete the Word so that the Word could deeply exegete me. In Systematic Theology I did not learn all the important answers about God and the Christian faith but rather I learnt how to ask important questions of God and the Christian faith and that through this God could ask important questions of me. In Church History I learnt how God has shaped and transformed the community of Jesus Christ through time so that I might better sense how God is shaping and transforming the community of Jesus Christ today. In Pastoral studies I learnt that preaching is always spoken into the lives of fragile, messy people, just like me, who God intensely loves. Finally, at College we learnt about preaching through the staff modelling excellent preaching to us at Chapel services that we wanted to emulate. Carey prepared me for pulpit ministry through holistic training within the context of the community of disciples that is Carey Baptist College. I thank God for Carey College.

A deeply exegeting and exegeted; deeply questioning and questioned; deeply transforming and transformed; deeply shaping and shaped; deeply vulnerable and honest community that is aware of its humaness as well as God's transforming power and is glued together by the grace and truth of God – a volatile combination and wouldn’t it be awesome to be a part of??!!