Napier Baptist

I used to love listening to Martin Devlin when he ran a morning show on Radio Sport. On of the soundbytes that he used to play was a snippet from Shrek when Pinnochio would say 'I'm not a puppet, I'm a real boy!' Next week I am away at our national Baptist Assembly down in Nelson. This year I'm becoming a registered Baptist pastor. I don't think much will change but I'm graduating from being a pretend pastor to being a 'real' pastor - no more playing around! I get given a towel with John 13 embroidered on it. It's a nice idea, to remind us that we're to be servants of Jesus Christ and his church. I've also been asked to respond on behalf of the ministers who are becoming registered. It's a nice chance to acknowledge our many different journeys - some of us trained at Carey together as pastoral leadership students, others at other great colleges like BCNZ and others have trained "on the job". We all have many different roles in the church - some senior pastors (I don't like that title!), some associates (don't like that one either), some youth pastors (or that one), some chaplains and various other pastoral roles. I'll try and acknowledge this and also the many churches, mentors, friends and collegues who have helped and grown us along the way. From all this diversity, the thing that links us together is that the gospel of Jesus has melted our hearts and we've sense he's called us to this frightening thing called ministry in his name!