Napier Baptist

I'm back after a long break in blogging. Part of that has been due to a long holiday and part of that is due to change. The change part is that after 4 years at Napier Baptist I announced my resignation as Senior Pastor to the church 2 Sundays ago to take up the role of Director of Community Life at Laidlaw College (formerly Bible College of New Zealand). It is heart-breaking to be leaving Napier Baptist. We love the church and they love us and things are going very well. But, we feel that God has opened an exciting door of opportunity at Laidlaw College for us to walk through. It's come earlier than we expected and if we could write our own script we would have liked longer at Napier Baptist as there's more that we'd like to be part of. We will carry with us the sense of loss of not sharing further in the life of this brilliant church. However, Jesus is the Lord and Saviour of the church and not me and I reckon he's got things in hand...

I'm excited about the role at Laidlaw with its focus upon shaping the commuity life of the College to be congruent with its vision of equipping men and women to renew their communities
with a faith that is as intelligent as it is courageous. They have a brave 'whole of life' vision at the College and want to form intelligent, articulate, discerning and mature graduates who have integrated their learning and can make a renewing difference in ministry, mission or marketplace. The role brings together my 2 great passions of theological study and pastoral ministry. In saying all that I have to be honest and say I'm more than a little freaked out by it all but I guess Jesus has that in hand too...