Napier Baptist

Better late the never, we finally have a real website! Amble on over to napierbaptist.org.nz

This week is my last week as Pastor of Napier Baptist Church. It is and will be a hard week - goodbyes to people you love and care about are hard. I'm sure there'll be hugs, laughter, memories, tears and thankfulness to God to what God's done amongst us over these last 4 and a bit years. I'm sure it'd be easier to slip away quietly without having to do all the hard stuff of saying good bye, but we wouldn't have it any other way...

Not long after resigning someone said to me "you'll know you're ready to go when you pack up your books." It's probably saying something that I got to the point of having to pack up my books. Now, it's time to go.

Speaking of being "tough as nails" at Easter (see post below), go and have a read of Stu's story of how for pastors, the show must always go on...

The following is a reflection for Good Friday from my favourite preacher William Willimon:

Here's a clip for Mike and our youth...

Hat tip Stu

Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

Paul Windsor is organising a preaching forum for experienced and emerging preachers. He's got a group of preachers (both old hands and up and comers) to give presentations on topics relating to preaching in the Kiwi context. He's got so short on speakers that he's roped me into this! The details are below (you can click on it to enlarge the image). If you're from Napier Baptist and you're interested in going to this even, please let me know. If we get a group of 5 of us we can get a discount...

I'm now catching up on 2 months of posting! So, here's some photos of the Christmas Dinner we held at Napier Baptist on Christmas Day. We put it on so that we could share Christmas with people who would otherwise be alone on Christmas Day. This was the 2nd year we've done this and it was nice to see some familiar faces return. It was also nice to share meals with people who pop in and out of our church throughout the year for various reasons. We put a real emphasis on removing any sense of "us" and "them" so that the focus was on all of us sharing a meal and time together. This year we had people from other churches and organisations who thought it was a great idea and wanted to join us and help and any who wanted to help were welcome to (from doctors to mental health patients). It was great for about 80-90 of us to share a Christmas meal and time together.

Last year we agreed as a church to make some raised bed gardens out the back of our church in an area that was a dead space. We intend to grow seedlings and vegetables to give away to those in need or wanting to grow their own vegetables at home. I was amazed at the response of our people. Someon donated wood to build the gardens, another donated as much soil as we needed, another had sold a car and donated $500 towards costs, another donated polythene to line the beds, and others donated their time and energy in creating the gardens:

The Building:

The Soil:

Things Coming Together:

The Finished Product - including irrigation:


When I first posted the idea of a Community Garden, Sheree posted a comment about having grown up in Maraenui and recently becoming a Christian. She saw on the Harry Findlay on the news highlighting the gardening initiative in Maraenui and was moved. Sheree got in touch with me via e-mail and we talked about what we were up to. She then spoke at her church (Windsor Community Church in Invercargill) about the initiative and our Community Garden. She left a box at the back of her church and encouraged people to put seeds and other things that might help our project. When I got back from my holiday at the end of January this parcel awaited me:

When I opened it up, its contents of seeds, trough and food vouchers spilled out along with the desire to keep up to date with being involved! What an amazing gift from some amazing people! Thank you very much Sheree and thank you Windsor Community Church for your gracious gifts and for wanting to partner with us. I am amazed at Jesus' ability to unite people in Napier and Invercargill together to make God's Kingdom Visible. I never expected this would happen via a simple blog. Since then, I've had a local councillor who encouraged us in our Community Garden project pop in to see how things are going. She was touched by the story and she is going to print it in the local community newspaper. I got her to contact Sheree and she agreed to allowing the story to print. Today I had another news reporter contact me and she wants to print the story in her newspaper too! It's great for the church to be getting some good press...

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...

What does God's call feel like? Look like, sound like, taste like, smell like?

Does it sometimes feel like a weightless certainty, and at others as urgent as two labrador puppies on a leash - busting to get going but not 100% sure which direction, just away, just acting, not standing still!

Is it sometimes a burden,and other times a joy? Sometimes almost clear, other times a mystery? Sometimes close and other times all-enveloping?

As a church we have agreed to go ahead with the community garden project. We are going to build the gardens this Saturday morning. We have already had many kind offers of help. Someone donated $500, others are donating compost, untreated wood, seedlings, others soil and still others their skill and labour.

We decided in the end that we will split the plots - we will predominantly grow veges to give away as food but we will also grow seedlings to give away to encourage others to grow their own gardens. We figured the old saying of "give someone a fish you feed them for a day, teach them how to fish and you'll feed them for a lifetime" must also apply to veges. However, the reality is also that some of the people who come to or through our church do not have the land space or the physical, mental or emotional capacity to maintain a garden and therefore we will also need give away produce as well as seedlings. Our local area has a market that runs on a Tuesday morning and could be an ideal place to give away seedlings to encourage gardening. It is also possible that we could supply seedlings and food to some of the local networks who are part of the gardening initiative. We'll figure that stuff out as we go, but at the moment all eyes (and hopefully hands) are on building the plots.

Please go and read Ruth Gouldbourne's wonderful Advent post about a very difficult funeral within the Bloomsbury Baptist Church community. Having had to lead similarly difficult funerals, I especially loved her reminder that the promises of the Christian hope are promises and not answers.

Okay, so a few of us at NBC grew mos for Movember to raise money for our Relay for Life team. We are looking for the most stylish mo - not necessarily the bushiest but the most stylish. So, I'm wanting readers of this blog to tell me which mo they think is the most stylish. Write the number of the mo you think is the best into comments and feel free to suggest a name - e.g. I've called 5, 6, 12 "The Chopper" 13 "The Raurimu Spiral" 3 "The Coffee Stain":

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In the drought we long for mist; in the cool months, long-past summers fuel our dreams.

We live in a world in-between: forgetting to delight in the now. Forgetting to be present to the beauty that exists today.

This day.

Every day.

It's so hot and dry: the hills baked to the colour of ginger-crunch, the lake a desert oasis, the strange mist of a few mornings-ago a cool blessing.

The mist rose early, so deep that the world disappeared in its moist white embrace.

It pressed its damp cheeks to the house, repelling the sun that would disperse it.
We were all alone, marooned on an island of cloud.

Gone was the lavender outside the bathroom window; gone the burned grass bank behind it. Gone the rabbits, the pukekos, the hunting cat. The lake and ponds gone - erased from the canvas while we slept.

The mist pressed a cool compress to the baked earth. It smothered the sighs of the wilting olive trees, it caressed the dried arrangements that once bore fruit. It whispered to the land that one day the drought would end.

The quiet, shrouded earth rested, recovered a little.

The bell-bird who sips each morning from the flax flowers stayed in its nest. The tui in the gum, no more, no more.

No magpies gargled. No frogs creaked. No plants tap-tapped against the side of the house.

The morepork slept, his head pillowed on his chest, dreaming of the hunt just finished.

The clock ticked, time shuffled its weary feet, light imperceptibly slipped through the muffling mist.

The lavender - usually bee-buzzed by now - ghosted silently, empty against the window.
The trees tiptoed back into place, trailing cottony shrouds behind them.

Soft glints of sky peeled off the lake, the parched world was reviving.

The birds ran quiet sound checks before one by one rediscovering their voice, and they hailed the bright, hard sky as it returned.

Drought, broken for a brief time, is so much easier to bear. A promise glimpsed eases our pain, allowing us to appreciate anew the beauty here and now.

It's just a season: its time is limited.

The world will return to rights.

Relax, wait, enjoy.

This time too, will pass.

We are floating the following proposal at our AGM on Sunday:

PROPOSAL OF NAPIER BAPTIST COMMUNITY GARDEN:

PROPOSAL:

“That the church make use of the secure space behind the church by turning some of it into a garden to provide food for people in need within the church and the wider community.”

INTRODUCTION:

Our church is looking for ways in which we can “Make God’s Kingdom Visible” in our local community. The location of the church is in a very deprived area of Napier. Maraenui is rated 10 on the NZ Deprivation Index (the scale is 1-10). Our current financial climate is difficult and many think it will get worse before it gets better. This situation impacts the entire country but is especially difficult for low income families. They are the most vulnerable in situations of financial stress as costs and unemployment spiral upward and income spirals downward. To highlight this we can note the dramatic increase in the number of people making use of our church’s foodbank. As a result we are running low on stock and we are struggling to receive more stock from our suppliers. At the moment, supply is exceeding demand with our small foodbank. This year, the Maraenui Urban Renewal Trust has begun a project to encourage residents to plant gardens. This is sponsored by people like JJs Organics and Napier City Council and was highlight on a TV3 News Bulletin (you can also watch the clip at this link). We can therefore link into an already existing community project that is donig good things. In response to these realities, we thought of ways we could support the foodbank and serve our local community. We noticed that the large area out the back of the church (approx. 183 m2 excluding the area behind the auditorium where the trucks come for the paper recycling) was something of a “dead space”. The idea was floated of turning some of this area into raised gardens where we could plant and grow vegetables to give away to those in need of healthy and nutritious food. It is also possible that we could use some of the produce to make pickles, cutneys and other produce to give away.

WHAT WOULD IT INVOLVE?

• Gathering a group of passionate people who are able and willing to look after and maintain the gardens. My idea at the moment is to float this idea past some of our many passionate gardeners and gauge their interest. I would like to form a group of 10 or so familes/people who are willing to look after the gardens for one week out of 10.
• Finding people who are able and willing to build the raised garden beds. This will involve getting the materials at the cheapest possible price. It has also been suggested that some people would be willing to pay for the cost of the materials.
• Some top soil.
• A plan of where to place the gardens so that people are still able to access the different entrances and exits and have appropriate walkways. We will have to allow trucks to get to the paper bins etc.
• Seeds to plant. Some of these will be available through some of our many gardeners and we may also have to buy some.
• Possibly partnering with Napier Family Centre or local social services to ensure the produce gets to people in need.
  
  BENEFITS:


• Converting a dead space in our church into a fantastic ministry opportunity whilst maintaining access and walkways.
• Provide healthy and nutritious food for families in need.
• Ease the burden of supply for our foodbank.
• The joy of children being involved in the building, sowing, growing process of the gardens.
• The joy of serving people who are vulnerable and extending our vision of “Making God’s Kingdom Visible” in Napier.
  
  POTENTIAL PROBLEMS:


• Security. The area is very well fenced all around with fences ranging from 5 foot to 8-10 foot (see pictures below). However we cannot guarantee that people will not jump over the fences and raid or ruin the gardens. In saying that, there are easier gardens to raid than these! We would address this if needed.
• Loss of momentum and people willing to be involved and the gardens turning to ruin. There would need to be clear leadership, vision for the church to see this as a genuine way of serving the community and a group of passionate people maintained. I believe that with the right leadership and the gathering of many people to be involved (once every 10 weeks is doable), this is a sustainable project. It would be great to involve the children and the youth in this.
• Loss of access. It would be very important to ensure that access and walkways are maintained – especially in terms of fire exit routes. This is simply a planning issue and making sure that the beds are placed in a way that takes this into account. The reality is that this areas is almost never used.

THE AREA WE HAVE IN MIND: