Wake-up call in mission

Engagement 21 - A Wake-up Call to the 21st Century Church in Mission, by Bishop Richard Randerson

Engagement 21 challenges the Church to radically review its mission strategy if it seeks to gain traction in today’s world. A mission-focused theology, a deeper understanding of modern society and more effective skills in ministry are central to the task. Based on a survey of 96 clergy and laity in New Zealand and Australia, Engagement 21 reports a widespread grass-roots desire for change. But it also documents 126 creative ministry projects that are signs of a new mission paradigm. Designed for individual or group reading, the book is priced to facilitate local study and mission planning.

Topics include:
• Statistics of church participation rates 1945-2006
• Results of the mission survey with 16 graphs documenting the extent of theological and ministry training, perceptions of parish ministries, chaplaincies and lay vocation, and attitudes re the need for new models of ministry and less institutional focus
• A three-part Biblical study on mission based on the redemption of all Creation
• 126 innovative ministry projects that span the range from spirituality, worship and theological education to community outreach, social justice and environmental stewardship
• Foreword by Bishop Philip Richardson.
Bishop Tom writes:
I warmly commend Bishop Richard Randerson’s book - “Engagement 21”, which is a newly published research work looking at our mission in the community across the country. A number of projects from this diocese feature but taken as a whole it is a comprehensive review of where we are at and is a resource we will all benefit from.

Available either: resource@wn.ang.org.nz or telephone 0800 833 477, or direct from the author: randersonjr@paradise.net.nz – 064 4 976 6050, or from Epworth Books. [These are all New Zealand telephone numbers.]
Prices vary slightly depending on where you order it from.

Bishop Cray and Fresh Expressions

Bishop Cray, Director of Fresh Expressions/Frontier Ministry, UK, will be in Christchurch during the week of 6-11 July (Nelson and Dunedin dioceses may also be involved in this) and is the key speaker at the Wellington Anglican Diocesan Clergy Conference from July 13-16 in Masterton.

There is also the possibility of two opportunities to spend time with Bishop Cray in:
1. A small meeting with those who can attend at the Anglican Center, 18 Eccelston Hill, Thorndon, Wellington on Friday afternoon from 2.30pm -5pm (max) and/or

2. The Wellington Diocesan Ministry Day being held for those who do not fall into the category of Wellington Clergy (although they are also welcome to attend!) on Saturday July 17 at St Paul’s Church, Paraparaumu from 9.30am to 4pm

For more information, email Tony Gerritsen at gerritsen@inspire.net.nz

Happiness is as happiness does

According to the latest UMR survey, the happiest men in the country are in the Nelson/Marlborough region, and the happiest women come from the Bay of Plenty. Wellingtonians, however, are the least happy people in the country.

Interestingly, people on less than $20,000 a year are slightly happier than those earning between $70,000 and $100,00. People earning over $100,000 are the happiest of the lot. People in the middle income brackets ($30-70,000), however, are the least happy. (Which probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise: they'll be the ones trying to bring up a family, pay off a mortgage and so on.)

Wellington.Scoop reports: The key things that make people happy are their relationships with their family and friends and their job. For women, the relationship with their family and children is a far more significant factor in their happiness than it is for men. However, for men their relationship with their spouse or partner, control over their life or destiny, recreation time and hobbies are more important than they are for women.

UMR finds that people are less happy than they were when the previous survey was done in 2007/8, and that overall, females are happier than males. People in mid-life are less happy than the young or old (which is hardly a revelation - who has all the responsibility?!), and ethnically, Maori and Europeans were the happiest groups, with Asians the least happy. (However, with a large number of people classifying themselves as 'other,' ethnically, this area of the survey is somewhat skewed.)

Another not-surprising point: widow(ers) and married people were happier than single and divorced, though there might be a certain irony in the fact that widowers were little happier than widows, and married women were a little happier than married men. Curiously women in de facto relationships were happier than men in the same boat. Which seems almost at odds with how people in these relationships are generally viewed.

People living without children are happier than those living with children. At first this seems a point that doesn't bode well for our future, until you realise that it's the lack of dependent children that makes people happier.

And just to prove that we're a quirky lot: Labour voters are happier than National voters. Go figure.

UMR comes to this conclusion: If you want to keep happy through the recession – socialise, keep in close touch with family or friends, have an interest in sports, a hobby or the arts and feel good about yourself.

Where would we fit in, as a Church, on the happiness scale?

Photo by Jill Greenseth from 'Four Happy People'

Mission/Innovative/Monastic/You Name It

A busy week on the National Mission front, with work started on enabling Supervision to become more of a reality for ministers and laypeople around the country. ('Supervision' as in the process where a person goes, about once a month, to discuss their work and life with someone trained to listen and enable them to keep moving forward.)
That's my excuse for not having posted much on this blog this week - it hasn't been for want of trying (!)
Anyway, just 'discovered' Urban Vision. No doubt they'll be happy to learn that they've been discovered after some 13 years (they 'began' in 1996). As they state on their website:
Urban Vision is a group of households and ministries in Wellington, Porirua and the Kapiti Coast who focus on building life-giving relationships with those on the margins of mainstream society, and doing justice in the midst of urban poverty. We’ve come to realise we’re a local expression of a global revolution of hope and transformation, worked out in the neighbourhoods of need we’ve relocated to.
You might consider it a church without walls, but in fact its members belong to a number of different churches and denominations. In the last couple of years however, Urban Vision has taken on a new form:
In 2007, we took the imaginative step of becoming a contemporary Order, following Jesus on the margins. In making this step, we’ve recognised Jesus is doing new things right now in Aotearoa/New Zealand (contemporary), and that we have some things in common with some of the monastic and missionary movements of old, specifically a spiritual rhythm to life (order). We have been students of history and experience: we wanted a durable structure, enabling the continuing vitality of our pioneering, prophetic and Jesus-centred threads.
There's more on their site, as you'd expect, and they're even debating how people outside Wellington can connect with their form of contemporary Order. And they're advertising some opportunities for those who are in Wellington.

Prayer@Parliament

I haven't been able to confirm the following bit of information - it came to me via a prayer letter - so would be interested to hear from anyone who can tell me more - especially who the 10 Cabinet Ministers are who attend church.

It was tremendously encouraging last Friday, at Prayer @ Parliament, to hear the MP who sponsored the evening (and later confirmed by a former MP) that 10 of our 20 Cabinet Ministers attend church each week if they possibly can. Please pray for all Cabinet Ministers and especially for those who seek to follow after the Lord. Pray that their faith will grow and be shown in their lives and Ministries.

It seems that the meeting may have taken place at Parliament Grand Hall on the 20th March. Christians from all over Wellington got together to pray for the Government, the city and the nation.