St Johns messenger - May 2024

Faith is a verb.

Over the season of Lent, leading up to Easter, we experienced a weekly series exploring Spiritual Practices. The goal we named is: to put our faith into practice.

Spiritual Practices don’t reveal our innate holiness. And they do not score us ‘spiritual brownie points’ (at least not with God).

Trying Spiritual Practices is about recognising the humble but profound desire to keep company with Jesus – the One who wants to be known – making space for Him in our lives.

We do our part – and Jesus does his part.

Our part is to offer ourselves lovingly, obediently, fully to Jesus.  
And Jesus meets us with the fulness of God – the One who lived the perfect human life and who died in order that we might know God and experience all God wants for us.  

Spiritual Practices don’t make us perfect, they enable us to enter the story as we keep company with the One who is perfect, and is ready to give to us all we need.

 David P. Gushee suggests a (rather comprehensive) list of what we may expect from our Spiritual Practices:
…deepen our commitment to the narrative of the kingdom of God. 
…bind us more thoroughly to God the gracious Father and to Jesus the faithful Son.
… connect us more closely with other brothers and sisters who also are giving their lives to the reign of God.
…align our will with the will of God and the contours of God’s reign.
…give us opportunity to participate in the coming of God’s reign…
…alert us to Satan’s wiles and fortifies us for resistance in times of trial.
…deepen our trust in God and our consequent willingness to take risks for the kingdom. 
…purify us of mixed allegiances that threaten our fidelity to God. 
…train our hearts to seek heavenly rather than earthly rewards. 
…keep us from investing ourselves in unworthy idols in quest of an illusory security. 
…keep us from cozying up to unjust earthly powers in order to protect ourselves. 
…aid our moral discernment and decision making process by establishing kingdom practices as the plumblines. 
…give us a sense of God’s presence and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
…help us notice the gifts of God’s grace, the things that God does, the deliverance that God brings, in and around our daily lives. 
…give us deeply grateful hearts.

In short: Spiritual Practices encourage us to anticipate God’s delivering grace to rain down upon the earth, and at the same time make the grateful choice to participate in that delivering grace ourselves, today and every day.

Let us continue to encourage one another in our Spiritual Practices.

“Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”
Hebrews 10:24-25

Allister Lane

The Freedom to Sabbath

We all have teachers that we believe should hold the title of ‘best teacher ever’. For me having a lecturer who literally wrote the book on Sabbath Keeping has to be the real MVP. In amongst deadlines and information overload Rev Dr Lynne Baab encouraged us to keep a weekly Sabbath.

Like many, I was first introduced to the concept of Sabbath in Sunday School through the Ten Commandments. As a child, this looked like going to church on Sunday and not going to the shops. This was God’s rule and we should follow it. While this is a fine approach, my post-Baab approach has allowed me to explore the freedom God offers through Sabbath. 

It is freeing to take a break from all the things I must do. The work would be there again on Monday and there is no harm in leaving it for a while. I realize that even if I ceased from work the world wouldn’t fall apart. Sabbath keeping can free us from the absurd notion that it is our efforts that keep the world in motion. Instead, Sabbath requires us to humble ourselves and remember God as the sustainer of all life - including ours.

One final lesson I recall from Lynne, if you can’t keep Sabbath for 24 hours try twelve. If twelve is too much try six, or three or even one. Sabbath can be one of the most freeing challenges, remember God’s got this.

David Jackson

Spiritual Practices

I found this a very interesting and challenging series. Having recently left Wadestown Church after 54 years, I had let some of these practices slip, so it was good to be reminded. I wake very early these days and found that this was a good time to spend in prayer and reading the Bible. I tried a few of the recommended on-line Bible reading apps and finally settled on the one presented by the Rev. Nicky Gumble of Holy Trinity Church in London. Having been involved in Alpha in the past, I enjoyed his approach. There are always three readings, from Psalms, the Old and New Testaments, with commentaries and suggestions for prayer, and a thought for the day.

During my quiet time God has shown me an area where I needed forgiveness. This was hard but wonderful and I praise God that I have been set free from the guilt that I had been carrying.

I now find that these spiritual practices are making me more aware of opportunities to put my faith into practice. Opportunities to be more hospitable, more generous; to be more tolerant of people who can be annoying; and remembering the importance of intercessory prayer - and I am grateful to St John’s for the monthly Prayer Chain guides. I give thanks that I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and a wonderful family. But I also give thanks for this series on Spiritual Practices which has helped kick-start my journey with Jesus again.

The Bible reading the app is called ‘The Bible with Nicky and Pippa’ https://bible.alpha.org/en/ This includes options for ‘Classic’, ‘Youth’, or ‘Express’.

Heather Lane

Reflection on Easter Camp

Easter Camp. There is no better way to spend one’s Easter weekend than at the joys that is Easter Camp. Collaboration of different youth groups and fun activities in a very friendly environment made it an absolutely brilliant experience. The weather was wonderful, the people eager for fun and the food all round quite nice. I learnt quite a bit from Easter Camp: that I quite like croissants, that my greenstone necklace looks like a bowling pin and most importantly, an endless list of reasons never to miss a single Easter Camp. I cannot believe that I did not go previous years, and it really made the Easter weekend a worthwhile break from society and the city. I can’t wait for next Easter Camp, and nothing will stop me from going. The only downside was that I was exhausted the following week, but that’s a small price to pay for the pure enjoyment of Easter Camp.

Nick Shaw

Pre exam
Supervised student study space at St Johns centre.

We are pleased to update the congregation on the progress of the above programme. A small working group has been bringing this idea to reality.

What is being offered?

  • We are offering the student community of Wellington (with an emphasis on Victoria University in the first instance) a supervised student study space.

  • Study spaces are at a premium at the University and the Central Public Library in Wellington is not available.

  • We are offering quiet individual study spaces, and several spaces of group study, in a quiet, warm environment with Wifi provision. A “goodie” bag will be given to each student attending.

  • Information about the life of St John’s will be available.

This is a student outreach programme complimenting the recent growth and strengthening of the young adult programme at St John’s. 

The programme is innovative and experimental in nature – there is no guarantee of success – however we are going to “give it a go” – in a different terminology it would be called a proof of concept.

When
Week one - 1pm - 6pm

  • Tuesday 4th Jun

  • Wednesday 5th June

  • Thursday 6th June

Week Two - 1pm - 6pm

  • Monday 10th June

  • Tuesday 11th June

  • Wednesday 12th June

  • Thursday 13th June

We need you if:

You can spare a couple of hours to be with our student guests studying for their exams.

  • You are licensed to drive a kettle for tea and coffee !

  • You can provide a warm smile of welcome and reflect the St John’s special vibe?

  • If you work from home – you could choose to work from St John’s for a couple of hours during this time.

  • You can publicise the programme through poster/pamphlet drop etc.

  • Give your prayerful support to the programme.

How do I express my interest?

  • There will be signup sheets in the Church flyer in the preceding weeks of the programme.

I need to know more.

Working group members- Contact Hannah North, Samuel Allen, Janie Pack, Eldred Gilbert, Rev Allister Lane.   

Public Theology

16th – 19th June 2024  St John’s in the City

The St John’s Outreach Committee are pleased to invite you to a series of public theology workshops Understanding the Bible with Martyn Day.

This series runs over four back-to back evenings. 

The first workshop is for everyone – including those who may be skeptical about the claims about the Gospels. Offering credible reasons for why the Gospels can be trusted, the following three workshops build on this topic. Although each workshop will make sense and be worthwhile distinct from the other workshops in the series.

More details on the series topics are Here.

Martyn Day pastors the South Harbour Vineyard Church in Auckland and is a highly competent and engaging communicator.  A British export to NZ, Martyn is passionate about helping people to love, learn and live God’s Word.  He is the founder and author for Mariners, a growing set of online Bible reading resources (www.marinersnotes.org).  He is also on the staff of Alpha New Zealand.  

He is married to Honor and they have two young adult sons.  Martyn loves reading and nice cakes with cups of tea!  

Crazy fact about Martyn - in the early days of email 20 years ago, Martyn once taught a brain surgeon how to use email!

Richard Hpa