Tena tātou katoa e te iwi mīhana… (Greetings to all the people in mission),

This month’s whakataukī (proverb) is from the Wise Teacher of Ecclesiastes: “Ko to mua mea koia ano hei mea aianei; a ko te mea i mahia i mua ka mahia ano aianei; kahore hoki he mea hou i raro i te ra.” (What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.), Ecclesiastes 1:9.

I am quite fond of the word “serendipity”, invented by Horace Walpole in 1754. It was in response to acquiring a painting of the Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, Wapole told his correspondent, were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of” (wikipedia). Happy accidents, pleasant happenstance. As a man of faith, I see God’s hand in it when it occurs. And to me, it seems to occur a lot.

By God’s grace I stumble upon things as I (try to) obediently walk the path the Spirit lays out. Like the questing video games where you find sparkly treasure while accomplishing a task, occasionally I come across pearls of great price. Most recently it was responding to a request for articles written by Dr Ray Windsor from a Korean regional leader in Interserve who is researching the late Dr’s ministry. I’d met the leader at an Interserve International Council meeting and received his request right at the time that Ray’s son Paul (of Langham Preaching) was home. Paul spoke with his mum Gwen and it was arranged that I could visit and collect a box of Ray’s notes from their garage to sort through for my Korean friend.

At this point the story shifts to Pauline, my wife and MI administrator, for she was tasked with going through the material and scanning relevant documents. I knew it would be a job she’d relish—true story, she’s editing this. Pauline would discover the gems and show me. What serendipity!

In addition to Ray’s lecture notes, newsletters, ministry reports and documented opinions on the latest fads appearing in church and mission, were some newsletters from the earliest days of the Evangelical Fellowship of NZ (EFNZ) and the Evangelical Missionary Alliance, which helped bring the EFNZ into being from its genesis in 1985. These entities are now respectively known as the NZ Christian Network and Missions Interlink.

Those broadsheets were insightful for showing what had changed over the past thirty years on the church and missions scene in Aotearoa New Zealand and what had not.

At the end of 1988, as Ray handed off NZEMA (Missions Interlink) leadership to Geoff and Joan Roberts of WEC International, Ray was celebrating the fact that 20 Church Missions Councils (CMCs) had become members of the EMA. In fact, the byline at the time was “Church Oriented Missions | Missions Oriented Churches”. Ray fully expected that the number of CMCs in membership would equal the number missions agencies. Two thrusts were planned for 1989: 1) encourage the development and cross-pollination of CMC regional clusters and 2) promote missions education through the transformative new course ‘Perspectives’. Thirty years and five MI leaders later, 12 churches remain in membership alongside 82 organisations and Perspectives (while still run as an intensive) was supplanted by the shorter Kairos course, the momentum of which has also seemed to wane.

while things change superficially, there is nothing new under the sun. God is still calling God’s people to do God’s work in God’s ways with God’s resources.

A group of about 30 missions leaders will meet on August 10 at Laidlaw Manukau to explore new ways forward for the mission of God’s people from and within Aotearoa NZ. As we contemplate the future of mission afresh, I remain aware that while things change superficially, there is nothing new under the sun. God is still calling God’s people to do God’s work in God’s ways with God’s resources. The challenge for organisations that enable God’s people to do God’s work remains: how can we serve more effectively? What do today’s churches and contexts require of us?

In 1985 Ray visited with EMA members around the country with this question in mind, “would modifications of structure lead to new missions vitality?” and with a passion to glean ideas to “stimulate the cause of world missions in the NZ churches”. There is nothing new under the sun.

When Ray interviewed me in 1997 for my (successful) application to the MA in missions programme at All Nations Christian College where he used to be Principal, neither of us would have dreamed that I would sit where he sat (in MI as well as Interserve and WEA Mission Commission leadership), seeking to encourage the Church in Aotearoa New Zealand to take seriously its responsibility to be a blessing to the nations. Holy Spirit serendipity.

Pray for us all to be blessed with wisdom and discernment as we continue under the sun, encouraging one another to #stayonmission.

Ma te Atua e manaaki ki a koutou (may you all experience the very best things from God),

Jay