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

This month’s whakataukī is: “Tū tira mai ngā iwi”  (Align together all the people).

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together...” (Hebrews 10:24-25a)—the New Testament is ‘fully loaded’ with group-oriented values like these.

I learned to sing Canon Wiremu Te Tau Huata’s Tu Tira Mai waiata (Line up together song) at primary school in Cannons Creek, Porirua back in the early-70’s. It is an instructional anthem that implores listeners to align themselves as a group, to pursue understanding and to love everyone. I think it beautifully encapsulates the ethos of biblical koinonia from a group-oriented perspective. When it came time to close off my doctoral dissertation with a waiata I could think of none more fitting for my subject matter (harmonizing culturally diverse missions groups).

Following my (successful) doctoral defence in Melbourne last month I returned to Auckland and attended a string of meetings and conferences concerned with local church growth and outreach. There was a great deal of talk about the need for churches to work in unity beyond their metaphorical stone walls, within respective geographic boundaries, as a witness to their communities. I was struck by how few church leaders were there. I won’t attempt to guess why that was, but suffice it to say, if a commitment to unity was a priority, more effort would be made to be aware of and participate in such discussions.

I must applaud the Doxa Deo City Changer’s team and Dave Mann’s Engage team respectively, for pulling together some excellent training on different aspects of community witness with a view to church planting and growth. We certainly cannot say the decline in church attendance in Aotearoa New Zealand is because of a lack of resource and training. However, I will posit that it could be because we do not have the collective will to work together to influence the culture of this country effectively.

I don’t mean we should shout louder about moral issues. Rather, we need to work smarter and deeper to reconnect our nation’s values to the beliefs that originally gave rise to them. Dave Mann has a very well thought through strategy for this, but to achieve it will require consistent financial commitment from the people of God and their churches to affect such a change. It is well worth the investment.

Unless the people of God and their churches work together more collaboratively here… we will not see a much needed rise in engagement in mission ‘out there’.

Unless the people of God and their churches work together more collaboratively here, to positively influence our nation, we will not see a much needed rise in engagement in mission ‘out there’, beyond our shores. In his book Honor, Patronage, Kinship and Purity, David deSilva notes that biblical koinonia requires a commitment to sharing resources, unity/harmony/concord, and cooperation/mutual honouring.

Let us line up together behind these New Testament values so that we all may steadily move forward as we #stayonmission. 👊🏼

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

Jay