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

Tihei mauri ora! (Lit: the sneeze of life!) Maori proclaim this statement before a talk, claiming the authority to speak. How appropriate that it also be used before declaring the truth of Scripture—the very breath of God in written form that is meant to manifest itself through us, His people.

“He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” (Acts 17:25b-28 NLT)

It seems all the nations of the world are in an identity crisis at the moment. Faced with the inevitable consequences of the post-WWII globalization project, nations are struggling to recalibrate who they are as they stare down the barrel of combustable cultural complexity. We need to see God’s design in this. He created the nations for Himself, and commissioned us to disciple them; as people within them choose to abdicate their tiny thrones to become vassals, fully allegiant to God’s ever advancing Kingdom under Lord Jesus.

Not only has God created nations, He has invested a particular deposit of grace within nations

I am becoming increasingly convicted that there is a national flavour to the way we are commissioned to disciple nations—not at all in a condescending or colonialistic sense, that’s not discipleship, but in an educative and enabling sense. My working theory is that not only has God created nations, He has invested a particular deposit of grace within nations, with which its nationals are to ‘go’ and bless the whole world alongside others contributing their unique national/cultural gifts to the process.

Let’s pretend that has some credence for a moment. What would God’s grace-set for Aotearoa NZ look like? What are our unique traits? What do we do well (somewhat naturally)? What grace is evident in our history, pre- and post-colonisation? What shape has the gospel taken since it was planted in this land, the story of Christ in our midst?

This is the gospel we have the responsibility to share with the world— alongside the gospels of other nations—to be a light, especially to nations in which the gospel has yet to take root. I believe this can inform how we #stayonmission. 👊🏼

Nga mihi nui (warmest greetings),

Jay