William Chong

In the weekend I was fortunate enough to celebrate Kim’s birthday with not one, but two birthday meals. We went to Daikoku Restaurant in Botany for lunch and enjoyed a couple of well-presented and tasty lunch-box sets. The waitresses wore kimonos and fashioned the latest Japanese-style footwear craze – the er… socks and sandals combination.

After a big lunch, we drove home. And I proceeded to get my running gear on and run back there.

And back again.

That’s about a distance of 17 km all up.

So with the help of Jesus Christ, Steve Jobs, Peter Somervell, Mark Driscoll, Jamie Cullum, Parachute Band, Bob Kauflin, I survived my longest training session yet: a run of 1 hour and 40 minutes (the list is not meant to be in any order of importance: Steve Jobs =/= divine dude).

You know that you’ve run very far when your stopwatch kindly reminds you that it’s the “halfway point” and you’re three suburbs away -�it’s times like this you start to appreciate the invention of the automobile. I guess back when people didn’t have cars, to get from Bucklands Beach to Botany would most likely have required a day trip.

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Even more fun was training today – a much shorter timespan of 40 minutes, but made interesting by the �interspersed 30-second mad sprints (yes, that would have been me doing random sprints along the Eastern Beach parade). Oh that was fun.

It’s funny how much effort it takes to get out the door and put your running shoes on… but once you’re out there and you’re at a comfortable pace, you almost don’t want to stop.

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Week 9: Training Record

8.10.08 – Route – 45 min – 8:01am – 7.98 km Pre-interview Jog
9.10.08 – Route – 43 min – 6:93am – 6.93 km Tea Run
11.10.08 – Route�- 1 hr 41 min – 3:24pm – 16.97 km Run

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Thanks Kelvin! Keep it up guys and gals, there’s less than 3 weeks before the big race! Sponsor my running/training/marathon mission and support the NZ Heart Foundation by clicking on this link here.

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Website: http://www.stcolumba.org.nz; Ph: (09)274-4864; 480 Ti Rakau Drive, Botany Downs, Auckland; Senior Minister: Andrew Norton; Speaker: Simon McLeay; Sermon topic: “[Re]visioning”, Part 3 of “[re]mix”; 25.5.08, 8.30am.

Rating: AA
(A=return worshipper, AA=excellent and growing; AAA=must be my home church lol)

You’ll like this church if you: seek to serve in strong “love your neighbour” ministries, believe in “the priesthood of all believers”, have a family with differing views on worship to cater for, want a modern, relevant church with the backing of Biblical soundness and Presbyterian support

You won’t like this church if you: don’t agree with splitting the congregation based on worship preference, aren’t comfortable highly organised leadership hierarchies setting church direction, disagree with the finer points of Presbyterian theology/tradition, don’t like altar calls as a way to expand the church.

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One of the reasons many non-Christians give when they feel uncompelled to “do church” is this: “there’s too many denominations, and we Christians aren’t able to agree between ourselves.” Many people point out that every suburban centre have over a dozen churches claiming to be the one true vine, some big, some small – yet what exactly do these churches disagree upon?

With this in mind we visited St. Columba Presbyterian Church to step into another denomination, wondering how different things really are.

Worship: We chose to try an early 8.30 service for a change, and walked into a half-full auditorium where we were pretty much the only worshippers under 50, bar a gaggle of youth groupers doing a weekend-long 40-Hour Famine event at church who joined the service briefly for the singing. Traditional Presbyterian worship ran along the lines of respectable organ-led hymns such as “Crown Him Lord of All”, Frances Havergal’s “Who is on the Lord’s Side?”, “Be Thou My Vision”,  and the quintessential hymn of English nationalism, “I Vow to Thee My Country”.

It was exciting to sing some time-honoured phrases and praises, though without modern music you could see the reasons behind the selective age-representation at the service. Talking with a churchgoer after the service revealed that the 10.30 services are pretty much in the contemporary vein: nationally, Presbyterian worship can range from gospel choirs to café worship, as noted on the national church website. It’s nice to see a church structure that’s embracing various ways of worshipping God to stay relevant.

Speaker: We had the pleasure of listening to Rev Simon McLeay share part 3 in a series on restoration, derived from the book of Nehemiah. The preaching was topical and very much a 1^st speaker presentation: assured and prepared. McLeay shared about the prophet Nehemiah urging the Jewish people to rebuild their wall, and not to be accustomed to living defeated – he drew in some real-world analogies such as his son’s soccer game, the “bold vision” of the US moon missions culminating in Neil Armstrong’s man-on-the-moon success, and some of the social struggles of modern-day society such as father role-modelling and maintaining a cohesive family unit. McLeay’s approach was to encourage, rather than shame the congregation into seeking out the new changeleaders and Nehemiahs: a very inspiring and uplifting view of purpose-driven living. The sermon notes added an extra dimension to McLeay’s teaching, and I was able to take away something of practical value rather than merely a collection of verse quotes. He challenged the congregation to draw insight, and more importantly take action from God’s word.

Church history: The Presbyterian church began as a reformed branch of the Protestant movement, evolving primarily in Scotland, before being first introduced to New Zealand through the settlement of Otago and Southland. St Columba itself has quickly grown from its early beginnings as a Panmure house church to a regional hub for the Presbyterian denomination. Despite being named after a 6^th century virgin martyr from Cornwall, this church isn’t bogged down by trappings of tradition: its Presbyterian heritage is more evident in its leadership structure, with the church part of the PCANZ. The denomination’s name comes from the Greek word presbuteros, which means elder.

Other faculties: This is a service-focused church: bible studies, fundraising projects, a wide range of age-appropriate youth groups, and so on. I was a little disappointed to read that partaking in communion was relegated to a between-services time, given the primacy of this ordinance in the Bible – though perhaps a drop-in service may work better in a cross-service context.

Visitor treatment: Despite standing out immensely among the Grey-Power demographic, we weren’t approached after the service in any way, shape or form, and there was no meet and greet time that’s common in other church services. We were able to chat with one of the youth leaders briefly before we left to enjoy the Sunday morning air.

Conclusion: Throw out your “stiff-neck Presbyterian” stereotypes: this is a relevant congregation that’s revisioned its outreach and Christ-centred purpose for the 21^st century.

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(Disclosures: None.)
Next week: East City Wesleyan @ Burswood. 

(This review may not be representative of all of the church’s ministries, or their overall teaching. Opinions expressed in this review are that of the author, and may not wholly reflect all aspects of the church or its national body: nevertheless, comments have been humbly made in both truth and love as much as possible. Please contact the church for more detailed enquiries about their services.)