William Chong

I had a heartfelt conversation with one of my running buddies last night.

He talks about finding meaning in life, and seeking out challenges. He laments about being caught in between two worlds. His conscience tells him that he doesn’t belong, doesn’t fit the drinking, partying lifestyle of the twenty-something youth. Yet conversely, he doesn’t have the faith and certainty exhibited in a church setting, exhibited by Christians around him worshipping the God they believe in. “I know I don’t belong”, he says.

His words seemed to guard a subtle tinge of what I guessed to be disillusionment. This is a friend who is still looking for meaning and purpose in life.

On training and running this marathon, there have been a few moments where I too, have been made to think.

Moments where you consider what our toil and trouble in this world is for.

Moments where you consider the strange fact that once this earthly race is run, the recognition, the treasures, the wreath, the crowns you gain in the here and now aren’t transferrable. In fact, the Bible uses the term perishable to describe the the accolades we get:

“And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown…” – 1 Cor 9:25

Mm.

My hope is that I run the race not for my own sake.

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Thanks Jared and Kristy! The finish line is in sight, check it out at my HeartRacer page: I’m still training as often as I can!

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Week 10: Training Record

13.10.08 – Route – 39 min – 5:45pm – 6.98 km Run with short sprints
14.10.08 – Route – 31 min – 6:20pm – 5.34 km Run
16.10.08 – Route – 51 min – 5:34am – 8.62 km Run
18.10.08 – Route – 50 min – 3:48pm – 8.54 km Run with short sprints

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17 August 2008 – 4pm, Hollywood Café @ Westfield Pakuranga

Williamchong.com - This author delves into the rise of the phoenix-like Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand, and shares coffee and conversation with the denomination’s National Superintendent, East City Wesleyan (ECW) Senior Pastor and avid aviation historian Rev Richard Waugh (QSM BA LTh STh MBA).

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Were you a part of the ECW opening celebrations? Had a hand in the Wesleyan Methodist church history? Share your thoughts here.

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AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – A drive through the industrial kaleidoscope east of the Tamaki River offers a mish-mash of factory outlets, imposing high-voltage pylons and small retail and residential cliques resembling a multi-lingual Monopoly streetscape. In one of the artery-like perfusions that included ethnic supermarkets, food outlets and a gated residential community, a pitch-coated building carries a 12-foot high cross that’s coloured white as a light on the proverbial hill.

Under the pastoral direction of Rev Richard Waugh, East City Wesleyan (ECW) has graduated from meeting in high school auditoriums (since 2000) to boldly staking out its permanent place in the East Tamaki/Burswood area, officially opening its doors to the public during an Open Weekend that was well-publicised in local print media. On the 15th of August, 150 showed up to a “Surge” youth rally featuring Christian pop/rock band Ember Days; 100 visitors filtered through on Saturday the 16th in an “Open Day”; and a capacity 300-strong congregation had attended the Opening and Dedication Service a week earlier. I was fortunate enough to share a coffee and conversation with the Reverend, taking the opportunity to get some of his thoughts on ECW, the Wesleyan Methodist movement in NZ, the general Christian climate in New Zealand today and what he’s keeping an eye out for in the future.

Church identity in a secular age

I first ask Rev Waugh what the intention of ECW’s move into the area was, and the initial reaction from the local community. He explains, “That was an experiment in terms of getting commercial advertisers to wrap around a very big feature on the church, where I explained the story and the background of the church.” It’s no mean feat to spend thousands of dollars on confronting the public about ECW with a double-page advertorial spread, but Rev Waugh’s confident the coverage-purchase worked. “We had quite a few non-believers, where some of our young people invited their friends and so on: and I think frankly, getting towards a secular age, you have to come and put it before people: “This is what the church does. Our church is about grace and truth.’”

I pose the next question: “So you’ve set out with a great opening: once the buzz dies down, what’s your long-term vision in terms of ECW?”

“Our vision’s always been for ECW to be a church of regional, if not national influence. So my goal is for ECW to be the preeminent church in the John Wesleyan tradition. I wouldn’t see it as a competition with other parts of the Body of Christ, but within the WM stream we want to be the largest multicultural church.”

Evangelical, Wesleyan, Holiness: Defining the NZ Wesleyan Methodist

Next, I ask Rev Waugh: “For someone that doesn’t know the term at all, how would you sum up the Wesleyan Methodist tradition?” He takes a sip from his espresso, before recounting the history of John Wesley, an Anglican clergyman who took the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the villages and slum suburbs of 18th-century England on horseback, when no one else at that time from the Church of England would. Rev Waugh shares with me his admiration for the way in which Wesley could combine his doctrinal faith with an evangelical passion for the lost. Critics mocked Wesley’s “Methodist” attitude to religious observance, self-discipline and untiring social service and the name stuck with his followers since. What was originally an English revival crossed the Atlantic and over the centuries matured into a number of Methodist movements, one of them the Wesleyan Methodist denomination.

So do Wesleyans think of their namesake as a saint?

“He was anything but a Saint. He had a disastrous marriage, for example. But we do see him as a mentor and someone who, at a junction of history, was able to hold things together in a Biblical way that is still very inspiring, and to spread ‘Scriptural Holiness’ throughout the land.”

I listen as Rev Waugh briefly explains the term, referring to a Christian’s process of ongoing sanctification.

“John Wesley was a master at holding seemingly opposing things in a creative tension – particularly social action and evangelism. When you fall either way, things can become out of balance – in New Zealand, most Methodist churches have fallen to the social gospel,” Rev Waugh added.

Which is?

“Very liberal theology, passionate about the disadvantaged – but they’ve lost their evangelism. There’s a whole story about the Methodist Church and how it was once the leading evangelical denomination, and now it’s just a shadow of its former self.”

There’s a sense of wistfulness in Rev Waugh’s voice describing the decline of New Zealand’s “oldline” Methodist churches during our conversation. Indeed, ECW’s formation in 2000 was the end result of a number of long-suffering years and painful split from the national Methodist Church, in which Rev Waugh himself spoke out in a 1998 report against a Church hierarchy now “driven by a radical left-wing theology which has little or no place for traditional Christian confessional statements or doctrinal understandings.”* The formation of the Wesleyan denomination in New Zealand arose from a culmination of years of much-publicised political tension, differing theology and hair-splitting disagreements on the ordination of homosexual Ministers – yet a decade on, Rev Waugh seems to take a pragmatic view of his former denomination that’s today “almost as liberal as the Quakers.”

Of all that, I ask him plainly: “Would you call the Wesleyan movement a ‘reaction’ church?”

He pauses, and then responds: “I think the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand is really a rebirth.”

Views from a veteran servant

A seasoned veteran of a generation’s worth of church committees and community boards, Rev Waugh has so far spoken more eloquently than I’ve been offering questions. Our conversation carries on over a range of issues in which he offers well-thought and fairly open insights on.

Defining liberal theology:

RW: “Liberal theology would say that the Bible is a source of truth, but God speaks in many other ways. And some parts of the Bible no longer have any authority. In this light, for example [in liberal theology] homosexuals and lesbians are entitled to be ministers like everyone else because God has created them that way. And [in liberal theology] of course it’s a woman’s right to have an abortion – so moral issues always read to the left.”

Regarding church denominations:

RW: “Firstly, you can’t be independent – you’re better off making a decision about the theological emphases that other streams have, not that necessarily any one of them is better than the other. At their best, they all contribute to the richness of the whole Body of Christ in a healthy way. People who stand in my stream with me, we need to know who we are, and how we relate to Presbyterians, Baptists, whoever. My contention is that every denomination has a part to play in the Body of Christ.”

Regarding women in leadership:

RW: “Again, we go back to Wesley: he was very influenced by his mother [Susannah Wesley], a passionate lady and a great disciple. Despite living in a patriarchal age, he came to the realisation that if women are spiritually gifted in preaching and teaching, you have to ultimately allow women to be equal in ministry to men. Otherwise you have to say that God gives spiritual gifts to men, but not to women. In the NZ Wesleyan church, a third of our pastors are ordained pastors and licensed ministers.

And what of 1 Tim 2:8-15?

RW: “You can find isolated verses to prop up that argument, but I think at the end of the day they fall down as a house of cards. I think you have to look at the totality of Scripture – in Christ neither male nor female – and you have to face up to other things that are supporting an argument. I think the Holy Spirit has really spoken through church history, from New Testament times, of women being in places of authority and teaching. You’d have to deny all that – I wouldn’t be in a position to do so.”

Regarding the “emergent church”:

RW: “Well I think it’s a legitimate part of the diverse expression – we have one of our congregations, cession|community would almost drop into that category, much as they might resist being boxed together. I’ve been to a number of emergent churches [Rev Waugh spent a year visiting churches in different countries as part of his D.Min studies at Asbury Theological Seminary], and I think most of them are orthodox-believing – there’s sometimes concern about whether they’re pushing beyond what the church has always affirmed. Some people think that this might be the church of the future – I don’t actually believe that, because I think the Body of Christ is always very diverse. It’s not going to take over everything else, but I think the emergent church is one doorway to the Kingdom.”

Regarding big Gospels and little gospels:

RW: “There are many ways of expressing what a ‘Salvific’ message is. For some people coming through the substitutionary [atonement] view, there are actually other ways of expressing it. I actually think in New Zealand secular society, grace is a very powerful message to tackle people with, ultimate grace: rather than talking about the cross straight away, or sin straight away. I don’t think necessarily that many younger people have a great awareness of their sins. But if you talk about aspirations, life in all its fullness, frankly I think that presses better buttons for many people. It’s legitimate for different parts of the Body to be promoting different parts of the Gospel – there’s plenty of room, as long as people are fundamentally within the orthodoxy of the church, basically affirming what has always been affirmed.”

Regarding interfaith dialogue:

RW: “That’s an interesting question, it is an increasing issue in Auckland – [for example,] the Buddhist temple‘s thrown that into sharp belief. As Christians, we have an exclusive view on salvation in Christ. You can’t give that away: though interestingly, most of the inter-religious dialogue in New Zealand has been dominated by liberal Christians. But I don’t think they can act with integrity when talking with Muslims and Buddhists, because they don’t represent the main Body of Christ anymore. You can only interact with other religions if you know who you are as a Christian – if you’re lost, you’re only going to get even more lost talking to them.”

The right renewal of Evangelicals

The recurring theme of our conversation seems to be Rev Waugh’s confidence in New Zealand’s ecumenical movement: across a number of denominations, like-minded churches that affirm Scripture as God-given authority, savour Biblically orthodox foundations and share a common zeal for sharing the Good News are a gradually growing influence. “There’s a large movement across the Body of Christ that’s pushing the mainline Churches [Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist], or you could call them ‘oldline’ Churches: and they’re saying ‘no – here’s a unity that’s built on Biblical orthodoxy and being together,’” declared Rev Waugh.

With greater unity comes greater political conviction, it seems – Rev Waugh talks excitedly about movements such as Vision Network of New Zealand, an ecumenical organisation of over 500 member churches, congregation and church agencies, that are “changing the Body of Christ, changing how it reacts politically and how it speaks out.” There’s evidence of action on their website, with a flurry of position papers, discussions and conferences having a noticeably evangelical underpinning. Rev Waugh feels that VNNZ’s collaborative nature so far engages constructively with other churches “in a way that liberal church leaders wouldn’t have a chance.”

He notes, “There’s a maturing of the Evangelical view of what it takes to be a thinking Christian today.”

I ask whether there were any challenges to working with such a diverse group of churches.

“There’s the liberal challenge,” he replies, returning to a subject that he feels strongly about. Rev Waugh reflects on the local scene 25 years ago when the traditional denominations (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian) were dominant and prided themselves in being liberal, though not “radical-liberal”. He claims that today they’re being increasingly marginalised as the Church in New Zealand shifts to a more Evangelical, Bible-believing base. Rev Waugh cites the 2006 Presbyterian General Assembly’s decision to reaffirm that “no practising homosexual could be a candidate for licensed, ordained ministry” as a strong indicator of a prevailing Biblical orthodoxy today. It’s definitely a contrast from the days when theologian Lloyd Geering, then head of the Presbyterian Theological College, in 1967 could boldly declare: “Christ was not resurrected from the grave.”

A ongoing orthodoxy

Over the course of the hour, Rev Waugh has come across as a man of God who�s passionately evangelical, passionately orthodox. We’ve woven our way through topics without too much specificity, yet I’m impressed with the way he’s approached each question with thought and precision. It will be interesting to follow the progress of the ECW flock as the New Zealand church climate moves through its seasons, and which way the progressive/orthodox pendulum will swing over the next few years (or whether the pendulum stays relevant) remains to be seen. But before we go our separate ways, I pluck up the courage to ask the most important question of all.

“What would be the most important thing you’d want to tell someone who wasn’t a Christian?”

There’s a considered pause as Rev Waugh collects his thoughts.

“I’d want to say that they’re missing out on the quality of living and loving that without Jesus Christ, is just not possible. I’d want to quote to them John 10:10, on the fullness of life. That even if you think you’ve got a balanced and happy life, you can find that much more fulfilment as Christ’s follower.”

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Further reading:

Rowe K. Beyond the Tamaki: celebrating 150 years of Methodism in Howick-Pakuranga. Auckland: Barry Crichton, 2002. ISBN: 0473010518.
Investigate Magazine – Writer Bernard Moran’s angle on the homosexual debate that polarised (and split) the Methodist Church of New Zealand.

Disclosures: None to declare.
Email the author: lemmingz (at) gmail (dot) com

N.B.: This post will make no sense to you if you’re not a Christian, it’s just not that easy to explain in a snippet. (Just ask me.)

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So I’m running. Displacing the air around me, surging upward and onward, and I tell myself I’m in control. Renewed zeal, nothing to war with in my life. I’m desensitised to the world around me bar my iPod, and the cadence of my strides.

And then, through Mark Driscoll, I’m being rightfully rebuked from so many different angles while pacing like a wannabe-harrier, through suburban streets in the evening breeze. His Word pierces me inside, and my priorities in life are unceremoniously realigned, much like a bouncer realigns a drunken soul. Pick it up. Fling him into oblivion.

And just when I’m about to stop running and collapse on my knees (and that’s not because I’m tired)…

… it begins to pour down from the heavens.

Gentle, comforting rain. Rain shy of cats-and-dogs, more like that Laser Eye Surgery TV ad…

But rain so beautifully on cue.

And then this urbane tinfoil voice, a spokesperson reading from God’s Word, strikes a gentler tone and reassures this broken Christian wheezing along Sunderlands Rd…

… “And therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.” [Ro 8:1]

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Thank you.

If you like listening to sermon recordings on your iPod/car stereo but invariably find yourself drowsy after the first few minutes, then this might be for you….

Mixing together slick and polished hip-hop, techno and ambient sounds to some of the top pastors in the Reformed tradition, 10:31 Sermon Jams (myspace; website) is the brainchild of Minnesota, US Christian artists Bryan Guenther and Caleb Hoisington. In their own words:

This ministry is based on 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Our main focus is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to make His name famous. Our goal is to take biblically saturated sermons and turn them into mini clips for edification for the household of faith and tracts to unbelievers.

I think the massively bass-thumpy “War” one (John Piper) is the most hilarious, yet surprisingly engaging to listen to. That synth ostinato on the top really gets the tension going…

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In other news, practised at my first worship band practice recently, and had to focus a bit to get to grips with the various songs. The team I’m in for Sunday is reasonably polished and it’s a special Boys Brigade service at HBC, which means playing a very march-like hymn on the violin!

I think the best justification I’ve discovered for singing, writing, recording and worshipping with songs can be summed up below:

“The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zeph 3:17, NKJV)

All the good guys sing: the angels (Luke 2:10), the saved people (Rev 15:2-4) and God – isn’t that something? If we were made in God’s image, then I’m looking forward to the day when our glorification might just include a vocal-cord upgrade. At this point I’m trying to imagine what God’s singing voice would sound like. Basso profundo? Frank Sinatra? Mary J Blige? David Caruso? Or maybe it’s a vocal mesh that’s somewhere between Clay Aiken, Brooke Fraser, John Mayer and the Vienna Boy’s Choir.

Here’s another point: in the Bible, there’s no mention of Satan, or his associated cronies singing. It’s not immediately obvious whether they are tonedeaf or musically broke, but here’s the sobering possibility: sin takes away the desire to sing, and to sing happily.

I think I need to sing more.

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Website: http://www.ibcchurch.com; Ph: (09) 273 3349; 2 Dannemora Drive, Dannemora, Auckland; Senior Pastor: Ken Young; Speaker: Mike Huffman; Sermon topic: “Beholding the God of Love” (Ro 8:31, 37-39); 28.6.08; 9.30am.

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

You’ll like this church if you: want Biblical inerrancy tempered with topical relevance, prefer contemporary worship to praise God with, are more comfortable with saving the in-depth Bible studies for more intimate sessions, want an international place of worship that’s bound to neither Jew nor Greek.

You won’t like this church if you: Don’t feel like worshipping with earplugs on, have had bad experiences with enthusiastic Christian “love-bombing”, want more tough-talking/”fire-and-brimstone” advice from the pulpit, are uncomfortable with a multicultural church demographic.

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In a regular drive-by, the iconic row of national flags as you approach Botany Town Centre, Auckland from either Chapel Rd or Ti Rakau Drive is usually hard to miss. My mother once commented that it’s one of the few places that you’ll ever see the People’s Republic of China and the Taiwanese RoC flags fluttering side by side. I think what she missed at the time was that Christ’s love can do just that: bring people together in unity and fellowship, whether Jew or Greek, Chinese or Taiwanese, Oz or Kiwi, ebony or saffron-skinned.

With rampant globalisation and the melting-pot feel of New Zealand, one of the less contentious (but still relevant) issues that divides congregations today isn’t doctrinal difference, or church politics, or even location. It’s language. Whether you like it or not, New Zealand is now a multicultural Godzone, and this has ramifications that English-speaking pastors have little control of, short of signing up for language classes. The Across Pacific and Asia ministries website lists over 100 churches in New Zealand that cater to non-English Christians, and even more would be existing churches that run separate services for different languages. While we will have to wait until Revelation 7:9 to really be worshipping as a “great multitude … from every nation, tribe, people and language”, in the meantime a church with an international focus is properly comes close – let’s take a look.

Worship: Unashamedly contemporary, loud praise and worship songs are the order of the day at IBC – though I’m happy to report that there’s good substance to the lyrics in most of the songs. I enjoyed singing Stuart Townend’s “In Christ Alone” amongst the 300-odd United Nations-like diaspora, as well as worship numbers like Supertone’s “You are Beautiful Beyond Description“, all backed by a well-rehearsed and polished music team (featuring an electric drum kit). During the offering, a husband-and-wife team sang a self-penned song, “Complete”. I’m aware that with performances during church there’s always a fine line of where you draw your attention to (God or the performer), but it worked pretty well and having the lyrics on the projector meant that the congregation weren’t totally detached from the experience. I should point out that those who find any extraneous music distracting might feel reserved about the background-piano-while-praying approach that IBC also employed during their altar call (though it’s probably not that effective anyways).

Teaching: The first of an ongoing series of “Beholding the God of ___”, the teaching was led by Associate Pastor Mike Huffman, a new addition to the IBC team for 2008 (more on this further on) – senior pastor Ken Young being away in Mansfield, Texas overseeing a church plant there. Focusing primarily on four key verses in Romans chapter 8, Huffman used a methodical but incisive preaching style that came across more like a doting father than a fiery streetcorner evangelist – an apt tone given the sermon topic.

Focusing on God’s love gave a take-home message that’s essentially the Bible’s best self-esteem pick-me-up: “God loves you for who you are, not what you do”. This message may be simple but it’s often missed among the all-to-common misconception that we have to work for our salvation, or that we have to work to earn God’s love. Huffman drew some pretty strong points from both Old and New Testament scriptures to give some relevance to an important characteristic of God that nearly-always gets a vague explanation otherwise.

Church history: IBC started out from small beginnings in 1984 Howick (think the era of the Three Guys and Deka shopping malls) as Bible Baptist Church – founded by John Young, father of current senior pastor Ken Young. A bold move in 1998 to the literally “flagship” location at the entrance gate of residential Dannemora gave IBC the means to reach out to a suburb which would eventually become the “diasporasia”-led stronghold it is today (hence the multicultural focus). It’s noted for retaining its independence from the Baptist Union of NZ that the majority of Baptist churches join, and this may or may not be related to the Young’s US missionary roots and pre-existing support from sending organisations.

At the start of 2008, there was a recent leadership reshuffle from the incorporation of a smaller independent Baptist church, Seven Oaks Baptist Church to the IBC congregation. The Huffmans, under directives from their US-based sending organisation Biblical Ministries Worldwide nurtured the Seven Oaks congregation for a number of years in the Flat Bush area before the join-up with IBC. It’s worth pointing out that the mission field in NZ is considered an especially important one by conservative Baptists, due to their collective misgivings over the influence of the Charismatic movement�in NZ.

Visitor treatment: With handshakers, a welcome lounge and open visitor appeals during the church service, there’s a deliberate attempt to seek out visitors and pamper them at IBC, which will definitely rub some people up the wrong way. For a 300-odd congregation it’s fair to say that if not for the well-mobilised ushers team we’d have been able to slip in and slip out so much easier (see PBC for an example of that). As a reflection of a genuine “love thy neighbour” approach it’s not a bad thing – but I feel there needs to be some moderation in how this is done. What may be genuine hospitality may end up being too uncomfortable for the more stoic and reserved churchgoer (the harshest critics may even be moved to consider this love bombing, though the term itself is a contentious one). I did find the personal chats with members of the leadership team more useful and, more importantly, genuine.

Other faculties: We enjoyed a special presentation of the children’s programme, which follows the popular “Patch the Pirate” Sunday School curriculum. The 15-odd group of primary-aged children [pictured] sang some surprisingly well-crafted songs (plenty of food for thought in them), and were capably conducted by Genia Huffman. Alongside that, there’s all the regular trimmings and ministries of church their size, including piercing discipleship classes, verse-by-verse bible studies, and life groups catering for all ages.

I should point out that I was most impressed with IBC’s Mandarin translation service. Obviously a faculty that’s grown out of need for a sizeable Chinese demographic, it looks to be one small step in reversing Babel-like splits, and if you really want to you can argue that it’s more eco-friendly/family-bonding to not have your Chinese grandparents pulled away to a different service just because of language barriers.

Conclusion: Well-equipped, cosmopolitan family that draws strength and numbers in a Bible-led way – but may need to tone down the treacle smiles.

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(Disclosures: 2 friends are former members of the church. IBC is being considered as our home church.)
Next week: William is taking a sabbatical from church-hopping!

P.S.: The word “diasporasia” is wholly fictional, much like half of Shakespeare’s words when they were first written.

(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.)

Website: http://www.cession.org.nz; Ph: (09) 279 9332; The Depot, Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga; Senior Pastor/Speaker: Brett Jones; Sermon topic: “Bland Death Auto Pt 1: It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over”; 21.6.08; 5:45pm.

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

You’ll like this church if you: like new ways of presenting Jesus Christ in a postmodern generation; seek a balance between youth-centered relevance and timeless truth, have an aversion to fake happy clapping and/or sitting amongst the pew masses, are a Christian looking for an open-minded church environment, want a church where it’s easy to get to know everyone.

You won’t like this church if you: are a true-blue emergent dude/dudette, don’t like holding on to early-church traditions such as Lent and the Stations of the Cross, hold to a more conservative/fundamental approach to church services, would be confused in a dark room on a Sunday evening, like to slip in and slip out of church anonymously.

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Dim lighting and roundtable seating. Bible readings in Klingon. Blogging church elders. Re-enactments of Grand Theft Auto 4 cutscenes. Playstation metaphors juxtaposed with James chapter 1. Yes, this is a church, and a surprisingly faithful one at that.

To me, cession|community is much like the TNIV translation of the Bible. They’re both narrative-driven, gender neutral, very easily accessible to young-at-hearts, with more of the legalistics tucked away in a not-worth-the-conflict box or left open-ended. And much like the TNIV, cession would probably be frowned upon by more conservative folks that don’t believe that the church-wheel ever needs revisioning/reinventing.

This was our first evening church service in a long time, and we arrived just as their “chow” session was finishing up. Senior Pastor Brett Jones himself (oooooh) showed us into a room set out like a dinner show: tablecloth-draped round tables with coffee chatter amongst patrons of Jesus Christ. We were feeling a bit shy and uninitiated to this unique set up and Jones was kind enough to “hide us in a corner”. We sat down in eager anticipation and watched the projected countdown clock behind the stage, well, count down to cession|launch.

Worship: Run-of-the-mill CCM, this would probably be the most “mainstream church” aspect of cession. An energetic and lively six-pack of worship bandies worked with a chilled out of about 40-odd worshippers responding with about the same fervour as café patrons would respond to Norah Jones on the muzak tracks. The music was tight and polished, (“mad awesome riffs” etc), but I liked the sincerity of the songs they chose that night. As a personal note, I’m pretty partial to any song set that includes Brooke Fraser-penned praises.

Teaching: An English-subtitled, Cantonese video of a dysfunctional family took me by surprise first (and was a bit tricky to piece together), but I eventually recognised it as an introduction to struggles and trials in life. Senior pastor Brett Jones then took the stage, sharing clear and eloquent thoughts on a 4-part series on the book of James. As per the out-of-the-box creative core presentation ethos, the teaching is presented within the metaphor of video gaming, if you ever wanted teaching notes with Playstation controller configurations on them, this church will appeal.

Digesting the teaching, I felt that analogy between the decision-making in a video game was pretty effective in illustrating points such as:

• considering the gameplay in life’s trials and whether it’s really about the miserable things
• sharpening up our wisdom/hand-eye coordination/anything by asking for God’s help
• our free will in choosing not to repeat our mistakes and challenging our sin-nature programming.

I also appreciated Jones’s willingness to share real stories and real struggles (including a heart-wrenching ancedote of sexual temptation) to illustrate how tough living the Christian life can get and that even when you’ve slipped up horribly, there’s still The Light at the end of the tunnel.

Church history: Their own history page does it best, but I will add that their name comes from the Latin noun “cessio”, which roughly means one who yields or surrenders. Cession seems to pride itself in approaching Christianity with an open mind about those thorny, divisive theological issues that tear many a church apart. Elder Frank Ritchie in a Wesleyanz article termed this the “radical middle”, being neither conservative nor liberal. If it weren’t for the affiliation with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, one could imagine cession joining the “conversation” of emergent churches (of which I have mixed feelings about). But I’m happy that cession’s not emergent enough that they start�questioning the core truths like Jesus being God, salvation being a global necessity and so on.

Visitor treatment: We had the pleasure of chatting with two churchgoers Katie and Sarah (she sang in the worship team earlier) after the service, who shared that they’ve just started a new service at 10.30am. As I mentioned earlier, the pastor was astute enough to stay clear of any overt jump-and-join approaches, and I picked out a genuine servant heart feel from the congregation present (from the media team to the caffeine technicians).

Other faculties: For those who love free food, cession worshippers make great sacrifices in contributing each week to a cession “chow”, basically a shared meal that begins at 5.00pm before the service proper. Unfortunately this review couldn’t extend into the food options afforded and so on, but it’s a unique and encouraging outreach that works pretty well for the church’s community size. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to dig deeper into the rest of the current teaching series or attend one of their regular Plugging-In sessions for those interested in finding out more.

Ultimately, there is a catch-22 in trying to reach out to the transient, postmodern generation that easily slides in and out of church like its a commodity, or a social event and not something as significant as the Bride of Jesus Christ. On the one hand, cession is a tight group of creative, forward-thinking Christians specialising in presenting a relevant gospel to the young in the area (young people reach young people the best). On the other hand, it doesn’t seem “mainstream” enough to appeal to mums and dads and extended families (no SuperGold card holders at this church, guaranteed), and there’s a danger of only being relevant as long as you’re young, and as Suzanne Paul can testify, people age. To stand the test of time eventually cession may need to assess whether they’ll continue to reach out to lost younguns or whether they’ll need to mature into an across-the-spectrum faith community (perhaps when the leadership team hits their 50s or something!).

Conclusion: A young, thinking person’s counterculture church which gets it right in balancing both being relevant and being true.

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(Disclosures: none at the time of visit, though 1 pastoral teamer is now fb friends.)
Next week: International Baptist Church.

(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.)

Website: www.cityside.org.nz; Ph: (09) 377 3512; 8A Mt Eden Rd, Newton, Auckland; Senior Pastor: Brenda Rockell; Sermon topic: “teach, heal and cast out evil“; 15.6.08; 10.30am.

Rating: none given
(A=return worshipper, AA=excellent and growing, AAA=must be my home church lol)

You’ll like this church if you: want an all-inclusive community of faith, are looking for a church that’s moving away from polished feel-good concert worship, seek new ways of thinking and practising your faith outside the confines of “church” or “doctrine”.

You won’t like this church if you: stick to propositional truths of the Bible, don’t approve of women serving in leadership roles, take exception to emergent theology and its lack of clear and Bible-based definitions, see church as a place to fill your spiritual needs rather contribute to conversations and doubts.

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One of the hallmarks of the Baptist church in general is a certain degree of independence of each church from a main organisational hierarchy, or a structure. This means that, though there are generally some common threads between different Baptist churches (for example, believer’s baptism), each church does certain things differently from the next. Our ongoing quest to find a home church has showed quite clearly that no two Baptist churches, or no two churches of any sort, are quite the same. So perhaps it’s in this environment of greater religious freedom that you’d find one of New Zealand’s emergent church communities at Cityside Baptist Church.

What is emergent? It’s hard to nail this right, but generally it could be church which is actively trying to reinvent how “church” is done, is open to people of all orientations, races, and gender, and promotes an ongoing dialogue and discussion rather than set-in-stone doctrine and truths. I’d say that Cityside is a particularly attractive place for Christians who are disillusioned with being washed up in corporate-style megachurches, as well as attractive for people who don’t consider themselves Christians but relate with this community’s social mission and push for interfaith dialogue. In any case, we knew this would be an intriguing experience from the moment we walked up the antique wooden steps and sat down in one of the many trademe couches, arranged around a room filled with hand and footprints on the walls, avant garde artwork and lighting fixtures, and offering bags sewn out of colourful, woolly socks.

Worship: A very informal affair, led by Fergus McKinlay who put some songs up on an overhead projector in between short, simple prayers. The song choice definitely reflected Cityside’s social activism focus, with song lyrics that implore worshippers “to make the earth the place in which the kingdom comes”, and most importantly, to “love your neighbour as you love yourself”. I’m a bit mixed about the efficacy of the social gospel (since we’re fighting against a world that’s irrevocably breaking down), but the sincerity of the worship relaxes me. It’s a joy to observe an interesting demographic mix, from Remuera mums to young couples, men in jandals to beanie-wearing ladies in long, flowing dresses and half-dreads, all singing “Jubilate Deo” in canon form. All songs were accompanied on the humble chords of a well-used piano – definitely no mike amps or guitar riffs in this time of worship.

Speaker: Brenda Rockell offered a half-hour discourse on her thoughts on what it was like to be one of the 12 original disciples, and what the “Good News” was actually being preached in Jesus’s years of ministry. Her main argument was that the good news of Jesus didn’t depend on His resurrection, summing up JC as a man of substance and a great role-model. Rockell urged the 50-strong congregation to look at a different commission: rather than proselyting and converting people to be Christians by title, she contended there was a different focus to the actions Jesus told his disciples to do when they were sent out into various townships of the day. [edited 29.7.08]

It all sounded very well and good, but even a cursory glance at the most well-known verses would quickly reveal that Jesus wasn’t just a preacher of positive action. His execution was the direct result of His making claims that He was God, not that He was a good role model for society in helping the poor and the sick, as applaudable as that may be. Even the verses surrounding Jesus’s proclamation of the Great Commission at the conclusion of the book of Matthew shows how the disciples not only modelled Christ, they worshipped Him too (Mt 28:1-20). Rockell’s scant use of Biblical references to back up her thoughts on meant that it ended up being almost a blog-post like opinion (much like this one here) surmising what may or may not have happened – it just felt like a thread in an forum post, rather than any sort of detailed look at God’s Word. Perhaps this one verse could sum up the viewpoint of Cityside Baptist: “Whey they saw Him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” (Mt 28:17). Nevertheless, I appreciated the subsequent open discussion that gave a very smallgroup or bible study session feel to the service.

Church history: If the building looks like its seen a lot of history, that’s because it has. It was built at its present site a stones’ throw from old-school pub Galbraith’s in 1906, and Mt Eden Baptist Church enjoyed its status as one of the larger Baptist churches in New Zealand at the time. Increasing suburbisation led to the decline of worshippers and the building was turned over to the Auckland Baptist Mission in 1960. Eventually a change to a church-focus saw the name changed to Cityside Baptist Church and City Mission in 1993. Cityside retains its strong roots in missional service, and chatting with members of the congregation reveals the same enthusiasm for serving the community as their forebears.

Visitor treatment: After the service we chatted with two friendly women; Pauline and Kristin, as well as a father-of-two. Everyone we spoke to was friendly and amiable, and all shared their common passion for helping each other and the community at large. Pauline also shared her experiences of serving on a short-term mission onboard the Logos II, which is an OM sister ship of the Doulos that we went off to visit after the service.

Other faculties: For its size, the church had a surprisingly large number of children frolicking around with great abandon, running between chairs and tables in the kitchen area in front of a small fair-trade espresso machine station ($3 for a good conscience/cause). With church attendance “rather fluid” (there’s around 100 registered members but attendance levels vary greatly), as put by someone, it’s good to know that there’s still a range of activities like Playgroup (small child not a requirement), Monastic Group, and even after-work drinks. It’s hard to say what exactly some of these events entail without actually attending one or two of them – I’d say a Cityside brochure would be one of the few places you’d find a Benediction next to a call to drinks at Galbraiths.

Conclusion: Church on couches, love all your neighbours, sincere postmodern thought and banter – yet on the day, nary a mention that Christ crucified is why we have a church in the first place.

N.B. [29.7.08]: Have a look at the comments section below for a responses and clarifications on the sermon from Brenda Rockell, and visit this link for the full sermon.

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(Disclosures: none.)
Next week: cession|community.

(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.)

Website: http://www.pakbapt.org.nz; Ph: (09) 576 8403; 2 Fremantle Place, Pakuranga, Auckland; Senior Pastor: Andrew Brown; Sermon topic: “Servants with a High Calling” (2 Cor 5:11-7:16); 8.6.08; 9.00am.

Rating: none given
(A=return worshipper, AA=excellent and growing, AAA=must be my home church lol)

You’ll like this church if you: live locally in the Pakuranga central area, want to be involved in an ambitious church-growing venture, seek a church that is multicultural and inclusive.

You won’t like this church if you: are looking for a more traditional Baptist service, don’t like the worship band dominating the service, prefer better production values at your church service, don’t like splitting the church into 2 worship times.

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Note to ponder: denominational names aren’t a particularly surefire indicator of what the Christian teaching, demographic, music, outreach or ministry is really like – we’ve seen significant variation between the churches we’ve come across so far in our ongoing homechurch hunt.

I’ve known about Pakuranga Baptist Church for a good few years now, having attended youth services at next-door-neighbour Pakuranga Chinese Baptist Church in my young and carefree days, sometimes wondering what PBC would be like. So I finally took the opportunity to visit with a blank-slate mind. It was eerily quiet in the parking spaces outside as we walked in wondering if it had started…

Worship: … and we found ourselves half an hour late into the service, battling our way through kids running out the doors to take part in their kids church events. This surprised us until we learned that PBC has recently changed their services from a single 9.30 service to a 9.00am and a 10.45am split. Despite our late arrival, the 6-piece worship band was still able to take up a big segment of the time, working studiously through 2 contemporary praise songs for another 20 minutes. A sizeable part of the 80-odd congregation seemed content just listening to the words and the music. One thing I didn’t like was the worship band’s liberal use of instrumental sections, which works for some people as contemplative but not to me. I’m very aware of the temptation for church bands to take more limelight than is necessary, and this one with attempted guitar solos and repeated refrains stretched a bit borderline (though maybe the band on the day wasn’t representative of normal worship). Two of the backup singers on the day could have used some remedial training as well to better mesh with the band – nevertheless, I’m sure it was worship acceptable to God, which is always the main thing.

Speaker: The pastor Andrew Brown shared a message from 2 Cor 5:11-7:16, explaining Paul’s response to attacks from his congregation. After getting over his interesting accent, his message was pretty well-grounded and a good attempt at explaining the context behind Paul’s lovingly-worded scold session to the Corinthian church. One good thing I got out of the sermon was a better understanding of Paul’s preaching demeanour, with members of the early church accusing him of being 1) not Jewish enough, 2) not as close to Jesus as the 12 apostles, 3) not charismatic (in terms of gifts) enough of a speaker. In fact, Brown explained, Paul was a very plain preacher, whose response was to say that “Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation” (7:10). Also noted that the pastor referenced philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche at one point – don’t remember why, but I do recall that if anyone was a pastor’s kid gone sour, Nietzsche would be it (his father was a Lutheran priest).

I’m not sure why, but Brown then weaved in the blue-ribbon story. Basically it’s a self-esteem building exercise where you give blue ribbon acknowledgements to people, and everyone gets more positive (you can read about it here). Personally I hold a bit of skepticism as to its long-term benefits beyond the initial feelgood factor, though the online testimonies seem to indicate otherwise. The presentation shared was taken straight from this testimonial, which as heartfelt as it was, didn’t really strike me as anything more than “love your neighbour as yourself” – something which I guess is worth encouraging. It struck me as odd that Brown focused on this story rather than letting the Scripture do the talking, but the congregation seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.

Church history: PBC boldly announces that 2008 is “the year of service”, essentially an outreach with the hopes of growth in numbers. Mandarin pastor James Bin shared that this is also the motive behind the 2-service strategy. The church has been a regular fixture for many years now, operating as a member church of the Baptist Churches of NZ.

Other faculties: Alpha groups, SUBLIME youth with age-group splits catering from 10 to 30 year-olds, small groups and a strong church focus on overseas missions mentioned during our visit. Pastor Andrew Brown seems pretty keen on rotating through areas of focus throughout 2008, and it would be interesting to find out what other “focus” is planned for the future.

Visitor treatment: We slipped in, and we slipped out with nary a conversation with anyone in the pews. We chatted amicably with Pastor Bin as mentioned previously as a courtesy, but it was surprisingly easy to remain anonymous, it seemed.

Conclusion: A good local church catering adequately to its demographic spread, yet only moderately exciting/innovative/challenging for the most part.

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(Disclosures: 1 friend/relative is an associate pastor.)
Next week: Cityside Baptist Church.�

(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.)

Website: http://www.ecw.org.nz; Ph: (09) 533 4956; 219 Burswood Drive, East Tamaki; Senior Pastor: Rev Richard Waugh; Speaker: Rev Ian Croudace; Sermon topic: “Holiness” (Luke 10:25-28); 1.6.08, 9.30am.

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

You’ll like this church if you: are looking for a church in the Wesleyan Methodist (WM) tradition, seek a family-friendly church environment, want a church that’s also concerned about ongoing sanctification, champion for women’s rights in all aspects of life.

You won’t like this church if you: have a preconceived idea that WM means old and creaky worship, don’t believe in the authority of Tradition in the church, see no place for women in church leadership or eldership, want slick concert-style worship with a youth focus, get bored with expositional preaching.

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UPDATE (23.8.08): Click here for an in-depth interview with ECW’s Richard Waugh on a wide range of matters.

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It’s interesting how local East Auckland can sometimes be, especially when people you know from childhood days reemerge in your lives in new and interesting ways. I first met East City Wesleyan pastor Richard Waugh and his family as a young and naïve primary-schooler living on Penruddocke Rd, Pakuranga when they owned the biggest front yard on the entire street. There used to be annual street parties which, fun as it were, I remembered most for their hospitable nature. After a chance meeting at a Pizza Hut a few years ago (my parents approached them quite warmly) and discovering Waugh’s role as pastor of ECW, I made it a thought to visit his church at some stage.

Unfortunately, quite a few people were away on a national conference on the day we chose to visit, and Waugh himself was in the endstages of an overseas sabbatical. The church have only recently moved into their new premises in East Tamaki, and so we dropped in being aware that it wouldn’t be a normal service by any means.

Worship: If you’ve ever been brought up Methodist, you know that the services are traditionally very structured, with call and response, recited prayers, and set hymns for each portion of the service. Think “The peace of God be with you all.” “And with you also.” “Let us greet one another with a sign of peace.” – that sorta thing – indeed, traditional Methodist churches keep this going. ECW on the other hand has joined more and more churches in embracing modern worship, throwing out all the rote-learning of yesteryear for lots of CCLI-licensed worship songs. The music and projector team were noticeably grappling with the new equipment, though the half-full congregation didn’t have any problems with words – this is a church that sings praises in a heartfelt way. I was more impressed with the band’s earnestness than anything else, though. I was also touched by a prayer time which involved the whole congregation (the type you usually do in smallgroups or prayergroups) where everyone was free to just offer up their prayers – normally a large church gathering loses most, if not all of that intimacy and fellowship.

Speaker: A particularly methodical lesson was shared by Rev Ian Croudace, one of the few church elders not at the national conference in a covering role. Today’s sermon was focused on the first half of the oft-quoted command in Luke 10:27: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind…”. Croudace offered a rather complicated diagram to explain the verse which included temptation lines, plotted series for the carnal/spiritual, and distinct X-intercept lines at physical and spiritual births, a phase called “death to self-will” and physical death.

If all that sounded confusing to you, that’s because it was a little. Though as he explained it, it made a bit more sense, though you never quite got over the density of the material. Croudace was pretty good at drawing in anecdotes and stories to make the message a bit more palatable. However, both Cheryl and I offered huge raised eyebrows to the story of the amazing building-block-in-our-body-miracle-cross-shaped-laminin: there’s many a Christian website that’s jumped headlong into this as definitive proof of God’s creation stamp. I think to single out laminins (which in molecular reality aren’t always cross-shaped) and not every other cell that God designed is a bit misguided. I mean, I know the intentions are good, but the laminin thing’s still a touch overzealous in my opinion (look at this video at about 3:00 for an example).

Molecular biology aside, the sermon did what it set out to do: explain the verse. ECW has been pretty expositional in its teaching over the year that Waugh has been away on sabbatical: someone shared that they had just finished a “Genesis to Revelation” walkthrough that spanned a good year or two. It’s good to know that they’re not selective in teaching then, though I can’t be sure without coming back to really know.

Church history: The Wesleyan Methodist Church made its split from the Methodist family of churches over the question of slavery in 1843 (WM on the against-side), and since then it’s grown to encompass a worldwide community of over 60 million people. The name comes from famous evangelical pioneer John Wesley, an Anglican minister and early leader of the Methodist movement. The Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand seems to have kept faithfully to his teachings, including that of “Christian perfection” (hence the focus in the sermon on holiness). Admittedly titles, denominations and the finer points of theology don’t always mean as much to the general congregation here, but the leaders do point out the differences in their church literature, including: emphasis on salvation and ongoing holiness, women in ministry, being evangelical and missional, and dynamic orthodoxy (translate: same theology, new packaging). WMCNZ churches may not all share the same theology: one of their pastors is Lifefm radio announcer/DJ Frank Ritchie who writes in the Wesleyan magazine with a particularly emergent conviction.

Other faculties: Their new church building sports an instant coffee machine – nice! Alright, let’s be serious – all in all they’re equipped for all the standard fare, kid’s church (there was a mini-playground in the foyer area for creche too), youth group on Sunday nights, homegroups and so on. As a show of progressiveness and “dynamic orthodoxy”, ECW started a youth-oriented church plant in the Highland Park area called cession|community, which seems to be pretty successful so far.

Visitor treatment: Was welcomed very cordially by a lady as we came in, who gave us all we needed to acquaint ourself with the church. I spent the after-church chat talking to a friend’s mother, who was very enthusiastic in wanting us to stay. Meet and greet during the service was pretty good too.

Conclusion: A faithful and growing community that shows a closeness you don’t usually see in corporate worship – ECW sticks true to its word as a place “where people are growing”.

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(Disclosures: 1 friend is an existing worshipper.)
Next week: Pakuranga Baptist Church.

(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.)