The past two weeks we have looked at the two milestones in our journey so far in re-discovering our purpose and vision as a Church: 

Our Mission statement—Hawera Baptist Church exists to: Honour God; Build the Kingdom of God; Connect with our community 

Our Vision statement – “Living faith from the inside out” (and the five focus areas) 

Now that we understand our purpose and have found a vision that we can partner with God in to-gether, we find ourselves in a place where the rubber really meets the road. We are in a new phase of the journey. This current phase is exciting because it is the time for action. So here are the BIG questions: 

Are we willing to make the changes needed for significant Kingdom impact? 

Are we able to make the jump from theory to practice? 

In order to work on these changes and develop a strategy we need to: 

Develop leadership within each of the focus areas. 

Develop activities and outcomes for each of the focus areas. 

Get everyone who calls HBC “home” to find their place within the plan. 

Keep the “big picture” in mind. 

There has been progress in all of these areas. For example: Several people have been approached to consider the development of leadership and skills for focus areas; we have a number of church activi-ties set for the first half of 2012 which reflect the five focus areas (see below); some people have approached me with questions of “fit” and we are working on that with them; I keep writing things like this to help keep the “big picture” in mind :) 

There will be more detailed info available in the next couple of weeks, but for now here are some of the “activities” planned for the first half of the year with the specific focus areas they relate to (in brackets): 

“The Help” Movie night, 10-12 Feb (Care & Inclusion) 

5-5-5 Prayer, 12 Feb—11 March (Prayer & Worship) 

Church family camp (Theme: “Living faith from the inside out = all areas) 

Bridge Builders, 15-17 March (Discipleship & Training AND Care & Inclusion) 

Easter “stations”, 5-8 April (Prayer & Worship) 

Self Denial, 10-24 June (Local & Global Mission) 

As well as the above “one offs” we will continue with ongoing activities (craft, youth, service, mission team etc.), but we are also looking at a number of new initiatives (eg. Quad groups for men; another Alpha course; others…?). Please take some time to consider where you might fit and what your pas-sion is. 

Arohanui, Pastor David Auty 

Last week we looked at the first milestone in our journey to discover our purpose and vision as a Church. This was the identification of our Mission statement - 

Hawera Baptist Church exists to: Honour God; Build the Kingdom of God; Connect with our community 

After articulating our purpose/mission/reason we exist, we then embarked on an open, prayerful and consultative process of seeking God for a vision that would take HBC into the future. This process began with a simple question asked at our church meeting on 20 March 2011: “What would it look like if HBC were to have 5% Kingdom impact in Hawera by 2020”? This “seed question” allowed us to think, dream and plan for discovering a new vision for the church and the second milestone came as we affirmed our new Vision Statement at our AGM/Vision Night on 3 September 2011: 

“Living faith from the inside out” 

Alongside this vision statement we adopted the symbol of a Koru to graphically represent our church and the living, dynamic flow of mission and ministry that we want to develop in five focus areas: 

Prayer & Worship → Discipleship & Training → Care & Inclusion → Local & Global Mission Resourcing and Administration 

“Living faith from the inside out” speaks of who we are, and who we hope to be. It is a frame-work for us to move forward into the future. If our Mission statement is the first lens for what we should be about as a church, then the Vision statement is the second lens—the lens that sharpens our focus and allows us to identify specific ways in which we seek to move forward….but more on that next week. 

Blessings to you all. Arohanui, Pastor David AUty 

I’m off on holiday for 10 days and I thought it would be good to do something different for the newsletter/blog for the next few weeks. Over the past two years we have been on a journey to discover our purpose and vision as a Church. In this journey there have been two significant milestones so far, and we are now into a third phase of the journey. Over the next three weeks I will remind you of the milestones, and then take a look at what’s next for us as a church. 

Today let’s look at Milestone One Back in September 2010 we came to our first milestone at our AGM/Vision Night where we affirmed the purpose of the church (why we exist) in the form of a “Mission statement”. Gaining inspiration from historic and biblical sources like: the “foundation stone” outside the old entrance to the church; the plaque in the old foyer for Douglas E. Gabbie, “A worthy helper in the building of this church”; and the Biblical understanding that we are to be “salt and light” to the world, we affirmed our Mission statement as: 

Hawera Baptist Church exists to: Honour God; Build the Kingdom of God; Connect with our community 

This is often simply expressed as: 

honour | build | connect 

This Mission statement is very much in keeping with our identity as a church, and expresses both the historic, and the current thinking around why we exist. In a sense, this is the first lens for us when looking at what we should get involved in as a community of faith: Does this honour God? Does this build the Kingdom of God? Does this help us to connect with our community? Good questions for us to ask! 

Next week we will look at our second milestone. Can you work out what it will be? Then I’ll look at “What’s next?” on the 29th January. 

Rich blessings, Pastor David Auty 

Do you remember the question of our Church meeting in March?
What would it take for HBC to see 5% Kingdom impact in Hawera by 2020? At that meeting we brainstormed & came up with a bunch of ideas, but what we also did was hone in on some sharp areas of focus for a Kingdom vision here at HBC.

These areas can be summarized in the phrase "inside out" - a community of people who are spiritually healthy on the inside purposefully having our faith bubble out of us and into every facet of our own lives, and our life as a community. That's what we heard from God back in March and it should really be no surprise to us.

So what do we do about this? Firstly, we need to take it seriously because it's Kingdom work we're talking about - be prayerful!  Secondly, we need to examine our own lives and work on areas that might get in the way of God's vision for us.  Thirdly, we need to be prepared to make consistent and purposeful change in our life as a community.

Exciting challenges...but perhaps uncomfortable at times. Are we prepared to be uncomfortable for the sake of significant Kingdom impact in our town? My hope and prayer is that we are!

Blessings,
Pastor David Auty

Last Sunday was a great time of fellowship as we sought to hear from God together during our Church meeting. The next step is to get the “Vision strategy team” (David Auty, Howard Wilkinson, Yvonne Evans, Herbert Denton and Olya Bartlett) to get together and have a look at all the info we gathered. This group will meet, discuss, and produce a paper for us to consider as we head towards our Vision Banquet in September.  

One of the great things about the meeting was the sense that we heard a consistent message from God. Although there were many ideas and thoughts on how to specifically achieve it, the over-riding (and quite obvious) thoughts revolved around RELATIONSHIPS...and both of the final
groupings came up with similar priority on relationship. In a way this should not be at all surprising to us. One of the key things that we as Christians believe about God is that he is a relational God. He seeks relationship with us and wants us to have good relationships with others—both in the church and outside of it.

Please continue to pray that, as we clarify our vision and start to form more and more strategy, we will continue to be in step with God and his plans for us as a church.  Thank you so much to everyone who contributed through the process and let’s continue to move forward together.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor David Auty