A very warm welcome to guest poster Chris Chamberlain. Chris grew up in Timaru and West Auckland. Â He has been in Baptist church pastoral leadership roles for over 20 years in exciting places like the South Islandâs West Coast and central Christchurch. Â Experiencing the destructive forces of the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes has introduced him to […]
A very warm welcome to guest poster Chris Chamberlain. Chris grew up in Timaru and West Auckland. Â He has been in Baptist church pastoral leadership roles for over 20 years in exciting places like the South Islandâs West Coast and central Christchurch. Â Experiencing the destructive forces of the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes has introduced him to […]
Even if youâre little you can do a lot, you Mustnât let a little thing like âlittleâ stop you – Matilda the Musical, ‘Naughty’, Tim Minchin Changing the world is a hard job. Best to start early, donât you think? Here are a bunch of ways you can help your kids live a life […]
A warm welcome today to my good friend Rob Kilpatrick, who wrote this reflection on Facebook yesterday and let me filch it for the blog. You’ll be glad you read it.  I’m incredibly lucky to be granddad to 11 wonderful kids. I don’t deserve to be but there you have it, grace upon grace. I […]
 Probably my favourite season of the church year is coming up soon. Advent, the four weeks before Christmas where we prepare ourselves for celebrating Jesus’ arrival in our world. There’s lots to like about Advent (even if you don’t have calendars filled with chocolate). It’s not often we engage deeply in old-fashioned anticipation, […]
Trigger warning for discussion of rape and child marriage. The tragic, terrible death of an eight-year-old Yemeni girl made international news this week. You might have read reports that a little girl died from injuries she received during wedding-night intercourse with a 40-year-old man who had just married her. Coming from a much more fortunate […]
In this week’s Advent in Art painting, Christ is born! We’re a little early, as I’ve said before, because in the Southern Hemisphere we don’t expect anyone to be around after Christmas Day itself. We have to get the whole story in before everyone goes camping. Kids really benefit from repetition and preparation. They love […]
If you want to celebrate Advent in just one simple and rich way, this might be it. Find a quiet moment – five minutes will be fine if that’s a realistic ambition – and spend some time with this painting. You could do this by yourself, of course, but exploring art as part of worship […]