Latest News
The Limits of Self-Leadership: Why the best leaders don’t go it alone
There was a lot of yelling, panic, blood and shock when my friend was shot not far from our Wellington based primary school back in 1975. Don’t worry, he didn’t die, but it was close. It was one of those events no one could predict, but as fate, happenstance or sheer stupidity would have it, the shooting occurred.
Leadership, Power, Insecurity and Transparency
How did we do our work before the internet? I threw this question to some friends this week. I couldn’t remember it clearly. No email and no instant info. It must have been more phone calls, more asking questions of people who knew stuff, more thinking for myself, more planning ahead.
The digital world has changed everything. And like many previous advances that have offered the promise of an easier life, life is at least just as hard, busy, and fast-paced - and for many, even more so.
What’s Your Best Speed?
One never gets a sense that Jesus was flustered, distracted, distant or rushed. He was fully present to both His Father and to whatever or whoever was right in front of him. Being present, being tuned to the Father meant he said and did what he saw the Father doing.
Right Sized Leadership
“I’ve often heard people say that humility is thinking that you’re nothing. This, too, is a misguided idea. Humility is about being the right size: not too big, not too small. If the ditch on one side of the humility highway is arrogance, the ditch on the other is timidity. Remember, a truly humble person values themselves the same way they cherish and respect others; as someone who is inherently worthy.”
Is Something Shifting?
It seems like maybe something is happening.
A few years back the primary narrative I was hearing from many pastors coming out of COVID was that it was hard, and it was. People had got used to not coming to church and drawing them in again felt like an exercise in pastoral marketing. Our attention was often centred on trying to hold the existing flock together in our newly polarised climate, even as we felt something had shifted more broadly: the fragmentation of institutions and the failure of secularism were perhaps preparing the ground.
Easter: An Invitation to Letting Go and Holding On
As Easter approached, with it’s usual responsibilities for those in pastoral ministry calling for my attention, I held the door of my office open as the parishioner wiped her eyes once more before leaving. Closing the door behind her, I became aware of the weight of what she had disclosed to me. Although finalising the details of the Good Friday service was next on my list, I knew I needed to give attention to this weight.
Navigating Transitions in Life and Ministry
Our life stages are bookmarked by the transitions we go through - shifts which challenge our vocation and calling, our competency, and our self-identity.
Navigating Conflict in Church
Navigating turbulence is a complex but unavoidable part of flying, so we need to be prepared for it. Congregational conflict is no different
A Time for Compassionate Realism
The findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care implicate and concern us all – they constitute a call to corporate self-examination and lament and a challenge to reclaim our identity.
Do we need another conference?
Do we really need another church leadership conference? What’s distinctive about Abide? And is that enough for church leaders to justify investing our limited time and resources?
Resources of Lament
The Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care has been released this week. This is a trapeze moment – where the Church must let go of our idealised versions of ourselves and grasp the nettles of what’s been exposed.
Haere mai Wairua Tapu / Come Holy Spirit
I wonder if this particular moment holds an invitation for us, as church leaders, to make a fresh commitment to wait upon the Lord? To stop striving in our own strength and, instead, be dependent on the Holy Spirit?
The Invitation of Easter
What might it look like for you to attend to the needs of your own heart, to allow yourself to be ministered to this Easter?
Pastor, don’t go it alone
“Kia ora, my name is Dan, and I am a pastor in recovery.”
“Recovery from what?”, you might be asking.
Recovery from years of trying to do all of this by myself.
“It Takes Courage to Wait”
Waiting is hard! It cuts across the current of a culture formed by the 16th Century adage that, “Good things come to those who wait – but only the things left by those who hustle”!
A Reflection from Reuben Munn
Being responsive to the particularities of the place and context we are in is so important in church leadership, and deeply resonates with me as a pastor. It is far too easy for ministry to become an imposition of our own personal vision upon the community in which God has called us to minister, rather than allowing vision to emerge from what God is already doing in this place, at this time, and among these people.
The Gospel in Aotearoa
One of the gifts we inherit as we share life in this land of Aotearoa is the story of the land and its peoples. As a Christian and a Māori, I especially appreciate the story of the good news of Jesus Christ — as well as grieving the ways in which that story was marred.
A Reflection From Andy Shudall - Speaker for Leaders Day
“It being Christmas Day, I preached from the Second Chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, and tenth verse: “Behold! I bring you glad tidings of great joy.”… When I had done preaching, [Ruatara] informed them what I had been talking about. [He] was extremely anxious to convince us that he would do everything for us that lay in his power and that the good of his country was his principal consideration. In this manner the Gospel has been introduced into New Zealand; and I fervently pray that the glory of it may never depart from its inhabitants, till time shall be no more”
Transformative Support Through Coaching
The world is unpredictable and we need to be aware that just because certain styles of leadership, tools and techniques have worked in the past, they may not continue to work in the future.
The heart behind the new website
Leading in the life of a church community might be more readily compared to running a marathon, not a sprint. And the longer the race, the more we need others to run with.