Tag Archives: Wakatipu

Our Mission, Vision, Values and General Goals

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Our Mission: To live in Christ, and to grow as a Community of Faith, Hope, Love and Joy.

Our Vision: Growing God’s kingdom one life at a time.

Our Values: Wakatipu Presbyterian Church is a community who are…

centered on the Bible

The Bible is the living and active story of God. We are called to know, live, and share God’s story. Psalm 119:105, Hebrews 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:16

growing in God’s Love

Jesus calls us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Mark 12:3-31, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

United in Worship

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to express the glory of God with adoration in spirit and truth. Psalm 95:6-7, Revelation 14:7

called to Discipleship

Following Jesus we are called to know him, grow in his likeness, and to make disciples. Matthew 4:19, Matthew 28:19-20

encouraged to Participate 

We value the participation of all ages using their spiritual giftings and strengths to build up the church as the body of Christ. 1 Peter 4:10, Mark 10:14. 1 Corinthians 14:26

Current (ratified August 2014) Goals: 

  • To develop new opportunities for people to know Christ and to worship.
  • To invite people of all ages to faith.
  • To strengthen the existing congregations that they may grow and offer space/protection to the newly formed groups till they are established and strong, and they in turn can nourish and encourage the older congregations.
  • To ensure that discipleship becomes a way of life (for all members) and not simply a programme.
  • To ensure the Church is involved in the community, where we are actively seeking ways to be a blessing to all peoples.
  • To strengthen and broaden our leadership to better reach our diverse and growing community.
  • To be a Church of positive influence in the community for this and coming generations.

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New Zealand National Anthem

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In New Zealand we have two national anthems of equal status: God of Nations and God Save the Queen. God of Nations was written as a poem/prayer by Thomas Bracken of Dunedin in the 1870’s and was set to the music of John Joesph Woods of Lawrence in 1876. On Christmas Day that year it was first performed in Dunedin but did not become an official national anthem until 1977.  A Māori version was written in 1878 and today the first verses of both the English and Māori are commonly sung at events where as a nation we are stressing our national identity – ie before a sporting test. But I also like to sing it as a prayer.

Please consider it carefully and pray it. For those of us in the Wakatipu, especially as we seek God’s guidance in establishing the Wakatipu Global Community, this is a particularly appropriate prayer. These old words speak to our situation today. We seek to worship together, men and women from the nations, our responsibility before God is to call all people of every race to come and know God, to worship God and to grow in faith.

God of nations! at Thy feet
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our Free Land.
Guard Pacific’s triple star,
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand

Men of ev’ry creed and race
Gather here before Thy face,
Asking Thee to bless this place,
God defend our Free Land.
From dissension, envy, hate,
And corruption guard our State,
Make our country good and great,
God defend New Zealand.

Peace, not war, shall be our boast,
But, should foes assail our coast,
Make us then a mighty host,
God defend our Free Land.
Lord of battles in thy might,
Put our enemies to flight,
Let our cause be just and right,
God defend New Zealand.

 Let our love for Thee increase,
May Thy blessings never cease,
Give us plenty, give us peace,
God defend our Free Land.
From dishonour and from shame
Guard our country’s spotless name
Crown her with immortal fame,
God defend New Zealand.

May our mountains ever be
Freedom’s ramparts on the sea,
Make us faithful unto Thee,
God defend our Free Land.
Guide her in the nations’ van,
Preaching love and truth to man,
Working out Thy Glorious plan,
God defend New Zealand.

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Transformational Disciplines: Fasting that pleases God

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SERMON 3 OF 5 IN A SERIES EXPLORING SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE, PREACHED 04 November 2012.  READ Matthew 6:1-18

You don’t hear much about fasting these days, in fact in the worship surveys conducted at the start of the year some here noted that they knew little about fasting and that they have never heard teaching on it.

Well that is about to change!

I guess as we look around our culture we can understand why fasting may be out of favour.

It doesn’t fit!

Seemingly in NZ and much of the world we’ve become conditioned to comfort, excess and instant gratification and that direction is only increasing.

If we want fast food – we want it now, and if they can’t serve us in only a few minutes we complain. Following trends set overseas we increasingly upsize our orders, and at a eat all you can buffet we end up eating more than we need, even more than we should – just because it’s there.

This attitude of having what we want when we want it extends to most aspects of life: texting, FB, entertainment. There is little we have to wait for. And we believe it’s our right to satisfy our desires whenever we want. So excess marks our landscape: and in the busyness of satisfying ourselves where is God?

God of course is where God has always been. Continue reading →

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