Church

Over the Christmas holiday we went to the Bay of Islands. It is a favorite vacation spot around here. We went on a cruise and saw the hole in the rock below as well as dolphins. It is a beautiful area. One of the most interesting facts for me was that this is where the first Christian sermon was preached. The gospel was first preached on Christmas day 1814. It's hard for me to think about a country that was so long without the gospel. The church where the sermon was preached is still standing and has services. This area also had the first mission. It printed religious material for Kiwis. It is an interesting country from a church perspective. From what I can tell people value their family and the great outdoors but don't think much about their spiritual welfare. We have gone to a couple of churches and one man came and visited us. He explained the church system here . Churches in general are very small and not near the amount that we have in the states. The Anglicans , Presbyterians, and Methodists have all joined together. In fact, you will see more that one of their names on the building, You have the Catholics , the Baptists, and the Pentecostals. They are all separate groups but you don't see more that one type of Baptist or Pentecostal church. They have all banded together. The rest of the Christians who are not happy with these have banded together and formed a group. They are mutually accountable to one another for basic doctrine and helping do projects. The number of people who go to church is too small to get too divided on small issues. They just stick to what they consider the big ones. In general the attitude of New Zealand people seems to be live and let live. One of my neighbors and I were having tea on her patio when a Mormon can by and wanted to talk about the Bible. My neighbor quickly got rid of her, but it opened the door for me to talk to my neighbor about faith. She 'was raised Methodist but religion as she put it was not important to her family. Her husbands family , however, were fanatics for lack of a better term. They decided to just let their children guide themselves in this area. The children did go some to church with their grandparents because it was important to them. My neighbors just wanted to let their children decide what they wanted. This seems to be the way here. I had the opportunity to share about a relationship versus religion. I don't know that my neighbor could comprehend this but at least the door was open and our relationship continues. Please pray that God will open the right doors for Evangelism and true Christian fellowship.


Hole in the rock

Vie from the first mission

First Mission