The President of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand is formally an Officer of the Baptist Union and takes on the voluntary role for a year. Susan Osborne was elected in November 2023 and is a member of Trinity Baptist Church, Titahi Bay, Wellington. For more information about the President, click here.
What about our young people?
How can we make sure they reflect our cultural values and language?
How can we buy a building?
I can’t understand what the pastor is saying.
Why won’t they come and talk to us after the service?
How can I adjust to being a New Zealander while retaining my cultural identity?
These are just some of the questions I’ve heard as I’ve continued my travels around the country. I spent much of June at the three regional hui: Lower North Island in Palmerston North, Waikato, Bay of Plenty & Eastland in Papamoa, and Upper South in Christchurch. The different hui reflected the different leaders in each region, yet all were full of stories from our churches and inspirational sermons.
As I’ve reflected on the many stories I’ve heard around the motu, I’ve been thinking about our ethnic congregations and wondering how to respond to their questions and unique challenges. I’ve been impressed by the different approaches our ethnic congregations are taking.
The most common approach is to have a separate service in their mother tongue. This way, they can do church the way they want, in a way that expresses their culture and faith. We have these congregations in all of our cities. These are often refugee communities. One of the pressing problems with this approach is how to keep the young people engaged in worship in their mother tongue when all around them, they have to adjust to life as Kiwis. As young people go through this struggle, they need guidance from their community.
Another model I warmed to was that of an intercultural service; all and any ethnicities worshipping together and brothers and sisters in Christ. This approach seems a strong biblical model, yet it doesn’t address the worshippers’ cultural needs. The services are seldom reflective of other cultural expressions of worship. So, the challenge here is incorporating different forms of culturally appropriate worship.
A third way of doing things I’ve seen is having a church service together, with translation available for those who need it, and then having language-specific home groups to cater to different language groups. This approach works well when there is a high proportion, 40-50%, of another language group in the church. Interestingly, not all these services are led by Paheka Kiwis! They are not the majority culture!
None of these examples alone will answer all the challenges facing our ethnic sisters and brothers. But let’s get alongside them and learn from them.
We can learn so much from other cultures. We are all made in the image of God. God is in all cultures, and we all experience and understand God differently. We also read and understand the Bible differently. I’ve discovered this from living 40 years in another culture. It has truly enriched my life as I’ve learnt that my understanding, perspective and norms are not the only ones that are ‘right’.
I love the first line of this prayer I’ve recently heard: “Father God, What I know of You will only be a fraction of who you are” (Lectio365 1-5 July). Our sisters and brothers from other cultures can help us learn more about God.
Photo: Supplied by Susan Osborne
