Christine Stride is Executive Assistant to the Baptist National Leader and works at the Baptist National Support Centre in Auckland. She is part of Titirangi Baptist Church.
Catch up on what happened at the Baptist National Hui 2024 in this roundup of events. Over the next few months, we’ll be bringing you more detailed articles about some of the sessions and the outcomes of Hui. Next week we’ll publish Hui 2024 in Photos.
The Hui theme was Justice | Mercy | Humility – what do New Zealand Baptists want to be known for?
Wednesday
We refreshed the activities held on ‘pre-Hui Day’ – and grouped them under a new name which better reflects our movement’s vision of gospel renewal. This time delegates could choose to attend one of four Gospel Renewal Tracks.
- Gospel renewal to and with young people (formerly the BYM Hui)
- Hand-carved mission with Arotahi (formerly Mission Day) A day of focus, story, prayer, inspiration, and intention. A time of honouring of Ross and Cindy Meyer as they are released from their call to Bangladesh with Arotahi/NZBMS.
- Gospel renewal through unconditional acceptance (formerly Chaplain’s Day)
- Gospel renewal in local communities (formerly Community Day) Gospel renewal through relational discipleship and a positive leadership culture. Hosted by South West Baptist Church, this session was about how churches can better engage with their communities.
Thursday
Rangiora Baptist Church was packed as we kicked off Hui 2024 with a mihi whakatau, a less formal version of a pōwhiri. Mana whēnua had advised that, because they would not do a pōwhiri unless it was on their mārae, a mihi whakatau was more appropriate. President Susan Osborn handed over the presidency to Allan Taylor, who then signed the President’s Bible, and we heard the stories of the hand-carved taonga worn by the President and Vice-President during their terms.
We remembered those in our movement who died this year.
We celebrated Phil Coates who has served as a Baptist pastor for more than 30 years.
‘Big Bite’ Consultation Updates
Over the past 12 months, we have been working together on significant areas of change – you might remember we called them ‘Big Bites’ at National Hui last year. Two of those Big Bites were the Serious Misconduct Process and the need for a Constitutional Review, both of which needed to be voted on this year. Here’s some explanation, and the outcome of the votes.
Serious Misconduct Process
Background to the Serious Misconduct process
The Serious Misconduct Process (SMP) was adopted on an opt-in basis for 2025 – passed with overwhelming support by voice ballot. Further work on the implementation of the SMP will be completed in 2025. The National Support Centre will notify churches of how they can opt in, and how they can do that effectively at a local church level.
Proposed constitution changes
Background to the proposed governance and constitutional review
Constitutional changes require a 75% ‘Yes’ vote (meaning abstention votes effectively count as a ‘No’ vote).
The overarching constitution changes (as amended by reverting to the original clause 4 (d), removing the proposed clause 11 and fixing typos re ‘hui’) were passed by show of hands (then counted) ballot at 77.2% (4% abstained).
The constitutional amendments relating to the President and Vice President being appointed by the National Council (formerly Assembly Council), and the make-up of the National Council did not pass – ballots were not counted as it was clear from the show of hands that the 75% threshold would not be met. The current constitutional process for electing the Vice President and the National Council will remain.
Clause 36 did not pass on a counted show of hands ballot. In favour were 52.8% (with 7.8% abstaining), but the 75% threshold was not met for the clause to be included in the constitution.
The constitution as passed will be updated and notified early December 2024. Given the retention of some of the existing clauses, there will be some minor numbering changes and reference changes that need to be made to ensure consistency in the updated constitution. These will be reviewed and approved by the National Council.
Thursday evening
National Leader Charles Hewlett acknowledged the Royal Commission of Inquiry report into abuse in state care and in the care of faith-based institutions, released this year. He said the National Council had engaged external expert Charlotte Cummings to assist in pulling together a group to work on the Baptist movement’s response to the report and its recommendations. It is likely she will provide ongoing guidance as the group works through its responsibilities.
The Baptist Women’s Board led an acknowledgement of the negative experiences of some women in our movement. Three women gave a lament in te reo Māori, Gagana Samoan and Faka-Tonga, while others, some in cultural attire, walked to the front of the stage. And three different women responded to the lament from the stage, each response representing the past, present and the future.
After a prayer for women in the Baptist movement, and a waiata, the evening changed gear. We heard from 15-year old Jasmine Fyfe from Avonhead Baptist Church in a five-minute TED Talk about how she saw justice being actioned by the church.
We celebrated 35 years of the mainly music ministry, which was set up by entrepreneur Jo Hood from what was then Hillsborough Baptist Church. Jo and her colleague Grace Doak helped teach the audience a mainly music classic, the Skinny Marinki song.
Arotahi staff were joined on stage by special guest Leor Sarkar in a celebration of missionaries Ross and Cindy Myer. Leor is the general secretary and chief executive of the Bangladesh Baptist Church Fellowship, in charge of more than 500 churches in Bangladesh.
Charles Hewlett spoke about conflict in our world and prayed for peace and mutual flourishing.
Here’s what Charles said:
“The Baptist churches of New Zealand note with sorrow the persistence of intense conflicts and wars across the globe.
We acknowledge the natural desire of all human beings to defend themselves, their loved ones, and their homes, but we grieve those moments when self-defence becomes a desire for revenge and resistance morphs into retribution.
We confess that Christians have at times been part of the problem, rather than part of the solution but we call all nations of the world to hear Jesus’ call to love our enemies.
We declare that love is always the better way, and we stand with our Baptist brothers and sisters who seek to live out the gospel in conflict zones, along with all Christians and others who work for a just peace in the face of grim destruction.
We pledge to pray and work for the divine transformation of peace among and between all peoples.”
We honoured John Tucker who, after seven years, is stepping down as principal of Carey Baptist College. And we congratulated our 30 newly registered leaders. Baptist Registration is for Baptist leaders, chaplains, ministry/mission leaders, Kaiārahi Māori and Baptist entity leaders.
Allan Taylor capped off the evening with a powerful 10-minute sermon on the importance of prayer.
Friday
This year’s Sutherland Lecture was delivered by John Tucker who spoke on Word and World: The Preaching Ministry of J.J. North. We’ll be publishing John’s lecture online in the coming weeks.
John Tucker featured again, this time in our first keynote panel session, along with Carey lecturer Emma Stokes and Te Pouarataki mō te hikoi — Treaty guide Luke Kaa-Morgan. Each panellist spoke to one of the Hui themes: Justice, Mercy, Humility.
We heard from 13-year old Davi Iran from New Generation Church, who delivered a TED Talk about justice in Aotearoa New Zealand.
At the Iriiri (Baptist) Māori session, former Christchurch deputy mayor Ngaire Button (Ngāti Porou, Ngai Tuhoe), Sean Delany of Mahi-Pai, and Luke Kaa-Morgan (Tainui Āwhiro, Ngāti Tahinga, Pākehā) discussed the New Zealand Baptist treaty journey with Charles Hewlett. We heard messages of support from some Iriiri Māori — Rewai Te Kahu, National Council member Rangiaruaru Hema and a music video by Silver Scroll-winning Jordyn Rapana (Jordyn with a Why).
During the business session, delegates heard from Mission Council, Arotahi, and from Communications Director Mike Crudge, who revealed that the Baptist NZ app is now ready to roll out the local church version. Mike premiered a 30-second promotion video that can be used within local churches to show the benefits of the app for local church communication. Find more information here.
Friday evening
Our ‘global’ evening kicked off with lively worship from New Generation Church. We heard from a panel of five people not born in New Zealand, who shared their thoughts on what being Baptist was like for them and their families — in their country of origin and now in NZ. It was eye-opening and inspiring to hear what Jane Cong Ye (China), Eduardo Mendonca (Brazil), Hana Park (South Korea), JJ (China) and Vann Cenhrang and Ni Kung (Chin people from Myanmar) had to say.
We were blessed by the singing of the Chin Glory Baptist Church Choir who travelled from Nelson for the evening.
Vann Cenhrang of the Chin Glory Baptist church (Myanmar) led us in intercessory prayer, encouraging each person to go to a different part of the room and pray out loud altogether for different parts of our world and for our movement.
In his short sermon, Pastor Jonan Castillon reminded us that New Zealand was viewed by many people as being located "at the ends of the earth". He challenged us to appreciate the significant contribution being made to gospel renewal by people from all over the world who are settling in our nation.
Saturday
Arotahi reminded us of the importance of mission and celebrated some of the joys involved in serving God this way.
We enjoyed another thought-provoking keynote session where John Tucker was joined by pastor Colin Gruetzmacher and Denise Tims (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāpuhi). Each spoke about how the church was – or could be – one of justice, mercy and humility.
Our Gospel Impact Labs attracted numerous passionate people who were keen to discuss and come up with practical ways to help the local church bring gospel renewal to people and places. The labs covered faith sharing, community engagement, connecting with and serving marae, empowering young people, welcoming immigrants, power of prayer, developing leaders, church and the climate crisis, political engagement and good stewardship. The objective of these ten labs was to create a tool that our local churches can use during 2025 if they choose to delve more deeply into these topics.
Read more on our Gospel Impact Labs
The poroaki was capped off by the passing of the putorino (a wooden wind instrument) to the church hosting Hui 2025 – Palmerston North Central Baptist Church.
Image credits: Mike Crudge and Charis Fotheringham
