Arotahi: an evening with a mission (Hui 2022)

It was an evening with a mission, and it sure deliv­ered an inspir­ing mis­sional propo­si­tion… God wants you to step whole­heart­edly into your, and your faith com­mu­ni­ty’s, hand—carved mission.

Some high­lights (there are too many to choose!) from our Arotahi launch evening:

• The incred­i­ble ephemeral art of Pete and Joyce’s! What a beau­ti­ful way for us to engage with the kaupapa of Arotahi in a unique and cre­ative way. This spoke to the hearts of many in a way that words couldn’t.
• Learn­ing a bit more about our history as an organ­i­sa­tion, and how God has used each chapter for God’s work — and we get to be part of the new one, Arotahi: hand—carved mission.
• Luke Kaa-Mor­gan’s waiata specif­i­cally created for the launch of Arotahi! What an inspired expres­sion of the joy and good­ness that God is speak­ing into this new chapter. We can’t wait to share this more widely soon! What an honour it will be to sing these lyrics and sounds of our own whenua in our local faith communities.
• The cake! Come on. That had to be a high­light. Plus the whipped cream of course.
• The panel dis­cus­sion! The author­ity and com­pas­sion with which A (South Asia) spoke, was a chal­lenge to us all. Thank you also to C (South Asia) and Grace for sharing your prayers and hopes for the future! We are blessed by working along­side you.
• When we all sung ‘Tuhia’ together and the audi­to­rium nearly burst from the strength of our col­lec­tive voice. Quite insane to witness.
• AJ and Kelly banter. It’s good to be friends with your workmates!
• Looking forward to where God is leading us next as a move­ment of Aotearoa Bap­tists! I’m talking Mahi-Pai and Renew Together 2023.
• When a leader from each faith com­mu­nity took a gold-leafed house that rep­re­sents the pre­cious nature of each church (these houses hung from the ceiling at our last Hui in 2019). Pretty moving to see people taking these home to their own com­mu­ni­ties as a reminder of how God desires to partner uniquely with each one.
• Meeting Annie, our new global cat­a­lyst! We’re stoked to be wel­com­ing someone with such heart and skill to our team.

For those of you who weren’t there, here are some com­ments from leaders that came and spent time with us on Friday evening:

“Superb. The way that the Spirit moved was evident through­out the evening — inspir­ing, encour­ag­ing, and nudging us all to step deeper into the Missio Dei.”
“Inspir­ing and chal­leng­ing all at the same time!”
“Sen­sa­tional evening! I appre­ci­ated the passion that the team dis­played, and I look forward to what is going to happen around the place. You guys rock”
“The team of you did such a great job, and it feels like the shift is going to be some­thing the younger gen­er­a­tion will engage with which is also super exciting”

Thank you Mike and Charis from the BU for the photos of the evening!