I think I would’ve liked Uncle Eric

Last week, my Dad handed me two letters that had been written by Eric Enright; my great-uncle who was once the pastor of Royal Oak Baptist. Dad received these from a member of his faith com­mu­nity who had ties to people at Royal Oak in the mid-1950’s. I never got to meet my great-uncle Eric, but after reading these letters, I think I would’ve liked him.

“Dear Peter,

I have good news for you. I am today sending forward an offi­cial invi­ta­tion to John Lo to come over and be our mis­sion­ary to the Auck­land Chinese com­mu­nity. How do you like that?”

While Eric was the pastor of Royal Oak Baptist, he iden­ti­fied a need in the wider com­mu­nity. It seems that Eric recog­nised that the demo­graphic of his com­mu­nity was not rep­re­sented in his church, and he realised he may not be the one to remedy that. I think Uncle Eric had a heart for the Chinese pop­u­la­tion in his com­mu­nity, yearn­ing deeply for them to know their Creator and the love of a man named Jesus. He wanted the Chinese com­mu­nity to be min­is­tered to in a way that hon­oured their culture and their par­tic­u­lar­i­ties. He recog­nised that his faith com­mu­nity was missing an oppor­tu­nity to be in mutual rela­tion­ship with a people group that God had created; a people group who would add huge vibrancy and rich­ness to the church, paint­ing a more full and won­der­ful picture of the Kingdom on earth.

Of course we are thrilled with their deci­sion and also with the speed at which they arrived at it and we are happy to take action.” Uncle Eric was ready to take action. He didn’t just talk about what God might do, he stepped out boldly and expected God to work.

We’ve gone through a few changes recently, and a large one has been reimag­in­ing what our mutual rela­tion­ships with other coun­tries and people groups might look like. We are des­per­ate to partner in a way that is hon­our­ing and affirm­ing of the Christ at work in others. As AJ says in our strat­egy plan, “joining God in God’s mission trans­forms every­one involved. We are not told to go and colonise the nations. We don’t bring the image of God to other people, we iden­tify the image of God in other people. We go, knowing that our mis­sion­ary God has already gone before us. We go with a lis­ten­ing and learn­ing posture, so we see the good news incar­nated in another culture and better under­stand our own cul­tural baggage in the process… Peter thought that Cor­nelius was the one who needed to be con­verted, but God showed Peter that he also needed con­ver­sion (Acts 10) .”

I’m not sure if pastor John Lo ever made it to Aotearoa, or if he did, what the impact of his work was. I do know that I’m pretty stoked to a share a last name with Eric- and I hope that in a couple of gen­er­a­tions time, young people are saying that about us and our churches too.