Celebrating Matariki This Sunday we’re celebrating Matariki together! Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades. It disappears for about 28 days during mid-winter and when it reappears on the horizon—this year from 13 to 16 July—the Māori New Year begins. Matariki is a time for whānau and […]
Kia Ora Church, We’d love to invite you to enjoy this devotion shared with us by Charles Hewlett, the National Leader of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand, in which he reflects on Psalm 131. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KizBt-lH0k&feature=youtu.be Nāku nā, Elliot Rice Co-Senior Pastor
Firstly, thanks for your continued support for Sarah, Charlotte, and myself. We’ve now enjoyed our final meal from the dinner roster you formed for us—what an incredible support that has been. In fact, given the quality of your cooking we’ve decided to keep the roster going on a permanent basis. Just kidding! Our sincere thanks. […]
I enjoyed the recent preaching series on the parables of Jesus found in Matthew 13. I enjoyed the way Jesus was able to convey deep meaning often with such short illustrations. During my readings this week I was drawn to another of his parables, this one found in Luke 18:9-14. Here Jesus is teaching his […]
Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent (the 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday). Around the world, many Christians still remember this day by drawing the image of the cross on their forehead out of ash, and wearing this symbol throughout the day! This season reminds us of the weeks leading […]
Greetings friends, Elliot here—I’m back on deck! Our Charlotte is now three weeks old, and both she and Sarah are doing well. I was able to take 2 ½ weeks off to be at home, for which I owe a great deal of thanks to our church staff. Aren’t they amazing? I’m afraid Colleen has […]
I’ve been spending time planning this week, thinking about our Sunday Gatherings and Grow Night series for the coming months. I love this time of year, between Christmas and Easter, when the church calendar invites us to remember what God did for us through Jesus‘ birth, life, death, and resurrection, and then after Easter to remember […]
For our 2019 appeal we have three exciting focuses we are looking to get behind as a church. We hope to raise $3000 for each focus, as this will make a significant difference to each area. The first is our missionaries at Papanui Baptist Church: Jocelyn and Stephen Head, Jay and Mary Huffman, Ross and […]
Last Sunday, Adam kicked off our new sermon series. He focused on how God is on a mission and we get to join in with what he is doing. In the OT we read about how God went to a character called Abram and said to him, ‘In you all the families of the earth […]
Throughout the ‘Being Baptist’ series we have talked about how we gather as a community of believers under Christ’s reign (christocracy). We take seriously Matthew 18.20, ‘for where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’ Last Sunday we had a panel who reflected on the series and grow course of […]
Sunday Gathering: This Sunday we’re privileged to have John Tucker, Principal of Carey Baptist College bringing the message: “Absolutely Positively Baptist: Why I Love the Baptist Movement.” John’s an outstanding communicator—you don’t want to miss this! Elliot’s Sabbatical: As many of you are aware, in November Elliot is headed to San Diego, USA to attend the annual meetings […]
We’ve been reflecting again on the story of Jesus and the miraculous catch of fish in John 21. It’s classic: after yet another rubbish night of fishing, the disciples had caught nothing. Then, in the morning, Jesus comes calling from the beach: “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you’ll find […]
There’s been a lot on this last week. Here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening… On Friday many of us gathered at St Albans Baptist to grieve the passing of Wendy Smith, who died Sunday 6 October after a short struggle with cancer. Wendy and Nigel were members of our church until about a year […]
On Sunday we kicked off our new preaching series, “Being Baptist: A Compelling Vision of Church,” because, well, we think it’s compelling! We genuinely think living into our Baptist identity can be a gift to the church of New Zealand in the 21st century, just as Baptist women preachers and decision-makers were gifts to the […]
This Sunday we are kicking off our ‘Being Baptist’ series. Papanui Baptist is one of over 240 local churches in Aotearoa who are networked together as the Baptist Churches of New Zealand. The Baptist denomination actually shares most things in common with other Christians, such as belief in the Trinity, in the incarnation and atonement of […]
On the 3rd of November we have PBC’s 2019 AGM. This is a time where we celebrate all that Jesus has done and look ahead to what we feel he is calling us into. We come together to discern the mind of Christ, and this starts before the AGM begins. As a church, we are […]
Over the weekend we had our PBC church camp, where together we explored how our story is found in God’s story. 110 people came out to camp over the weekend, with ages ranging from one through to the late eighties! We are blessed with many wise Christians in our church, and it was wonderful to […]
Two days until camp—woohoo! We can’t wait to gather with many of you this weekend for two nights of great fun. What are you most looking forward to? What are you most hoping for as we engage with God together? The theme of the camp is “The Story: Exploring Our Own Stories Within God’s Story,” […]
This Sunday we are having a special members meeting (although anyone is welcome to come). This meeting is best described as a ‘Christocracy,’ meaning we are a community in which Christ reigns, and his Spirit guides us to know his mind. The call committee, co-senior pastors and elders have endorsed both Colleen (for associate pastor) […]
Wasn’t the Sunday Gathering this week so inspiring and uplifting! We loved hearing what God’s been up to in a number of our Papanui Baptist ministries, including Iconz and Iconz4Girls, our Oscar-nominee Y@P crew, Oasis, Papmando, Prayer Ministry, and the Kanuka (creche), Matai (primary), and Tōtara (intermediate) programmes. It was fitting that in the same […]
On Sunday we brought our Tale of Two Temples series to a close, remembering the paradigm shift that took place for the people of God in Acts as they went from being heavy and attractional to light-footed and incarnational. The Spirit mobilised the church to announce the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, beginning in Jerusalem, […]
Jesus is actively at work in your neighbours’ lives and he calls us to participate in the good things he is up to, which is amazing. The council also value us getting to know our neighbours – how great is that! You can now apply to your local community board for a subsidy to hold a […]
Kia ora Papanui Baptist, We’ve been thoroughly enjoying working our way through the second half of the Samuel series for the past five weeks, with just a couple of Sundays to go. We’ve been continually amazed at the God who makes his own way in these stories, humbling the proud and exalting the humble. The […]
Kia ora Papanui Baptist, It seems spring has come early, and for a couple of soft Aucklanders, this is good news! We can hardly complain though… For the first three weeks of August we boarded 11 different flights for a trip through the currently hot and humid Southeast Asia. Our trip began with a week-long […]
Kia ora Papanui Baptist, A highlight of the last month for us was the staff retreat. We have an amazing staff team here at Papanui who are talented and eager to follow Christ’s leading. We spent the day at the Papanui Youth Development Centre, talking about our vision to Belong, Grow, and Influence, and how […]