Resilient and visionary Methodist leaders | kiwiconnexion | Through the Year with John Wesley

Описание: Resilient and visionary Methodist leaders | kiwiconnexion | Through the Year with John Wesley
   • Through the Year with John Wesley  

Hi I'm David Bell. Welcome to this episode of Through the Year with John Wesley.

We are looking at what was once the pride and joy of Methodism which became a terrible millstone: Trinity Theological College in Grafton, Auckland, 1929.

Here's a huge problem for a dying church. New Zealand Methodism at a national level has become very asset rich, and it's not cash poor. As more and more congregations fade away,
there is almost zero energy devoted to the medium and long term future of the church as a national institution.

Two presbyters in recent decades tackled the problem - in different arenas of engagement. Rev Dr J J Lewis, who was a Principal of the College, 1971-79 was one of the outstanding movers and shakers.

The first two years he was Principal were at the College in Grafton. But from 1973 J J Lewis had moved the College into an ecumenical venture with the Anglicans at St John's, Meadowbank. Well, of course it was the result of a lengthy process of negotiation. And it did seem as though church union between Anglicans, Churches of Christ, Congregationalists, Methodists and Presbyterians was just around the corner.

But it wasn't. And the next Principal Rev Dr B Keith Rowe was at pains to point out that while much had been gained more had been lost in terms of Methodist identity. Today the old College building is owned by the Church of Scientology.

It is an open question how much closer Anglicans and Methodists really are on the St John's site, and whether or not either group has much impact on society but certainly the Scientologists who run the movie industry do.

But I am sure that Dr Lewis was correct in both a theological and in a practical sense to commit to the ecumenical cause as it was then. And Keith Rowe supported that. But the College buildings were no longer fit for purpose by the 1970s and that was a crucial driver. They'd begun to present a serious earthquake risk.

It raises the more general question of should any church mission be tied to the use of a particular set of buildings? The answer was clearly no.

Yet some of the people who supported that move to the ecumenical cause were not half as generous in spirit
when Methodist Mission Northern recently decided that its historic site and buildings on the corner of Queen and Airedale Streets, were similarly no longer fit for purpose.

It seems an odd detail, but, in fact the Mission was in the financial doldrums because of the liabilities associated with those buildings. Yet here's the rub.

The corner of Queen and Airedale was prime real estate in Auckland's CBD, opposite Aotea CeCentre and the Town Hall replete with the mayor's office. Like the Trinity College move, a new way of doing things, a fresh look at how to be a mission of the Methodist Church was required.

Rev John Murray, the visionary Superintendent who led that move realised the historic site needed to be sold and new rental accommodation for the head office was soon found a few hundred metres up the road.

The Mission and the congregation sought new ways of doing theology, worship and social service delivery and so far haven't looked back. Now it's far too early to discern and analyze the effects of these radical changes in the two different arenas.

Of course,it's of much greater significance as far as the Mission was concerned than the ecumenical move of the College. But of this I am sure. Not moving, in either instance, would have resulted inincreasing difficulties for both departments of the church.

And that brings me to the crucial point. As we have traversed any number of cases both in John Wesley's time and in colonial New Zealand's Methodism, a very clear trend emerges.

Effective church leaders, lay or ordained, need vision, purpose and direction. Often the church has been remarkably served by its leaders. Sometimes we get less than inspirational leaders. But it's the inspirational ones we need to celebrate.

The trail blazers who are almost always seemingly imbued with bi-polar opposite qualities. On the one hand they have a single-minded stubbornness and on the other liberating and life-enhancing vision.

These two belong together in outstanding leaders. It's not a recipe for popularity, it's the heartfelt desire to do what's right, to do the right thing, to tell the truth, come what may. As I look at the church today I see it needs that kind of charismatic leadership, more than ever.

Why? Because it's worth following.It's in the best tradition of John Wesley.
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