I Met Dr Ash

Dear Pastors

I Met Dr Ash

Well sort of. I along with 2500 New Zealanders listened to him talk and answer questions for 90 minutes on Wednesday night online. It was superb!

He shared about his Faith journey that started at Tawa Baptist Church in the 70’s, a strong gospel centred church. He talked about how his Christian faith has both anchored him and guided him especially the last 20 months. He gave us all a window into his life from the moment he heard in mid-January 2020 that the world could be in big trouble with a deadly virus on the loose. He shared honestly about waking up in cold sweats in those early days and weeks. He certainly assured us all who were listening that he worked tirelessly to keep ALL New Zealanders safe. Over and over people commended him and thanked him in the ‘chat’. I was one of them.

My confidence and appreciation for Dr Ashley Bloomfield went up several notches from what was already a high position. I couldn’t help but wonder if ‘God had raised him up for such a time as this’. And BTW he spoke very appreciably of the support and assistance he and the Government have experienced from so many churches in NZ.

Then yesterday morning I hosted the first of an online gathering of Pastors and Christian Leaders on ‘Church in a Covid World-Navigating our new Reality’. Sharing their insights was Dr Justine Kingsbury and Don Barry. Justine is senior lecturer in philosophy at Waikato University and recently co-wrote an article for The Conversation entitled, “Why a domestic NZ Covid passport raises hard questions about discrimination, inequality and coercion”. Don is Senior Pastor at Gateway Church in Hamilton and he shared the process he and his team have gone through to arrive at their decision to ‘support’ the Government Vaccine Certificate rollout. It was a most helpful event and attendees are keen we meet again in a month’s time or so. If you are interested to join us online in December please let us know.

I continue to be troubled at what feels like a disproportionate number of Christians deep in some kind of a ‘rabbit hole’ that distorts reality for them. But that said they are still a very small percentage overall. I am encouraged to hear and observe that the vast bulk of Pastors understand that we are dealing with a Global Pandemic and our Government and Public Health System are working overtime to keep us all safe. To that end I want to say thanks (again) to the Mangere AOG church. What you have pulled off (100% vaccinations) is nothing short of outstanding. Thank you!

On Monday Murray Robertson wrote a superb piece for my Gospel and Culture blog titled, Covid and End Times and David Collins article on Responding to The Pandemic-Biblically (Pt 1) is well worth a read. A few weeks ago I put together a Bible Study on anxiety and fear that you may find helpful here.

Blessings
Alan

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.