Local Elections and State of Marriage

Monday, October 10, 2022

Written by Alan Vink

Categories: Gospel and Culture

Comments: 0

*GospelCultureLogo

Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Local Elections and State of Marriage
Monday 10th October 2022

Local Elections

POV. The Local Body Elections clearly showed that there was a mood for change. Nervousness around big projects, three waters and housing intensification saw a swing back to the centre if not to the right. Auckland Mayoral contenders Efeso Collins and Wellington’s Paul Eagle had been endorsed by our PM but both lost convincingly. In our six largest cities only Paula Southgate held onto her Mayoral position in Hamilton.

In an Ipsos Poll in June and published last week about the issues that concern New Zealanders and who is most capable of managing the top five issues National =4, Labour = 1. The next 12 months to the 2023 Parliamentary Elections look like another fascinating race.

Let us pray earnestly that God will give us a Government that spends money wisely and for the good of all New Zealanders. A Government that genuinely cares for creation and the growing numbers of people and households who are now under resourced and living in impoverished environments.

Coming Married or Not

Some interesting new stats here

1960 Married Parents = 15,576, unmarried = 771

2022 Married Parents = 7783, unmarried = 7752

The article goes on and shows stats on family size, age of mothers, single parenting, gay parents and the normalising of starting a family while unmarried.

POV. I am in no doubt that this worries us all and a factor in the growing number of children living in ‘blended families’ in NZ. That said many unmarried parents are superb parents like my former neighbours. I just hope that all our churches are welcoming places for unmarried parents. That they are loved and accepted and NOT judged and that being married is something that these folks aspire to because they see happily married young people all around them at church. This is a moment when we stop preaching and ‘witness’ with our lifestyle.

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.

Comments RSS feed for comments on this page

There are no comments yet. Be the first to add a comment by using the form below.

Search