Christine Stride is Executive Assistant to the Baptist National Leader and works at the Baptist National Support Centre in Auckland. She is a member of Titirangi Baptist Church in Auckland.
An idea seeded at one of the Gospel Impact Labs at last year’s National Hui is bearing fruit via a Lower North Island initiative.
A pou karakia (carved prayer baton) is making its way around Baptist churches of the Lower North Island, the direct result of the Power of Prayer brainstorming session at the 2024 National Hui in Rangiora.
More than 10 churches have received and passed on the pou karakia since the Lower North Island began the initiative in July. There are 51 Baptist churches in the region and Lower North Island Baptist Association Regional Leader Mike Warring expects it will take about a year for the pou karakia to visit each one.
Each receiving church is encouraged to be more intentional about prayer for their week with the pou, and if possible, incorporate prayer for other Baptist churches and the Baptist movement.
A leader from the church holding the pou karakia is encouraged to attend the worship service of a neighbouring church to pass it on, to share any prayer strategies or testimonies that emerged, and to pray a blessing on that church.
“Seeing churches develop relationships where they are both praying for each other and blessing each other is awesome”, Mike Warring said.
The pou karakia will be at Palmerston North Central Baptist Church in the first week of November, in time for our National Baptist Hui, which PNCBC is hosting.
The background
The idea for the pou karakia emerged from a brainstorm session at the 2024 Baptist Hui in Rangiora, led by Hosanna Porirua pastor Adele Vannathy (pictured, left, next to Warwick Glendenning of Tawa Baptist Church).
The session was one of the Gospel Impact Labs held on Saturday afternoon where people were encouraged to come up with a tool to help churches embrace gospel renewal in their communities.
Adele’s lab was the Power of Prayer; the goal was to ‘create a tool to help our local churches bring the power of prayer to the heart of their ministry and mission’.
Originally called a ‘prayer baton’, the initiative encouraged churches to associate with each other and offered the possibility of uniting our movement in prayer, whilst giving churches flexibility to pray in their own unique ways.
Seven months later in June, delegates at the LNIBA Regional Hui agreed to launch a new prayer initiative making use of the pou karakia.
Carved to represent the shape of a sewing needle, the pou is one of two carved for and presented to Mike Warring and Mick Duncan in recognition of their roles as LNIBA leaders. Named Rongo and Pai, the needle shape represents leaders' roles in ‘stitching’ or ‘sewing’ the LNIBA together.
Rongo is the pou commissioned as the pou karakia. In te reo Māori, rongo means to listen, hear, sense or discern.
The plan is for other Regional Associations to adopt the idea, meaning Baptist churches across Aotearoa New Zealand will be united in a growing wave of prayer.
Image credits: Supplied by Mike Warring
