Canterbury Westland and Top of the South Baptist Associations
An update from Regional Leader Kim Peters for 2022.
The South Island is the 12th largest island of the 322 islands in the world. And so, with the welcoming of our seven Top of the South Churches to our Canterbury Westland Association, much time has been invested in looking at pixels on a screen and hands behind the steering wheel!
Our focus for the year has been Fivefold. While continuing to hold to last year’s focus on social housing and sharing of leadership across churches, we have pressed into creating a ‘Leadership Pathway’ to strengthen a leadership culture in our churches. We hope to get this across the line at the beginning of next year. Our second focus has been welcoming our seven Top of the South churches to our Association. We began that journey with a Pastors’ Day, Eldership Evening and ‘Setting Your Church Free’ with Nelson Baptist. Our third focus has been building a Discipleship Culture in our region. Our fourth focus has been developing long-term finance and property partnerships with our churches and Kanuka Hopestill Limited. Our fifth focus has been to continue strengthening and celebrating our partnership with Delta, Archer and Glenroy Trusts.
Some events of note are our Regional Hui in August, doing ‘Setting you Church Free’ in two of our churches, a Forgiveness Seminar, a Preaching Seminar and hosting the Ministry Development Course pastors for a pizza night in Little River. We have also been doing several pastoral reviews and moving into doing eldership reviews and Eldership Dessert Evenings. We lamented not having Easter Camp and the Hanmer Prayer Retreat due to COVID.
As an Association we welcomed in Rod Robson and Julie Chamberlain to our Canterbury Westland Baptist Association Board, Hannah Cossey to our Regional Staff team as Young Adult Coach, Andrew Maude to Timaru Baptist Church, Jeff Whittaker to Linwood Baptist Church, Jonan Castillon to Oamaru Baptist Church, Paul Edlin to St Albans Baptist Church, Sam Pascual to Temuka Baptist Church, Alfred Millar to Picton Baptist Church, Rich Fox to Ashburton Baptist Church, and Mike Stanley to Delta Trust. We farewelled Rich Fox from Ashburton Baptist Church and Peter Hart from Ilam Baptist Church.
I want to give a special thanks to John McMullan (Ashburton), Helen Brereton (Nelson), Jeff Whittaker (Linwood) and Paul Edlin (St Albans) for serving as Interim Pastors in our region. Such a vital role!
Once again, I’ve been greatly blessed to work alongside Mike Dodge and Rachel Sangster on my staff team and have celebrated the addition of Hannah Cossey as our Regional Young Adult Coach. Fantastic!
I honour the integrity and leadership of Deb Riach, David Baines, Bradley Nicolson, Rod Robson and Julie Chamberlain on our Canterbury Westland Baptist Association Board, along with Charles Hewlett, my Regional Leaders colleagues and the Lead Team at the Baptist Support Centre. Working alongside people who truly seek gospel renewal in people and places has been a deep privilege.
Please note there are 9 (not 7) Baptist churches in the Top of the South region – Nelson BC, Atawhai Community Church, Stoke BC, Richmond BC, Motueka BC, Picton BC, Connect (Blenheim), Nelson Chin BC and Chin Glory Evangelical Church.