“This is the rock on which I will put together
my church, a church so expansive with energy
that not even the gates of hell will be able to
keep it out.” — Matthew 16:18 (MSG)

It has been one year since I became the Lead Pastor of Henderson Baptist Church! I feel like I need to continuously repeat that in my head to believe it. It has been a whole year of partnering with God as He builds His church here in Henderson. When I began my studies at Carey Baptist College I thought I was doing some professional development that would support
my role as a worship leader, but the cliche is true and it turned out that God had other plans for my life.

As I paused to reflect on one year post Carey, I looked back in astonishment at all that I’ve experienced in the past 12 months. The Pastoral Leadership track taught us to slow down and listen before making any kind of change, so a lot of this first year was spent listening and observing this community. I’ve done my best to truly absorb their history, because Henderson Baptist was already 73 years old when I arrived. This church has a long and beautiful story of God’s faithfulness, and I have the privilege of joining this new chapter as their very first female pastor. I don’t take that call lightly.

Sole pastoring is full of challenges, and the most obvious one has been the dramatic increase in sermon preparation from six times a year to more than 20 times a year. I’m deeply grateful for the training at Carey that equipped me with the tools to approach Scripture with humility, contextual understanding and respect for my own bias and—believe me—this is put into
practice frequently.

Each week the community trust puts on a meal for the local whānau who are doing it tough in our neighbourhood, and once a month I get to serve on one of the teams. To begin with I was nervous and even uncomfortable because I have spent most of my life in middle to upper-class environments and this space challenged my own prejudices and beliefs about the poor in Aotearoa. We are living in a cost-of-living crisis and it is beautiful and right to see the churches across Henderson come together to feed the poor, marginalised and lonely. God tells us to love our neighbours and, in this first year of ministry, I think God has given that phrase new meaning. God has broken and reorientated my heart towards my neighbour and I’m so grateful. One of my favourite papers at Carey was the gospel of Luke, which emphasised a holistic salvation, where justice for the oppressed is an important part of God’s saving grace and these experiences felt like the living out of this gospel message.

This past year has thrown me so many curveballs which nothing could’ve equipped me for, but I know I was able to walk through the ups and downs because of the strong foundation that was formed during my time at Carey. I also want to say a huge thank you to the Carey staff who have offered help and support in my first year of pastoring.