GREYFRIARS' CONTEXT

In his fourth sermon at Greyfriars, given on 23 February 2003, Rob Yule analysed the changing social context of Greyfriars in Mt. Eden and central Auckland, and presented a challenge of how Greyfriars could use these changes in a fresh approach to its local mission. He based his recommendations on the New Testament account of Paul's missionary strategy, which was to establish regional churches to evangelise their localities in culturally-acceptable ways, and Isaiah's prophecy concerning enlargement and restored relationships.

Paul was the greatest missionary of the early church. He was single-handedly responsible for Christianity not simply remaining a Messianic sect of Judaism, but becoming a worldwide movement. He evangelised the entire East Roman empire from Jerusalem to Rome by way of three epic missionary journeys in the space of a mere twenty years, at the end of which he could say that he had 'nothing left to do in this part of the world' (Romans 15: 23, CEV).

Paul's Missionary Strategy

Paul was a great missionary strategist. He could say that there was nothing more for him to do in these regions, because he was pursuing a clearly thought-out strategy. His strategy was not just to win individual converts. It was to plant influential regional churches. Paul concentrated on the major metropolitan centres of the Roman Empire - cities like Antioch, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus, Rome. These were cities - like Auckland today - that dominate the commerce and culture of their surrounding region. These were cities of reputation and influence in their hinterland.

Paul would stay in these cities for one year, or two - long enough to make a difference. His strategy was different from modern itinerant evangelists, who stay only a few nights or weeks in any one place. Paul's strategy was not just personal evangelism, but church planting. Everywhere he went he would stay long enough not only to make converts, but to train them to be part of an effective self-replicating regional church that he could leave behind after a year or two, confident that they would continue evangelising their locality after he left. That was his strategy. By founding self-reproducing communities of believers, he could be confident that the work of evangelism would continue when he was no longer there. That's why he could truthfully say there was no more work for him to do in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Paul's Missionary Practice

Paul was not only a great missionary strategist. He was also a wise missionary practitioner. Some strategic thinkers are so purpose-driven that they're very unpleasant people to work with. But Paul wasn't only a strategic thinker. He was a sensitive communicator. Wherever he was, he sought to understand the local context and relate the Christian message to the culture of the people he was with. Some Christians' witness is insensitive and off-putting. Not Paul. 'I have become all things to all people,' he says, 'so that by all possible means I might save some' (1 Corinthians 9: 22, NIV). To the Jews he became a Jew, to win the Jews. To those outside the Jewish law, the Gentiles, he became a Gentile, to win them. To the weak he became weak, to win the weak. If we want to win people to Jesus Christ, we need to be winsome ! We need to share our faith in an attractive manner.

When Paul visited Athens, the great centre of ancient philosophy, art and culture, he took time to look around the city and acquaint himself with the Athenians' way of life. When he spoke to them he did so on the basis of sympathy and observation. 'People of Athens! I see that that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' He used this as a point of contact for his message. 'What you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.' (Acts 17: 22-23, NIV). Paul related the God he knew about - the God who created the universe and gives life to every human being, the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ - to the unknown high God that even the polytheistic Athenians acknowledged.

Greyfriars' Changing Context

We in Greyfriars can learn a lot about how to share the Christian message from a great missionary like Paul. Today I want to share my observations about the context where we in Greyfriars are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ. We are entrusted with the unchanging message of God's saving love for lost people through Jesus Christ. But we must share this unchanging message in a way that's relevant to our changing context. We are strategically-situated in central Auckland. But we must respond to the enormous changes in our society if we are to be a cutting-edge church and not be left behind by what's happening around us.

1. From village to city

When Greyfriars was established between 1910 and 1915, Mt. Eden was still mostly farmland. Residential development was just beginning to creep south of the mountain along Mt. Eden Road. Mt. Eden was a rural village, not yet a suburb, and Auckland was only just developing from a collection of isolated villages linked by coach roads to the infrastructure of local borough councils that lasted for the next half century.

This church building was a far-sighted and ample structure when constructed in 1917. But by 1937, it was already considered too small to accommodate the surrounding population. In that year Greyfriars' minister Rev. John Allan was appointed Professor of New Testament at the Theological Hall in Dunedin. In his farewell message he observed, 'When we see the church well-filled on a Sunday morning we should remember that the building ought to be much too small for so closely populated a district.' (Quoted in Ivan Moses' 75th anniversary history of Greyfriars, The Tower by the Hill, p. 31).

The population of Auckland in 1900 was around 50,000. That increased tenfold to over 500,000 by the 1960s, when Rev. Douglas Watt was your minister in Greyfriars. Since then there have been no significant changes to Greyfriars' facilities or structure, but Auckland's population has doubled to over 1 million. Every day Auckland grows by 49 people, compared with 7 a day for Christchurch and 5 a day for Wellington. At this growth rate, 28, 500 a year, Auckland will pass 2 million by 2050.

There've been dramatic changes in your geographical context over this last generation. Infill housing intensifies the population growth, changing the character of central Auckland, causing traffic congestion, and putting further pressure on the region's infrastructure. Greyfriars used to be an important part of the Mt. Eden community, and some Greyfriars' members served on the Mt. Eden Borough Council. Now the Borough has been absorbed into greater Auckland city. Mt. Eden Road has become a congested traffic thoroughfare, as people travel from downtown Auckland to the southern suburbs, the airport, and beyond. The Greenlane - Balmoral arterial road linking with the Auckland motorway system has cut your parish in half from east to west, further affecting the village character of Mt. Eden.

We're going to have to grapple these changes in our context if Greyfriars is to continue to have an effective mission to our community.

2. From European to multi-cultural

Originally, Mt. Eden was made up of a very homogeneous or similar group of people: European in background and professionals and businessmen in occupation (I say 'businessmen', because they were almost exclusively male). Now we have a very diverse ethnic and cultural mix in central Auckland, and many women work as well as men. According to the 2002 census only 68% of Aucklanders are now of European origin. For some time Auckland has been the largest Polynesian city in the world, with Polynesians making up 14% of its population. But Auckland is rapidly becoming an Asian city. Nearly a third of Aucklanders were born overseas, and Asians now comprise 13.8 % of its population.

Take Hold of Change

How should we respond to these changes? Notable Church of England layman, Sir John Lawrence, once wrote a book Take Hold of Change. Instead of letting changes pass us by, we should take hold of change and make it work for us. These changes present us with...

1. An opportunity for enlargement

Isaiah the prophet spoke of a time for enlargement or expansion. 'Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left.' (Isaiah 54: 2-3, NIV).

We could remain a small village church, in an area that is losing its village character. Or we could become a significant regional church, drawing people from and impacting a wider region. The very roads that have intersected this area and spoiled the former village character of Mt. Eden, could be used to bring people from far and near and build a new identity as a more influential regional church. We could develop multiple services to reach different cultural groups and multiply our mission to the increasingly diverse community around us.

2. An opportunity for evangelism

Isaiah's prophecy also speaks of an opportunity for evangelism, for giving lost people meaning and identity in a relationship with the living God. '"Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD.' (Isaiah 54: 1).

With the stresses of modern city life, the breakdown of relationships and of community, the loneliness and hurts that many people are suffering, there's a tremendous opportunity to offer people the restoration of relationships they long for. It's not just relationships with other people that are fractured. The fundamental relationship to be restored is with God, our creator: 'You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband... the God of all the earth. (Isaiah 54: 4-5).

Greyfriars, with its caring people and commitment to evangelism, is well-placed to offer God's restoration of relationships to people in Mt. Eden and central Auckland.

Rob Yule, 23 February 2003

© 2003, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church