I hosted the monthly “inner-city” ministers’ luncheon yesterday. We had eight people from the Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and Baptist church attend.
The first to arrive was a “pastor” from the Baptist church, he told me that he was a pastor in one of the Southern suburbs of a Baptist church and was looking for another pastor’s fellowship to join. He was not an “inner-city” minister. He told me that God had told him to start up a pastor’s fellowship himself made up of evangelical Pentecostals which he has.
I was asked to introduce myself and talk about my ministry past and present then we went around the room and shared a bit about ourselves and what we were doing in our churches. When it came to this particular “pastor” he was talking about what was going on with the Arise church that has been in the news recently and actually defended the churches exploitative position. For those of you who are not aware of what’s going on in Arise, they have been exploiting their interns who are burnt out from working over 80-hour weeks for no pay. Some have complained to the media about their treatment. Anyway, he was defending Arise. He said his son was an intern last year and had had a great experience.
We talked a little about the different missions happening in the inner city and what was happening with the inter-faith council. I found it all very interesting. As the vicar from the Anglican church was leaving, I asked her to put me in contact and onto the mailing list for the inter-faith council which I would like to be a part of. The Baptist pastor jumped in and asked me if I would like to join his fellowship of pastors. I said, “your evangelical Pentecostal group” and he said yes, I immediately responded “NO!” much to his surprise. He continued; we don’t judge one another. I replied, “you know I’ve been surrounded by evangelicals all my life and I’m enjoying this new place and space that I am in”. I was quite surprised that I said a stern no as normally I would not want to offend and say, “oh sure let me think about it and I’ll get back to you”. Maybe I was being judgy but I’m so over it, it is good to be in a progressive context without the pretence of so-called “brotherhood” and putting on a tolerant face. Yes, Wellington is changing me, and I am enjoying my newfound assertiveness a butterfly emerging from my chrysalis.
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