Christine Stride is the Executive Assistant to the National Leader. She is a member of Titirangi Baptist Church, in Auckland.
If you've read the first two articles in this series, you’ll know what the Acts 2 Movement – He Haruru Nui is and what its five pathways involve. If not, read them here:
A movement for such a time as this
The questions now are practical: what does it actually look like? Where do we start?
The answer is, it starts wherever you are.
That's one of the most important things to understand about the Acts 2 Movement. It isn't a programme being handed down with instructions for implementation. It's an invitation to take something global and make it deeply, specifically local.
Adopt and adapt
The Regional Leaders use the phrase ‘adopt and adapt’. The movement comes with goals, pathways, and language. But what it actually looks like in a small rural church in say, Southland, a multicultural congregation in South Auckland, or a coastal community in the Bay of Plenty is for them to discern.
"You're not going to get a box delivered to your church with programmes and posters," said New Zealand Baptist National Leader Chris Chamberlain. "It's more about a broader project that we can all contextualise into our situations."
Some churches will engage with all five pathways. Some will start with one. Some will look at what they're already doing and recognise they're already living out Acts 2, they just didn't have that name for it.
It's for everyone
One of the most exciting features of the Acts 2 Movement – He Haruru Nui is how genuinely accessible it is across generations.
At Hui last year, the Regional Leaders observed there was something in these pathways for an eight-year-old, for a teenager, for a fifty-year-old, and for an eighty-eight-year-old confined to bed. The pathways are designed for humans in all their variety of age, capacity, and context.
This means you can engage at an individual level, a family level, a youth group level, a children's ministry level, and a whole-church level. Parents can lead their children into these pathways. Youth groups can set group goals. A family can decide: this year, we're going to focus on the Care pathway together.
And engagement doesn’t depend on how well-resourced your church is.
"You can gear your own targets to reflect the resourcing of your church," Rachel noted. "You can do it with a deficit in your budget line, because it's actually about what you and your church can do to bring the gospel to the people and places in your locality."
Pivot on what you already do
One of the most practical pieces of advice from the Regional Leaders: don't start by inventing something new. Start by looking at what you're already doing.
Reti Ah-Voa gave a vivid example of her church's annual community 'Big Bridge Party', which last year attracted more than 2000 people.
"We asked ourselves ‘what if we used this event as a touchpoint for the Friends pathway? What if we intentionally tried to build relationships with families who came as a genuine act of neighbouring?’”
A seven-year journey
It's worth keeping perspective on the timeframe though. The Acts 2 Movement runs to 2033 – that's seven years. The goals we set now, the culture we build, the stories we gather will shape the Baptist movement in Aotearoa long after 2033.
What we're hoping to measure
The Regional Leaders have been clear that measurables in the Acts 2 Movement are primarily about stories, not just statistics. A private Facebook group has been set up as a safe space for church leaders to share ideas that are working, moments of gospel renewal, acts of care, people coming to faith. We’ll share as much as possible here on our website and on the Baptist.nz app to inspire and encourage (download the Baptist NZ app now if you haven't already!)
But there's also an honest desire to see the numbers: more baptisms, more people coming to faith, more communities changed. Last year New Zealand Baptists recorded 876 baptisms and 6.6% growth in attendance. The Acts 2 Movement – He Haruru Nui is an invitation to build on that momentum with intention and focus.
The invitation
The Acts 2 Movement – He Haruru Nui asks us to believe that what God did at Pentecost — a rushing wind, a great sound, thousands gathered in one place, a movement born in a moment — could happen again. That He Haruru Nui could be heard in our time, in our communities, in Aotearoa.
You're invited to be part of it.
To learn more, visit the Acts 2 Movement page on the baptist.nz website: acts2.baptist.nz
Image credits: Canva.com @zurijeta
