06 Whanganui
Harrison Street Community Church (St John Lutheran), Whanganui
Kia Ora Tatou/Greetings everyone,
As we mark another year of worship and fellowship in our church and I would like to thank all those who participated in our services and various activities over 2024.
As always, our collective thanks as a congregation go to Pastor Phil for leading us in worship and our various outreach activities and church events held over the past year. To Linda Scott, my thanks for her work as Treasurer. Thanks to John Coffey for his work earlier in the year as Secretary (John and Jules shifted out to Waiinu Beach later in the year – we thank them both for their time with us, especially in hosting our Monday night home group).
Services, Mission and other Congregational Activities
- We have continued with our regular series of community meals held on the last Sunday of each month. These remain popular and appreciated, with 40 to 50 people from the local community attending each meal. As well as providing sustenance, the meals provide an opportunity for fellowship and the sharing of a Gospel message, some contemporary worship music and prayer. We continue to get a mixture of regular attendees and some new people and it has been great to see many people helping out or contributing something towards the meal, building a real sense of community. We are encouraged to feel we are building closer relationships with some of the regular attendees and some have joined us on the second Sunday gathering (see below) or for worship at church. We have often been helped by our neighbours from the Anglican community next door and also wish to thank the LCNZ Gateway Mission and Development Fund for their ongoing financial support. We have also appreciated the financial support we received last year from Central Baptist Church to assist with our community meals – with the increasing food prices we have appreciated this additional help. Thanks to Robert and Linda for organising and leading the preparation of the meals.
- We have also continued running a series of smaller gatherings on the second Sunday of the month. Here we share a “pot luck” light meal (e.g. soup and scones in the winter months), play some board games and facilitate some faith-based discussion. One of our objectives was to provide another point of contact between the monthly community meals. They have been reasonably successful, with a regular group of people attending. Although this has replaced our normal worship service, we feel this is still a good opportunity to share our Christian faith and better connect with our community.
- On the alternate Sundays (between the above events) we continued to hold more traditional church services at 4 pm throughout the year (some of these were led by me, Robert or Linda due to Pastor Phil’s work commitments).
- Fortnightly Monday evening Home Group meetings were held over most of the year. We have done a couple of studies (recent ones were on “Heaven –Finding Our True Home” and “Jesus’ Final Week”) and always have an interesting discussion. My thanks again to John and Jules Coffey for hosting us in their home – the catering was outstanding! Pastor Phil is also running a fortnightly Thursday evening discussion group for our new contacts who are new to the Christian faith.
- We participated in an Alpha course held over the second school term at Christ Church. John, Linda and I acted as table hosts and a number of our new contacts came along to the weekly sessions. It was an excellent programme and was one of the highlights of the church year. It was great that our Anglican neighbours invited us along and we intend to be part of Alpha again next year.
- Our Community Garden and orchard continues to flourish. As well as providing more food for our community, the garden also provides a way for people to connect to nature, enjoy some conversation and creates a sense of involvement/belonging and shared responsibility. Our thanks to Sophie and, more recently, Irene Loder, for guiding our gardening work.
Finance
Linda has prepared a Treasurer’s Report detailing church income and expenditure over the previous year – we will also need to discuss and approve a proposed budget for 2025, based on this report and her recommendations. Church finances are getting tighter, with fewer contributing members, the running down of our reserve account, fewer hall hirers and increasing costs (especially insurance).We will need to look at ways to control costs, increase revenue (e.g. by boosting hall hire) and seek additional grant funding or further donations in order to sustain our activities.
General Comments
- 2025 will be a significant year and a time of transition for our small church. Mid-year, we will farewell Pastor Phil as he ‘retires’ and he and Lynda prepare to shift away to the Bay of Plenty. We will miss Phil – his Pastoral leadership, his humour, warmth and friendship. We thank Phil for everything he has contributed to our church and wish him and Lynda a happy retirement together on the lake.
- Another part of the transition is our growing relationship with our Anglican neighbours. Next year, Hayden and Victoria Brown will be coming to join our leadership team in a shared role as our part-time Discipleship Coordinators. The role will be 10 hours per week and the position will be funded from the salary leftover from Beth Savage’s former Community Coordinator position. We welcome Hayden and Victoria to our team and hope they enjoy their time with us. Through this mahi, Hayden and Victoria will also gain experience and skills that will help prepare them for their eventual roles as Vicars in the Anglican Church.
- Although we are still a small congregation, we have continued with regular worship services and remained very active in terms of our mission activities and growth in the Spirit. Although challenged, I think we remain in good heart and continue to develop new opportunities to reach out to our community and invite more people to join us and receive the Gospel message.
I thank all members for your contribution to our congregation and look forward to your ideas and participation at the AGM.
Stephen Hormann
Congregation Chairperson
