As followers of Jesus Christ at Waikanae Anglican, we have one vision for our journey together:

‘Being Disciples, and Making Disciples.’

Our vision is grounded and inspired by two passages from the bible:

In Mark 12, v30 -31, when Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment he replies, talking about the essence of what it is to be a disciple:

“The most important one is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

 We also read in Matthew 28, v18 – 20, that we’re all called to help other people follow Jesus, and be his disciples too.

‘Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We can’t do one, without the other. Being a follower of Jesus Christ, means patterning our lives after Jesus, and seeking to love both God and those around us wholeheartedly. But that’s only part of the story; as we see in the lives of the disciples in the early church, they followed, but as well as being disciples, they also learned how to make disciples.

So the two go together, hand in hand: ‘Being Disciples, Making Disciples.’

We have three signs that we are looking for: are we growing in these areas, learning to shape our lives as Jesus shaped his?

Our Vision is also shaped by our Story

As well as two ‘great’ scriptures, the Greatest Commandment, and the Great Commission, our vision is also grounded in our story. We are part of an amazing eternal story, in which we are called by Jesus into incredible personal relationship with God, where we can find salvation, purpose, hope, love and freedom. Isn’t that amazing? That God calls us, and knows us? Yet he also sends us. That’s where we draw on the second part of our story, where we find our ‘spiritual DNA,’ our local story.

We look back at the life of Octavius Hadfield who was called and sent, and lived amongst the local Iwi, living out and speaking out the values and life of the Gospel, supporting what God was already doing amongst the Tangata Whenua. His story reminds us that we are historically a church that is ‘sent’, not to be a church that is happy keeping God in the four walls of our church buildings. We also look back at the life of Wi Parata, who gifted the land for St Luke’s: at his foresight and generosity.

It’s a compelling story that weaves together with those two bible passages reminding us of who we are, and what we’re called to.

Do we manage it, and get it right all of the time? No! We are just trying to work out with God’s help, what it is to follow Jesus and to help others do the same.