The Past Few Weeks...

The past couple of weeks have been full on but very awesome! We have been picking up a lot of momentum at church and in the community. I apologise for not keeping up better with the blog, but as a baby is on the way, I will not make any promises to do better! Below are a few quick updates about what’s been happening with us and Rechurch:

Christmas Service:

We had a wonderful Christmas service with many new faces and many ‘regulars’ in attendance. This was an encouragement to us as we had expected a lower turnout this time of year as summer break had just begun and many people are traveling for the summer holidays. We had a fun service and a great time with the people who came.

Venue Update:

After months of asking for prayer and praying about where to go for a long term venue, God has opened up and given us our number one choice! We are so excited and think that this is nothing less than a miracle! Rechurch will be meeting in Reading Cinemas once we go to weekly services. This venue is just upstairs in the same complex where we are currently meeting. We already have advertising in the cinemas as well as relationships with many people in that shopping complex. We found out two days before our Christmas service about getting this venue, it was the best Christmas present that we could have asked for! We call it a miracle because we had been talking with the management in the cinemas since July and were getting consistent lack of interest and ‘no’ for an answer. We decided to give it one last shot pitching them a ridiculously low price (one third of what they were asking!!) in a written proposal. After over a month and a half of waiting to hear back, they emailed us last week and told us they would be happy to meet our requests and have us start meeting there when we are ready…for the low price we offered! Thank you for praying with us to get this venue

Holiday:

Joe and I took off for a few days around Christmas for a bit of a holiday break. Most of our friends were going to visit family or had family coming in, so we decided to take that chance to get away. We drove north of Christchurch to stay just outside of the Abel Tasman National Park. It was a great getaway for us and a good time to relax and reflect on the last (crazy) year. We hiked, kayacked, swam, and relaxed. It was good to have that time away to get ready for this week…

Mission Team:

This week we have a group of fourteen adults visiting Rechurch from Ohio. The church that they are with supports Rechurch and has come out to help us and to see whats happening. We have heaps of activities planned, one of the main ones being on New Year’s Eve. Rechurch is hosting a family friendly New Years Eve party for the community. We have lots of fun things planned (bouncy houses, cotton candy machines, giant twister, live music, free sausages etc…) and are hoping that this is a huge outreach for the church. The team will be helping to get that ready and promote the event as well as helping with many other community events to help get Rechurch’s name even better known in Christchurch.

I will post another blog once the team is gone about the trip and about how our NYE09 event goes. Please pray for this event.

If you made if this far, you are a legend, that was a lot to update you on, but there is a lot happening here which is great! Thanks for keeping up with all that’s going on!

I'm lovin' it!

I realise that it has been a while since I have posted something fun about life in New Zealand. Most of our updates lately have been about Rechurch, but I thought today's events would make for a perfect glimpse into other parts of New Zealand life and culture.

Being such a small country out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand wants to be known. Sure we have the best rugby team (the All Blacks) and beauty that is hard to find anywhere else in the world, but other than that and the recent Lord of the Rings and Narnia, how else is New Zealand going to get recognised in the world?

We have found that many Kiwis and organisations in New Zealand have taken it upon themselves to beat world records and make it in the Guinness Book of World Records. Now, you might think this sounds typical, but we find the records that kiwis are trying to beat are so funny.

Last month there was a "Largest Mattress Domino Competition" where people were to bring out their mattresses and stand them in a line like a domino chain. Also last month was an attempt to have the "Longest Line Dance"- we had intentions to go to this but it was rainy and cold that day! Everyone in Christchurch was invited to a local park where we would learn dance moves and then perform them in a line to create the record.

This morning however, even though cold and rainy, the four of us on staff decided to be a part of a new world record. Today, in Christchurch, New Zealand the world record was set for the largest scrambled egg ever! McDonalds set up a tent in Cathedral square and scrambled up thousands of eggs and then gave away free breakfast to anyone who showed up. We have staff meetings on Tuesday mornings so we met early to go down to the city to be a part of this momentous occasion...and to get free breakfast.

Enjoy the pictures below of our experience:

Disgustingly large amount of scrambled eggs, I am glad I am not still in my first trimester or I would have had to leave.

Yes, this is a normal sized garden rake, they also had huge snow shovels to scoop the eggs.

As you can imagine, Joe was definitely lovin' it. The rest of us were quite disgusted by the eggs, Joe may have had seconds...and finished mine...and didn't find anything gross about the massive amounts of eggs! Also, notice the winter coats in the picture. Today is officially the first day of summer in New Zealand, based on today's weather, it's not looking promising!

What's a McDonald's party without Ronald?

Preview Service # 3

We have officially completed three of our five preview services for Rechurch. Our third service was held last Sunday and we are all very excited about how it went.

As a church staff, we were all a bit apprehensive about Sunday. Between our first service and this one, we have come up against many obstacles and road blocks, nothing huge, just many things that have been discouraging to us. We spent many hours preparing, extended many invitations, to both new people and people that we have been talking to for months, spent a lot of time in prayer, and knew we just needed to trust that God would do what only he can do, work in the hearts of people.

Sunday morning came around and set up went very smoothly. About ten minutes before the service was to start, people started pouring in- both people that we knew and people that were just responding to our advertisements. Our attendance was up 50% from the last two services and the 'buzz' that accompanied the morning was incredible.

Rechurch felt like a community on Sunday morning. It was exciting to see people connecting with one another. The service was a great one and people stuck around to hang out afterwards.

We made an appeal for people who are interested to join our launch team. Please pray that people respond to this appeal and join us at the launch team meeting this Sunday night. Our launch team is the group of people who are joining in our vision to officially launch Rechurch in February.

Thank you for your prayers for Rechurch. We are so excited to see how God is working in our lives, in our friends lives, and in Christchurch, New Zealand!

Faith Exploration Event

Tomorrow night Rechurch is hosting a Faith Exploration Event. Actually we aren’t quite sure what to call it, but we feel like this best describes what we are doing.

Each of us has come across people who are interested in what Rechurch is doing but doesn’t think that church is for them. Others have said they would like to check out what’s happening but have to work on Sunday mornings and therefore can’t make it to church.

We have decided to try something different in order to try to possibly reach out to this group of people. Tomorrow night (Sunday 15 Nov) we are able to use one of the rooms at our venue to host this event. We will be watching a Rob Bell Nooma Video and having an open time of discussion afterwards.

We’ll have some appetizers that the Fox and Ferret offers and hope to have a relaxed atmosphere where people feel comfortable talking and sharing questions and thoughts about faith. We also hope that this opens more doors with the people we have invited. Maybe they will come to our next preview service (22 Nov) or maybe this will open up our personal conversations more.

Will you please join us in praying for the people we have invited to this event? Please pray for openness on their part and for us to be able to clearly communicate God’s love to these people, our friends.

Sausage Sizzle

A popular fundraiser in New Zealand is to do a sausage sizzle. Basically you set yourself up in a high traffic area with a grill, some drinks and a few condiments and sell sausages (like American bratwurst) on white bread with onions. It is a cheap snack/meal and a fun fundraiser. 

With the recent devastation in the Asian Pacific countries that have affected many families in New Zealand, ReChurch decided to partner with World Vision to do a fundraiser to help the tsunami and earthquake victims in our neighbouring countries. 

We set up at the QEII park complex and had a great day. It was a beautiful day out and the start of Labour Day weekend so many people were out and about. We were able to chat with heaps of people as we sold almost three hundred sausages. It was not only a good way to help victims of natural disaster, but a good way to show the community that ReChurch is involved with what is going on in the community and around the world. 

Last week, Rechurch sent this postcard to 5,000 homes in the community. We have already received several responses from people who got the mailer.

ReChurch has Begun

ReChurch is officially a church! We had our first preview service on Sunday morning at the Fox & Ferret in the Palms Mall. It was a true success. We had plenty of help with setup and pack down and were so excited with the people that turned up to be a part of our first day. Hamish's sermon was a bulls-eye, the worship that Nate lead us in was brilliant, and Joe's communion thoughts and notices went over very well. 31 people turned up altogether - not bad considering we're just beginning monthly preview services as we build up to our full church launch on 21 Feb. Our launch team is beginning to grow as another family has come on board. They were a huge help to us this morning filling several guest services and techy roles. God is moving in Christchurch.

Prayer time with volunteers before the service started.

A view from the back while Nate was leading worship

Joe sitting with some friends

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement as we we begin our church! We feel truly amazed at how well everything went on Sunday.

Catch Phrase

It's been a couple of weeks since I have updated, but know that life is good and crazy here in Christchurch! Spring is slowly starting to show up and you can feel the excitement in the air for summer! 

We have had so much going on but it's all been great! We have felt so blessed to see the way that God has been working through us and in our relationships before we even knew it. Joe and I have a new catch phrase and we are commonly saying it about two things in particular. Our new phrase is 'this is actually happening!' We have had two dreams for a long time, and both are beginning to take place, with feelings and emotions ranging from excitement to overwhelmed to anxious to exhaustion we are excited to see both things happening. 

The first is that our church has it's first service this Sunday, 20 September. The more details we plan and the closer it gets, we are amazed that we are at this point and that 'this is actually happening!' We are both nervous and excited to see how Sunday goes. We are thankful that we have some people outside of our team who are looking for a church home and have committed to helping us out for our first service. 

The second thing that is actually happening (if you haven't heard) is that we are having a baby! We feel so blessed by this pregnancy and trust that God has it timed all perfectly. In the past two weeks we have been able to hear a strong heartbeat and see the baby. We are absolutely amazed that 'this is actually happening!' I am in my thirteenth week and am finally starting to feel like myself again after a long first trimester. 

We have so much to be thankful for! Will you please keep ReChurch in your prayers this week as we gear up for our first service? Will you also pray for us and add this new addition to our family? We will do our best to keep you up to date with both! Thanks for being a part of our journey! 

Advertisments

ReChurch is making an appearance this week in The Palms Mall. Our venue is located at The Palms Mall so we are doing most of our advertising there on signs in the mall, ads in the public toilets, and even in the movie theatre. Below is a sample of some of the signs that will begin appearing around The Palms. (Double click on images to make them bigger) 

So here we are, one month away from our first preview service. Our website will be up soon, we have a logo, we have a venue secured, we have a service planned, we have begun marketing and we have people that we hope to invite.

This is the face of rechurch in Christchurch, New Zealand. Soon this logo will be all around the north east side of the city and hopefully it will direct people to our church or at least to start exploring what this ‘rechurch’ is all about.

Even though you are on the other side of the world there are a couple of things you can do to help us.

Keep praying- Our service next month officially kicks off  he beginning of rechurch. We are looking to build a launch team using our monthly services as a way to do that. Please pray that God will send people to our church who want to join us in our vision to help start a healthy and relevant new church.

Visit our website- rethinkchurch.co.nz We are trying to get a lot of hits on our website so that it is one of the first things that comes up when people are searching for a church in Christchurch. We have purchased the domain, but the website is still being designed. Please keep in mind that when you visit our website, a page has been displayed by FreeParking as a place holder until our page is designed. The content on this page has nothing to do with our church at the moment, but any visits to this page will increase our hits. You might even want to think about setting it as your homepage. 

 

Set up at The Fox

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to do a mock-set up and The Fox & Ferret, the venue that is looking the most certain for our preview services. We were able to go in to the restaurant before it opened and move everything around to what we thought looked okay for a church service. We were surprised by how much space we were able to make by clearing out all of the tables and setting up rows of chairs. 

Nate and Joe up front discussing plans 

                A veiw from the front/stage area

     A view from the balcony with Hamish and Laney up front

We are very excited about the potential of using this venue for our preview services that start next month. Please pray with us as we begin to negotiate the price and begin advertising for our first service! 

Lately

A Couple of weeks ago, we asked you to pray about our venue selection. As we have continued to research venue options, some doors have been closed, and we are now focusing on our final two possibilities. One is a popular restaurant, and the other is a movie theatre. Both are located at e Palms Shopping Centre, which is a hub for shopping and entertainment in northeast Christchurch. Both options present challenges as well as opportunities. Please continue to pray that God will lead us to the right venue through which we will introduce ourselves to the community.

It has also been cool to watch our staff members begin to work in their area of 'expertise' as we prepare to start meeting. As Outreach Minister at Rechurch, Joe  has been helping the Rechurch staff develop their personal evangelism strategies, as well as helping to provide encouragement and accountability. e staff is also going to be working together to get some practice in having spiritual conversations. e goal of this is to create a safe environment where each staff member will be able to build some confidence in this area, so that when opportunities arise, each person will already have an idea of how they want to share their personal perspective on

faith.

Building bridges isn’t easy. It takes planning, research, and extensive knowledge of the laws of physics. Fortunately, building relationships with non-christians doesn’t require physics, but it does require a lot of prayer and a bit of confidence. Practice helps. Talk with your Christian friends about ways to take everyday conversations with your non-christian coworkers, friends, and family to the next “level.” Practice with each other. Afraid you’ll feel silly? Of course you will! But what you’ll gain is an important dose of confidence that will encourage you to capitalize on opportunities as they present themselves.

“Always be prepared to given an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have...”

1 Peter 3:15

Just in Time for Term Three

Some of you may remember that it was about this time last year that my qualifications for teaching in New Zealand were approved and I was able to begin teaching. I had a great time relieving (or subbing) in a couple of primary schools in Auckland. When we got to Christchurch I went into a couple of schools to try to relieve, but I was unable to due to my registration. 

Apparently, after your qualifications are assessed, you are still unable to teach until you get registered with the Teacher's Council of New Zealand. For some reason, my information slipped through the cracks! I begin teaching in Auckland without being registered. Upon realising this, (after not being able to teach in Christchurch) I called the Teacher's Council to find out  what I needed to do. They also were surprised that I was not registered as they had all of my information on file. So in May, I began the process of getting registered with the Teacher's Council so that I could teach - legally!  

The students just finished their two weeks of winter break and started back to school today for term three. My registration came just in time as I received it in the mail on Friday. I was able to go into schools today and put my name on the list to relieve. 

I am looking forward to teaching in Christchurch and I am praying that God will use this opportunity to help me meet people in the community. 

Earthquake!

Thank you for your concern for us! Apparently the earthquake last night in New Zealand made world wide news. To read more about it (from New Zealand news) click here. 

Though it was a large quake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, we did not feel any movement. We live in the Canterbury region and the earthquake hit in Southland (which is further south) and in Fiordland (which is west).  

We did her of the possible tsunami but it was more of potential threat than a real one. There was a larger wave that was recoded hitting the southern most city, measuring at all of eight inches! 

I think we are safe for now. I read the article the CBS.com had and that story seemed a lot bigger than the news stories from New Zealand!

The Search is On!

                                                                          

Currently one of our most important tasks is searching for a church venue. We've viewed office spaces, schools, theaters, community centers, warehouses, and more. The pressure to find the "perfect location" can be overwhelming, as can the long list of needs we want the space to meet. One of our top priorities is to find a location that already has "pull" on the community - in other words, an area that people already go to regularly for shopping, family time, or just hanging out. A venue that is well-known by community members is much more likely to provoke feelings of curiosity and familiarity.

Please pray hard for our staff as we seek the perfect venue for RECHURCH. Monthly preview services begin this September!

Community Classes

One of the things I love about New Zealand is how easy it is to get involved in community activities. There are sport activities for all ages, book clubs, new mum's groups, coffee groups, and one of my favourites, adult community education.  The government subsidizes community education that takes place in the evenings at community halls and schools. Classes are offered for anything that you can think of and we thought it would be a great way to meet people. 

Joe and I decided before we moved here that we would sign up for one as soon as we arrived, since we arrived at the beginning of a term. We decided to join a "Photoshop for Beginners". 

Last week was our last night of class. We really enjoyed the class and learned a lot. It was harder to get to know people than we had expected, but we did connect with a few people. We really got to know and enjoy one of the gentlemen in our class and we look forward to connecting with him more- he has run multiple marathons, his wife is a teacher, and he is an awesome photographer so we had lots to chat about during class! 

We learned how to do many different things with photos, though most are just tweaking the picture to make it look better! I will eventually post some pictures up here, but the blog site is being slow!

Thanks for your prayers, and please continue to pray for us as we meet people in the different activities we are involved with.

A City Favourite

Last week we were out and we met another couple. They invited us to lunch at one of their favourite spots to eat during the weekend- an international market downtown. This little market is just across from the art museum and is filled with entertainment, food, culture, shops and heaps of people, even on these cold winter weekends! It is a great glimpse of Christchurch culture and a great place to see lots of people.

After going last week and enjoying the few hours that we spent there, we decided to go back Sunday afternoon. This Sunday it was a bit nicer out and the markets were packed with people. We enjoyed watching some jugglers, listening to some music from some buskers (people who play on the street) and watching a Maori performance group while we ate Thai and Solvakian foods. We also just enjoyed walking around and being with so may people. Below are a few pictures from our time at the markets. 

One of the many food stalls. 

Here is me enjoying a Solvakian kebab while listening to music from a busker.

      Some of the many specialty booths set up. 

Lots of people come out to enjoy the markets each weekend. 

Maori performance group singing. 

Community Hot-spot: The QEII

One of our biggest jobs right now is getting involved in the community of Christchurch, specifically in the north-east side. In finding ways to get involved, we have located some of the popular places on our side of town, and started to become regulars there. Throughout the next couple of weeks, I will introduce you to some of these places. 

A big draw to our side of town is the Queen Elizabeth II Centre-most people call it the QEII. The QEII is a huge attraction in our area as it has outdoor stadiums, indoor courts, indoor pools and water slides, a cafe, workout classes, hosts sporting events, and has a full gym with work-out equipment. As you can imagine, in a community filled with young families, the QEII is busy all hours of the day. 

We live about 2 kilometers (a little over a mile) from the QEII. The QEII is now a regular part of our lives. We have included it in our daily schedules, going around the same time each evening and are even starting to feel like regulars. It's been a great way for us to begin to get to know some people. 

Churches

One thing that is important to us as a church, is that we have positive relationships with other churches in the city. There aren't a lot of churches in the north-east part of Christchurch (which is why we chose this area) and some of them seem to be closing up , but we are hopeful that our church can be on the same team, or work for the same cause as the ones that are here. We also aren't interested in shifting the small percentage of people (less than 10) that do go to church so we really want other church leaders to know what our goal is. 

Today Joe and I set out to find some of the churches that we had looked up in our area. Though not completely surprised by what we found, we thought we would share some of the results with you. 

As you may be able to tell from the pictures, we found everything from closed down old buildings, to a church for sale, and even a church that is now a craft store. One thing that I noticed at some churches is that the handles were missing from doors. This continually reminded me of why we are here. If there are no handles and the doors are not used, that must mean that no one is going into the buildings. 

Please continue to pray with us for the people in the north-east side of Christchurch. 

Who We Are Now

As of May first, when all of the families had arrived in Christchurch, the New Zealand Church Plant Team no longer existed. We have now changed into two new groups, the launch team and the church plant staff. At this point, there is no difference in who the people are, just in what we do. We are excited to continue to update you as our launch team begins to grow in preparation for our September preview service. 

Meet the Launch Team (formerly known as the New Zealand Church Plant Team): 

Joe and Amy Flammer, Hamish, Molly and Liam Taylor, & Nate, Whitney, and Lane Hutchison

Meet the Staff:

Amy: Children & Family  Joe: Pastor of Outreach  Hamish: Lead Pastor/Preacher  Nate: Worship and Creative Arts

New Contact Info

Our New Zealand Address is: 

Joe and Amy Flammer 

7 Fleur Lane 

Burwood, Christchurch 8083

 New Zealand 

Also, please remember that we have a new forwarding agent as of the first of May. Our forwarding agent is responsible for most of our Stateside matters, including finances. The address for our new forwarding agent is: 

South Pacific Christian Fellowship 

c/o Mindy Bennett 

6 Natick Circle 

Rochester, IL 62563

Love

The other day while reading 1 Peter in the Bible I ran across a verse that stuck out to me in a new way. The verse is 1 Peter 1:22:

You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

Love each other deeply with all of your heart. Other translations say "love each other deeply and earnestly" and "love as if your life depends on it." These words are powerful and they kept coming back to me throughout the day. I really started to think about this idea of loving others if my life depends on it and loving others so deeply and earnestly. 

Yes, we are in Christchurch to start a new church, but how do we do this. For me, this verse sums it up. How do you start a church from nothing? How do you get people interested in a God that can change their lives? The answer to me can be found in 1 Peter 1:22- loving the people of Christchurch as if my life depends on it! Sounds easy enough, but what does that mean? 

What does that mean when I am frustrated that our house isn't in great condition when we moved in? 

What does that mean about how I act towards our landlord or the people that have been in our home getting it together? 

What does it mean to the lady behind the desk I see at the library? 

What does it mean to the person I am running next to at the gym?

What does that mean when I interact with our team?

How does it look when I interact with Joe?

What does it mean to our new neighbors?

I must ask, how can we show everyone we come in contact with the love of Christ? Maybe it is performing every action and even going out of our way to love people as if my life depends on it. Hopefully with this pure love, the people we interact with begin to see the hope that we have in Christ. 

After all, we love each other because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Fresh and Fabulous in Fleur Lane

Okay, so it's a little cheesey, but that's the line that caught our attention. We spent what felt like a long time looking for a house. Really it was only two days, but after going through house after house that we weren't excited about it was wonderful to walk through a house that we loved! 

We were hopeful about the pictures that we had seen but didn't want to get our hopes up too much until we could walk through the house. Sure enough, the house on Fleur Lane is exactly what we were looking for. We are excited to move in next week and for our belongings to arrive from Auckland shortly after that. 

Our teammates begin arriving this week. We have joined the library and the gym. We found a grocery store near our house. Life in Christchurch has begun! 

We are Here!!

We have arrived in Christchurch! It was great to be in Auckland and catch up with some friends when we got back. It also feels great to have that LONG journey from Auckland to Christchurch behind us. 

Now we are in Christchurch and looking for a place to live. We are excited for our team to join us in the next couple of weeks. We will spend the next few weeks looking for a place to live and becoming more familiar with this new city that we now call home! 

We will keep you posted as we make progress, though posts may not be frequent until we are settled as we do not have regular internet access.  We'd love your prayers as we begin life in Christchurch! 

See you in Christchurch

Last week we had a chance to meet up with our team in Indianapolis. We have all been so busy while on furlough that we haven't connected much, but had planned these few days for that reason. It was great to have a couple of days to catch up and plan. Nate's parents came along to spend a couple of days with us as well. Nate's parents have a lot of experience in ministry and even in church planting so it was a great opportunity to learn from them and get their advice on different theological and practical issues. 

Aside from the planning and discussion times, it was just great to be together as a team! We are all going separate ways again until we see each other in Christchurch, New Zealand! Joe and I will be the first family back to Christchurch, but Each family will be in Christchurch by the first of May. 

Please continue to pray for our team as our time in the States is coming to an end. We will soon be going back to the other side of the world and starting from scratch again! Please pray for safe travel and for each of us to find housing soon after arriving. 

Blast from the Past

We have had a blast spending the last few days in Rochester, IL where we used to live. We were able to spend time at South Fork, the church where Joe served as the youth minister, and share with them about our time in New Zealand. We were also able to spend time with many people who have a very important place in our lives. 

Here are Bob and Phyllis. These are two very special people who have taken us into their home before we had our own, and always have an open room for us when we come to visit, and always have ice tea and chocolate chips cookies and time for a chat! We were able to stay with them while in Rochester and enjoyed every moment.

Spending time with Josh (the minister from South Fork) and his wife and sweet little boy.

Joe speaking at South Fork.

Our old house! 

Most of our old small group, it was great to catch up.

Now we are back in Bloomington for a few days to catch up. Joe has been fighting a bad cold and hoping to recover before we hit the road again. We will be going to a few different locations in Indiana to meet with churches, friends, and finally our team. We will try to update you when we get back! 

International Focus Event

We have been so blessed by the last couple of days. We were able to be a part of the International Focus Event at Lincoln Christian College this year. the International Focus Event is a two day event that helps raise awareness of missions around the world for the students at Lincoln. For those two days classes are canceled and there are classes, workshops, chapel services, and events for different missionaries/mission organizations to get in touch with the students. 

We were able to teach a class and hang out with some of the students. We had a booth set up to explain more about our ministry in New Zealand and even had some interest for some interns and future teams to come to New Zealand. 

The main speaker for the event was from Australia. Though New Zealand and Australia have many differences, there are quite a few similarities and we enjoyed hearing him tell stories of Australia and chatting with him a bit.