The hard years (1975-1981)
Children's Ministry
Children have always had a place of importance. They have always been
treated as people. At first there were few children as the bulk of the
Fellowship were young adults. There were the Wagener and Basset children
and that was it. But as the years followed and young adults became couples
and then couples-with-children, there arose new needs and new ways of
catering for the young. At first it was generally agreed that children
would benefit, like osmosis, - at least during the worship times - by
being in the service. Well-disciplined and obedient children did seem
to manage well. But as time went by, families with children joined the
fellowship. These children were not so used to the same disciplines that
our children were used to and so the need for special programs arose.
Lois had before this, run a Friday nightclub, which taught biblical truths along with exciting activities and projects. They also went camping and did other things which Stuart Hale, Wayne and Pauline Curham could tell you about. The philosophy of children's work developed here is still pretty similar to that used by the Children's Church today. When the Sunday School was set up the creche followed and then the "after crèche pre-Sunday school group. The age ranges or groupings are still the same today.
Children of the Sunday School grew up and so they became the youth group and so on. They have provided the core for the pioneering work and on going development of Encounter Christian Centre. Today you will find kids of this core group involved in children's church, youth group, music group and older youth ministry.
Church Growth
I can remember some discussion in our early years of how churches should
grow. I can recall Owen's belief at the time did not follow what seemed
to be common practice particularly in the indigenous churches. There the
pastor/founder of a church would have the church grow in number. As the
numbers grew he would train up leaders. These leaders were like sons or
"Timothy's" who after serving the pastor well would be sent
off to establish a new church somewhere else usually another town. In
Owen's opinion this was not a good way of doing it. Often the Timothy
was poorly equipped to establish a work. For years the different streams
of the Pentecostal churches could be linked on these family lines. The
church in the city of origin remained small or at the limits of what one
man could effectively lead and the junior leader would be lost to the
city. Where was there an impact on the city in that? It also led to the
proliferation of unrelated groups in the city.
When the Fellowship began to grow and these people related in the first instance to Alan Stephenson it seemed an ideal opportunity to do something different. Instead of sending the junior leader out of town to set up a new congregation why not give him a church in the next suburb. Thus Mt Albert Christian Fellowship was formed. Alan was inducted as their pastor, Ray Green was there to help him and a large group of people went with them.
This in retrospect was an experiment that worked in part but was not without pain. The conclusion of some was that this was not the way to plant another church. Epsom Christian Fellowship took a long time to recover partly because with the new church went most of the evangelistic life of Epsom. Nor do I believe it was all roses for Alan. But there was none of the bitterness or pain that an unfriendly split would have generated. If this were an ideal model surely it would have been less of a struggle. My own opinion is perhaps it was ideal, just that some other events and circumstances meant the on going support was not right. However it was out of this experience that our current intention to have a big church is partly motivated.
Unity
Our commitment to unity, or at least Owen's commitment, became a costly
experience in several ways during these years. This commitment had two
major offshoots. One was the cause of Christian education and the other
was how do you relate to other fellowships in the same city.
When Rob Wheeler and Auckland Christian Fellowship began Hebron Christian College we were there with them. Claude Warner became the Principal and Ray Green a teacher of the school. If you had said to Claude then that one day he would consider himself a part of Encounter he would probably have laughed you off. In the beginning Hebron was an "A.C.E" school and so was Mike Cannel's school in Dannervirke. Owen's involvement in the Christian Schools movement that began then, was very much tied up with A.C.E In fact at one stage he was ACE The burden of time, legal issues and finance fell very much on his shoulders and as a result the fellowship began to miss his leadership.
The other issue from unity was really a case of unity going wrong. Unity in a city between different fellowships requires two major commitments. Firstly it must be a work of the Holy Spirit and secondly the leaders commitment to each other must be able to override any disagreement. The events need not be recounted here and the rift between the two fellowships became permanent. But there was a highly significant outcome for us in that Brent and Pat joined us.
Church Discipline
Just before this there was another heart-breaking event, an excommunication,
after the pattern in Corinthians for sexual sin. I mention this because
it is not always major ministry that fall and experience the discipline
of the church. God is both a Holy God and a God of mercy. The power of
sin is great and no one is exempt from temptation. There is no temptation,
which is common to man, and God always provides a means of escape. We
unfortunately are not always so obedient but God in His mercy will forgive
if we truly repent. I also mention it because it is in the hard times
we learn most.
Leadership issues
With the arrival of Brent and Pat our music and worship took on new life.
But it was in the area of leadership that some of the hard lessons were
being taught. For a time the oversight of the fellowship was vested in
a committee. The resulting "alliances" and the leadership structure
that emerged had ongoing impact on the fellowship. It included Owen's
resignation and later his move out to East Auckland to run a church in
that area. I will not go into details mainly because I was not close enough
to all the events or the struggles of leadership at the time. But let
me say that what we have today has come out of this melting pot and I
believe the master craftsman is still at work with our leadership and
leadership structure.
Small groups
Small groups continued to meet during this time. The philosophy behind
small groups always had as its concern the dual role of pastoral care
and evangelism, though the evangelistic element was for the most part
missing. In fact it was frequently noted as a problem throughout the Fellowship.
Such was the level of failure (evangelistically) that at one point small
groups were abandoned. Another constant struggle with the small groups
was finding suitable and willing leaders. Philosophically it was not intended
to be this way but the small group often became a smaller version of the
Sunday meetings. The overall impression was that the small groups were
struggling to be a success, except where the leader had the ability to
carry it off. There was perhaps a lack of vision and purpose, they were
possibly too introspective, and the support for the leaders too little.
However we should not be entirely negative for there were some very good
friendships formed over these years.
My comment here is that when the cell concept was introduced it was made out to be new. Most of it had in fact been done before. The cell concepts however did address directly many of the problem or struggles of the old home group. It also brought into focus the place of small groups and their importance. The real contrast between this and the past was that the philosophy was clearly spelt out. What we had sort of evolved from a good idea and a worthwhile concept. The problem now is that we can spell it out but how do we make it culturally relevant. This means that the cell model needs to be varied to meet specific and individual needs of the people the church serves and wants to serve.