Connect - Pastor's Pen for 15th June 2025

Piha, June 2025, © Fiona Fey

I've been thinking about the importance of human connection just lately. There's nothing like constructive conversations and mutual support face to face. We had a small Board of Managers meeting last night at the manse and we progressed some things that needed to be dealt with in a constructive and pleasant way. It wasn't entirely business, we could have a coffee and see where people were at.

As part of her role at Laidlaw College, Fiona went to Piha this week for a leadership retreat. Hopefully, that had a positive effect for all team members, where they could get to know their new leader. It was work but also relationship building.

It seems that social media is a toxic place these days, with lots of polarized opinions about politics, climate change and so on. So I was encouraged to be able to use Facebook in two very constructive ways to make connection in the last week. I saw on the Browns Bay community page someone issued a plea for any hard fill to put in a hole where a swimming pool used to be. Nothing organic, just bricks, rocks or similar. We had a pile of used bricks behind the shed, in various states of brokenness, so I offered those and they were gratefully collected.

In a similar vein, I saw on Facebook my friend who is head of music at Marcellin College was looking to raise money to buy a baby grand piano (expensive). Last September a message came to the church website offering a free baby grand to a good cause, because the owner had died. We didn't need it at the time, and I thought it was a long shot due to the passage of time, but I got back in touch with the widow and it's still available, so another opportunity to connect and bring blessing was fulfilled.

Whether we connect with people online or in person we can ask ourselves; am I building up, or tearing down? How am I connecting with others? As members of Christ's body, we should be fully aware of how we engage with people. Paul has a lot to say about this in Ephesians 4, where he is speaking of the church as a "whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love." (v16) May we continue to build one another up in love.