Exploring Wayfinding

Cost: $120 (incl GST)

I am married to Michele and we have our sons and daughter-in-law, and live in Ōtautahi Christchurch.  I have the privilege of being a Presbyterian Minister (half time) with  “Kiwi Church,” a relatively young network of small relational communities which began just over a decade ago and have loved being in community with others as we have explored other ways of being church.  I also have a role in the wider Presbyterian church, at the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership as a half time Lecturer and Ministry Formation Coordinator supporting the training of ministers and leaders.  I also enjoyed teaching formation to theology and counseling students at Laidlaw College for a number of years and remain an associate fellow there. 

I got to do some study which included a doctorate with Fuller Theological Seminary.  This included study on Spiritual Formation (about how we grow, introducing me to the incredible world of contemplative spirituality), Celtic Spirituality (with lots of resonance with kiwi culture), Finding God in Popular Culture and Fresh Expressions of Church. The last part of that journey was writing a final project exploring church models, and what implications there are in the way we do church in the kiwi context, with a particular focus on nurturing healthy and authentic community and discipleship.  I am passionate about, and can certainly imagine a future where there are lots of communities of Christians (a.k.a. churches) in all kinds of spaces and expressed in many different ways – with Jesus at the centre.

I love sport, movies, being outside, and Star Trek. I look forward to being your “Exploring Wayfinding” host. 

He uri te taha o tōku pāpā nō Ngāpuhi nui tonu 

Ko Ngātokimatawhaorua te waka 

Ko Hokianga whakapau karakia te Moana 

Ko Toukahawai te awa 

Ko Ōmanaia te whenua 

Ko Whiria te maunga 

Ko Te Piiti te marae 

Ko Ngāti Kaharau, Ngāti Hau ki Omanaia ngā hapū 

Ko Harema Reihana te whāmere 

Ko Dallas Neihana Te Waipounamu Harema tōku ingoa

My tūpuna (ancestors) came to the shores of Aotearoa with Scandinavian, Melanesian, Polynesian, West Asian, Celtic & Māori blood in their bones. They settled here in Waihōpai (Southland) and Te Tai Tokerau (Northland), and I am a proud descendent of them all. My wife Lucy Pearl (Middle Eastern, French, Italian, Celtic) and I have 3 tamariki and live in Ōtautahi, Te Wai Pounamu. 

I have a mishmash of a background in allsorts – personal & professional development in various sectors, international relations, multi-disciplinary therapeutic contexts, lecturing in Applied Sciences and Social Practice, creating spaces for indigenous theological kōrero, Te Tiriti workshop facilitation, advising the Ministry of Justice around cultural capability, Supervising, and a CliftonStrengths Masterclass Coach. Currently, Lucy and I have our own business with a mishmash of some of this stuff.

We have a contemplative bent and are very passionate about formation/discipleship – the people of God being holistically whole and transformed in becoming more like Jesus for the sake of the world. We long to co-create spaces where people are real about their inner worlds and are living congruently. Our conviction is that once we can take some fig leaves off and get honest about what we really carry (good, “bad” and ugly), we can then open ourselves (more) to Jesus and his transformative truth, grace and love in the context of community. 

In our spare time (is there such a thing?) Lucy and I co-lead ‘Whakapuāwai’ (to cause to flourish, bloom, thrive) which aims to help couples be formed in emotional and relational intelligence within a Jesus-centred spirituality to integrate all parts of who they are into their truest identity. I also co-lead a couple of Men’s groups as well in the same vein as Whakapuāwai, and am also the Director of the School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership Aotearoa.

Always an avid learner, I am currently studying the ancient wisdom found in the Enneagram (completing my International Coaching Federation accreditation in June 2024), and I am also completing a 3 year wānanga through Mahi Wairua (Māori approaches to holistic health). This year Lucy is training to become a CliftonStrengths coach (around full-time Māmā life).

Mā te Atua e tiaki e manaaki,

I earned my degree in theology from Leeds University, then felt a call to ordained ministry. Not feeling inclined to obey this, I spent the next 20 years or so training and engaging in ministry from the edges – hospital chaplaincy, spiritual direction, youth ministry and pastoral care worker. I also added physical healing modalities into the mix with massage therapy certification and yoga teacher training. 

In 2007, I moved from the USA to Auckland, and in 2011 I asked the church to discern with my the sense of call which would not lie quietly. I was licensed and inducted into ministry in 2015, and am currently ministering at St Peter’s, Ellerslie Mt Wellington.

From early in my spiritual journey, I have felt an affinity with contemplative practices, fascinated by the mystics and the wisdom of that tradition. I’ve been greatly influenced by teachers like Cynthia Bourgeaoult, who taught me about centering prayer practice, Barbara Brown Taylor, Richard Rohr, and Brene Brown. I return again and again to Julan of Norwich’s ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ and to the doorway into the gospel world of the imagination held open by Ignatian practices. I’m inspired by the extravagant holy fool practices of Francis of Assisi, and the poetry of Mary Oliver and David Whyte helps to keep my feet on the ground.

My most recent interest in holistic spirituality has led me into training as an enneagram coach and practitioner. I completed the Professional Mastery Programme through Chestnut Paes Enneagram Academy, graduating in 2023, and am currently working on the Personal Mastery Programme. 

My passion for Forge Aotearoa comes from twelve years in parish ministry in Wanaka, where I pioneered Spirit of the Lake – a café style gathering for the local new age community, telling the gospel story in contemporary parables and using interactive drawing and playdough to help adults and children alike enter into the story more deeply. 

Earlier I was a producer, director and journalist with TVNZ then Director of Communication for the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand before answering God’s call to ministry. Today, I am a Spiritual Director and Professional Supervisor based in Wellington. 

I’ve felt the companionship of God since childhood. Conversation with God came naturally to me.

I grew up Presbyterian in the United States. I have been in New Zealand for 50 years. I finally felt spiritually at home on our Presbyterian Marae at Ohope Beach. My mother’s people were native American. 

I was ordained to ministry in 2002.

Approach to spiritual direction

I love encouraging people to 

• use all their senses to notice how God is present in their life
• become more intimate with God through daily spiritual discipline
• tell the story of their relationship with God as it grows and changes
• truly know how much God loves them just as they are
• I use contemplative listening, silence, interactive drawing, spiritual imagination

Hello, I’m Heather.  When I was 14 I responded to a God invitation to join him in places and with people of his choosing, at that stage largely unknown.  By the time I was in my late 20s I had visited my brother and wife in Papua New Guinea and was exposed to what it meant to live in a different culture; I became a regular at mission prayer groups, with a definite interest in Bolivia and Peru; I was one of the first to be involved working for Youth For Christ in Otago & Southland which allowed some experimentation of how to best connect with young people, on campus, troubled youth, camping and tramping; I studied at the Bible College of NZ with Mission being a major component; I spent 2 years at a local Auckland church, specifically to connect with people in community and creatively share God’s love story so that others could come to know him too.

So, in my late 20s I went overseas and lived cross-culturally for 21 years in Peru and Ecuador.  Major focuses for me included walking alongside youth leaders (Central Andes) and encouraging them to explore new ways of sharing their faith and leadership with young people; with my Peruvian co-worker, we led a Theological Education by Extension programme with church leaders in isolated areas of Amazonas in the north of Peru.  I was appointed Team Leader in Ecuador as our mission began ministries there, and by God’s design I became involved in the slums of Guayaquil, leading a number of projects in urban development.  Somehow all this led to some international speaking opportunities and being on an international Development Board.

I returned to NZ 20 years ago and for 5 years had the privilege of working with the National Mission Enabler for the PCANZ, and then as a PCANZ minister at a church that had a large Community Trust.  Both these opportunities combined my love of sharing God’s story through teaching and being in community.  I retired to Christchurch in 2020 and have been actively involved with Kiwi Church, and an advocate & mentor with Wayfinding – Forge Aotearoa.  I look back over my life and am amazed at the way God has taken me on this journey, and while I am definitely ‘third age’, God is still opening doors and inviting me into encounters that are rich with his people looking to share his love in their place, with their people.

Alistair Mackenzie is a teacher, writer, researcher, chaplain and Emeritus Senior Fellow at Laidlaw College – Christchurch, New Zealand. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Boston-based Theology of Work Project. Alistair began his working life in his family’s timber mill and then as a truck driver while completing a science degree. After completing theological training, he spent 23 years in pastoral leadership of three Baptist churches in New Zealand and was also involved in the leadership of Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor (a mission and community development agency). Alistair served as a staff worker with the Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship, and did his postgraduate study on the theology of vocation and work. He has authored Where’s God on Monday?, SoulPurpose: Making a Difference in Life and Work and Just Decisions: Christians Ethics Go to Work. He was the founding director of Faith at Work, New Zealand, has been employed as a mission consultant with the Baptist Churches of New Zealand, and seminary faculty resource person in the USA (with the Theology of Work Project) and Asia (with LeaDev-Langham). He has a particular interest in vocational and faith resourcing for young adults.

Alistair is married to Alison. They have two adult children, 4 lovely granddaughters and one great-granddaughter. Alistair enjoys singing, playing guitar and blues harp with a band, armchair rugby and the odd round of golf (with an emphasis on the odd!).

Stuart is the Mission Catalyst for Presbytery Central. This sees him traveling around the lower North Island, encouraging and supporting congregations discern how they can participate in God’s Mission.  He lives in Wellington with Lala who he met while they were both studying missiology in Selly Oak, Birmingham.  Together they have three children and two cats.  One of Stuart’s main loves is trail running.  

A main passion Stuart has is seeing individuals and churches discern where God is at work in their contexts and the joy they have when they realise God has invited them to participate in that work. So often we can, as Christian’s, forget that we are called to participate in God’s mission not our own.  Mission isn’t something we’ve come up with because we need more to do, rather it is a part of who we are as followers of Christ.  We are a missionary people, who follow Jesus, the one who said “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Sebastian is half-time minister at Knox Presbyterian Church Waitara and half-time lecturer/ministry formation coordinator at the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership. He is married to Jessica—a primary school teacher by trade—and they have three energetic boys ranging from 7 years old to 2 years old. Sebastian enjoys theology, going for walks with the family, and sport. He will help us reflect on what is going on in the the world around us.