20 May, 2024 SLT leadership statement: Next areas we hope to innovate within
Areas we next intend to innovate within
Overview comments
– Dave Mann (Director, Shining Lights Trust)
Our felt calling is to innovate within ‘gaps’ we identify in the outreaching efforts of the NZ Church as a whole.
While some resulting innovations are specifically about the Christian message of hope itself, many are about the wider context and conversation. Some pertain to national identity; some to history; many to Church unity; and some to community needs.
A person who is negative toward our faith won’t be open to a conversation. Feeling lost for hope – they won’t consider a hope shared due to prejudice. That prejudice is within their thinking. How, then, do we engage that wider conversation – to change the public narrative? In what ways could we engage to become the recipients of greater favour within public media, and within local councils – opening doors for intentional partnership, to deliver services to our communities? With all that is being done through individual churches and denominations considered, what isn’t being seen or considered? What are the gaps?
With maybe a dozen innovations behind us – and over 500 support resources created in connection with them, we feel God has more for us to do yet. In 2025 we therefore hope to ‘reposition’. We need ongoing financial support for our work – rather that only for ‘Hope Project’. We also need to find a way to COMPLETE some areas of innovation – so we can be freed to give timely attention to others.
If God graces us to do so, we would like to innovate in outreach in more ways than we have. What if the below could be accomplished by 2030, with various spin-off innovations and efforts that would naturally follow?
Continuing areas of work
We see strong merits in continuing the following areas of work
- Hope Project Easter and Christmas
- Godtalk.nz (which – if other goals are successful – can be ‘reduced’ to ‘just a resource)
- Why Christians Believe
- 10 Day Challenge
- Proactive national networking amongst city/town pastors’ groups
- Proactively remaining a ‘voice for outreach’ to pastors, via prayer partners, to youth leaders (networking – databases – communications).
- Sustaining a range of other support resources, primarily around outreach equipping and history.
Within this picture ‘re-establishing’ Hope Project Easter will be a significant and endeavour, requiring clear thought. Sustaining a national effort, with scale, year upon year from a small team has maybe taken its toll. Without question, the effort remains needed, with the interests of the wider Church in view in a changing culture. The effort has required considerable focus to sustain with current staffing levels. New partnerships are needed for a more viable future. These efforts are significant in scale, noting a literally national scope of networking and relational connection required to achieve even just the volunteer delivery component. The year off of the Easter booklet and TV components in 2025 is therefore with reason both in view of pace as well as re-strategising to ensure sustainability. (Online components will continue in 2025, pending funds).
Upcoming areas of work
Everything below is ‘God-willing’. These are things we desire to do if God so favours us.
Regarding timelines, we would pray to see these initiatives completed by 2030.
1. A values history resource
Something needs doing to interrupt the secular narrative of our nation – which is also within the psyche of many church leaders. This narrative is not true to history or who we are as a nation – but few know this. How could we ‘interrupt’? The thought is the creation of simple, illustrated book on our nation’s wider values history – that is then gifted widely to leaders who have ability to influence public conversation.
- This will primarily require Dave’s time in research (already mostly done via intentional reading across the past 6+ years), drafting and then significant editing and also graphic design, to create a genuinely unique resource.
- The design quality must be well above-average – with Hope Project’s design quality as a template.
- The writing must be exceptionally concise and clear. The challenge of the writing will be in the scope of history and ‘cultural reason’ communicated – simply.
- Regarding promotions, the dream is to see this unique resource in the hands of all politicians, local Government officials, pastors, various academics and also any significant others who in key leadership roles with ability to shape and influence public culture.
The wider vision this sits as a catalyst within is about interrupting the secular narrative, achieved by showing various national and local leaders something of our own wider values history, in an attempt to shift this particular conversation more to the forefront in New Zealand. This is also timely, playing into a clear wider ‘post-secular’ trend within Western Civilisation globally.
Proposed timeline:
- Writing in 2024 / 2025
- Design, first promotion – and then print maybe in 2026, concurrent with a plan for distribution / gifting.
2. Serving the vision of seeing a bicultural history innovation completed
Sometimes Kingdom and Gospel entrepreneurship is about seeing a good vision completed before considering anything new. What could be most effective?
The ‘Chronicles of Paki’ illustrated series is not a part of our work. However, because of its honesty around the Christian dynamic within that history, seeing its vision COMPLETED fits directly within our own objectives. It is a unique resource, and uniquely able to sit within public education.
Its original vision was (1) a series of 20 stories telling a ‘macro’ story of our bicultural history, (2) with a matching ‘Junior Series (2) and then translations (into Te Reo Māori) of all stories – (4) then promoted one by one to schools nationally in an intentional and considered way, to see them not only most school libraries but also positioned with a strong chance of classroom use.
- This now needs an fresh team suiting our changing bicultural landscape.
- (We concurrently believe the Junior Series should be dropped – but a new team could assess goals afresh).
- A full release of rights to the series is possible – meaning this could be repositioned with no ongoing financial liabilities (by way of royalties) to be ‘owned’ by a suitable (secular) education-focused charity or work capable of the promotional tasks.
Why this project? Why consider it a priority in the national picture?
- This is unique and worthy at an above-average level. What else can get amazing NZ history content like this heard within the public space?
- To be started and not completed makes not sense when it is within our capacity as God’s united Church.
- It is also a project that could be completed once it has its needed team. The end-point of the project is definable: Once the series is fully created, and then promoted school-by-school, its goal is achieved!
Strategic comment for God’s united Church
– We believe God’s method of leadership in a nation is to raise people up with vision in different seasons, to innovate things that address national needs – to see those innovations done / completed?
– For an example separate to our work, we highlight the ‘Tarore Gospel of Luke’ in this same category. Much good has been achieved, but not yet the vision of its originator Paul Anselmi, with a team in support. It is maybe $200,000 shy of achieving its full vision – and that amount, while a lot of an individual church, is not even a drop in the bucket when compared to our annual expenditure on church salaries and buildings as 3000 churches spread across this nation (which we had estimated at about $250,000,000 annually – while the actual figure is about $750,000,000 in donations / tithes annually plus other income taking to a total of over $1.3b annually through about 3000 churches, with approx. 12,500 staff total in that wider picture).
– What if a way we could grow or improve together as churches was through developing a sufficiently united viewpoint to be able to identify and actually COMPLETE some of the more worthy and genuinely strategic national gospel-related initiatives God brings about through his people?
Action points
- Our key role would be to try to find a team courageous and suitable to take this vision on, with ability to engage confidently with Iwi / hapu / whanau in a fast-changing space. This would be a volunteer team – though with possible exception for a short-term promotional staff. New team members would join the existing team who still believe in the vision, and who are happy to relinquish all rights over the resource to see it achieving its intended purpose.
- About $50,000 to $80,000 more would be needed for ‘raw costs’ (print / stock). But finance is the easy part. Finding a suitable team is the challenge here. Few have interest to play in this space currently – maybe in the light of more popular or better paying alternative roles.
- Gospel work remains vital and we believe this project is a priority gospel work.
3. HeLP Project
(…or any mixture of equivalent initiatives to INTENTIONALLY bring positive profile to the Christian faith
HeLP Project is the third part of our proposed Hope Project vision. We believe the outcomes this innovation has been set up to deliver are needed. We believe it to be to our detriment as the NZ Church, not to have these outcomes bring actively pursued.
- HeLP Project is currently stalled, primarily for financial reasons. It needs a $300,000 to $400,000pa. Having shared the vision, we were actually stunned by the lack of response. We took this as God’s leading at that time, and sit waiting.
- Our strategic assessment remains resolute in belief that the key components of this initiative are needed – by whatever means.
- We believe what is proposed is the most efficient way these outcomes could be delivered. We state this as a ministry that has a specifically national and gospel-oriented strategic focus, inclusive some relatively unique experiences in the networking and media spaces.
- Re what is achieved thus far: We gave almost three years of background focus to this initiative. This included branding work, partnerships, the preparation of a highly considered survey – then connected to a database systems, with complicated data-to-web integration all-but lined up. (We aren’t building the website until it is needed.)
- Re what is needed: Finances, after which we will seek the needed staffing.
- Local offer to cities: We would love to partner with the churches of an interested city to test systems, while they benefit from the outcomes – which ar sin four main areas as per the webpage – link below.
- It remains possible that various facets of this effort could be achieved by other means. For example, a study of charity data in 2024 provided data sufficient to quantify volunteer hours through throughs – though not specific to community work (as distinct from pastors serving their own church members). This data is significant in view of coming conversations re the charitable status of churches and also re churches paying rates.
4. Some areas of intentional networking – with a future-looking national view
4a. Youth unity and critical mass for momentum:
We are networking in the youth space with quiet intent, to see the unity and outreach vision outlined within the ‘Godtalk’ part of this report come about in our nation. We are up to ‘round three’ in this effort, with prior groups of leaders in national youth roles declining to have ‘unity’ as a united goal – much to our bewilderment and dismay. There is a current ‘change of the guard’ and a new strategic partner for this. Were the effort successful, our own name and brand (Godtalk / SLT) would not be present in what results.
As a secondary matter, if the above vision came about, we would then reposition Godtalk itself as ‘just a resource’ – noting it is needed and unique. We would then try to see the Godtalk ’school outreach groups video series’ created – utilising key youth leaders in the current national picture, to give them mana – and the resource its needed subservient and yet known place. At that time, this would need about $15,000 to create via friends.
This would COMPLETE another of our proposed strategic solution to a recognised ‘gap’ in the outreaching efforts of the NZ Church as a whole. However, first things come before second things. The networking goals that can change the ‘rules of the game’ are what is most important here.
4b. United church profile in cities and increased engagement:
We are pursuing a background strategic outcome in the ‘family and marriage support’ space – for the sake of the gospel. This is about a networking of ideas – with no up-front leadership intended from us if possible. This initiative is in the interests of all national ‘family’ ministries. It is simple and sensible – and yet is the sort of thing that is consistently overlooked because each leader is busied trying to keep their own work alive.
Were the platform for this initiative to come about – and the idea to then gain traction, we would again be invisible within that picture.
The simple idea is articulated here – AllTogether.co.nz/servingfamilies
- The ‘law of the 5’ we base much of our efforts around states that, only when a person hears something from five seemingly independent sources do they consider and conclude that it might be true. This process exists as a coping mechanism within our media saturated, information-overloaded society.
- A united promotion of this idea ‘as our own idea’ – by all – could see churches uniting in each city and town to apply it.
- Everyone would benefit – including the ministries supplying resources, pastors groups, local churches, church members, people in their communities and God’s Church and gospel by way of the the positive reputation this would bring to our churches.
Strategic solutions don’t get simpler than this. (And yet, human nature within us all makes this difficult. We work to see that change!)
5. Catalysing ongoing developments in the unity space
While there are no current plans for travel to connect with pastors’ groups nationally (as has been done 8 times prior since the first in 2012), groundwork is being done for whenever this might yet be possible – in view of ‘next steps’ in the augmentation of perspectives re unity. With some goals generally achieved in the unity space, the next encouraging is maybe well summed up by suggesting that a little more intentionality in the unity space might yield some increased gospel fruit in our cities/towns and nation.
- A book summarising reflections / blogs from the past two years is in consideration – as a tool for the tool belt.
- A new online zoom meeting is in consideration, getting key minds together for a series of discussion regarding possible changes to thinking and practice within this space, and how these might be catalysed on a broad platform.
We believe there are subtle goals to pursue and outcomes possible here, that can widen the gospel focus of God’s Church as a whole, with fruit to follow.
6. Engage Conference:
As at May 2024 we see value in running another national ‘Engage Conference’ sometime soon – with a range of purposes in view.
- Most ‘Engage Conferences’ we have done have been regional. E.g. we ran 10 regional conferences in 2021.
- The content in these conference is relatively unique as far as NZ church conferences go.
- Humanly speaking, a conference could a great connection point in view of no national Easter booklet delivery or national travel planned in 2025.
- If a conference does happen, we would again put NZ outreaching practitioners on the stage who might not otherwise be heard very widely – so we learn from some of our own ‘best’.
- We’d concurrently speak into gospel ‘gaps’ amongst all our churches do… inline with our core felt-calling as the Shining Lights Trust. This would be to inspire vision and belief for fresh gospel innovation.
We make no promise to complete any of the above-noted new areas of innovation. Everything is, as we Christians say, ‘God-willing’.
Please support our work. Our organisation is currently like a car in second gear.
Dave Mann
021 271 7719
DAVE MANN. Dave is a networker and creative communicator with a vision to see an understanding of the Christian faith continuing and also being valued in the public square in Aotearoa-New Zealand. He has innovated numerous conversational resources for churches, and has coordinated various national nationwide multimedia Easter efforts purposed to open up conversations between church and non-church people about the Christian faith and its significance to our nation’s history and values. Dave is the Producer of the ‘Chronicles of Paki’ illustrated NZ history series created for educational purposes, and the author of various other books and booklets including “Because we care”, “That Leaders might last” and “The Elephant in the Room”. Married to Heather, they have four boys and reside in Tauranga, New Zealand.