Karori Baptist Church - Karori

The above statement came out of a season of prayer, reflection, discernment and congregational engagement. That process occurred throughout 2020 and 2021. While that process primarily occurred within the eldership and pastoral sphere of Karori Baptist Church, it sought input at various stages from congregation and external facilitation. 

This statement has been helpfully unpacked as follows, perhaps as a mediation:

As I read the vision, I am drawn to Jn 15:5. Where Jesus said

”I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Our vision is little more than a re statement of this verse. As a church family we are compelled to be united to Christ, joined to Him, if we want to see any fruit. When I imagine fruit, sweet grapes on a vine, crisp apples on a tree I think of fruit as food that sustains us which leads me Isa 50:4 where he said, 

“The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.”

And we want to be those who sustain the weary and struggling. But fruit is more than just sustenance, more than just food. It is new life. The seeds in the fruit spread and grow and we want to be a source of new life as well, new beginnings.

We talk about people, communities, and the city: 

• It starts with people. Individual people need to be refreshed and they need new life. They cannot truly thrive until they trust Jesus, so we have a vision to see people come to know Jesus and be restored and sustained in him with our support. 

• But we also want our communities to thrive, our families, neighbourhoods, clubs, workplaces and church because it is in the relational network of community that love, joy, peace, patience, tolerance and forgiveness thrive, and it is there that we are forced to grow and then to thrive. And it is there that the evidence of our discipleship is displayed. And we want our city to thrive.

• Our city, our nation. The place where organisation, official, rule, law and infrastructure happen. The place where the structures of justice and wellbeing are laid down. Our vision includes making a difference, so our cities become places where all people are treated with the dignity due to them as bearers of the image of God Almighty.

Our vision is for Karori Baptist Church to be at the heart of thriving in Karori, Wellington and Aotearoa. People may not know who we are, but they will see our work and they know who Jesus Christ is.