Christmas is our most popular and prolific gift-giving season in the calendar year. Hopefully, you’ve received something meaningful today, whether it’s a much-needed set of socks, something of sweet sentiment or an experience that will create new memories; it is the day to give and receive.
As I reflect on my time in the ABNWT District over the past ten years and write my final blog as a member of the ABNWT District Resource team and the District family, I cannot help but be thankful for the opportunities that I have had to serve you and be among you.
Our District is unique in many ways, but its greatness is found in you, the people who lead in local churches, ministries and organizations that seek to make Jesus known and lead people to the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth and the Life Who can meet their every need and restore them to the fulness of right relationship with the God.
We can easily be dismissive of the gifts we have to offer as the ABNWT District, like Christmas cake that appears every year, floating around on trays with other more decadent baked goods, that everyone nonetheless misses when it fails to appear. Our gifts are not only shared among us but shared with others, and they are gifts for us to steward all year round.
Togetherness
We’ve worked hard over the past number of years to discover what it means to be “better together.” We have become aligned for mission, voluntary cooperative co-labourers together. We see each other, not just in person at events and gatherings, but in and through prayer, cohorts, and virtual platforms of connection and relationships, which have cultivated genuine care and concern for one another. When there is a need or a burden on our District family, we rally around those affected. When there’s something to celebrate, we are generous with our praise and affirmation. Like any good, healthy relationship, our relationships as a District family need to be nurtured and never taken for granted. Whether you are new, newer or have been a lifelong ABNWTer, we all need to be intentional in building togetherness.
Generosity
As the Director of Church Partnerships, I have shared many needs with churches and leaders, inviting them to respond. Often, a response has come before a need is even broadcasted. During the recent NWT wildfires that forced an unprecedented evacuation of 30,000 people from the North, so many pastors, leaders and organizations responded to the Northern Initiatives e-blast with profound words of sorrow, encouragement, prayers and offers of help in any way that might possibly be received. Some churches sponsor solo pastors from small rural churches to attend Ministers Gathering in Banff, while others have assisted with practical needs a church may have, from new sound systems to heating systems to resource materials. Generosity and appreciation go hand in hand. Let us be generous and appreciative people, expressing thanks for those who come alongside us from near and afar. Let us not only be generous with our excess but generous in acts of faith that stretch and grow us and the people we lead.
Collaboration
A well-known African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together .”In our most recent season, the ABNWT District has gone further through collaboration. Our differences have become our strength in terms of distance, diversity of ministry contexts, urban, rural, southern, northern, big, small, multi-site or multiple services. We are learning from each other, with one another, as we align our plans and initiatives to the mission of God, reaching lost people and making disciples. We are willing to discuss the growing pains of shifting from plateauing churches and ministries to prevailing. We have found ways to be vulnerable to talk about our strengths, weaknesses, hopes and fears. We can keep going farther together if we keep sight of one another, stay in conversation and partnership with one another and keep a Kingdom mindset of shared mission and service to the King of kings.
As with all gifts, they are intended to be opened, enjoyed, and shared with others. This Christmas, as you reflect on the gifts in your hands, also consider the gifts of our ABNWT District, all that we have to share among ourselves and with others. There’s still a great distance to go, but go together and go with God.
Maranatha!
Hailey is the President of the Sub Arctic Leadership Training College and the Director of Northern Initiatives and Church Partnerships for the ABNWT District Resource Center