Edge Kingsland » festivals

Signs of Life at P11

strahan — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:09:18 +0000

If you’re heading down to Mystery Creek this year for Parachute Festival don’t miss out on hearing the Edge Kingsland team playing at two stages Saturday and Sunday.

Everyone’s been raving about the last Come & Live show at Edge, I can only imagine what a combination of that and the atmosphere and energy of Parachute will shape up to be. Epic.

So, to catch the team be at …

The Deluxe Stage on Saturday at 10pm for the Come & Live showcase with The Ember Days and Ascend the Hill.

AND

The White Elephant Stage on Sunday at 7.30pm.

You can also check out the Parachute 2011 programme here to see where all the other great Edge Kingsland artists / bands are playing over the rest of the weekend.

AND…. download the new Signs of Life E.P if you haven’t had a chance yet by clicking on the banner below…

Huia Advent

strahan — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:33:29 +0000

We stand in time and history, caught between two Advents: the two great arrivals. We look back and celebrate the coming of Jesus as a baby… the incarnation. And we look forward, anticipating the return of Jesus, the fulfilment of every promise, the restoration of all things.

We celebrate with symbols, food and imagery – we allow our senses and our imagination to go on overdrive. The first Advent, the birth, is celebrated with gifts and lights, trees and songs, food and wine. The second Advent, the return, needs its own imagery and symbols to hang our hopes on.

The Huia is a symbol of the second Advent. This extinct native bird has a special place in New Zealand’s history. It was considered sacred amongst Maori, it’s feathers were treasured by Maori and Pakeha alike. When we lost the Huia we lost something of our story. Bird lover or not, we can all relate to that feeling of extinction, of life missing something sacred.

But all is not lost forever! “Heaven must receive [Jesus] until the time comes for God to restore everything…” * Here is Advent’s reason for hope… everything will be restored! A King will return who will set everything right. Everything we have lost will be found. Even the Huia will someday come home to a restored earth. We fix the advent promise on this treasure of creation and make it an image for our hopes to rest on… a symbol, a reminder that not all is lost forever. God has promised to renew His creation through Jesus. Everything good that we have lost will someday be found again and make it’s home in HIM.

-Erin

*(Acts 3:21)

P.S. Check out the prayer room wall for more on the Huia and how it relates to Advent and the story of New Zealand.

Advent.

strahan — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:00:59 +0000

We have moved into the Season of Advent.
Advent marks the beginning of the Year on the Church Calendar.
This is something that we celebrate as a Church and as a world wide
Community of Faith.
The use of colour reminds us of the meaning of this Season, blue, depicting
Royalty, the arrival of a King – Jesus.
We remember Mary, his mother, who as a teenage girl had an angelic visitation,
with an announcement, ‘You will be the Mother of God!’ (paraphrase mine)
Great Expectations!!!
The image below portrays a modern day version of Mary, very expectant and waiting.
Her surety is in the Hope of the event, but perhaps anxiety over the reality
of what it might mean.
Take a moment to engage with this image. What do you draw from the symbolism
in this painting?
And then ask yourself,
‘What am I hoping for?’

Painting by Jan Hynes, 2002

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits and in His Word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning..”
Psalm 130 v 5

Over the next 4 weeks we will follow the Advent Story.
Watch this space for other’s perspectives and journey.
And if you would like to engage with a moment each day around Advent,
try this website…www.sacredspace.ie.

Linda

Christmas

strahan — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:00:13 +0000

As Christmas is fast approaching I am starting to think of what I need to buy for people and what I want myself and whether to buy a Christmas tree and what I am going to do over Summer. This is all going through my head as I get up and go to work each day at World Vision “Striving to eradicate World Poverty”.
Obviously it is a bit of a challenge working for a Not-for Profit organization, juggling an awareness of what it is like for those living in poverty with meeting my daily consumerist needs.

Quite frankly I have not reached a conclusion on how I should actually do this.

I do know however that I can’t let this immobilize me and that I still need to try and do my part, be it buying fair trade products or putting five cents in the honesty box at work when I check a personal email.

I wonder if a number of us are in a slightly immobilized state, bombarded with campaigns & calls to action.

I wonder if we have become a little numb to the cause.

Really? 1 in 7 people living in poverty?

I wonder if we find a way to separate ourselves into ‘them & us’ to cope with it all – to not acknowledge that we are all interconnected and that our actions as consumers impact on lives in other countries like Kenya or Ethiopia.

In all this wondering – because you can wonder forever – I think we all just need to do something.

So I’m suggesting to you all and to myself that this year maybe we reach into our pockets and pull out a few bucks to sponsor a World Vision child or buy a gift from our new Smiles Catalogue. It won’t solve the world’s issues & we will all need to keep giving but at least this Christmas you will know that you did a little to effect some change.

www.worldvision.org.nz

Leah.

Camp Directions.

strahan — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:00:39 +0000

From Edge Kingsland to Willow Park.

View To Camp in a larger map

Camp.

strahan — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 02:47:20 +0000

In the days of the Old Testament we see the nation of Israel gather for two specific reasons: war and worship. War happened out of necessity, but the worship was prescribed and frequent. God had set up within the community life of Israel, several annual feast’s – aka party’s – where the nation was called to worship God and celebrate in thankfulness and gratitude. God gets a kick out of his kids gathering.

In the New Testament when Jesus initiates his Church, 120 people gather to wait for what he had promised would come upon them – the wonderful Holy Spirit. And the rest is history as people have been doing the same ever since! It seems like a pretty simple formula really: gather and wait, and the Holy Spirit WILL come. Yet the aspects we’re responsible for – to gather and wait – often don’t happen.

Well for Edge Kingsland, Labour Weekend, has become our annual celebration as we gather at Eastern Beach. Camp is a brilliant time to hang with friends, make new ones, and just enjoy the time to eat, chat, have fun together and let the kids run riot! And parents don’t need to cook meals for three days… Three days! But a highlight of camp is our annual evening where we come before Jesus, worship him, wait on him and ask him to speak. He always shows up! Funny that.

So guys, sign up for camp and get along this Labour Weekend. It’s going to be good – It always is!

- Jay Lucas

Seasons.

linda — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:50:41 +0000

We are governed by them.
Whether we like it or not our lives are determined by eternal seasons, cycles
that provide for us boundaries that constrain us and opportunities for us to grow.
Like the Garden.
The word ‘season’ comes from a Latin word meaning ‘to sow’
According to the Moons cycle, I should be careful when to sow and when to leave
the ground alone. Like, ‘Plant your potatoes on the shortest day of the year’…What’s that all about?
Something greater than my plans are at work, that I am subjected to, if I choose to be.
And there is wisdom in following something bigger than me, the sun and the moon,
great lights that circle the earth, put in place so that I can reach my full potential.
A time to sleep, a time to wake, a time to plant, and a time to leave fallow.
There is another set of Seasons that we can follow, if we choose to.
This is the Church Liturgical Season, which engages us in a completely different
rhythm, a journey from chronos – chronological time, to kairos time, which is viewed
as an opportunity or encounter.
It is also an eternal season, which offers -
‘an invitation to live time in eternity, to discover a new understanding of God and Creation.’
-Henri Nouwen.
So we are in Winter. And according to the Church Calendar, the season of Ordinary Time.
Our focus is on the life of Christ, God became flesh, and all of the mysteries and wonders that
surround that incredible season in the history of the World.
How does that affect me today?
I like to believe that it ‘s influence is as powerful as any breath-taking frosty morning or snow
capped peak.
So let’s engage ourselves fully with the Seasons that we live in, for as the writer of Ecclesiastes
says, ‘There is a time for everything under heaven….’

Linda

Birthday Season.

linda — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:46:55 +0000

I have a birthday calendar.
I like to think that I could remember everybody’s birthday without recording them, but that’s
getting harder as the years go by. But even with my concise system in place, if I don’t look at it on a regular basis,
I am bound to forget a birthday or two…even a whole months worth sometimes.

Birthdays are important.
In my family, they are the reason that we gather at least 5, (and more recently 7)
times a year to celebrate the life of one, no excuses, no absences…!

Edge Family is having a Birthday on Sunday. We are turning 11.
That’s an achievement to be proud of.
Now at my family gatherings, everyone has to attend. It’s the only time they do what they are told!
I’d like to say the same to all of you….but that would be taking things a little far.
But I do want to encourage you all to come along, join the celebration and remember many of
the amazing times we have shared together on the journey so far.

Happy Birthday Edge.

Linda

Pentecost and Baptism.

linda — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:14:55 +0000

It seemed fitting that we baptized people on Pentecost Sunday. Rachel, who arrived in NZ that morning from Kansas City, with an inkling about getting baptised in southern waters, stumbled (jet-lagged) into church to hear a message about Pentecost - the arrival of Holy Spirit, including an invitation to be baptised that afternoon. Some would call it random. We think it was a divine collision. God is like that. But certainly not random.

So, into a full tide under a grey autumn sky three beautiful young women pledged their allegiance to Jesus and embarked on a new stage on their faith journey. We commend you Rachel, Maranda and Sarah!

Jesus comforted his friends by telling them,

It is for your own good that I am going, because unless I go the Paraclete (Spirit) will not come to you; but if I do go, I will send Him to you. He will lead you to the complete truth.

And he told them…

not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the gift the Father promised. John baptised with water but in a few days you will be baptised with the
Holy Spirit.

10 days later, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Church was born!

Holy Spirit Welcome….You are welcome here. Guide us Holy Spirit…Speak to us again.

Post Pentecost

strahan — Tue, 25 May 2010 03:13:00 +0000

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Acts 2:1-5

When I was young, my mum suffered some pretty serious chemical poisoning from a work accident. She was sick for a while there and it wasn’t a great outlook. She faced severe joint pain, partial paralysis and the prospect of cancer as we faced learning sign language with the likelihood of it causing her deafness. One day she walked into a healing meeting at our church and after receiving prayer fell to the ground with a whizzing warmth like lightning shooting through her body. She was healed. Our life as a family changed at that point. Before then, we’d had one foot in Gods door, but afterwards we dedicated our family life to discovering God. God with us. God real to us.

It’s almost impossible when God visits to walk away unchanged. When the Spirit was given to the Church in Acts they took God to the world in a whole new way. Being his voice. His hand. Acts records the disciples ‘agreeing’ with the Spirit and being led through dreams and visions. He was active in their lives relating God to every man and woman. Pentecost wasn’t just a fortunate event (for tonnes of reasons!), it was, it is, crucial for us the church!

Last Sunday was awesome. Through our body, Edge, it was like a fire, a deep warmth, and a change was blowing through us. It wasn’t hard to believe it when Greg shared he believes God is bringing us into a new Pentecost. A new life for a new time, and what a time it is!

I wonder what Edge will look like in 6 months, a year, 5 years? How will these days where God meets us change our community? What does God have in store for Edge Kingsland?

I’m looking forward to more Sundays like the last. More everydays like Sunday. More of God in our lives.