The Heart of RoG
We are a community on a pilgrimage — welcoming all into a creative, authentic and grace-filled journey of human flourishing.
Our Story
Rhythms of Grace started as a weekly gathering (June 2015) with the hope it would become a community of people with an individual and collective desire to seek a deeper and broader relationship of love with the God who is both creator and redeemer of life, and with God’s people.
This would be done through a form of “slow church” that focussed on spiritual formation, and drew heavily on the arts and the best of liturgical and Christian worship traditions recontextualised for life in contemporary society.
The words Jesus spoke to the gathered weary crowds, recorded in Matthew 11/28-30 as translated by Eugene Petersen in The Message Bible were our reason for being and from where we drew our name:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me watch how I do it.Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”
We described ourselves as Table gathering – Story sharing – Jesus following.
It wasn’t important who you were, where you came from, what you brought with you, what you believed, as long as you were open to travelling with others who were at various stages of commitment to a pilgrimage – an arc toward flourishing as a human being. We believed that realising fully-human flourishing was ultimately only possible by entering a deepening relationship with the God of the Bible.
All of those understandings and practices continue to be part of Rhythms of Grace’s reason for being.
While every human being is created in the image of God (imago dei) and carries that image, no person is without sin. That’s why arcs are important to us. They suggest a direction, an overall movement toward – in this case – flourishing.
Rhythms of Grace understands following Jesus as a pilgrimage where the travelling, being ‘on the way’, is important, rather than as a journey that seeks to arrive at a destination.
Over our ten years of history that have brought us to this time, we have realised that together we value some aspects of community life and worship that make us who we are. We won’t give these values up easily. They are more important to us than our differences. Like Jesus’ words to the weary crowd that day, these values describe who we are and what is important to us at Rhythms of Grace.
Having become an independent church (September 2020) these values were articulated, collected and clarified in the crucible of three months of Winter Korero by the congregation between June and August 2023; collated by Kaitiaki; and summarised by an open group from the congregation with the guidance of a facilitator in early 2024. These values carry the essence of what we are committing ourselves to as we grow into the Rhythms of Grace Church community.
It is a commitment to the people of this community and these common values that we make when we say we are “a member of the Rhythms of Grace Church community.” We are committing ourself to those arcs; to those journeys that make up that pilgrimage. We are standing in the tradition, albeit a relatively short one, that is Rhythms of Grace.
Rhythms of Grace Communion Table top by Derek Lind.
Rhythms of Grace Communion Table top by Derek Lind.
Thinking allowed. Thinking aloud allowed.
What we value
We are a community committed to living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Therefore we value:
Accepting and Belonging
Our community is dedicated to creating an environment where everyone feels a deepening sense of belonging.
We are committed to fostering a welcoming and non-judgmental community.
We embrace difference and diversity in thinking and approaches.
We provide pastoral care to each other in a non-hierarchical and equal community.
Creativity and Flexibility
Creativity and flexibility are vital to us, especially in relation to church structures and integration of the arts into worship.
We are building an environment that nurtures the exploration of innovative ideas and approaches to human flourishing and Christian formation.
Authenticity and Openness
We are a community that supports and encourages self-expression and exploration through open dialogue.
Our desire is to create a safe environment for genuine and authentic interactions, allowing individuals to express their stories and beliefs without pretence.
Flourishing
We curate spaces and practices to support human flourishing. We prioritise “being”over “doing” on our pilgrimage toward restoration and holistic wellbeing (shalom).
We join with each other in our pilgrimage of spiritual growth by engaging with Christian faith practices and values.