by Rev. Dr Maja Whitaker Not so long back I spent a week with fellow leaders on an Arrow Leadership course. Three residentials in, and with a commitment to open-heartedness and a safe environment, we’ve been sharing places in our hearts that few others see. One morning after we had collectively unburdened our leadership pain, passing the tissues from one to the other, one of the co-ordinators shared a prophetic dream she’d had the night before which led to her to proclaim over each one of us and over our pain: “His body broken for you.”   It was a deeply moving moment, and it’s a proclama ..read more

Vocational Reimagining by Amanda Salmon She is wind and fire, silence and song. It seems slightly cliché as a Pentecostal pastor I would choose to write about the transformational work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But indeed, I have! I am deeply curious about the One who teaches us to live into the unfolding shape of God’s calling. The One who draws alongside to help us identify and follow the vocational thread1 woven through our lives. The One who fills us and empowers us to lay hold of our eternal destiny2 in Christ. And so, I want to create some space here to explore these themes and ..read more

by Rob Petrini [This post originally appeared on www.medium.com/@robpetrini and has been re-posted with kind permission from the author] Pause for a moment. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Now… In 6 words, describe yourself. Take a moment. Write it down. Why 6 words? It forces us to be succinct with ourselves. Simple. Straight to the point. We will generally use single words, adjectives, to describe ourselves. But if I were to ask you to write your memoir in 6 words, how would that differ from describing yourself? For many of us, describing ourselves is an activity that blurs the lines between how ..read more

by Kylie Butler [This post originally appeared on Arrow Australia’s blog and has been re-posted with kind permission from the author.] In my early leadership I believed that people looked to me for the answers, in particular the right answers. I found this quite taxing, each time someone came to me I believed that I needed to have an answer for them, an experience to share, a passage to reflect on, or a leadership skill or insight. I must share something that would be so beneficial and the result would be a changed and transformed life. But the truth is that didn’t happen, often no change happ ..read more

by Tim Hodge In the lead up to Easter 2022, I read through Matthew’s account of that fateful week before Jesus was killed. My reading was intentionally slow, forcing myself to take note of details that I may miss in my usual faster-paced engagement with God’s word. Often, Bible reading nourishes me in the same way that meals nourish me: sustaining but can’t remember the details a week or even a few days later. However, on rare occasion there is a spectacular meal – of physical food or spiritual food from the Bible - that lives on in the memory, and the week before Easter was one such occasion ..read more

by Alana Ramsay If we believe that we are loved just as we are and that everything else is equally loved, we unveil a cosmic reality that is life-giving. – Dr Barbara A. Holmes I’ve worked for Arrow NZ for 9 years and up until 2020, life was full and constantly being lived at a rushed pace. Running a busy household with kids at school, supporting my husband who works long hours for local government, serving on eldership at my local church, seeking to be a good friend who gives time to others, trying my best to put healthy food on the table (and occasionally supply some meals for the church fre ..read more

by Joshua Taylor Have you heard of the “Soho Grifter?” Recently, I watched “Inventing Anna” on Netflix. The show is based on the true story of Anna Sorkin, a woman who moved to New York presenting as a German Heiress with money to burn. She moved amongst the elite socialites of NYC and scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars by convincing people she was a wealthy entrepreneur with grand plans. She used Instagram as a platform for self-promotion and appeared to be the real deal. In an age focused on image and celebrity Anna’s story isn’t the only one like it.1 We live in an image and status ob ..read more

by Amy Page-Whiting Have you ever had the moment where you sit down and open an email or letter to discover that someone you have led, invested in and cared for is unhappy and is leaving – often with accusations, criticisms and grievances aimed at you? (Just about every leader I know has had this happen – if it hasn’t happened for you yet…it’s probably coming!) I got one of the worst letters I’ve ever got recently – in it a person who had been part of our church whānau for decades was accusing me of heresy and other awful things. They left (taking others with them), and shared their beliefs fa ..read more