By Carl Tinnion NZCMS Mission Catalyst

Greet­ings! My name is Carl Tinnion, and I am the new Mission Cata­lyst for NZCMS.

If you are won­der­ing what that means, I am pas­sion­ate about mis­sions, both locally and glob­ally, and feel strongly that God wants to raise a new gen­er­a­tion of Kiwis to go into the nations that will serve and be a bless­ing to all.

I am English and married to an amazing New Zeal­ander called Melanie. We have three beau­ti­ful kids and moved to NZ nearly five years ago.

I ended up working for the Diocese of Waiapu, focus­ing on renewal pro­jects and new forms of mission, youth work and new expres­sions of Anglican min­istry, and even­tu­ally got ordained.

In 2020, my wife and I sensed a calling from the Lord to be based in the Pacific, and so we stepped out of all of our roles, sold most of our belong­ings and arrived in NZ without a job or any­where to live (thank God for family!). After a few months of prayer, we felt we should start our journey in Taur­anga and have been based here ever since.

I grew up with bi-voca­tional parents who also led a punk church in the 1980s (long story), so I am not sure what denom­in­a­tional back­ground you could place me under, although it wasn’t conventional.

I joined an organ­isa­tion called YWAM when I was 20 and went on to work in that organ­isa­tion for the next 30 years— involved in youth work, com­munity devel­op­ment, church plant­ing (Fresh Expres­sions move­ment), wearing dif­fer­ent lead­er­ship hats and involve­ment in all sorts of ministry!

I have trav­elled to, and worked in, over 50 coun­tries, and I love the nations and their many cultures.

My role with NZCMS will hope­fully include train­ing and debrief­ing short-term mission teams, speak­ing and preach­ing in churches, at con­fer­ences, and any­where people will have me basic­ally! I love to teach on mis­si­ology and unpack­ing the bib­lical found­a­tions of God’s mis­sional heart and what that means for the church today.

This role is also about strength­en­ing our path­ways into long-term pro­jects as well as cre­at­ing new ones! This includes two-week taster trips to far-flung places as well as more struc­tured place­ments between three and six months where people can test out what a longer-term call to God’s global church might look like (https://​www​.nzcms​.org​.nz/​m​o​m​e​n​ts/).

As this is a part-time role, I am also the new assist­ant min­is­ter at St John’s Anglican church in Te Puke. I love the local church and have always tried to stay groun­ded in my locale over the years. My Bishop has asked me to serve the local church there while focus­ing on pion­eer­ing new pro­jects on the side and cre­at­ing new ser­vices and out­reaches in the com­munity. I am super excited about these two com­bined roles!

Wherever I have trav­elled in the world, I have always met adven­tur­ing Kiwis living out of back­packs and living simply, showing kind­ness, and impact­ing people with their laid-back can-do atti­tude. They often seemed to do this while seam­lessly coming along­side other cul­tures with sens­it­iv­ity and care.

I have long believed that this wan­der­ing, adven­tur­ing, way­far­ing spirit is a deep part of the iden­tity of this entire land. I get the sense that God is doing a new thing here, and if I can be a small part of that, it would be a beau­ti­ful thing.