Thanks Rose!
Last Sunday, Rose Robinson announced she is finishing her role as leader of Blueprint Church, an Anglican pioneer mission unit of 80 young adults in Wellington City.
Rose felt called to serve Blueprint in 2017 and left an environmental management role with Greater Wellington Regional Council to serve.
“I had a longing to have my faith be integral to all my life, and I really wanted to learn how to disciple other people and have my faith be about more than just me.
There was an invitation from God to serve and the words, “I will be with you” stuck with me,” she says.
In late 2019 Rose became the main leader of Blueprint Church when a team from Blueprint were sent out to church plant in Brooklyn.
The journey of leading Blueprint wasn’t always easy. As a community of young adults and university students, Blueprint can be highly transient. The challenges of holding together this community through Covid-19 was enormous.
Alongside this, Rose experienced her own moments of struggle and weakness as she experienced the death of a loved-one, as well as others close to her going through personal crises.
Throughout her leadership, Rose always lived with groups of people from Blueprint and she credits to her residential community for bringing her through these moments.
She reflects that this has been both life-giving and, at times, overwhelming:
“Leading a church while living in community is really challenging, but it also means you can be discipled and disciple others in a depth that is hard to do any other way. You can’t be fake, and people can’t put you on a pedestal, because they see you in your humanity.”
Rose recalls the way her community was there for her when she lost someone close to her: “My housemates saw me cry and made me breakfast.”
Rose will finish her role with Blueprint in October, and still feels a deep passion to serve God’s church.
She is currently studying Spiritual Direction:
She says, “I have a deep passion to see people reflect on their spiritual journey and go deeper in prayer and knowing Jesus.
“I have personally received a lot from spiritual direction over the past few years in leadership, and I want to offer that to others,” says Rose.
Rose first came to faith in 2004 as a 12-year-old.
She had been involved in a local youth group in Katikati who took her along to Impact World Tour - an evangelical crusade featuring strongmen and motorcycle stunts.
“The funny thing was that all of the stunts and feats of strength failed. The whole miraculous displays thing was a flop”.
Despite the failure of this part of the event, Rose remembers the people got up and so humbly testified to God’s goodness, whether he showed up in power or not.
They invited people to receive Jesus.
“They gave me a New Testament and I just went home and read all four of the gospels over that weekend and was really moved. I didn’t understand or agree with everything but felt so drawn to Jesus. Looking back, I realise how the Holy Spirit was at work.”
Blueprint is now seeking new leadership from October. A job description can be found here:
