Rev Harry Newton's sermon on Isaiah 58 and the call to prayer and outward-focused mission
A sermon delivered at Sumner Redcliffs Anglican Church on 18th May 2025.
Summary
Rev Harry Newton delivers a sermon drawing on Isaiah 58:1–12, using verse 12 as a prophetic word he believes was given to him for both his own life and the life of Sumner Redcliffs Church. He argues that churches focused on their own survival — on keeping the lights on and maintaining attendance numbers — become spiritually distant from God, while churches that orient outward toward God's mission will always thrive. He presents evidence of a growing spiritual openness across the Western world, including a 54% rise in UK church attendance since 2020 driven largely by young men with no church background, 17,000 adult baptisms in France on Easter Sunday 2025, and 350 adult baptisms in Auckland on the same day. He closes with two concrete invitations to his congregation: renewed personal prayer and scripture reading, and collective intercession for the Sumner and Redcliffs community.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome and Context
Rev Harry Newton: As I said earlier, my name's Harry, and welcome to church. If you're a visitor here or someone for whom this church isn't usually home, hey, super stoked you're here. Hope you'll hang around afterwards for a bounce in the bouncy castle. And hey, look, if that is you, then you might find this a bit interesting because we're going to be looking behind the curtain of what it is we are as a church.
I shared at the AGM recently something, and while I know we're all super excited about the idea of going to AGMs — come on, everyone loves an AGM, especially when there's cake — I'm also aware that a number of us couldn't make it. So I thought I'd share an abridged version of what I shared at the AGM. If you were there, hey, lucky you, twice as nice, awesome.
The Prophetic Word from Isaiah 58
A bit of context. November last year I shared in a message about what I called a prophetic word that I believed had been shared with me, both in my life and in our corporate life as a church. Now I want to be really clear — I don't use Christianese words or overly spiritualised language lightly. I'm very careful. In fact, those who know me know I very rarely use them, because people can use religious language to manipulate all sorts of things and say all sorts of random things that they think is a good idea. So I use this word carefully, but I still use it.
The verse that was shared with me was from that reading today, Isaiah 58. It was verse 12. Across the whole chapter of Isaiah 58, we see something quite remarkable. When God's people stopped focusing on themselves and aligned their lives with God's heart, their deepest longings became fulfilled along the way. They flourished, their relationship with God was deepened, they were guided, protected and restored. And I personally believe that that promise holds true for us today as a church, as much as it did back then, thousands of years ago when this was first proclaimed.
Because a church that becomes focused on its own survival can pray fervently, plan perfectly and strategize till it's blue in the face, and yet wonder why God is so distant. I've just spent a week at a conference where we spent the time praying fervently, planning perfectly and strategizing till the wee hours of the night. And I've got to tell you, at the end of the week, if it's not rooted in a focus on God and alignment of our hearts with God, then it's all for naught. But a church that looks outward, dedicated to God's will and God's mission, will always thrive no matter the cost. And I believe that is the kind of church we've been called to be. A church that's servant-hearted, outward-focused, and full of hope.
What the Church Is Already Doing
Now, as I said, the AGM — not going to rehash it — but we are that in many, many ways. There are super cool things going on, as we heard from Crystal before about youth group. We have mission partners around the world that we support. We've got the food bank. We've got all sorts of things that we're supporting and involved with. We are an outward-focused church, but I believe we're being called to be more so, to go even further.
A Changing World
Because here's the thing — our world is changing. Who here has got AI on their phone? You can put your hand up, it's okay. I've got it on my phone. This week I was listening to something talking about how generative AI — AI having agency — is now completely possible. They're just figuring out how to roll it out to the wider world. That is going to radically change the fabric of our economy and the way we do work.
So we've got change happening all around us. We've also got things like wars — there's Ukraine, there's what's happening in Sudan, there's what's happening in Haiti, there's what's happening between Pakistan and India, war all over the place. There's economic hardship, there's anxiety about climate change, there's increasing divisions along political lines. Our world, our culture, is radically different today than it was just five years ago pre-COVID.
I shared in my AGM report how last year I spoke at a youth group camp in November, just over at Living Springs, and the young people there told me that they do not expect to live to the age of retirement because the world is so hopeless they genuinely believe it will end before they're 65. How sad. And that's not just one child being a bit emo about life. This was a collective group of them — pretty healthy, normal, well-balanced kids.
Now, obviously every generation has its challenges. As I joked at the AGM, my dad tells me that all the time and he likes to tell me all about the Cuban Missile Crisis — I know a lot about the Cuban Missile Crisis. But my point is not to say that other generations haven't had their challenges. Today, young people in particular are increasingly anxious, they lack hope, and they lack a meta-narrative for how to understand the world around them.
Signs of Spiritual Openness
And yet, spiritual openness is growing. I shared at the AGM about how in the United Kingdom, since 2020, church attendance has increased by 54%, and that has been driven primarily amongst adults in their 20s, between 18 and 29. In fact, in 2020, only 4% of young men under the age of 30 attended church regularly — that means once every four to six weeks or more. Now that number is 21%. And it's not been driven by people moving into the country or by migration. It's been driven by predominantly Anglo-Saxon young men with little or no church background coming to faith.
This week I was listening to a minister online, a guy called Peter Gregg — some of you might know that name. He was sharing about how this past Easter Sunday in France, which is considered to be one of the most atheistic nations in the world, certainly in Europe, 17,000 adults were baptised into the church. Now, that's a drop in the ocean given how big the population is, but that wasn't happening five years ago.
And it's not just over there. On Easter Sunday, I was driving back from Easter camp — Crystal was dry, everyone else wasn't, they were all very miserable — and I had my heater on, feeling very good about myself, and up came someone on the radio interviewing a priest in Auckland who had just baptised 350 adults that morning. The reporter was trying to make sense of it, saying, well, there must be all Filipinos and Polynesians who have come here. And the priest said, well, no, actually, because those people are predominantly baptised as children and we don't baptise twice. These are Kiwis from unchurched backgrounds of all sorts of ages — not just young people, but right through to their 60s and 70s — who have given their lives to Christ and were baptised that Sunday morning.
The point is that we're starting to see the signs of a spiritual shift across the board. And these people, we're told, are hungry for belonging, meaning, truth and hope, because secularism has failed and the world has not delivered what it's promised.
What Is Drawing People to Faith
We can say that because there's a big piece of research that came out of England, done by the Bible Society, about two months ago. It shows that across the United Kingdom, there are three things attracting predominantly young people to the Christian faith.
The first is a sense of genuine community and belonging and being welcome. There was a young man in the report who they quote as saying, "When I came to church, these people actually gave a damn about me. No one else in the world cares if I'm here tomorrow." These are a bunch of strangers and they've become his family. That's awesome.
Who knows the name Polly Gillespie? She's on The Edge as a DJ, and she wrote this just the other day, which I thought I'd share with you.
"I just had the most beautiful and unexpected experience last evening. I was invited to speak at a community event about methamphetamine. The event was held at a church. I'm not sure of the denomination. I suppose I've become jaded around religion. I have my doubts, and I'm very dubious when it comes to church. Last night was not a faith-based meeting, but it was held at a church. I was more than slightly surprised by how I felt before, during, and after the event. Not much surprises me anymore. But I was surprised last night.
The church members were volunteers. They greeted everyone warmly, but not synthetically. Yes, they'd baked, and they smiled, but they were genuine smiles, not painted-on smiles. They, in a very quiet way, were just so kind, generous, and welcoming. What had I been expecting? Bible-bashing? A recruitment drive? People looking at me as a sinner because I was vaping outside?" — she writes in brackets, "I didn't do it in the church grounds." — "But did I worry I was going to be judged? Yes. But not so. No judgement, no recruitment, just loads of really lovely people who were giving service to a community event.
At a time when life is tough, money is tight, the economy has a lot of us awake at night worrying about which bills to pay and in what order, there were dozens of members of this church being genuinely warm and generous. Lovely smiling teenagers, men and women who provided sound, vision, coffee, tea and trays piled high of incredible baking. Good people who softly and gently moved amongst the crowd, spreading more than a little light with genuine warm smiles. Not much surprises me, but last night I was surprised, humbled and impressed, and more than slightly disappointed that I had become so cynical. I see why people go to church, if that's the spirit they enjoy."
Now, that just speaks to this phenomenon.
The second thing is contextualised, heartfelt worship. What that doesn't mean is necessarily importing American-style worship. For example, in Europe, the fastest-growing congregations are in cathedrals.
The third thing that attracts people, particularly young people, is high-quality, in-depth biblical preaching.
What they're saying is they're not looking for religion. They're looking for hope, meaning and belonging in a dark, uncertain, fragmented world. And I think that's really cool, hey? How exciting. As Murray Vickers-Warden said to me the other day, "What a great time to be a vicar." Yeah, awesome. And it's true, because it means at this moment in our history, we are being presented with an awesome opportunity. Because the gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to all that ails our world, even if people don't recognise it.
Prayer and Repentance: The Two Historical Conditions for Renewal
And the key to communicating that is Jesus himself. Scripture tells us that through Jesus, all things are possible. Without him, we can do nothing. Which is why I find it really fascinating that there are two key things throughout history that define every true movement of God.
The first is prayer. Prayer prepares the way. We see that in Scripture, in the book of Acts, where the church gathers together to pray and pray and pray before the Holy Spirit comes in power upon them. But it wasn't just back then. In 1857, there was a man called Jeremiah living in New York City. New York City at that time had its lowest engagement with Christianity — we often think of America as a very Christianised place, but not so, particularly in the cities. He started praying every lunchtime. People started to come. And a year later, thousands of people had either become Christian or recommitted their lives to Jesus and were starting to fill churches. Two years later, in 1859, the Anglican churches in Melbourne heard about this via a letter and decided they wanted to get in on the action. So they started doing the exact same thing. And within two years, the exact same thing had happened in Australia. The point is that prayer prepares the ground.
The second thing is repentance. Because repentance prepares the heart. And here's the thing — the wider chapter of Isaiah 58 shows us how true repentance is not a religious ritual. It's not just simply saying, "Oh Lord, I'm so sorry." Nor is it flagellating oneself and being really down about how awful a person you are. Repentance is a radical reorientation of your heart towards Christ, from which flows the literal breaking of chains, feeding of the hungry, sheltering of the outcasts and loving of the broken. Because heartfelt repentance radically reorientates our lives towards Jesus and towards serving the very people that he loves.
The point is that it's from prayer and repentance that so-called revival comes. Now, I say revival because I think it's got a lot of baggage. By revival, we don't mean some sort of hyped-up charismatic worship — as wonderful as that might be. By revival, I mean a sovereign move of God that awakens his people to deeper prayer, genuine repentance, and renewed devotion to our Lord Jesus, resulting in spiritual renewal within the church and the subsequent transformation of our society.
Revival — or renewal, I think, is a better word — is not about preserving or increasing the size of the church. It's not about bums on seats or keeping the lights on. I was at a meeting this week where we were talking about the future of the Anglican church and how we need to modernise and do X, Y and Z to get people in the doors. And you know what was underlying it? Fear. Fear that people would lose their incomes. Fear that they wouldn't have enough money to pay the bills. Fear that their churches would decline and close. And so they were being driven by a desire to have more bums on seats. That's not what we're talking about. What I'm talking about is being reorientated around God's heart. And that, I believe, begins with prayer and repentance.
Renewal Is Not Something We Manufacture
Because here's the key — renewal is not something we manufacture. Who here remembers Derek Eaton? If you don't know Derek, it's okay. Derek was quite significant in my life. He was the minister here back in the 80s. He was big in my life because when I was growing up in the Middle East and East Africa, he had a lot of connection with our family and would come visit. And I remember him saying once, "The problem with the renewal movement in New Zealand is it's forever thinking that God relies on it. We're trying to manufacture something." And he's right. Renewal or revival is not something we manufacture or make up. It's something that God sends in response to the humble, prayerful and outward-looking hearts of his people.
Two Invitations for the Year
So in light of all this — I shared this with the AGM and I'm sharing it right now — I've got two things I want to invite you to join me in this year.
The first is renewed personal prayer and reading of Scripture. They did a study recently and found that 72% of Anglican clergy — which I am — do not read their Bible in any given week. That's pretty bad, just putting it out there. They also found that the majority of Anglican clergy don't pray. I can put it out there — I do. The thing is, if we want to be ready for what God is doing, if we want to rebuild and restore not just the heart of God's church but to see our society around us transformed by the good news of Jesus, we must strengthen the foundations of our own faith.
Let me be clear — this is not about adding another to-do to your list, but it is about making space for God to speak. If you are too busy for God in your daily life, then you are probably too busy. If you want to read a really good book, it's only about $3 on Kindle — it's called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by a pastor from America called John Mark Comer. It's really good. In it, he talks about pushing back against the frenzy of the modern age and making space for God on the daily. We must do that. We must renew our own personal prayer and study of Scripture.
That's the first invitation.
Contending for the Community Through Prayer
The second invitation — I'm going to use a lot of Christianese here, and if you're not a Christian or a Jesus follower, you might find this a bit weird — is to contend for the spiritual heart of our community through prayer. We need to stand in the gap for Sumner, Redcliffs and beyond. Praying not just for ourselves, but for the lost, the lonely, the broken and the searching.
There are so many people who are broken and upset and whose lives lack meaning. They are alone. They have no reason to live. This week the stats came out that child suicide and teenage suicide in New Zealand is the highest in the OECD. That is horrific. My godson took his own life — a teenage boy. Horrific. This is something that is part of our society, and men in particular are at higher risk. In my last town, the fire brigade went to suicides all the time.
And it's not just suicides — it manifests in other ways too. Substance abuse. Why is cocaine so prolific in our community here in Sumner? It's everywhere. I was at a function recently and the guy was snorting up next to me on the banister. It's everywhere. Why? Because people are hurting and they are searching for something bigger than themselves.
Here's the thing — if spiritual renewal of us as a church and the transformation of our community is going to take place, if, to quote Isaiah, God's light is going to break forth like the dawn here, it will not be because we had amazing strategies. It won't even be because we built a new All Saints, as lovely as that will be. It will be because we as God's people prayed and radically reorientated our hearts towards Jesus and subsequently turned outward in love.
Stories of Faithful Prayer
So that's my invitation to you this year. Commitment to personal prayer and scripture reading. And the second thing is to contend for our community through prayer.
There's a real power to praying together. Jesus himself said, "Where two or more are gathered in my name..." This idea that when you gather and you are praying, there's a power to praying collectively.
At clergy conference this week — I know I've been a bit critical of it, but there were actually a couple of really good interactions. I talked to one guy who became a minister in a little church just outside the city. He had a very faithful congregation, but very elderly. The church was probably only a few years off closing. The bishop was pressuring them to shut up shop and maybe amalgamate with another church. And so he committed to praying every day at 5pm in his church. He prayed and he prayed and he prayed that God would bring families into the church. He prayed for two years, and do you know what happened? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He was quite disheartened, but he said, "No, I'm going to keep doing it." And at that point, someone else turned up — a minister who happened to have moved into the area — and said, "I'll join you for prayer." They started praying together. Now, two years after that, they're not a mega church, but they're healthy. The church is full of energy and love, full of worship during the week. They feed the poor every week. They connect to their community, particularly through friendship groups with the elderly, and they make a tangible difference in people's lives. And on a Sunday, their church is full of children.
I was talking with another minister — last story. She told me how for seven years, a group of faithful elderly parishioners gathered and prayed every single Saturday that God would bring people in their community to know Christ. They prayed faithfully every week, throughout the holidays and everything, on a Saturday. And nothing happened. In fact, most of them are dead and never saw the fruition of their prayers. She came a few years back and became the minister, and by the grace of God, this past Sunday they had over 200 adults under the age of 40 and over 50 children.
Now, I'm not making an idol of youth — please don't hear that. But what I am saying is these are good news stories, hey? And we're talking about a generation where I had someone the other day — a non-Christian mate of mine — say to me, "So this whole Jesus thing, I mean, did he actually exist as a historical figure?" I said, "Yeah, man." He said, "Are you sure?" Fair call. Why would he know any better?
What these stories from across the world and here in our own city show us is the importance of prayer and the importance of repentance — meaning a radical reorientation of our heart towards Jesus — which leads to an outpouring of prayer contending for the heart of our community, and that in turn leads to a community transformed by the good news of Jesus.
Final Challenge
So here's my final challenge to you. Two things for the year. One: personal prayer and personal scripture reading. Two: contending for the heart of our community through prayer.
My challenge to you is to join with others and do that together collectively. We have prayer meetings during the week at 6:30am. I know that's really early, but why not get up slightly earlier? I'll even have the coffee machine on for you. Come join me during the week at Naila Street Chapel. If that's not your cup of tea, Jane's in the process of setting up an evening one — we're going to communicate that as soon as possible. That's going to be on a Thursday night most likely, but we'll figure out the details. But it doesn't have to be there. It can be in your home group. In your home group, make it a priority that every time you meet and gather, you pray for the community, not just each other. And if none of those work for you, form your own prayer group. I don't have to be in charge. I don't have to be there. I trust you. You're adults. Go do it.
But let's gather and pray together. Let's pray for a spiritual renewal of us individually and us corporately, and a subsequent transformation of our community, so that God's light will break forth like the dawn here in Sumner and Redcliffs. And as I say, that won't happen because of better strategies or whatever. It will happen because of prayer and repentance.
Amen.