Tipu Ora

Gardening Discipleship

I hiakai hoki ahau, ā whāngainga ana e koutou: i matewai ahau, ā whakainumia ana e koutou… He pono tāku e mea nei ki a koutou, Ko tā koutou i mea ai ki tētahi o āku tāina, ahakoa ki te iti rawa, he meatanga tēnā ki ahau.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink… Truly I tell you, whatever youd did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

Matiu 25.35, 45

Tipu Ora, literally means a “living seedling” and refers both to the activity of caring for creation, tending to and nurturing life through gardening, and nurturing the abundant life of whānau and communities.

A pilot project to create Christ-centred communities of gardeners as sites of active-reflective wānanga, Tipu Ora is an innovation and shift of our current theological educational offering, in the Church more broadly and in Te Tairāwhiti, from theoretical learning in the classroom to intentional, transferable, and active-reflective learning in our homes and communities.

Teaching love of neighbour and radical manaakitanga by doing, gardeners are discipled and gardens established in homes and churches through fundamentally transferable practice – making ‘Gardener-disciples’ who make ‘Gardener-disciples’ – as learning experiences and tools tying theological education to practice.

Te Kaiwhakaako Tipu Ora: Adrian Sutherland

The deliberative development of new pedagogy and practice is helping to pave the way forward for how we do discernment, ministry and mission training, and theological education in Te Tairāwhiti. As such, whānau and communities are nurtured and equipped to do two things:

Actively teach and disciple others in seeking out and loving their neighbours – particularly the least, the last, and the lost – revitalising and strengthening whānau and communities, with practice guided by Christian principles of faith;
Actively care for creation with environmental practice led by prayer, devotion and theological reflection, and promoting locally grown, fresh, organic, nutritional, and regenerative practice and kai.

ACTIVE-REFLECTIVE LEARNING

Kaimahi i Te Kōrero

Some of the most commonly used themes and metaphors for teaching in the Bible, and one of our most fundamental needs revolve around food: tilling, planting, growing, harvesting food, and feeding the hungry.

A missiological imperative that calls us to serve the lost, the last, and the least, and a theological imperative that calls us to love our neighbour through radical manaakitanga, will naturally find its most powerful expression – through the pedagogical imperative of indigenous and incarnational teaching – in the reflective-action of growing food and feeding the hungry.

AN ONLINE COMMUNITY OF GARDENERS

Minitatanga ā Ipurangi

With over 20,000 combined followers on Social Media and counting, Adrian continues to build a dedicated following on Facebook and Instagram. Under the kaupapa of One Minute Gardening with Adrian Sutherland, Adrian posts daily one minute videos teaching whānau by his own example to grow gardens, not lawns; encouraging young and old, veteran and beginner to live into our vision of thriving whānau, growing high quality kai, sustaining communities.