Before moving to Tauranga in June 2016 I had no idea that there was a growing understanding of the seventh day Sabbath in the area. Perhaps the fact that there are two Tauranga Seventh Day Adventist free-to-air television channels is a factor in this. I see there are quite a lot of Messianic Christians in Tauranga and about three branches of the Seventh Day Adventists. I believe there is also a Herbert Armstrong style Church of God here in Tauranga. There is no Seventh Day Baptist Church in Tauranga, which is a little surprising, given it is older than all of the churches mentioned above. We do have the pleasure though of having one member from the Seventh Day Baptists fellowshipping with us. Nor is there a Grace Communion International Church in Tauranga, another church with a seventh day Sabbath heritage.
It’s a shame that just like the Sunday churches we Sabbath-keepers also have a lot of disunity. Our church here in Tauranga, Church of God’s Love/Church of God 7th Day aims to keep the focus squarely on the saving gospel and love of Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian who wants to do exactly that, but who also wants to worship on Saturday I am sure you would find our home church here very compatible.
It seems that prophecy and prophets is largely the issue which creates divisions between seventh day Sabbath keepers. Other key issues are feast days and having a strong emphasis on Israel. I do believe a good degree of unity is possible but we would all need to show a lot of grace toward each other in relation to these three key dividing areas. The Apostle Paul was so willing to show grace to other Christians he was willing to change his dietary habits just so he wouldn’t cause anyone to stumble (Romans 14). I believe the more we focus through the Holy Spirit on the gospel, the love of God, being like Christ, and reaching out to the lost and needy (doing the work we are called to do), then hopefully the importance we give to these dividing issues will diminish and we will be better able to show each other true grace in relation to them.
We would love to hear from you if this resonates with you.