Back to Blog

New Community Hub at Kingston Community Church

Kingston Community Church in Palmerston North celebrated the opening of a new community hub with a “Community Fun Event”, where the church family came together to engage with and serve their community. They served hot food, hired bouncy castles, and had face painting and craft stalls. ...

PastorLink Regional Gathering for North & West Auckland

On Wednesday last week, pastoral leaders from Kelston Community Church, Lincoln Road Bible Chapel, Massey Community Church, and Northcross Church came together for the first PastorLink regional gathering....

A visit to Hawke's Bay

Richard Davis, CCCNZ Camping Enabler visited Hawke’s Bay this week. He met with Benji Carey-Smith and Phil Henderson from Onekawa Bible Church in Napier. Benji is the Community and Kids leader, and he’s involved in Launchpad, music ministry, and speaking.Richard writes,“What was really inspiring was hearing how, in particular, the holiday program started and has grown to where it is today. Benji’s wife was a teacher at the local school and between them both ...

Children and Families Ministry Leaders Regional Gathering in the Bay of Plenty

Last night, Children and Families Ministry leaders from Greerton Bible Church, Paengaroa Bible Chapel, Lifezone Church and The Orchard Church gathered in the Bay of Plenty. CCCNZ Children and Family Ministries Enabler Julie McKinnon writes,“Generously hosted by Mikayla Crawford, Children’s Pastor at The Orchard Church, we enjoyed an evening of fellowship and discussion. It was great to hear encouraging stories about Rally, Mainly Music, and childr...

Jesus, Our Substitute

By Mark Grace, CCCNZ AmbassadorKo te aroha tenei, ehara i te mea ko tatou kua aroha ki te Atua, engari ko ia kua aroha ki a tatou, a tonoa mai ana e ia tana Tama hei whakamarie mo o tatou hara.O le alofa lava lenei, e le ona ua tatou alofa i le Atua, a ua alofa mai o ia ia te i tatou, ua na auina mai foi lona Alo o le togiola mo a tatou agasala.This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.1 John 4:10In the Old Testament, God lovi...

Growing in faith and service through practical theological study

“Last year I had a serious injury, meaning I was no longer able to pursue barbering, the career I had been working towards.”With an uncertain future, and certain types of work ruled out, Gordon Venter says he was, “lamenting and unsure of what I’d do.” After an experience with the ministry Student Life he began to look at his situation differently, and examine his heart and what God was teaching him during this time. He started to ask, “God, what do you want ...

Relational connections flourish at Junior Youth Group

It was encouraging to hear from Christina Edwards-Teope from Massey Community Church about the relational connections being made at their Junior Youth Group.A group of young people aged from school years 6 to 10 (approx. 10-14yr olds) meet for fortnightly for fun, low key social events with an emphasis on community, belonging and being together.Christina says, “playing games like mafia where kids have to look at each other and listen and work together builds community and b...

Choices and Conversations

“The kids are loving having a choice and we are having some awesome conversations…” This comment from Kylie Brown came from a chat we had about changes she has made this year in the Sunday morning kids programme at Lifezone Church in Tauranga. Kylie desired to see a more intentionally relational ministry and was wondering how to do this with a smaller than normal team of leaders. She decided to change from a big group - small group model where the children were divided by age, to...

GC3 Staff Day

It was a privilege to host the GC3 team here in Palmy recently as they gathered together as a wider staff team. ...

Alpha Course at Kelston Community Church

Kelston Community Church (KCC) Pastor Paul Long shares that running an Alpha Course has become a key annual ministry activity and is “an important means of encouraging evangelism, teaching the basics of the Christian faith, providing avenues for service, deepening friendships, and developing newer leaders”....

Where is our trust?

By Mark Grace, CCCNZ AmbassadorKei whakawhirinaki ki nga rangatira, ki te tama ranei a te tangata, kahore nei he awhina.Aua tou te faatuatua i alii, po o le fanau a tagata, e le o i ai se olataga.Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.Psalm 146:3This psalm was likely written during the Babylonian exile. The people have been carried off from Jerusalem and are now surrounded by the incredible power and prestige of the rulers of Babylon. It’s possible that the Jewish e...

Churches and camps working together in Nelson

This week, CCCNZ Camping Enabler Richard Davis had a few wonderful days in Nelson, where he visited churches and attended the Teapot Valley Christian Camp Board meeting.Richard writes, “It was wonderful to hear of how the camp was successfully operating and they spoke highly of their relationship with local CCCNZ churches (Hope Community Church, Grace Church, and Tasman Church) who all provide representation to the board”....

Churches working together through Rally NZ

The NZ Rally staff team enjoyed holding their Manawatū Regional Training Day at Rongotea Bible Chapel.NZ Rally CEO Tony Foster writes,“Nicole Fleming kindly welcomed us in and Rally leaders from Woodville Gospel Hall, Feilding Bible Chapel, Crossroads Church, York Street Chapel, Queen Street Chapel, all joined us along with Rachel Hockly from Church on Vogel who brought a number of junior leaders. It was a real bl...

North and West Auckland Elders' and Leaders' Dinner

On Thursday 2 May, 20+ elders and leaders from Auckland churches came together at Orewa Community Church to hear from OCC pastor Dave Bradley (above, on the left with the mic) and others about how OCC is moving to hybrid house church planting and the continuing need to grow new leaders.Churches represented at the dinner included Birkdale Bible Chapel, Birkenhead Community Church, Lincoln Road Bible Chapel, Massey Community Church, New Lynn Community C...

Franklin Bible Church Plant

Our vision is to see churches (and the regional camps and national support ministries that serve them) working together to point people to Jesus through the gospel from the Bible.A brilliant example of the vision is the story of Franklin Bible Church....

Baptisms at Crossroads Church

We rejoice to see more and more people taking the step of baptism across New Zealand.Isaac Pettersen, Discipleship Pastor at Crossroads Church, writes, “This year Crossroads is considering ‘What is your next step?’ as our focus. The answer to this question could come in many forms but for many the next step has been baptism."So far in 2024, they have seen 13 people be baptised (some planned and some spontaneous), with three of them taking place on Sunday April 19....

Bethel Christian Fellowship Community Outreach

Bethel Christian Fellowship in Balclutha has recently started a Friday Fish & Chips. Anyone is welcome as they invite Balclutha in to eat yummy kai on the first Friday of each month, i.e. tonight! Jim Goatley will give a short Bible devotion as part of the evening. Tonight, they'll focus on the seven statements in Proverbs about friendship, how we all need friends, and that Jesus is the friend who is closer than a brother. Please do pray for Bethel Christian Fellowship with th...

Ordinary people

By Mark Grace, CCCNZ AmbassadorNa ka karangatia e ia te tekau ma rua, ka hoatu ki a ratou he kaha, he mana, e peia ai nga rewera katoa, e ora ai nga mate.Ua faapotopotoina e ia ona soo e toasefulu ma le toalua, ua tuu atu ia te i latou le mana ma le pule i temoni uma, ma ia faamalolo i ma‘i.When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,Luke 9:1Jesus’ disciples were ordinary men. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were com...

Churches and camps working together

It's exciting to hear so many stories this week of how churches, camps and ministries have been partnering together over the school holidays to share the good news about Jesus with children, young people and their families! ...

Connecting with Pastors

It was great to see a bunch of CCCNZ/Open Brethren Hertiage pastors at a Carey Nieuwhof leadership event I attended in February including Clint Craig (LifeSwitch), Andrew Neville (Northcross Church), Han Cho (Northcross Church), Aaron Hodgson (Raleigh Street Christian Centre), Catherine Perich (Lincoln Road Bible Chapel), Isaac Pettersen (Crossroads Church), Jacob Kendrew (Crossroads Church), Jonathan Ruthven (Northg...

Holiday programme at Kingston Community Church

It's encouraging to see how Kingston Community Church (KCC) is serving their local community, as they develop and disciple young leaders. They ran a school holiday programme this week, with around 60 children taking part.Joel Birkin, Ministry Pastor at KCC, writes:“Our youth leader Jed (Meads) is running our school holiday program alongside 18 of his youth leaders. It's been a joy to see a range of new leaders step up this year. “We have a majority of new children this ti...

Baptisms at LifeSwitch

I’m so encouraged to see people being baptised across New Zealand. On the last two Sundays, two people were baptised at LifeSwitch, and they are expecting to have three more in the coming weeks!Clint Craig, Lead Pastor at LifeSwitch, comments:"It has been incredibly exciting to see people taking the step of baptism. We are in the middle of a run with two baptisms over the last two Sundays and one planned for each of the next three. “We're now praying that we can keep the run g...

The power of God

By Mark Grace, CCCNZ AmbassadorA i a koutou ahau me te ngoikore, me te wehi, me te tuiri nui.Na ou i ai foi ia te outou ma le vaivai, ma le mata‘u, ma le gatete tele;I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 1 Corinthians 2:3What is the Apostle Paul saying? He didn’t come to them with confidence in his speaking ability. He didn’t come to them with confidence in human theories, philosophies, or ideas. He came to them in weakness. He came to them in weakness, wi...

Waikato - Bay of Plenty Summit

On Saturday, 130+ people from 22 churches were at Tōtara Springs Christian Centre for the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Regional Summit. What a blessing to see elders and ministry leaders from various churches chatting together. Thank you to Justin Thompson (below, right) from Manawarū Bible Chapel for opening God's Word for us and preaching on what it means to serve like Christ from Philippians chapter 2....

Manawarū Bible Chapel Church Day Camp

It’s encouraging to hear how churches are partnering with their local campsites across the country to point people to Jesus.I loved hearing about Manawarū Bible Chapel's church day camp at Tōtara Springs Christian Centre. The morning sessions were set up for church members with Daryl Bay, Lead Pastor at Hope Community Church, as the guest speaker. The message was centred on focusing on people in our community by speaking on 1 Peter 2:12. This time was followed by&nbs...