CONTACT INFO FOR SURVEY TRIPS

Enter any contact information you may have on file within the comments of this post so we can get them all together in one spot.  Thanks, Joe, for putting the document together!

Contacts at Survey Locations

Hey all,

Here is a list of the people I know or suggest we look into when we get to these places.

-Waitakeres: Chad Davenport (Church of God Anderson minister), Laurie and Cath Tagaloa, Brian Spicer (works with a parachurch org out west)

-Auckland Central: Paul Windsor (President of Carrey Baptist College)

-Tauranga: Jim and Marilyn Mauldin, Mike Austin, Grant and Amy Burrows (friends of family, go to Bethlehem Baptist)

-Hamilton: Bob and Cami Arend (used to go to Shore, Bob now pastors a church in Hamilton)

-WellingHutt: Torrey Hilton (church planter in Wgtn, related to Sharon Davies at Shore)

-Plamerston North: Ruth Crafts (Aunt and in ministry in Palmy with Church of Christ), Olsons (Cousins involved with big baptist church in Palmy)

That's what I got for now, will add more as I think about them.

Info

Today we were at a youth leaders conference for youth leaders in the Auckland area. The speaker/youth professional was Murray Brown who has been in youth ministry for 28 years (he will have one of the biggest mansions in heaven I would think). He travels around the world to talk about youth ministry. During the day he mentioned that he had done ministry in Palmerston North, Wellington, and Christchurch-so naturally I went to speak to him. He had some interesting insight a/b Palmerston North and Wellington. He said that Palmerston North was a very Christian Community and that there are a lot of churches doing a lot of things in a very unified way. The Mayor and the Deputy Mayor are both Christians who used to be in ministry. He said that he didn't see much need for new churches in PN compared to other places in NZ. He said that Wellington is definitely in need for some churches and for the light of God. He said that it is just a dark place where religious groups have often failed or been pushed out due to lack of interest. He said that there are very few thriving or surviving churches in Wellington. I thought this was interesting in light of knowing Lou's situation.
I told him that we hope to be taking a trip to do survey work in May in that area and he said to get in touch w/ him if we want contacts and that he would help if he could.
Very Interesting!!

Christchurch & Tauranga: Helpful Contacts & Possible Leads

Our trip into Auckland for the City Lights service day proved to be a blessing in more than one way.  I happened to be placed on a team building a deck with a couple who provided valuable information.  I know this a long post, but make sure you get to the last bit - it's the best.

Ben Henson and Rachel Scott are a young couple - 25ish.  Getting married in 5 weeks.  She grew up in Tauranga.  They went to Canterbury University in Christchurch and then moved back to Tauranga to live and work for 2.5 years.  8 months ago they moved to Auckland for good engineering jobs and now they attend St. Pauls downtown.  Good people.  Theologically sound from what I could tell as were the churches they've attended.  Here are the notes I took from them:

CHRISTCHURCH

-Churches there are well organized and networked

-They gave the impression that there are a lot of healthy churches in town

-Attended Riccarton Community Church (same as Joe & Amy's contact from the hub)

-On Elizabeth Street

-Dave Lawson - Pastor (knows both of them - especially Rachel)

-Family focused church

-Good student ministry

-Sound, Bible-based theology

-Bretheren background

MT. MONGANUI (suburb of Tauranga)

-Rachel's parents attend Mosaic Church.

-Attendance: 200-400

-Progressive, creative, doing well at reaching community

-Christian church

-Seemed to be in line theologically from our conversation

-Teach from the Word

TAURANGA

-They said, "one of the fastest growing cities in New Zealand today"

-Many young couples and families moving in

-I asked about the oldsters there.  They said you would be hard-pressed to find many oldsters there today.  It used to be a place where oldsters retired, not so much anymore.

-Bigtime beach community - beautiful - which is attracting young families

-They said they want to move back to settle there eventually

-Growing up she attended Greerton Bible Chapel.

-Not much info other than she said it was a healthy church back then

-Ben & Rachel were members at BETHLEHEM BAPTIST recently

-Attendance: 1000+

-Two solid Bible teaching preachers on staff

-Bible is central to all teaching

-Again theology sounded solid - worth looking into

-Pastor: Craig Vernall, wife Michala (he is marrying them and did their marriage counseling).  They said he is a good man and has good men in leadership there.

-The church is starting to get "flack" from community for being "too big" and seemingly corporate.

-Many people drive long distances to get to Bethlehem Baptist, but aren't well connected because of the distance.

-Because of this they are looking to assist in and plant solid Bible-based churches in the surrounding areas and provide core groups of people who live in those communities and commute there for church.

-They lack the leaders/teams who will go and establish these church plants.

-They're not looking to do satellite campuses, but rather self-contained new churches.

I will contact Ben to get specific contact info for upcoming survey projects.  Good stuff, eh?!

Driving through Hamilton

As Molly and I were driving home from parachute, I was trying to get a feel for the city of Hamilton. We stayed with my parents in downtown Hamilton, and I really liked the vibe that it had. It has a remarkably sophisticated feel to it that I was surprised at given the size of it. There were a number of nicer-looking restaurants and bars (this was down Victoria Street). We also drove down Hood Street, which comes off Victoria, and which was alive with activity at midnight as we came back from Parachute. Every bar and nightclub (there were at least 8-10 of them) was jumping, and there wer a lot of young people out on the streets. The rest of the city was harder to guage, but I really like it. I could see myself becoming a part of it.

Another thing that i thought about was the possibility of a second phase of church plants that we send to the outlying towns (Ngarawhahia, Huntly, Cambridge, etc). These towns are smaller, obviously, and are distinctly blue-collar. I would be interested in exploring the demographical differences between Hamilton and the surrounding towns, and whether or not that creates any negative (or positive) perceptions between them. Just a thought.

Sorry--bit random, but these were my thoughts on the way home.

Primal Youth Hamilton

Hey guys,

I was looking on a Church Marketing website that I frequent and I saw a fundraising piece from a "youth church in New Zealand."  So I checked it out.

It's called Primal Youth, and they have a collection of campuses around New Zealand.  They opened up a new venue in Hamilton (in 2006 I think), and they are also in Auckland, Tauranga, Christchurch, and others.  Here's the website: www.primalyouth.com.  Very missional.  Good website, but I couldn't find anything in the way of doctrine/what we believe info.

College Ministry

I talked to my boy Phil today who is on staff at Boston Reunion Church Plant. He said that they did not do much intentional survey work themselves, but some had been done. Basically, they went to where the people were, stayed clear of what they felt the two healthy churches in the area are, and planted.



In regard to planting in a college town, he said there is a lot of flux. On December 9 they had 249. On December 23 they had 76. Big difference. He said that although only about 45% of the people in the church classify themselves as students, yet since they are a young team they attract young people, and they all travel durring that time. They have some mixed age groups, and some only college student groups. He also said that in Boston, while 300,000 of the 3 million population are full time students who leave during summer and holidays, there is also a large population of part-time or grad students who live in Boston year round.



He said that aside from the attendance fluxuation, it is just on a different schedule/level of thinking than other churches. This is seen clearly because Reunion is part of the new thing network, and what the other New Thing churches preach on a given Sunday could be the wrong timing/overall idea for Reunion.



I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions let me know. Or you can check out Reunion Christian Church.