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.

Churches

I was downtown on Tuesday and I wasn't really looking for churches, but I did come across some. I noticed a large(ish) Christian bookstore and then right next to it was Church of Christ of New Zealand. The signs lead me to believe they might be in business together. The CCNZ was on Dominion RD right by Mt. Roskill. They meet on Sundays, Tuesdays, AND Thursdays.

I also saw two other church buildings on Dominion Rd. but did not see their affiliation.

Talking with Reuben

I had a chat with Reuben yesterday, and he wanted to share with me some of his thoughts on church plant locations. Basically, he wanted to make sure that we were expanding our thoughts beyond Auckland. He feels that there are enough good churches in the city who have the potential of birthing new churches themselves (such as Windsor Park Baptist who started the Silverdale plant, or Auckland Bible Church who started a plant in Botany Downs). He also mentioned that people in Auckland are able to get to a healthy church within 20 mins driving time--esp after the Western Moterway opens up. He's not telling us to keep away from Auckland, but he feels that since we have the ability to move to any location (we don't have the geographical restraints that other church plants might), we should make the most of it.

He mentioned that there are a lot of places around NZ that don't have any healthy churches. Oddly enough, he mentioned Kerikeri, which is a smaller town up north. That was weird, because my Great Aunt also mentioned that as a planting location (coincidence?). Just something to think about.

Hamish: botany downs

Hamish and Molly went to Botany Downs.  Drove around.  Saw lots of churches that seemed to look healthy.  Many people in the community seemed to be families with teenage kids.