Back to Blog

Easter Camp at Coopers Beach

Graeme McNae (Papatoetoe Bible Church) and Tracey Fakatou (Kaitaia Bible Chapel) share their insights into Easter Camp at Coopers Beach: Easter Camp at Coopers Beach Christian Youth Camp was almost like a Pacific Island Retreat! Overlooking the beautiful beach and feasting on Island cuisine made it even more realistic. We were extremely grateful for the generosity of organisations and families for the fruit and food donated.Kilipeni (Benny) and Tracey Fakatou from Kaitai...

Planting With Purpose: A Church for Kelvin Grove

“A couple of years ago we came to the conclusion that churches plant churches—and we didn’t have a reason not to. So, we started exploring what that might look like here in Palmerston North.”Isaac Pettersen serves as Discipleship and Multiplication Pastor at Crossroads Church and is the point person for a new church plant out of Crossroads called The Grove Church.Isaac is part of a 20-person team that has been preparing for more than a year to plant The Grove Church, which held its first...

Better Together: Studying with Purpose

What’s better than studying alone? Studying with a good mate.Ethan Neal (23) and Matthew Hitchens (23) are part of Riccarton Community Church in Christchurch. Both independently decided to pursue theological education.As they began talking about it, and with encouragement from their church’s elders and pastors, they saw an opportunity to ground their study in local church ministry, relationships, and practice.During the week, both work long days—Ethan as an engineer and Matthew as an elect...

‘We love your church!’—Building Family-friendly Community Events

Hillcrest Chapel (Hamilton) has been steadily building a presence in its local community through a series of family-focused events held throughout the year. These gatherings have become something that many families in the community look forward to.This past Easter Saturday, around 100 people came along for an afternoon of games, crafts, hot cross buns, and an Easter egg hunt. The highlight was a walk-through experience based on Carl Laferton’s picture story book The Garden, the Curtain and the...

Understanding the Easter Story Together

Pony rides, a donkey to pat, colouring palm branches, sharing hot cross buns around a table, and families washing one another’s feet — these were all part of the Easter Trail that started at The Anchor Church on Good Friday.The event was run in partnership with the local Anglican Church and Baptist Church, with around 200 people taking part. Families moved through a series of interactive stations that helped bring the Easter story to life, beginning the journey at The Anchor and continuing t...

A King, Humble Servant, Saviour & Risen Lord

Around 100 young people and leaders gathered at Kaitoke for the CCCNZ Lower North Island Easter Camp.Youth groups from The Anchor (Porirua), Kingston Community Church (Palmerston North), Church on Vogel (Palmerston North), Feilding Bible Chapel, and Onslow Community Church (Wellington) came together for a weekend of fun and faith....

Friendship, Fun & Faith at Tōtara Springs One Way Easter Camp

Youth groups from Northcross Church (Auckland), Orewa Community Church (Auckland), and Te Awamutu Bible Chapel (Waikato) came together for the Tōtara Springs One Way Easter Camp 2026.Orewa Community Church Youth Pastor Jermaine Martin says it was a great weekend of friendship, fun, and faith:“First off, God bless everyone who was part of planning this Easter Camp, I'm not an admin guy and I know that was a big job. Tōtara Springs Easter Camp was an amazing, full-on, blessed time with all in ...

Combined Church Assemblies of Ngaati Hauaa Easter Conference

The annual Easter Conference of the Combined Church Assemblies of Ngaati Hauaa was held at Raungaiti Marae, Waharoa over Easter weekend. Liz Silcock (Māori Postal Aotearoa, MPA) reports that despite the increase in petrol prices it was well attended, with visitors from as far away as Wellington and Auckland.“A great time of fellowship was enjoyed, and MPA materials we took over were very popular, particularly the adult lessons and the new Ara Ki Te Ora children's tract which ha...

Say Cheese! Making toasties for teens this Easter

The Toastie Shack is a Southern Easter Camp institution. What began as one youth group bringing along a single toastie machine to help provide warm food grew into a makeshift restaurant selling thousands of toasties, set up from scratch each year.Southern Easter Camp brings together 3500+ young people from over 90 different youth groups across the South Island for five days at Spencer Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park in Canterbury. Youth groups from the CCCNZ movement are part of the mix, including Gra...

The Thing About Easter

On Friday and Saturday evening (27–28 March), Tītahi Bay Community Church presented The Thing About Easter—a collaborative production weaving together spoken word, choral and solo singing, and theatre to tell the Easter story.Ken Edgecombe, one of the Titahi Bay elders, wrote the script with the wider community in mind: “For many years our church has done something special at Easter—an art gallery, or a musical event, Bible and poetry readings... and people in the community around ...

Willow Park 90th Birthday Celebrations

Willow Park Christian Camp at Eastern Beach in Auckland recently celebrated 90 years of camping ministry with a carnival and afternoon tea.  Willow Park Camp Manager Michelle Willis says the carnival was promoted to their local neighbourhood, and they were joined by some students from nearby Macleans College who helped them run the carnival. “It was a lot of fun, and we were able to offer everything for free—rock climbing, bouncy castles, ice cream, coffee, sausage sizzle, and more.”L...

Regional NZ Rally Camp

110 children and 50 leaders from across six Rallies were at Tōtara Springs 20-22 March for the Bay Of Plenty/Waikato Combined Rally Camp.Rallies from Opotiki, Paengaroa, Fenton Park, The Orchard, Raleigh Street Christian Centre (Cambridge), and Te Awamutu came together with the purpose of connecting Rallies across the region, encouraging local leaders and providing an opportunity for children to come together to meet new people and hear the Gospel.Key organiser Nikki McBride says, “We were bl...

God's Power at Work Through Camping

Speaker and evangelist Graham Ashby reflects on the power of God at work through camping ministry.A few days back, I met a man in Oamaru. We’ve crossed paths off and on over the years, but this encounter felt different—more meaningful.In our conversation, he shared his testimony with me.At just six years old, in 1969, his mother took him to hear Dr. Billy Graham speak at a Crusade held in the old Carisbrook Park in Dunedin. Even at that young age, he said he felt the pull of God on his life....

Discipleship is a Team Effort

At Grace Church in Nelson, developing spiritually healthy young adults hasn’t been built around a single programme or personality. It has come through years of people working together—discipling, encouraging, and walking alongside young people as they grow.For Sean Young, who has been involved in youth ministry since 2014 as a volunteer, youth pastor, and now as a parent, that commitment is personal.“For me, I was never really discipled when I came to faith in my 20s,” he says. “So whe...

Opening the Bible Together Across Generations

Halswell Community Church in Christchurch is intergenerational in both makeup and nature, with people of many different ages gathering each week to worship God together.Pastor Mato Kariuki says that a number of young families have recently started attending, expressing a desire to study God’s Word and grow in Christ.“We noticed that many of our older people are more mature Christians, and without young children around they have time to do Bible study. Many of our young families have come bac...

Fun, Faith, and Friendship at Manawatū District Rally Camp

More than 200 children and leaders from eight Rallies across the Manawatū–Whanganui region gathered at Forest Lakes Camp in Ōtaki for the 8th annual Manawatū District Rally Camp.Under sunny skies, campers enjoyed a full programme of activities—from archery and mudslides to the ever-popular sea biscuits on the lake.Highlights of the weekend included high-energy worship led by youth band Jampacked and powerful messages from evangelist Ray Cooper (York Street Chapel), helping campers en...

Developing Leadership Potential in Youth Group

Birkenhead Community Church’s Youth Pastor Alex Pope shares how he believes that training leaders is the key to a successful and vibrant youth group…...

Regional Training Brings Children's Ministry Leaders Together

39 children and family ministry leaders from eight churches around Waikato and the Bay of Plenty came together on Saturday 28 February for training at Hukanui Bible Chapel. Children and Family Ministries Enabler Julie McKinnon led the group through two sessions. Together groups from different churches explored how beliefs and understanding of who children are shapes what we do practically in children’s ministry—wrestling with what it looks like to help children meet God through the Bibl...

Celebrating 90 Years of Christian Camping at Willow Park

Willow Park under construction in the 1930s....

Growing Agape: Establishing a Church Plant in Morrinsville

The journey to planting and establishing a church is never straightforward—but one that is full of God’s grace.For the past two years Associate Pastor Shane Wildermoth from Te Awamutu Bible Chapel (TABC) has been part of a team planting Agape Bible Chapel in Morrinsville—a Waikato town with a population of about 10,000 people, with many employed in the local diary industry.  Shane says it all began with a Bible study he led out of Te Awamutu, “there was a group of Filipino Christian...

Sharing Christ in the Crowd at Waitangi

“We lost count of the number of gospel conversations we had…” OAC National Director Jeremy Dempsey was part of a team from CCCNZ/Open Brethren Churches who travelled to Waitangi this year to share the good news about Jesus.“…each year we find ourselves in the centre of 20,000 people with the opportunity to share the truth, and each year we find real openness to talk and share and people who are hungry for spiritual reality.”Jeremy was joined by Maria Henderson and Kevin Simpson (OAC)...

Growing and Going: Hukanui Plants a Church in Whatawhata

Hukanui Bible Church in Hamilton has recently commissioned and sent a team to plant a new church in Whatawhata.Pastor Dan Pettersen says church planting has long been part of the vision.“On my first day at Hukanui one of the elders was giving me a tour—the church was about to start a building project—and he said to me, ‘we’re a grow and go church, we don’t intend to become a megachurch, once we finish these extensions we’ll be looking to plant somewhere.’“A few years later we w...

Seeing God at Work in the Next Generation

“I’ve noticed something happening among our youth over the past couple of years,” says Raleigh Street Christian Centre Youth Pastor Aaron Hodgson. “They have been a group of young people who are just really keen to speak up, get involved, openly invite friends along to youth group, show a real desire to grow and for their friends to hear about Jesus.“One girl recently told me that, ‘all we do at morning tea is talk about youth group, we want all our friends to hear about Jesus and we...

Planting Seeds: A New Rally at Church On Ingestre

Church On Ingestre in Whanganui recently revived their Rally ministry, with an encouraging start to the year.Elder and Community Pastor Doug Benn says the church was once connected to four different Rallies in the wider Whanganui community and actively involved in regional NZ Rally activities. But as times changed and assemblies moved or closed, interest shifted to other ministries.It wasn’t until a few years ago that the team began considering the possibility of running a Rally again. “Mark...

Gathered Around the Word

Every Tuesday, a group of women and children gathers for lunch at Emmett Street Community Church in Christchurch. Afterwards, they split into smaller groups—someone takes the little ones to play, while others head to a quieter space away from the noise. Around the building, small circles of women pull their chairs close, Bibles open.Emmett Street sits within the wider Shirley community, in a part of Christchurch often described as rough around the edges and is home to people from diverse backg...