Leaving home for the first time can be one of the most vulnerable seasons in a young adult’s faith journey. At Riccarton Community Church (RCC) in Christchurch, a group of young leaders asked themselves: what helped us hold on to faith through uni and how can we offer that to others?
Their answer was to re-launch The Peverel Flats, purpose-built student flats in Christchurch where young adults live, study, and explore faith in intentional community. “Discipleship often looks like sharing life in Christ together in an ordinary, everyday way,” says James Sheat, who is an elder at RCC and one of the Peverel Flats oversight team.
“We began discussing what it was like for us when we were going through uni and leaving home for the first time,” says James Sheat. “We asked ourselves: What was it that made us get through uni with our faith in tact? When many use their uni years as a time to deconstruct their faith, what helped us re-construct it for the long-haul?”
Their conversation kept circling back to one place: The Peverel Flats. The flats had provided a community that helped faith grow rather than fade. That memory became the spark for a new season of ministry.
Reviving a Vision
The Peverel Flats began in 2004 when Joy and Russell Broughton felt called to provide a supportive environment for students new to Christchurch. They built two purpose-designed six-bedroom flats where nearly 100 young people lived over eight years, receiving pastoral care and sharing Christian community.
After the Christchurch earthquakes, student numbers fell and the ministry closed. But when James and his peers approached the new property owners with the idea of managing the units, the answer was ‘yes’. And they've been up and running again since 2016.
More Than Just Housing
The heart of the ministry remains the same, and the new model has led to surprising flexibility. Rather than owning the properties and dealing with all the financial output and liability, the team can pour their time and energy into what matters most: pastorally caring for young adults in their first year away from home.
RCC Lead Youth Pastor Matt Meek says the flats’ model has enabled something bigger than anyone expected:
“The Peverel Flats ministry makes a huge difference to our wider Young Adults community. It helps build momentum and provides a stable base to build relationships with 12 students (and their friends) every year,” Matt says. Retreats, rhythms of prayer, and shared meals help students integrate faith into everyday flat life.
“Over the years we’ve seen amazing brotherhoods and sisterhoods come out of the flats, it has been so cool to see young people spur each other on in the faith. A number of Peverel students have been baptised and we’ve seen their flatmates pray for them and speak at their baptisms.”
But the vision has never been about numbers, says Matt:
“Our heart when we started this was not to grow our young adults community, our main heart is to support and encourage young adults who are looking to establish themselves somewhere else and to help build their faith in a safe community. So we’ve made it as easy as possible to move away from home and to connect into church.”
For Jayden Butler (pictured above), the flats provided exactly that.
“I moved from Ashburton to Christchurch in 2023 to study, and thought the Peverel Flats sounded like a good place. I had a friend who stayed in them the year before, and with it being my first year away from home I didn’t know anyone in Christchurch to stay with. I liked the idea of it being a Christian flat for first time flatters.”
What began as a practical choice quickly became a spiritual community. “Basically, I just kept going back to RCC, and really enjoyed it so never left! I ended up making some good connections and friends, people who I knew could pray for me and help me out. I’m a drummer and play drums on the worship team, and have also served as a youth leader at RCC.”
The community around him gave Jayden strength when changing study paths and starting an electrician apprenticeship. “It was really good to have other Christians around me to pray with me about getting into the course,” he says.
“Sometimes it’s a bit of a mission to follow Jesus when working in a trade. Every day you’re surrounded by so many non-Christians, it can be tempting to join in with their jokes and banter. I’ve tried not to be quiet about the fact I have a faith… To be honest I’ve found that a lot of people are pretty accepting of my faith, no one has looked down on me because of it.”
Jayden says he’s thankful for the foundation the flats provided. “Moving out of home has got its challenges, and the support is the best. The Peverel Flats is a great place for first time flatters, people who haven’t done bills or flat accounts before and need a bit of help. It was great to have people give you advice on how to set up stuff.”
Ordinary Life, Lasting Faith
The story of the Peverel Flats is not about buildings but about people. It’s a story of ordinary discipleship happening in kitchens, lounges, and shared spaces. It’s about young adults discovering that enduring faith is lived out together. As James puts it, “Discipleship often looks like sharing life in Christ together in an ordinary, everyday way.” And at the Peverel Flats, that ordinary life is shaping a generation for the long haul.
For more information on the flats, including applying for the 2026 intake: www.peverelflats.co.nz
