Three Auckland churches have come together in partnership to share the good news about Jesus with their local community.
When the Ōtāhuhu Gospel Hall building became vacant, Stewards’ Trust and CCCNZ approached Papatoetoe Bible Church, Pakuranga Christian Fellowship, and Amatakiloa Gospel Church to talk about what it would look like to start a fresh ministry in the location.
Papatoetoe elder Graeme McNae met with pastors Ken Hutchinson from Pakuranga, and ‘Ofa Fatafehi from Amatakiloa to talk about how they might work together.
“There was a shared desire to reach people and wanting to bring a real, genuine understanding of the gospel to bear within the context of Pacific Island families…" says Graeme, "...in South Auckland families are critical, and we wanted to come up with some concept that would involve the parents and involve the children, but it would be absolutely rooted in the gospel and in disciple-making…”
Graeme, along with his wife Colleen, spent 15 years serving as missionaries in Tonga, and then in South Auckland, where they have been involved in church planting and the evangelism, discipleship and training of many Pasifika people.
At this stage the three churches are sharing responsibilities for different aspects of regular ministry at the church building, as they pray and explore ongoing gospel partnership.
The three churches held their first gathering at Ōtāhutu Gospel Hall on August 30, with a sausage sizzle, youth performing songs, and each church taking responsibility for different aspects of the service.
Graeme says it wasn’t about starting with a bang—but about starting with families, “All the people who came were really encouraged… we've had people coming by, some of them want to use the building, but some of them have seen the sign on the building and said, ‘that word gospel, we like that.’ They told me, ‘we're sick of the rules and regulations of our church, and we're tired of that. We want to start something ourselves, and we like the word gospel.’”
Graeme says the three churches are committed to working together to discern what God is doing, with the interim leadership agreeing to start a weekly Sunday afternoon service, “built around good music, fellowship and leaning about the person of Jesus Christ and the meaning of the gospel.”
