Christine Stride is Executive Assistant to the Baptist National Leader and works at the Baptist National Support Centre in Auckland. She is a member of Titirangi Baptist Church in Auckland.
The National Support Centre staff hear many stories of gospel renewal from around the motu from people we encounter day to day. People are eager to share the positive things happening in their whānau, faith community, or fellowship. It’s good to be reminded that God is at work everywhere.
Here are four examples of gospel renewal happening in our local Baptist churches that we wanted to share with you.
A simple invitation
The young mother who was baptised after joining the Bible reading sessions held at the Kumeu Baptist Church playgroup in West Auckland. This woman’s baptism has been a two-year journey of the KBC team praying, building relationships and ploughing the field. A simple invitation to read scripture has changed her life.
Good stewardship
The local church that decided to develop its land in the western Bay of Plenty to provide much-needed housing for older people and people with chronic health conditions. In 2023, Te Puke Baptist Church voted unanimously to start The Jabez Initiative, a charitable company that will build Evergreen House – Whare Katoa. Now the project is near completion. This is an example of a church stewarding its resources for gospel renewal.
An act of kindness
The refugee family from the Republic of Congo that started coming to Eastside Baptist Church, Invercargill, after a woman from Eastside picked them up while they were walking in the rain. As she drove them to their home, the woman invited them along to church. The family came the following Sunday, and now a number of other Congolese refugee families also attend Eastside.
Faith and persistent prayer
The father and son who were baptised together at Beachlands Baptist Church, Auckland. The wife and mum of these two guys has been praying for them for the past 20 years. During a church service, they asked the elders to pray for them and ended up giving their lives to the Lord. This is proof that faith and persistent prayer works.
If you’d like to share a story of gospel renewal, please email [email protected]
Past gospel renewal stories:
This is gospel renewal: Brunch Church
Photo: Kirsty (left) and Shane McConnell, of G.J. Gardner Homes, Jabez Initiative directors Amy Cumming and Airdrie Grylls, and Te Puke Baptist pastor Josiah Carr. By Bob Tulloch.
