Our History (How we Started)

It all started in 1989 when two families moved to Nelson from Paraparaumu. Also in Nelson at that time, the Church of Christ in Rutherford St had been having quite a move, particularly amongst young people under the leadership of a charismatic Pastor. His charismatic methods were a bit too much for the mainly older congregation of the day and they parted ways, leaving a great deal of ill-feeling from his supporters and the older ones. Many left the Church then and three families and a number of individuals joined in with the two families from Paraparaumu forming the basis of a Church which became known as the City Christian Centre.

 

Their earlier meetings were held in homes, but then they hired the Red Cross hall in Vanguard St, where young ones began to come in and a number made commitments to Jesus. It was at this time that God gave the Church the vision to reach the youth of Nelson. The Church then looked at the possibility of purchasing 'the ministry of works depot'. It was then that the Church began to hold dances on Friday nights at the depot complex as an outreach, which was the beginning of what became known as the Led Zebra underage niteclub. People began to come to Jesus and join the Church. As the Church began to grow the older ones began to drift off and over two years there were only 6 left out of the 35 from the original Church.

The Church opened up a house for guys and saw many young men over the years take up residence there. Many went to Lifeway school of evangelism over the next few years. The Church was involved in outdoor concerts, proclaiming the gospel, as well as the tour of duty (production of dance, music and drama) in and around Nelson, Blenhiem and Picton. The Church grew to about 120, and as the transfer growth continued their floating onto other Churches, other new converts took their place and the numbers stayed at this level for a number of years. The Church began to send out teams to India, Mexico, Vanuatu, Venezuala and Croatia. All this was the birthing of God's heart for missions in the Church.

The Church began running a drop-in cafe in which they saw many come to the Lord over a period of 3 years. The Church had to leave the depot complex, so we began moving around, starting with the Quality hotel, then onto the Auckland Point school hall, while during the summer months meetings were held outdoors at ANZAC Park. The Church finally found a home for it's offices as well as a venue for a cafe niteclub for the youth of Nelson in the Atomic cafe.

The Church has been effective in many ways in the community, such as Atomic Youth Café, Dynamite Bay (kids club) now known as Destiny Kidz, L.I.F.E. club for at-risk youth, bible in schools, fostering kids, initiating drug-arm in Nelson, Real Youth Programme, Fusion Youth - now known as Destiny Youth. On June the 22nd of 2001 we officially submitted ourselves as a Church, to the leadership of Bishop Brian & Hannah Tamaki of Destiny Churches International and re-emmerged as Destiny Church Nelson. Since then we have enjoyed strong growth and have flourished as a Church. We have extended our ministry to the city of Nelson into many new areas including Men's & Women's conferences, the opening of a new Youth Centre in the suburb of Stoke, and many other new initiatives as listed in the "Church Ministries" section of our site.

If I have left any important information out, I'm sorry, it was not intentional. There have been so many good people that have added to the history of Destiny Church Nelson. To you, we say thank you, God Himself will reward you as you have served Him .... too many to mention individually, so we've called you all the 'Church’.

 

Yours in Christ,


Ps. Martin Daly