Christchurch-South Island Part I

We returned home tonight from our trip to the South Island completely exhausted. Our trip was a success on many levels. In visiting so many different places over the two weeks that we were away, there is a lot to share. 

The first part of our trip was spent in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. We were able to be in Christchurch for two and a half days. We spent those two days meeting with different church leaders in Christchurch, conducting street interviews, and observing people in the city. Since we had already done the demographic studies (learned about the makeup of the city through statistics about the people who live there) it was very helpful to be in the city to see these demographics come to life with the people with whom we spoke. 

Our time in Christchurch confirmed what we had predicted, and taught us even more than we expected. We found that very few people went to church (less than 5% of the people we spoke with), very few people were interested in ever setting foot inside a church building, many people could not even give us the name of a church in the city (of 400,000 people.) We spoke with people who laughed at the idea of anyone wanting to start a new church, letting us know that no one is interested in what a church has to offer. Others we spoke with said that there is nothing wrong with church, they even had their name on membership lists, but they couldn

't remember the last time they had gone. We met people with a wide variety of spiritual interests. 

On Sunday, Hamish was preaching and talked for a moment about persecution in the church in other parts of the world. He said something that summarizes Christianity in New Zealand. Hamish said "The church in New Zealand isn't being persecuted for it's beliefs, something far worse is happening to the church; in New Zealand, no one cares."  With the attitude that people have of not caring, we are continually reminded of the hard road ahead of us. 

With Christchurch being the first of our survey trips, it would be premature for us to make a decision about this city yet. We will continue to pray about Christchurch as we conduct more survey work in other areas. We definitely saw a need for God's love in this city, though we imagine that we will find this in many of the areas that we visit. Please continue to pray with us as we continue to conduct survey work. 

Check back in as Part II of our trip will be coming soon.