From Jerusalem they came to spread the word
Their church is up and running, so they’re about to set up another. Chris Gardner reports. Nine years after planting a church in Hamilton, pastors Ray and Carolien Moxham are preparing to plant a second in the city.
The Moxhams established Freedom Christian Church which, until December, met in the hall at Hillcrest Normal School. On December 15 the congregation moved to its own building in Clow Place, off Gallagher Drive.
‘‘Nobody wants to go to a school hall for church,’’ Pastor Ray said. ‘‘School halls are not always the most inviting of places. Getting into buildings is hard as well.’’
Freedom Christian Church holds two services on a Sunday at 9am and 10.30am and also meets on a Sunday night.
‘‘We are a real mixed bag in age and ethnicity,’’ Pastor Ray said. ‘‘It’s one of the things that makes us us. We have people from all over the world. About 19 ethnicities. What makes us different is we are a real mix. New Zealanders are in the minority.
‘‘On a Sunday morning there’s going to be 30 Indians, 30 Asians, 30 Pacific Islanders. The church in Jerusalem was like that, the church in Waiuku not.’’
The Moxhams met in Jerusalem where Mr Moxham trained for the ministry via South African and American run correspondence courses.
‘‘My father went out there, and it was too good an opportunity to miss. I was 19 and thought I would be there for a year and ended up being there nine years.’’
It was in Jerusalem that Pastor Ray met Carolien, who is from the Netherlands.
‘‘We met in Jerusalem, and got married in Jerusalem in the old city.
‘‘It’s an amazing place to live. It’s
Working together: very interesting. New Zealand is very quiet by comparison. There’s always a bomb [in Jerusalem], there’s always a government about to fall, there’s always a riot. It’s great there. It’s like no other place on earth.’’
In 1992 the Moxhams moved to New Zealand to pastor an Assemblies of God church in Waiuku, south of Auckland.
‘‘It was a small church that was about to close down. We came from Jerusalem, the centre of three world religions, to the centre of Waiuku. The church grew to a reasonable size and did well.’’
By 2004, the Waiuku church had grown large enough to send the Moxhams south.
‘‘If you have been in the church for any length of time you will get an opportunity to lead church. People come up with ideas I have never thought of. Things that just blow my mind,’’ Pastor Ray said.
‘‘On Sunday nights we try and make it completely different.
‘‘We also meet at church on a Wednesday night. We don’t really do home groups, we find they don’t really work for us, but we start off with coffee and chcoloate biscuits. Then we go into groups that do different things: Bible study, prayer, training. Some groups are more intellectual, some more touchy feely.’’
‘‘We now have four pastors in the church; us, Pastor Derynne and Pastor Te Rina. We don’t tend to use surnames.’’
Now the couple are looking to plant a second church in the northern suburb of Te Rapa.