About Us

Our People

Kia ora, and welcome to Papanui Baptist’s website. We are a people of God who are learning to share God’s heart for each other and for northwest Christchurch. Papanui Baptist began with a ministry to children from our community (1958), and we have continued the tradition of working to support the needs in our suburb. We are on a journey of learning to be salt and light in our neighbourhoods across the northwest (and beyond), doing life together throughout the week with a desire to see God’s upside-down kingdom breaking through in the lives of our neighbours and our local area.

To us, being salt and light means participating by the Holy Spirit in what Jesus is doing for the glory of the Father. Reading Scripture in the context of Ōtautahi (Christchurch), being salt and light here means advocating for “the least of these” in our communities, giving favour to the people and places our society neglects; means respecting the bi-cultural principles established in the Treaty of Waitangi; means living with respect for our environment; means a diverse group of people from all ages, ethnicities, socio-economic situations, and abilities working together in unity.

To support us in this, we do things like gather for worship on Sundays, as well in small groups throughout the week.  We have multiple ministries that provide the means by which we can serve, such as food deliveries, a sewing group, music and dance for children, a youth group, community lunches, older adult services, and much more. We (with Papanui Baptist Freedom Trust) also benefit from our relationships with other organisations in the northwest, such as Northcity Church and Northgate Trust, Papanui Youth Development Trust (LOOP), and Te Ora Hou Ōtautahi.

Our Beliefs

• God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is known as “love”—he has always been love, and always will be.
• This same God loves the world and all people! He loves each one of us personally. God created us in his image and wants to have relationship with us—so much so that God the Father sent God the Son to dwell among us as a human—Jesus Christ—and to reconcile us to God by his life, death, and resurrection. We believe the good news of the gospel begins with God’s “Yes” to the world.
• The resurrection is at the heart of our faith, because by it we know that Jesus is Lord and that he is establishing his kingdom here in our midst.
• One day he will return, and his kingdom will be established eternally (it will literally be heaven on earth!).
• Until then, Jesus has sent us God the Holy Spirit, so that we have become the body of Christ, the church—his embassy on earth until he returns. In other words, God has given us the awesome responsibility of participating in his work of reconciling the world to himself, that all peoples and all places might hear the good news of the God who loves us and desires us for himself!
• Having been brought into this life-changing relationship with God through Jesus who’s like a light shining in the darkness, we’re made aware of our own sin and darkness—we made other things our gods and lived in pride. Having been met by the God who comes to us by way of the cross of Easter, we’ve become aware of his grace and love, which was given when we were still sinners. God has invited us to turn away from that other life and to join in his work of redemption and healing.

How do I Begin a Relationship with God?

To Belong. To Grow. To Influence