The 2025 annual update from Waikato & Bay of Plenty, Eastland Baptist Association Regional Leader Peter Foster.
This year has been a good year for us in the Waikato in many respects.
Baptisms are a highlight. I love hearing the story of the personal journey of someone towards baptism.
Our numbers have gone up from last year which is fantastic.
Pastors and leaders getting involved in clusters has increased as well. This has created a greater sense of unity and purpose for us.
I was very pleased with the Regional Hui. The content was missional and local in focus. We had a little over 100 that attended. Thanks so much Matamata Baptist and Juliette for the effort you put into it.
It has been fantastic to have new pastors in Thames, Otorohanga and Whangamata. We continue to pray for pastoral placements in Te Aroha, Taumarunui and Te Awamutu. We need youth pastors / Leaders across our two regions.
A number of our churches have gone through tough times financially.
This has not been easy and working through these times takes effort, emotional energy and lots of prayer. When you add to that other tough times that churches go through, I have found and I think the churches have found that there is no easy way through these times other than getting on with working through them.
If there is a silver lining, it is the commitment that our church members and leaders have to their local churches.
In some cases I wonder why people hang around, but they do, because they are committed to the local church and to the call of Christ on their lives. Thank you to all of you for this sort of commitment to your local church.
I have witnessed churches grappling with what it means for Gospel renewal within the community that they represent. This is fantastic because this is what we are about.
We have Alpha courses going. We have children programmes and holiday programmes. We have community meals, foodbanks and housing initiatives. Many other things are going on.
In 2026 I would like to introduce Acts 2 Movement and active celebration towards 2033 and Church revitalisation programme. I have talked a little about Acts 2 with our pastors and will continue to do so. I am excited about this and look forward to sharing more with you about it. I look forward to 2026 with expectation and Christ inspired hope.
Thank you so much to the Association Board/ Executive. It has been a pleasure working alongside you this year and I look forward to what 2026 brings us.
This report is from the 2025 Annual Report of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand which can be viewed here.
Image Credit: Hui 2022, Mike Crudge
