Worldwide Church of God

Training Weekends

A two-day intensive has been provided annually on most years since 2001 in order to train and/or teach interested members of the church in foundational elements of a wide variety of topics and skills. For the last several years this training has been centred at Waikanae, in the lower North Island, about 50km north of Wellington.

Training has been provided by Ambassador College of Christian Ministries (ACCM), which is based in the church’s office facilities in the Gold Coast, Australia. This is to be interspersed on occasional years with targeted training for those involved in particular ministries, e.g. development courses for congregational pastoral team members, etc..

There will be no Training Weekend for 2010 as our annual booking at Waikanae will be utilised for a New Zealand Women's Conference.

Venue: El Rancho, Waikanae

El Rancho is a Christian holiday camp, providing a range of accommodation and activity options. Located just a few kilometres of SH1, the camp is on the seaward side of the township of Waikanae (see map below).

Traditionally, we have utilised the Elm Lodge and Elm Hall facilities (see site map at top right corner). This provides us with three dormitory complexes each containing nine rooms holding twin single beds, wardrobe and washing basin, two normal shower rooms for one, two normal toilet rooms, and one handicap-compliant combination shower/toilet room. The absolute accommodation maximum is therefore 54 persons, although typically we have limited it to not more than 40 persons.

There is vehicular access to the Elm Lodge complex, with a car park directly behind units 9 and 10.

Meals are taken at the Elmwood Dining Room, which is part of the Meeting Room, Hall and Lounge facility at the centre bottom of the site map above.