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History of the Wellington Congregation
 
 
Welcome to the Wellington page!  It was in 1971 that the first official meetings were held for the church members living in this region, when a Bible study was held on January 25 of that year.  Prior to that there had been a number of lectures to which Plain Truth readers were invited.  Regular church services did not begin till April 10 of that same year, but without a local pastor.  Speakers were sent down from Auckland and local arrangements were handled by Bob Ineson, who was the first deacon of this congregation.  The first resident pastor was John Larkin, who arrived with his wife Fiona in July of 1973.  With them came Gary and Pam Harvey (Gary was then a ministerial trainee) who assisted until January of 1975.  Weekly services were held in those early years in a school hall in Silverstream.

In early April 1975 the Larkins were moved on to Christchurch and replaced by Lyall Johnston who had previously been the office manager of the regional office in Auckland.  Lyall and Wynnis served then till the end of July 1977 when they were transferred (to the USA) and Gary and Pam Harvey returned to take up the pastoral role here.  The church had then grown to about 60 and it was during the Harvey's three years that the first elders were ordained from amongst the membership: Dennis Richards (1979) and Dennis Gordon (1980).  A second deacon, Wayne Jones, was ordained about this time also.

In November 1980 the Harveys were transferred to Australia and the Johnstons, having returned from the USA, resumed pastoring Wellington and the surrounding region, which then included New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Hawkes Bay and Nelson. Attendance at weekly services in Wellington were then about 150, peaking later at nearly 170 in 1992 during the pastorate of Colin and Beverley Kelly (1990-1995).  Shortly before his departure to Tauranga, Lyall Johnston ordained Wayne Jones a local elder, and later (1994) Colin Kelly added Louis Smith, the first Polynesian elder in the church in New Zealand.

In the period 1997-1995 the church underwent a severe period of instability as church leaders in the USA grappled with establishing and disseminating far reaching doctrinal revisions.  Sadly, not all members could accept these changes and church numbers fell sharply.  In the Wellington congregation attendance had fallen to about 80 by September of 1995 when the Kellys transferred to Australia and Dennis and Sue Richards, then pastoring the three smaller churches in the lower central North Isaland, assumed the pastoral responsibility for Wellington and Nelson also.

The fall in church numbers across the nation brought with it a decline in church income.  In partial response to this situation the church as a whole moved to a new model of financing in which 75% of local funds were returned to the originating congregation for their use, out of which employed pastors would need to be paid.  This falling income resulted in Dennis Richards going part time in 2000, releasing him for degree studies, before returning to full time employment in 2004 as the financial situation in the church as a whole improved.

In 2002 a pastoral team was formed to ensure pastoral needs in the congregation were being fully met.  In 2006 it was proposed that Brian Barnes and his wife Dagmar assist the Invercargill group by providing regular pastoral support.  Brian was ordained an elder and confirmed in his role as pastor there in June of 2007 and continues to visit Invercargill regularly.