The growth of the congregation is impressive. Slap in the middle of the fast-developing Botany Downs, the architecture makes a compelling statement. Yet the achievement of the St Columba congregation is not in the statistics, but in the story of their startling two-year transformation from suburban parish church in Pakuranga to the new regionally focused St Columba, Botany Downs.

Minister Rev Andrew Norton describes the essence of regional church as being "who you are called in mission to serve". "In Botany Downs we're thinking of the 80-100,000 people of East Auckland, who are incredibly diverse and have widely differing needs and expectations of a church. This vision has driven everything about our new church from the architecture, size, wide range of facilities, programmes and the staffing."

Andrew says the regional model, which he discovered in Australia, is not for every situation. But he suggests rural congregations or inner city churches in Wellington or Christchurch could use the concept. To share the knowledge St Columba is hosting a regional church conference in October 2002. Andrew also shares this account of the journey and the innovations at St Columba with sPanz readers.

<typohead type=2>The St Columba Story</typohead>

By Andrew Norton

Disillusioned, discouraged and despondent. The 1999 picture was of the remnant of a once thriving church struggling to recover from years of indecision, lack of unified vision and conflict. People had had enough and were leaving on a weekly basis.

The story of what happened over the next three years has been quite remarkable. I returned to the ministry in 1999 after resigning some three years earlier, never to return again, or so I thought. A reluctant minister starting again and a congregation in need of healing formed a partnership under God to start again.

<typohead type=4>Healing before Re-visioning </typohead>

Hurt and disappointment had set in. Hearts were set in concrete. Weekly healing services were held on a Thursday evening where people gathered and communion was shared. Not too many words were spoken, the scripture was read, tears were shed and over the weeks a visible healing became evident in the life of the congregation.

<typohead type=4>Back to the Future </typohead>

The vision of a church lies buried in the minute books of its past. Months of reading through old minute books, interviewing older members and retreats with the leadership of the church began to recapture a sense of vision for the future. St Columba had a history of being a church in the market place with its location next to the Pakuranga Plaza. But what did it mean to be the church at the Plaza?

A Church where Life and faith meet. That's it! You could see it in their eyes and it was all go. Now we needed to put some flesh on it.

St Columba at Pakuranga began some 35 years ago as it moved from Panmure to Pakuranga. Back in those days, that was a huge and visionary move. They did it as an expression of the mission they believed God was calling them to. Vision, mission and a pioneer spirit was right there in the spiritual DNA of the church, but where that would lead us, God only knew.

<typohead type=4>Cocktail of Circumstance </typohead>

A lack of parking, out dated facilities, no room for expansion, local body political pressure and commercial take over came together in a cocktail of circumstance that led to the nearby Westfield shopping centre offering to buy St Columba. The church had been deeply divided some 12 years earlier by a similar relocation proposal. At first this was perceived as a threat but then we came to see the opportunity that this was providing for us.

Mothers' Day 2000, a congregational meeting was held with the proposal to sell the facilities of St Columba. We had no alternative options available to us. The decision was simply put, "Will you sell not knowing where it is you are going?" That has a strangely biblical sound to it doesn't it? The answer was an overwhelming YES! Surprise came over the room, firstly one with the decision and secondly with the level of unity in the church. This was the first time in many years the church had experienced such unity. Surely, God was at work among us.

<typohead type=4>Get on the Bus </typohead>

The next weeks and months started an enormous process of finding land (a miracle in itself), getting resource planning consent, designing a building and starting to rebuild. Our concern throughout this time was to ensure that we remained people and mission focused and did not allow ourselves to be consumed in a 'building project'.

One of the best things we did was take a bus trip to develop the architectural brief for the new church. We hired a bus and set off with 70 people to visit six churches throughout the greater Auckland area. At each church, a small questionnaire had to be filled out. What does this building tell you about the mission of this people? What do you like about this building? What do you dislike about this building? What must we have in our new St Columba?

This was so helpful for a number of reasons:

1) It helped people identify the connection between form and function, mission and architecture.

2) It helped people identify their own identity. "This is us or, this is not us".

3) It gave the whole church ownership of the brief for the new church.

<typohead type=4>Where Life and faith meet </typohead>

St Columba is making the intentional shift to becoming a seven-day-a-week church. If we are not relevant the other six days then by definition we are irrelevant! To do this we are putting a number of things in place.

Integrating mission, pastoral care and recreation into one, we have established a number of different interest groups that simply do what people like doing. For example a café group, craft group, golf group and gardening group. Now invite others to join with you. Amazing, but when this happens people care for one another, they have a growing sense of belonging and they invite new people who don't yet come to church.

Work place Christianity. Wouldn't it be great if every week you could have a personal visit with everyone in your congregation at their work place? You can. At St Columba we have developed a weekly email to over 150 people at their work place. This email, "4U" is designed to address life and faith issues at work. It's short, punchy and relevant. We have heard amazing stories of how this letter has impacted peoples' lives. Email: subscribe(at)stcolumba.org.nz

Key Learnings: This is a very simple tool but you must know the rules for good email communication. Please spare us any more junk email!

<typohead type=4>Play Groups </typohead>

Escaping from crocodiles, bungy jumping (without the cord), boat rowing, flying like birds, slithering like snakes, clapping and stamping all make up a morning at one of our many play groups' sessions.

It began with a hunch. While we hear of so many mothers putting their children in day care, what about mothers who stay at home with their young children? What about the young mothers' groups from the 60's and 70's? Time to rediscover something that worked so well in the past. With some vision at St Columba, a partnership with The New Vision Foundation and the Ministry of Education, St Columba now has a vibrant play group ministry to over 100 children and some 80 parents each week. This is real community service and becomes part of our mission as relationships are formed and life and faith are naturally shared.

Key Learnings: Build a team of people with a passion for this ministry. Work closely with the Ministry of Education in designing your programme. This will ensure you can claim on a variety of running expenses.

Persevere. Keep going even when your numbers are small. Promotion is by personal invitation and community advertising.

<typohead type=4>Marketing </typohead>

When Jesus said, "Don't hide your lamp", I believe He was saying, "You are your own best kept secret, don't undersell yourself". A creative team of people got together to work with a design and marketing company to help us tell our story to the community. This resulted in the distribution of 10,000 community newsletters distributed each month for seven months. Some call it junk mail, but if it is junk then why does the Warehouse spend tens of thousands of dollars doing it?

Key learnings: Listen to the professionals. Don't do one offs. Just do it.

New people now visit each week as a result of these.

We have also identified multiple points of contact with people. How can someone go to church without going to church? How can they know what to expect or know what you are like? Our web page is designed to meet this need. Check us out at www.stcolumba.org.nz

Key learnings: Keep it simple. Get a team of people to work on it. Establish purpose and flow. You needn't go off and buy expensive software. Use existing software like Word or Publisher or maybe download free web software from the Internet. A high school or university student may be the best person for the job.

<typohead type=4>Babies at Botany </typohead>

Each week we visit every baby born at the Botany Maternity home (1200 pa). The baby receives a pair of booties knitted by the ladies of the church, and a card inviting the parents to celebrate the birth of their child with a prayer of blessing at St Columba.

<typohead type=4>Worship</typohead>

I've been frustrated and bored in church for years. Even to the point of joining the crowd of disillusioned non-church goers. Too much being talked at, sung at, prayed at and too little space to connect with my own thoughts and prayers and space to connect with God.

At St Columba we are continually experimenting and learning how to provide an environment where people can make their own connections with God. Preaching and worship become tools for facilitating an environment of personal connectedness with God. Some key features of our worship include, multi sensory expressions of worship, quiet time, the use of metaphors, music that is culturally relevant and life related preaching.

<typohead type=4>Transitions, Not Change Management </typohead>

It is one thing to move a church, it is quite another to move an entire congregation. At St Columba we have adopted an intentional transitional process. We identified all the people issues and the transitions through which they would need to move to make The Move. It's one thing to move the body but quite another to move a person's heart, emotions, spirit and mind.

Our transition process involved...

<typolist>

Celebrating the heroes and heroines of our past

Celebrating the significant events in our history.

A celebration of marriages conducted at St Columba.

A Memorial Service for acknowledging the farewell of loved ones from St Columba.

Compiling a book of thanksgiving and special memories.

</typolist>

On Sunday 28 July, some 300 people joined in a 4 km walk from Pakuranga to Botany. Everyone made the move. That's transition!

Footnote: Last month the new St Columba grew by over 100 people to become a congregation of well over 400. People returning to the church, disillusioned Christians, church shoppers and non Christians are among those checking out the new facilities.