City Impact Church New Zealand

City Impact Church North Shore Campus
City Impact Church North Shore Campus

City Impact Church is a nondenominational church of faith with pentecostal beliefs based in East Coast Bays, New Zealand. Formerly known as Bays Christian Fellowship, it was founded in 1982 by current senior pastors Peter Mortlock and his wife Bev Mortlock.[1] It runs three Sunday services, one at 8.15 am, one at 10 am and another at 6:30 pm.[2] The church also holds regular Community Impact days where over 700 volunteers go out into various schools, hospitals and homes to help clean, garden and maintain the properties, as they seek to put biblical principles into practice.

The church also runs the television programme Impact For Life on TV channel Prime every Sunday morning at 9 am, TV1 on Tuesday mornings at 5:05am and TV3 on Tuesday mornings at 5:30 am, as well as on Shine TV. Internationally, the Impact for Life programme has been screened regularly on the Australian Christian Channel, United Christian Broadcast in UK, Power Vision in India, Cook Islands TV in Rarotonga, World Harvest Broadcasting network in Fiji and Daavo Christian Bible Channel in the Philippines.[3]

Peter Lineham, a Christian academic at Massey University states "City Impact is fundamentalist in doctrine which shows in its views of women and homosexuality, and is closer to Destiny Church than any other church."[4]

Expansion of the Church

In addition to the North Shore branch, CIC also built a new 1,800 seat campus in Mt. Wellington in 2010, which CIC now has two Auckland campuses. Mt Wellington campus hosts services at 10am and 6.30pm on Sundays.[5] City Impact Church also has a network of churches in the South Island of New Zealand. These are located in Queenstown, Invercargill, Balclutha, as well as overseas churches, City Impact Church Canada, in Moncton, Bathurst and Fredericton, and one in Tonga (that was recently rebuilt and developed in 2010 by teams formed by the Church.

City Impact Church Canada is based in Moncton and has two other locations in New Brunswick, Canada. The church's Senior Pastor's are Gerry and Toby LeBlanc.[6] The main church in Moncton has an 300-seat auditorium with attached auditorium for the youth and Sunday school services, and also a private Christian school (Rhema Academy).

In 2011, City Impact Church earned a revenue of $10,000,000 – roughly $6.9 million of that coming from donations.[7][8]

City Impact Church School

CIC founded City Impact Church School in 2004, where subjects include History, Geography and Doctrine, Language, Mathematics, Science, Art, Music, Drama, PE, and Kingdom Building, and teaches Years 0 through to 13 (Primary, Intermediate and Secondary school).[9][10][11][12] In 2015 the school opened a new classroom block to accommodate for the large growth in the school.[13] It was temporarily closed in 2005 by the Ministry of Education because it was not a registered educational institution, however was soon reopened once registration was complete.[14][15][16]

Community Impact

MP Hon Sam Lotu-Liga at a Community Impact Day in September 2015
MP Hon Sam Lotu-Liga at a Community Impact Day in September 2015

CIC runs a community support program called Community Impact.[17] This program involves hundreds of church volunteers going to various schools, hospitals and private homes and helping clean, garden and decorate the property.[18][19][20][21][22] The church holds 3-4 Community Impact days a year, with over 700 volunteers reaching 150-200 homes across New Zealand.[18][23] City Impact also delivers over 1000 Christmas boxes every Christmas to underprivileged individuals and families as part of their Christmas community impact day.[19] To help identify and support families City Impact works with numerous different community organisations.[24]

The community impact days have gained a lot of local community attention with Maungakiekie MP, Mr Sam Lotu-Liga, joining in on a community impact day in September 2015.[25]

City Impact Childcare

The church has three childcare centres, two in Auckland and one in Queenstown.[26][27] 80% of their teachers are qualified and they are open to both church members and not-church members.[26][28] In 2014 one of their head teachers, Francesca Bunting, was awarded the NZ's Most Inspiring Teachers award in the Early Childhood category.[28][29]

Opposition to same-sex marriage

Enough Is Enough rally

City Impact Church has historically worked alongside Brian Tamaki's Destiny Church. In 2004 they jointly organised the first of the Enough Is Enough rallies protesting against the legalisation of civil unions in New Zealand and promoting "traditional family values."[30] The protesters' all-black clothing drew unfavourable comparisons with the all-black uniforms of the Nazi Schutzstaffel and the rise of fascism in pre-World War II Europe.[31][32][33] Wellington newspaper The Dominion Post reported the protest under the headline "Black shirts take to the Streets" while The Christchurch Press and other newspapers used "March arouses Nazi fears."[34] A subsequent editorial in The New Zealand Herald pointed out that "for all the fear and loathing [the march] aroused in liberal discussion" the church had done nothing to suggest "that its intentions are other than law-abiding and democratic."[34][35]

Poll controversy

In January 2013 The New Zealand Herald reported that pastor Peter Mortlock had attempted to manipulate a same-sex marriage poll.[36][37] The poll was set up on the website of MP Murray McCully, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in reference to Louisa Wall's Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013, and asked "Do you support or oppose the proposed legislation that would make it possible for same sex couples to marry?" Mortlock emailed his congregation stating "Since we are able to vote as many times as we like, I'd encourage you to place your votes and keep checking back." The multiple votes were spotted by the McCully staff and were removed.[38]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "About Us - City Impact Church". City Impact Church. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  2. ↑ Sunday Service in CIC http://cityimpactchurch.com/get-connected/sunday-services/ Archived 16 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ Impact for Life on worldwide channels http://www.cityimpactchurch.com/impactforlife/tabid/68/Default.aspx Archived 19 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Marvin, Frank (27 September 2012). "Fortune Follower". Mountain Scene. Queenstown. p. 4. Archived from the original on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  5. ↑ "Fairfax Digital Edition". fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  6. ↑ http://www.cityimpactchurch.com/canada/
  7. ↑ Marvin, Frank (27 September 2012). "Huge jumps in tithes and profit at City Impact Church". Mountain Scene. Queenstown. p. 4. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  8. ↑ "Charities Services NZ - City Impact Church". www.register.charities.govt.nz. Retrieved 2016-01-29.
  9. ↑ "Subjects". City Impact Church School. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  10. ↑ Counts, Education. "Ministry of Education - Education Counts". www.educationcounts.govt.nz. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  11. ↑ Counts, Education. "Ministry of Education - Education Counts". www.educationcounts.govt.nz. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  12. ↑ "ERO City Impact Church School". Education Review Office. Retrieved 3 Feb 2015.
  13. ↑ "Christian School Celebrates | Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  14. ↑ "Church school forced to shut". North Shore Local History. Auckland Council. 17 February 2005. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  15. ↑ "Church school vows to reopen". North Shore Local History. Auckland Council. 1 March 2005. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  16. ↑ "School jumps gun". North Shore Local History. Auckland Council. 10 February 2005. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  17. ↑ "Community Impact By City Impact Church". Community Impact by City Impact Church. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  18. 1 2 "Church volunteers make a big impact". Stuff. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  19. 1 2 "Church decorates Waitakere Hospital". Stuff. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  20. ↑ "Newspaper Articles". Community Impact by City Impact Church. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  21. ↑ "City Impact Church volunteers - Well Foundation - Boosting Health & Wellness in Auckland's North and West.". wellfoundation.org.nz. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  22. ↑ "City Impact Church Working Bee at Bailey Road School.". www.baileyroad.school.nz. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  23. ↑ "Community Impact By City Impact Church". Community Impact by City Impact Church. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  24. ↑ "Partners & Organisations". Community Impact by City Impact Church. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  25. ↑ "It was another stellar day in Auckland!... - Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  26. 1 2 "About Us | Our Christian childcare centre". City Impact Church Childcare Centre. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  27. ↑ "City Impact Kindergarten". ChildcareOnline.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  28. 1 2 "Welcome to City Impact Church Childcare". Vimeo. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  29. ↑ "The Warehouse Group Limited Annual Report 2014". The Warehouse Group Ltd. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  30. ↑ "Auckland civil union march noisy but peaceful". The New Zealand Herald. Auckland. 5 March 2005. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  31. ↑ Davies, Emma (August 2004). "Emma Davies: Cultism in religion rings the alarm bells". The New Zealand Herald. Auckland. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  32. ↑ Dunne, Peter (August 2004). "Tolerance, diversity don't depend on acceptability". The New Zealand Herald. Auckland. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  33. ↑ "Rally celebrates ethnic diversity, condemns racism". The New Zealand Herald. Auckland. 24 August 2004. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  34. 1 2 Bailey, Michael; Redden, Guy, eds. (2011). Mediating Faiths: Religion and Socio-cultural Change in the Twenty-first Century. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-7546-6786-5.
  35. ↑ "Editorial: Church has every right to be heard". The New Zealand Herald. Auckland. 25 August 2004. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  36. ↑ Samways, Ana (16 January 2013). "Poll shenanigans". The New Zealand Herald. Auckland. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  37. ↑ Littauer, Dan (16 January 2013). "Pastor caught rigging New Zealand gay marriage poll". Gay Star News. London. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  38. ↑ Pinfold, Corinne (17 January 2013). "New Zealand pastor accused of trying to rig equal marriage poll". Pink News. Retrieved 2 May 2013.

Coordinates: 36°43′21″S 174°43′20″E / 36.7224°S 174.7223°E / -36.7224; 174.7223

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