Zion Church senior leader Phil Strong outside the church’s new Churchill St premises on Monday – which was also moving day
Zion Church officially moved into a new multipurpose facility on Monday.
Senior leader Phil Strong wants to see the Churchill St premises, known as the Zion Hub, established as a gift to Te Awamutu in the form of a new community space.
“The building itself isn’t our vision, of course. But we’re a church with a heart for Te Awamutu – and this is just one piece of a bigger picture when it comes to our journey,” he said.
“While the new space will serve as the hub of our church operations, our vision is that this facility would also become an integral part of serving – and complementing – community activity, becoming a sort of community hub too.”
As well as a meeting space, Zion Hub features counselling, training and board rooms, a fully equipped studio for audio and visual recording, an administration hub and a separate facility outside which will facilitate the church’s children’s programme.
Plans are underway for a state-of-the-art playground next to the outside room.
A craft group is already planning to meet in Zion Hub, with counselling services available there once a week.
Each part of the hub has the community in mind.
“Our vision really is that this space would become integrated into what the community is already doing and become a facility which ultimately serves them.”
The outside room which Zion church will repurpose in order to accommodate its children’s programme.
The church signed the lease in February, beginning the work to transform the hub that same month.
Phil – who has been Zion’s senior leader since 2015 – said the goal had always been to shift from the church’s former Racecourse Rd facility before winter.
The move comes after Zion, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, announced plans last June to release almost a hectare of land on Racecourse Rd for 40 affordable homes.
“The market currently provides some challenges, but we are determined to make it affordable social housing – and for us to be able to make it affordable, we’re putting in place a carefully constructed plan as to how we deliver those.”
So far, one lunch and one gathering – or church service – have been held in the Zion Hub.
“There certainly was some excitement. A key phrase for us is “…everyone needs a spiritual home…” Church is not a building or a meeting, church is family. And there’s a sense this is our new home,” Phil said.
He added that the outside room had been one “missing piece of the puzzle” as the team considered facilitating its children’s programme on Sundays.
“We didn’t have the space inside the building that I could see would work as a permanent solution.”
That is, until a lunch with Habitat for Humanity staff gave rise to the church being gifted what was a former community room space at Habitat for Humanity’s Palmer St site.
It arrived on site at Churchill St about a fortnight ago.“The building was no longer needed in the framework of development plans at Palmer St, so we were fortunate enough to be given it – it’s perfect for us.”
Builders are due on-site next week to begin preparing the room for use.
