The history of Golden Sands Baptist Church began as a couple sat in a spa pool. The spa pool was a gift from their children for their 25th wedding anniversary. The spa overlooked the Papamoa region and the Te Puke couple observed more house lights appeared along the Papamoa coast. This sparked the thought, ‘someone would need to build a church in that development before it gets too built up.’ From that thought, the search for land began.
Several years passed when Bluehaven Developments came on board and helped secure 1ha of land. In addition to the land, they managed to secure convenance on all the houses surrounding the property, which prevented any objections to having a church building in a residential area.
Although the history of the church building began around two decades ago and had a slow start, Golden Sands Baptist Church opened to services (before the commencement of the church building) much later in May 2018. They are growing steadily and have a membership roll of approximately 100 members.
Upon completion, the church building will be a hub for Papamoa, as the building is more than a church. The building will have three wings (A, B and C). Wing A will be a community space for exclusive use by community companies. ‘We will rent out to community-minded enterprises, rather than just letting it to the local accountant’, Ken Edkins, Chairperson of the Building Team, says. Wing B will be the community and church spaces, which have the opportunity to be hired out short term. This consists of a community hall, secure children’s play area, and foyer. Wing B has access to a centrally located full commercial kitchen, a toilet block and storage. Followed by Wing C, the main Church space; consists of a 450 seat auditorium, offices, prayer room and much more.
Ken says from his experience working with Christian Savings he has seen that ‘Christian Savings understand a church’s point of view’ as regular banks don’t often lend to churches.
‘Churches can’t grow in the climate we are living in today without capital. Building and helping with the Christian mission can’t happen without capital. And the main form of capital is Christian Savings because the banks won’t lend’ Ken mentioned this factor when asked about investing with Christian Savings.
It has been a pleasure to be a part of this project, and we cannot wait to see the Church meeting in their new building, which is expected to be completed in just under a year.
