Mission  Statement

"St Johns gathers in prayer and fellowship to worship God in central Wellington. Through the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit we seek to care for and strengthen our members and help them to a growing relationship with God. In this way, just as God cares for us, we seek to empower our members to share their talents, to meet the needs of those who come to us and those who we can reach out to in the community."

Church Goals

The material below was agreed by the St John's Session and forms St John's in the City's current strategic plan:

St John’s-in-the-city: Who we are and where we are heading 

We are a community to belong to:

• We are a gathered community. We are drawn together in all our variety to joyfully worship the one God.
• We are a learning community. We seek to follow the way of Jesus and grow in understanding of the Bible and the Christian faith.
• We are a restless community. Discontent with the status quo, we grapple with questions of life and faith as we search for new and more effective ways of conveying the Gospel of Jesus to the people of greater Wellington and beyond.
• We are a caring community. We are committed to the well-being of those who are hurting in body, mind or spirit.  

Worship at St John’s in the City                     

We are a gathered community. We are drawn together in all our variety to joyfully worship the one God.

Excellence in liturgy and music is important to us, as is our strong preaching tradition. We believe that the traditional Presbyterian service is built upon principles of worship that are of enduring character and worth. At the same time, we recognise that styles of music and worship change over time and that not everyone worships God in the same way. This means that the traditional morning service at St John’s will be supplemented by alternative forms of worship that draw upon a wide range of musical sources and which will encourage more interaction and congregational participation. This is especially so in relation to youth-oriented worship, but not exclusively so. Therefore we will encourage variety and creativity whilst maintaining the integrity and principles of Christian worship and we will maintain high standards in worship, learning from our mistakes along the way.

Commitments and/or opportunities :

1. Develop a programme for Sunday evening worship that encompasses a variety of worship styles and gives due weight to youth-oriented worship;
2. Encourage ecumenical worshipping events with other churches and tertiary student groups;
3. Develop a brief mid-week communion service;
4. Building upon our linkages with other organizations in the city, look for worshipping opportunities both on- and off-site—e.g. conducting regular devotions and/or communion services for the staff at head office of Presbyterian Support, University Halls of Residence, etc.
5. Build up our pool of musical talent for Sunday worship—e.g., a singing group, instrumentalist group, etc.—with a development programme that brings people up to a suitable standard for leading public worship.

Christian Education at St John’s in the City                     

We are a learning community. We seek to follow the way of Jesus and grow in understanding of the Bible and the Christian faith.

The primary goal of our educational programme is to equip our community as Christian disciples. This is an intergenerational activity as well as a continuing life-long exercise. There will be learning processes that shape Christian character, a commitment to regular worship, a growth in love and understanding of Scripture, a nurturing of faith, a fostering of healthy relationships and the provision of good role models.

Our programmes will offer a wide range of educational models, including one-off lecture and training events. The activities that are currently focussed on children and young people will be supplemented by adult group educational experiences, including a network of home-groups. There will be special attention to training in the variety of leadership skills needed to develop our activities.   These processes begin at a very early age through our crèche and pre-school programmes, gather momentum in our Sunday School, Youth Group, and Boys and Girls Brigade programmes, and continue through to our adult education programme, which consists mainly of a handful of house groups and occasional public lecture series. Links with the wider community are also maintained through our relationship with the Boys and Girls Institute (BGI). On the surface, this appears to be a comprehensive structure for advancing our educational goals, but in reality we struggle on five fronts: (1) to find enough leaders; (2) to boost the numbers of participants in the programmes; (3) to bring the various components of the programme into an integrated whole—i.e., to become less ad hoc and more purpose-driven; (4) to increase the effectiveness of our education programme as a form of outreach into the city; (5) to retain our youth and young adults and increase the number of participants in our programmes.

Commitments and/or opportunities :

1. Encourage more people to join a house group, and provide a wider variety of house groups and other educational activities for people to choose from—e.g., “wine & theology”, “book & film club”, coffee or lunch groups; student groups.
2. Channel resources into leadership recruitment and training.
3. Look for opportunities to link our educational programmes with other churches and related organizations—e.g., running parenting seminars in conjunction with the Family Centre of Presbyterian Support, whereby we supplement their existing programme with, say, modules on faith development and spirituality in the home.
4. Develop a small-scale library, and explore the possibility of establishing St John’s in the City as a theological and liturgical resource centre.
5. Develop a programme for forums and seminars on a variety of topics that will be of interest to church and general public alike.

Outreach at St John’s in the City 

We are a restless community. Discontent with the status quo, we grapple with questions of life and faith as we search for new and more effective ways of conveying the Gospel of Jesus to the people of greater Wellington and beyond.

We undertake our outreach not in isolation but in partnership with other churches and related organizations. This happens in a number of ways. We have representation on the Boards of Downtown Community Ministry (DCM), BGI, Scots College, the Ecumenical Chaplaincy Board of Victoria University, Victoria House and Everton Hall, and in the case of DCM we also provide substantial financial support. A number of parishioners are involved with the Immigration and Refugee Service. The parish’s Outreach Fund distributes financial grants totalling tens of thousands of dollars to scores of community groups each year. We provide a high-quality free counselling service. And, through the Cantata and Art Fest, St John’s has become a patron of art and music in the city. On a local level, therefore, St John’s plays a significant and varied role enhancing the life of the city and helping people in need. On a wider level, St John’s financially supports the work of the PCANZ and Wellington Presbytery, and releases several of its members to take an active part in the affairs of the national Church.

Overall, it is noticeable that the St John’s outreach programme focuses largely on its two-fold role as benefactor and provider of representatives to a number of Boards. While on the one hand our large financial reserves enable us to undertake creative initiatives in outreach and fund specialist ministries, on the other hand there are big challenges for us to move beyond reliance on those financial reserves and so little on our personal giving and personal service.

Commitments and/or opportunities :

1. Develop strategies for extending the relationships with, and extending congregational involvement in those organizations that have St John’s in the City representatives on their Boards. This is already beginning to happen in relation to Victoria House and tertiary halls of residence in general. The host-a-student scheme and welcome-to-Wellington church service constitute easy and potentially effective ways of building relationships with students and going beyond the formalities of Board representation. Similar opportunities should be sought in connection with Scots College, DCM, Presbyterian Support and the like.
2. Seek new and creative means of presenting St John’s-in-the-city to the wider community and communicating what we are on about. This may include reviewing our street signage, designing new flyers or brochures for distribution to local apartments and houses, hotels, boarding houses and backpackers lodges, etc., developing a web page (already under way), etc.—i.e. develop a comprehensive communications strategy. At the same time, we must ensure that we are able to deliver what we promise.
3. Raise congregational awareness of both local and overseas mission.
4. Examine the possibility of developing at St John’s in the City a theological and liturgical resource centre.
5. Hold discussions with DCM and Presbyterian Support regarding the potential for new initiatives for social services that St John’s in the City could help fund and support. Develop a policy with regard to the extent to which St John’s in the City should help resource the wider Presbyterian Church, with particular reference to struggling parishes in the Wellington Presbytery.

Pastoral Care at St John’s in the City

We are a caring community. We are committed to the well-being of those who are hurting in body, mind or spirit.

Pastoral care is the name given to the means by which those who associate themselves with St John’s in the City care for and support one another, thereby building up the body of Christ. It will recognize the importance of prayer, parish visiting, specialised counselling and social events. It will seek to build quality relationships on a shared foundation of Christian faith.

Commitments and/or opportunities :

1. Build on existing networks of prayer to develop a prayer chain in the congregation consisting of those who have a gift in prayer and can commit themselves to pray regularly for those in need, for the life of the congregation, and for the welfare of the city.
2. Recognise the potential that house groups have in providing pastoral care and encourage the development of more house groups in the congregation.
3. Provide proper training in the field of pastoral care for elders, parish visitors and house group leaders.
4. Review the effectiveness of Session in its provision of pastoral care, with a view to either enhancing what currently occurs or developing a new structure of pastoral care altogether.
5. Look at ways of improving the process for welcoming newcomers to the parish and integrating them into the life of the congregation.
6. Establish a name-tag system in the foyer of the church for the congregation.
7. Reinstate a programme of social activities for the year.
8. Monitor the free counselling service with a view to extending its number of hours if needed. This also falls under the category of outreach into the community.

Administration and leadership at St John’s in the City

The administrative and leadership structures of St John’s in the City, including Session, Board of Managers and the various committees, will be assessed for their effectiveness in serving the above vision and its four constitutive parts. The structures will be transparent and invite wide participation and representation in decision-making processes, whilst not tying people up in endless meetings. They will be encouraging and empowering, not discouraging and stifling. This is especially so if we are serious about involving and retaining younger folk.