Ararua Church History

In 1899 the Lord drew together nine men and instilled in them a common desire to shine His light in the community of Ararua, to build a church and preach His word faithfully.

The church was officially opened on the 1st of April 1900 by the Rev. W. Ready.

After serving the community for almost 40 years the church was used by the Ararua School temporarily as an additional classroom until the additions to the school were completed.

Sadly, during the war years the church fell into disrepair and to make matters worse it was isolated by the re-routing of the road. In 1947, a public meeting was held to discuss renovating the church. The community firmly supported a return to services and requested Ararua Church become interdenominational (while still remaining under the jurisdiction of the Methodist Connection). Through generous donations of time and money from the community and an interset free loan from the Methodist Connection the repositioning, renovations and re roofing was completed and a re-opening celebration service was held on Easter Sunday 1951.

In 1959 a violent cyclone blew the church off its foundations, the War Damages and Earthquake Commission said it would be impossible to jack it up and move it back into place. Little did they know about the determination of the people of Ararua who accomplished just that. Soon after services became bi-monthly and in 1982 services became weekly.

In 1984 the maintenance of the church moved from being the Ararua Methodist Trust's responsibility to the Church's responsibility. In the same year electricity was connected to the church allowing for lighting, heating and an overhead projector

From then the church has grown and outgrown the original church building that was built to seat 100 (where they were planning on seating them all is still a mystery). 2005 has seen a major renovation doubling the size of the original church building. It now has two Sunday School rooms, a créche, kitchen and two toilets. Concertina doors between the Church and Sunday School rooms mean that the church can double its size when necessary. Each Sunday the church is privileged to receive many visiting and local preachers, both lay and ordained from many denominational backgrounds as well as young people attending regularly from the local Youth With a Mission base at Oak Ridge.

The Lord is faithful to those who diligently seek Him and Ararua Church is an example of this. Through these past 109 years many changes have occurred and in all things the Lord's light has always shone and will always shine in the community of Ararua. Praise be to the Lord, may His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purpose of His heart through all generations. Psalm 33 v 11

Updated 27/4/2009