DESTINY CHURCH
PRESS STATEMENT FOR RELEASE
29 October 2008
Destiny Church Response To TV3 News Item
TV3 News ran a story tonight creating the impression that Destiny Church was building an exclusive housing community for
church members.
This assertion couldn’t be further from the truth.
Last weekend Destiny Church celebrated 10 years as a movement. Our membership is derived of many thousands,
predominantly of Maori and Pacific descent, who have benefited through the ministry and life of the church and today
contribute positively towards their families and our communities.
The church recently obtained the status of an Urban Maori Authority, which gives the church the ability to build far
greater capacity around the social programmes it has been delivering to the local community for many years. These
programmes have been purely self-funded and involve many thousands of hours of voluntary community service at no cost to
community or government.
Evidence of success was demonstrated by a number of testimonies presented over the weekend from former Black Power and
Mongrel Mob members, drug addicts, and people who have emerged from severely disadvantaged backgrounds, who through the
work of the church have turned their lives around and have their own track record of employment, stable family life and
positive contributions towards their families and our communities.
The multi-faceted vision of Destiny Church involves education, social-service programmes and family and parental
support. The Auckland church has outgrown its present facility and is looking at moving its operation to Manukau to
cater for growth, and increase its operations, a major part of which involves social helps programmes.
As such, the church has conducted its own fundraising initiatives to relocate and upgrade its facilities and build on
its current capacity to deliver programmes. South Auckland is not only home to many members, but is also where positive
community initiatives are desperately needed.
As part of building greater capacity in Auckland, the church has given the opportunity to its members who currently
reside outside of Auckland, who have the skills, experience and qualifications to assist with taking the Auckland
operation forward, to relocate to Auckland to help. There is absolutely no obligation on the part of any member or their
family to shift to Auckland or financially contribute.
In addition, contrary to the assertion in the TV3 news item, there is absolutely no intention to build an exclusive
housing community to house church members. Destiny Church members have always been active members of their local
communities and this will always be the case.
Destiny Church prides itself on contributing positively towards the lives of its members and our local communities and
wishes to continue this tradition.
ENDS