Steven Goulstone is the pastor at Wellington South Baptist. This post is adapted from his note in this week’s church newsletter. You can sign up to receive it here.

Mānawatia a Matariki! Te tau hou Māori ki a tātou katoa!
Celebrating Matariki and wishing everyone a happy New Year.

I am learning the beauty of Matariki. It’s a significant time to pause: to remember those who have gone before us, celebrate the present, and look with hope toward the future. As a faith community, these themes resonate deeply with our shared life together.

Last weekend offered a beautiful opportunity to do just that. Through the Redemptive Family series and particularly in our conversation on Friday and Saturday night, we reflected on stories from our past and considered how they might inform the future of our church community. It was a rich time of listening, sharing, worshipping, and imagining together. Sunday’s worship gathering was a wonderful continuation of the weekend, and I am grateful to everyone who engaged with the series in the ways they were able.

One outcome of the series has been the development of three experiments over the next six months: a prayer experiment, a spring festival experiment, and a brunch experiment. Each is intended to explore a shared question:

How can we be a transformational family of Jesus in our community?

These experiments will take shape over the coming months, offering practical ways to learn, connect, serve, and grow together. Further information will be shared as plans develop, and the Leadership Team is committed to supporting these initiatives.As we mark Matariki, may we continue to pray, reflect, and participate in the life God is shaping among us.

Hayden Allen was a previous pastor of WSBC, until recently the pastor of Upper Hutt Baptist and is a valued friend of our community. This post is adapted from his sermon on 21 June 2026. You can listen to it on our church podcast here.

Life is full of change. Whether it’s moving house after a flood, stepping into a new season, or facing unexpected challenges, change often brings a mix of emotions and questions. In those moments, one truth becomes clear: everybody needs somebody.

The story of Elijah in 1 Kings reminds us of this reality. Elijah was a remarkable man of faith. He confronted kings, called down fire from heaven, multiplied food through God’s provision, and even witnessed the dead raised to life. On Mount Carmel, he boldly challenged the prophets of Baal and saw God answer with undeniable power.

Yet only a short time later, Elijah was overwhelmed by fear and despair. After his greatest victory, he fled into the wilderness, convinced he was alone and ready to give up. The same prophet who stood courageously before hundreds of opponents now sat under a tree asking God to take his life.

What changed? Elijah forgot that he wasn’t alone.

God gently reminded him that there were still those who remained faithful. God provided food, rest, truth, and eventually a companion in Elisha. Elijah needed people just as much as people needed him.

That’s often true for us as well. Sometimes God calls us to be the person who encourages, supports, prays for, or speaks truth into someone else’s life. At other times, we are the ones who need encouragement, support, and a reminder that we are not alone.

The good news is that our value doesn’t come from our successes or failures. We are somebody because we are created in God’s image, loved and never forgotten.

Reflect
What lies or assumptions are you tempted to believe when you feel discouraged, alone or isolated, and what truths from God challenge those thoughts?

Steven Goulstone is the pastor at Wellington South Baptist. This post is adapted from his recent sermon on 14 June 2026, part of the “Redemptive Family” series. You can listen to it on our church podcast here.

Think about your favourite stories. Very few heroes make it on their own. Frodo had the Fellowship. Moana had Maui, Hei Hei, and the wisdom of her grandmother. Luke Skywalker wouldn’t have gotten far withouth Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids. Their journeys remind us of a simple truth: we are not meant to do life alone.

The same is true of faith.

Many of us can remember a time when someone showed up for us—offering practical help, encouragement, prayer, or simply their presence. Those moments remind us that God has created us for community. Discipleship is not an individual project; it is something we live out together.

This theme sits at the heart of our Redemptive Family journey. Over recent weeks we have reflected on a simple vision: the church is a family, in a place, on mission, together.

In Ephesians 4:1–16, Paul describes the church as one body, united in Christ. Before speaking about gifts and roles, he calls believers to humility, gentleness, patience, love, and unity. These are not abstract ideas but practices that help us become the family God intends us to be.

Paul also reminds us that every person has a part to play. Whether our gifts are visible or hidden, public or behind the scenes, each one matters. The church grows when every member contributes what Christ has given them. We are joined together, held together, and built up in love.

As a church, our calling is not simply to gather in the same place. We are invited to strengthen one another, practice genuine togetherness, and welcome others into a community where they can encounter the love of Jesus.

Whatever God is calling us to become in these southern suburbs, we will only get there together.

Reflect

How might God be inviting you to contribute to the unity, growth, and mission of our church family this week?

Steven Goulstone is the pastor at Wellington South Baptist. This post is adapted from his recent sermon on 7 June 2026, part of the “Redemptive Family” series. You can listen to it on our church podcast here.

One of my closest friendships began with a problem: I didn’t like him.

We met at school when we were fourteen, and I had already decided who he was. He was sporty, loved music I couldn’t stand, and I’d heard plenty of negative stories about him from mutual friends. Looking back, it’s embarrassing how quickly I judged him. Yet nearly thirty years later, he remains one of my best friends.

That experience reminds me how easy it is to place people into categories: different, difficult, wrong, or simply “other.” If I could misjudge someone who would become such an important part of my life, how much easier is it to judge people whose backgrounds, beliefs, or experiences are very different from my own?

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul writes, “From this point on we won’t recognise people by human standards.” Because Christ died for all, Christians are called to see people differently, not through the lens of our assumptions, but as people deeply loved by God.

This is at the heart of what it means to be a Redemptive Family. God reconciles us to God’s self through Christ and invites us to participate in that same work of reconciliation. Most often, that work doesn’t happen through programmes or events. It happens through relationships.

The friendships we already have are often the places where people first experience something of God’s love. Not through pressure or arguments, but through curiosity, care, and honest conversations about our own journey of faith.

A spiritual conversation begins by listening. It remains curious about another person’s story. It shares personal experience rather than winning debates. And it helps people see a little more clearly what it means to follow Jesus.

The invitation isn’t necessarily to find new people. It’s to see the people already in our lives differently, and to love them well.

Reflect

Who is one person already in your life that you’ve been seeing through a ‘human standard,’ and how could you offer them a posture of curiosity instead of judgement this week?

Steven Goulstone is the pastor at Wellington South Baptist. This post is adapted from his recent sermon on 31 May 2026, part of the “Redemptive Family” series. You can listen to it on our church podcast here.

A favourite walking track can become much more than a path. With repeated visits, familiar places begin to reveal hidden details—a seedling protected by a guard, the song of a tūī, the shape of the landscape itself. What starts as a walk becomes a relationship with a place.

This idea of faithful presence is at the heart of the third week of the Redemptive Family journey.

In Jeremiah 29, God speaks to people living in exile, far from the place they called home. Rather than telling them to withdraw or simply wait for better days, God gives a surprising instruction: “Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you.” Their flourishing would be connected to the flourishing of the place where they had been planted.

The same challenge faces us today. As followers of Jesus in the southern suburbs of Wellington, we are invited to consider what it means to be faithfully present in our community. Not through power or influence, but through relationships, service, prayer, and a long-term commitment to the wellbeing of our neighbourhoods.

Faithful presence means paying attention. It means noticing the pressures people carry, the needs that often go unseen, and the ways God is already at work around us. Like Paul in Athens, we are called to understand the culture around us deeply enough to point people toward the God who is already near.

For more than a century, our church has been planted in these southern suburbs. The question is not simply whether we are here, but how we are present. How can we become an oasis of peace, hope, and belonging for those around us?

Reflect

What might God show you if you intentionally walked through your neighbourhood this week, paying attention to where people are carrying burdens and where God might already be at work?

Steven Goulstone is the pastor at Wellington South Baptist. This post is adapted from his recent sermon on 24 May 2026, and is a part of the “Redemptive Family” series. You can listen to it on our church podcast here.

Many of us know the feeling of wondering whether we truly belong. We compare ourselves to others, question what we have to offer, and worry whether our contributions will be valued. Beneath those feelings lies a deeper question: “What is my place here?”

This question sits at the heart of our Redemptive Family journey.

Romans 12 contains three truths about what it means to be the family of God. First, we belong to one another. Paul writes that although we are many parts, we are one body in Christ, and “individually we belong to each other.” Christian belonging is more than membership or attendance; it is a commitment to love, honour, and care for one another as family.

Second, every person has God-given gifts. Like Mirabel in Disney’s Encanto, whose unique contribution helped bring healing to her family, each of us has something valuable to offer. Some gifts are obvious, while others are easily overlooked. Yet every gift matters because every person matters. The question is not simply, ‘What are my gifts?’ but ‘How can my gifts serve others?’

Third, our belonging and gifts are most clearly outworked in the ways we treat the vulnerable. Paul describes a community marked by hospitality, generosity, compassion, and practical care. True family welcomes strangers, supports those in need, and makes room for people who are often overlooked by society.

Being a Redemptive Family means creating a community where people belong, where gifts are recognised and encouraged, and where love becomes visible through action. It is not simply about how we gather on Sundays, but about how we live together throughout the week.

Reflect

Where might God be inviting you to use your gifts this week to help someone feel that they truly belong?

Steven Goulstone is the pastor at Wellington South Baptist. This post is adapted from his recent sermon on 17 May 2026, and is the beginning of the “Redemptive Family” series. You can listen to it on our church podcast here.

When you visit a church for the first time, what do you expect? Perhaps you expect to sing a few songs, listen to a sermon, or participate in communion. Most of us enter a worship gathering with a mental checklist of “what we do” at church. But how often do we enter expecting to meet with family?

In the opening of our “Redemptive Family” series, we are challenged to move beyond the idea of church as a service we attend and toward the reality of church as a household where we belong. The New Testament is saturated with family language: brothers, sisters, children, and households. This isn’t just a metaphor; it’s the connective tissue of our faith.

In Ephesians 2, Paul tells us that we are no longer strangers or aliens but members of God’s household. This belonging isn’t based on our preferences or backgrounds. In fact, the early church was famously scandalous because it brought together people who traditionally wouldn’t even eat together. It is God’s reconciling work, not our own choosing, that defines who sits at the table.

The early believers in Acts 2 didn’t just attend meetings; they devoted themselves to one another. They shared meals, met needs with radical generosity, and lived with a simplicity and gladness that caused the world to take notice. They were captivated by God’s redemptive work, and it transformed how they viewed every person in their community.

As we journey together through this series, we are invited to reflect on the question of what kind of church is God calling us to be? The answer is a church that lives as a family: formed by God’s grace, open to the unexpected, and devoted to one another in practical, life-changing ways.

Reflect

If you truly viewed every person in our faith community as a beloved sibling, how would that change the way you show up this coming Sunday?