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?