What We Do
Connecting lives through community
Monday
Craft Group
Weekly 10am – 12noon, no charge
Community Lunch
Fortnightly (school terms), 12.15pm – 1.30pm. $3 for 2 course meal.
ICONZ for boys
Weekly (school terms), 6.30pm – 8 pm. Contact church office for details of cost. Subsidies available
Tuesday
Cafe Connect
Weekly 10am – 11am, no charge
Social Indoor Bowls
Weekly March – October, 12.45pm – 3.30pm, $3
Thursday
Suicide Bereavement Support Group
2nd Thursday of the month February-December, 6pm – 7.30pm. Koha.
Friday
Youth Group
Weekly 6.30pm – 8pm, no charge
Sunday
Sunday Church Service
10am, all welcome
Ross and Karyn are trained in suicide prevention, intervention and post-vention/bereavement. This was as a result of losing a friend and collegue to suicide in 2012. We focus on bereavement due to studies showing that for every one who takes their life, 135 people on average are left behind struggling to come to terms with it.
Hamilton Suicide Support Group is held on the 2nd Thursday of every month (February - December) from 6-7.30pm at Fairfield Baptist Church. This is an informal gathering for anyone who has lost someone to suicide. Being in the same room as other people who have experienced this kind of loss is incredibly healing. We have resources available for loan and are a friendly group who are there to help each other. It is a mix of education incorporating material from the WAVES course, peer support and helpful ways of coping. All welcome.
Helpful tools
Recommended books
Note: We have a number of grief books in our church library for loan but we recommend these two books especially.
Resilient Grieving – Lucy Hone
Option B – Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
Helplines
Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellor.
Lifeline – 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) for counselling and support.
Skylight – 0800 299 100 for support through trauma, loss and grief; 9am-5pm weekdays.
Depression Helpline – 0800 111 757 to talk to a trained counsellor about how you are feeling or to ask any questions.
Healthline – 0800 611 116 for advice from trained registered nurses.
Samaritans – 0800 726 666.
Youthline – 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz. For young people, and their parents, whānau and friends.
What’s Up – 0800 942 8787 – for 5–18-year-olds; Mon to Fri midday–11pm and weekends 3pm–11pm.
Love, Readiness, and the Life That Speaks
A Small Group is a group that meets either weekly, fortnightly, or monthly to build relationships, discuss topics relevant to the Christian faith, to grow spiritually and support each other while developing a common interest in outreach and mission.
Benefits of belonging to a small group include:
– Fellowship – Discussion – Bible Study – Prayer – Support – Spiritual growth
Be encouraged and join one to-day!
Many people in our Church meet regularly in a Small Group to combine social activities with bible study, discussion, prayer and fellowship together. It is good to spend time with other Christians who are on the same earthly path to Eternity, and to support each other wherever we can.
Church attendance on any Sunday morning has the very different focus of large group worship and pastoral teaching and is a difficult time to accomplish much of what a small group can offer through building relationships. So both are very necessary!
When Jesus began his ministry, he called 12 disciples to be his first relational ministry community. Jesus chose to love them, teach them, and pour himself into relationships with them; thereby creating the very first Christ following “small group”.
The apostles continued Jesus’ model and formed a community of believers who loved God and loved one another. Despite incredible persecution and against all odds, this rag-tag group of Jesus followers launched small communities (ie church groups) that proclaimed the gospel and changed the world forever.
Now that we are in a post-Covid period of restoration, it is even more important (and ever so much easier) to join and regularly attend a small group so that our lives, both socially and spiritually, may be improved and strengthened. Our prayer and bible study habits will be improved and our walk with God our creator will be hugely blessed.
We encourage you to belong to one if you are able.
Many of our small groups can accommodate adding you to their number, but if you have good leadership skills or ideas, you may like to start your own group. There is an information startup sheet in the FBC office with a list of pertinent questions and aims to follow.
Please contact either our Pastor Ross Woodhouse, or deacon Derek Greenfield (027-677-0896) or study the small group posters on display at church.
To Parents
To the parents of young children, may we suggest…
Relax! God put the wiggle in children; don’t feel you have to suppress it in God’s house. All are welcome!
Sit toward the front where it is easier for your little ones to see and hear what is going on.
Quietly explain the parts of the service and encourage them to participate.
Karyn
Woodhouse
Childrens Ministy Leader
Our Children and Families Ministry Leader is Karyn Woodhouse and our Youth Ministry Leader is Iunisi Katoa. Feel free to contact them for further information by filling in a contact form.
Iunisi Katoa
Youth Ministry Leader
Prayer
Our church is founded on prayer and this is something very valued in our church.
There are a number of regular prayer gatherings each week:
Monday nights: 7pm to 8pm.
Tuesday morning prayer meeting is held in the Oasis room at 9.15am.
Sunday 9am before our Sunday service in the Oasis Room
Sunday after the service you are welcome to come to the front for our Pastor and prayer team to pray with you.
We also have a prayer chain running where you can send a prayer request to prayer@fairfieldbaptist.co.nz or fill in a contact form
" I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming. Thousands and tens of thousands of times have my prayers been answered. When once I am persuaded that a thing is right and for the glory of God, I go on praying for it until the answer comes"
George Mueller
Everything we do at Fairfield Baptist Church is mission - sharing the love of God with those around us both locally and abroad.
Fairfield Baptist Church supports multiple families in different countries. We have regular updates on each family throughout the year during the Sunday Service and encourage our church family to pray for them regularly. We also support a number of other mission organisations:
Our mission also includes local mission in our community and city where we partner with other churches to share Jesus with people and help out with various projects. We regularly support the Combined Christian Foodbank and Te Whanau Putahi in practical community work.
"I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time – just one, one, one. So you begin. I began – I picked up one person. Maybe if I didn’t pick up that one person, I wouldn’t have picked up forty-two thousand….The same thing goes for you, the same thing in your family, the same thing in your church, your community. Just begin– one, one, one."
Mother Theresa (1910-1997)