Spreydon Baptist Church 1960-2000 - Knox Centre for Ministry and ...

style issues such as dress, appearance or alcohol use 66 for instance,
nor has it taken a strong stand on issues such as abortion,
divorce, the role of women or homosexuality. This has
enabled baby boom New Zealanders to feel reasonably comfortable
in Spreydon while living a life style not markedly different
in social terms from others of their generation outside of
the church.
Donald Miller 67 in analysing the growing ‘new paradigm
churches’ in the United States, such as Vineyard and Calvary
Chapel, sees an important factor is that while holding to a
strong belief framework they are doctrinal minimalists. He
sees this as coming out of the way they use the Bible in the
church, in a narrative fashion, preaching expositionally verse
by verse, rather than doctrinally or topically. This factor has
also been an important dimension at Spreydon over the whole
of this period with the core teaching ministry always being
largely preaching through books of the Bible. This has meant
that while other churches in New Zealand have been fractured
and split over doctrinal issues, Spreydon has not suffered any
of these. It has kept to a few major core beliefs which has allowed
some reasonable diversity of belief. This has meant that
people from a wide diversity of church backgrounds have been
able to come into the church and be assimilated. My survey
indicated the largest group had come from a mainline Protestant
(Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist) background (153,
66 There has been an unofficial attitude of disapproval toward drinking
but this has never been enforced and has gradually over time become
more and more relaxed. The attitudes conveyed still tend to indicate it
would be better if people did not drink, and there is never any alcohol at
church events, however informal.
67 D.E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the
New Millennium (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
41
NZJBR 9, Oct. 2004