Our Story

The beginnings of what is now called Hutt City Baptist church started 81 years ago, in February
1928, with humble beginnings as a Sunday School outreach from the Petone Baptist church.
In an era where few families owned motor vehicles, Petone Baptist recognized the need for Christian outreach into the growing city and suburbs of Lower Hutt, where citizens could walk to their place of fellowship. As a result, a Sunday school was started using the Waiwhetu School premises but quickly grew into a community of believers needing a meeting place of their own. On 19 March 1929, Lower Hutt Baptist church (LHBC) was formally established with 17 foundation members.

With the growth of Baptist churches in the Hutt valley, LHBC also grew to the stage where its facilities were too small. As early as 1937 the first calls were made to build an auditorium for Sunday worship services.
Eventually in the 1950s a formal building project commenced, with the new auditorium (shown) opening in December 1953.

By the mid 1990s it became obvious that the LHBC facilities, which had served the church so well for decades, were no longer adequate for the current needs, let alone the future needs of the congregation.
However the change in society and zoning meant that the church was now only surviving on its “existing user rights” and was unable to make any changes to it’s facilities which could improve its ability to operate or expand its ministries. A team, with business experience was put together and at the end of March 2008 they recommended the purchase of the former Hoyts 5 cinema complex in High Street, Lower Hutt.

There was a genuine excitement in the church about the possibilities so, following a  due diligence process, Sunday 8 June 2008 was set down as the day on which a formal vote would be taken regarding the move. That Sunday morning the congregation arrived at church to find that the auditorium had taken a direct strike by lighting overnight. This lightning strike blew holes in both the tile roof and the internal ceilings and destroyed wiring and electrical equipment throughout most of the building.   The building team managed to negotiate immediate possession (prior to settlement) of the new High Street facilities so that we could use the new building as a place to hold our services.

The Hoyts 5 complex oozes potential. The building is in the heart of the city with no parking restrictions, existing resource consent for 960 people, large open theatres for ministry spaces and potential for a 400+ seat auditorium. In addition it has commercial tenancies which provide income to support mortgage payments.

While the facility requires a major refit, many of its existing spaces are satisfactory in their current state, so a refit can happen in stages. The new facility has required a massive shift in thinking for our members, not just because of our new location but also the style of building – going from a smaller traditional church feel to a modern enclosed theatre.

Through our new facilities each and every area of church life is able to be released into the potential it has been constrained from achieving for over a decade. Added to that is the potential for extending God’s kingdom through this prominent central city location.