by Dr Stuart Lange | 9 Oct , 2026 | Articles, Christianity in New Zealand
As followers of Jesus, we are citizens of both earth and heaven (Matt.22:21, Phil. 3:20). We do well to see our political choices not only from transient earthly perspectives, but also through the perspectives of God’s eternal values as revealed in Christ and the scriptures.
It is complicated, because all political parties tend to have some mix of good and bad. But as Christians we should weigh the policies and promises of various political parties against the standard of biblical principles.
For example, do parties and policies…
– show reflect love, generosity and a desire to significantly help all those who struggle with poverty (1 John 3:17, Prov. 31:9, James 2:15-16), or just want to help those who are already comfortable?
– reflect care for God’s creation, with responsible environmental policies?
– sow division, or make peace (Matt. 5:9, James 3:18)?
– appear driven by ideologies counter to biblical and biological reality?
– express any concern for the inherent value of the life of unborn babies?
– support the extension of euthanasia?
– favour more funding for palliative care?
– want to protect freedoms of religion, conscience and expression?
– support the decriminalisation of drugs?
On some of those matters, parties and candidates can be unwilling to disclose their views. But such issues can ultimately affect our society much more than the ongoing ups and downs of the national economy.
Most of the recent very liberal laws in areas such as abortion, euthanasia, conversion therapy prohibition, and gender came from Private Members Bills, and were only passed because the majority of MPs were unwilling to vote against them. So it is really important to know something about the worldview and moral values of individual candidates. What is their spiritual and moral compass? What do they stand for, and what would they stand up against? We can politely ask them some key questions. And if they decline to answer, we may draw own conclusions.
One very useful guide to the moral views and voting record of current MPs is the ‘Value Your Vote’ resource just released by Family First. It is available online, and in printed form.
Family First has published a voting guide Value Your Vote for the upcoming election.
This 24-page pamphlet can be viewed here. Or, you can order printed copies for your church via this link.
Elections are only one month away (4 Sundays) and Family First suggests ordering a copy ASAP to meet print and postage deadlines.
Learn more: www.ValueYourVote.nz
by Esther Tredoux | 25 Sep , 2026 | Articles, Christianity in New Zealand
The seventh annual Hamilton Prayer Breakfast was held on 16 September at the Claudelands Events Centre. This event is organised in partnership between NZ Christian Network and the Hamilton Pastors and Christian Leaders.
It was a wonderful morning of worship, prayer, and unity, with approximately 320 people gathering from around 44 churches and Christian organisations. The volunteer worship team consisted of six churches, reflecting Hamilton’s heart for unity: Gateway, New Life, Activate, Equippers, Arise and Elim.
Our 2026 theme was Anchored & Active, based on Hebrews 10:23–25: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the day approaching.”
We spent time praying into these three areas:
- Anchored in Faith & Hope: Staying Unwavered in God’s Promises
- Love Activated: Stirring One Another to Action
- United & Stirred Up: Gathered as One in Christ and stirred to action
We give thanks to God for His presence throughout the morning and are grateful to everyone who attended, served and prayed.
by Dr Malcolm Falloon | 25 Sep , 2026 | Articles, Christianity in New Zealand
For many socially conservative Christians, myself included, the feeling of being politically homeless has a long history. Over the past three decades, several parties have promised a more recognisable home for our convictions outside of the more established political parties. Moments of real possibility, however, have been followed by disappointment. Remembering that history helps explain some of the uncertainty that many of us feel today.
Christian Heritage formed in 1989, followed by Graeme Lee’s Christian Democrats in 1995. MMP offered new possibilities, and the two parties contested the first MMP election in 1996 as the Christian Coalition. They received 4.33 percent of the party vote, but with neither five percent nor an electorate seat, they missed out on Parliament. The coalition split the following year.
The breakthrough came in 2002. The Christian Democrats, renamed Future New Zealand, joined with Peter Dunne’s United New Zealand to form United Future. This broader grouping won 6.69 percent and eight MPs. For Christians seeking representation for their concerns, it was a significant moment.
That support, however, proved difficult to sustain. United Future fell to 2.67 percent in 2005, later surviving through Dunne’s electorate seat before disbanding in 2017. Christian Heritage suffered a devastating blow when former leader Graham Capill was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2005. The party was dissolved the following year.
Another possibility emerged with Colin Craig’s Conservative Party. In 2014 it won 3.97 percent, but again secured no seats. Craig’s departure from the leadership and the turmoil of 2015 disrupted that momentum. Subsequent campaigns under the New Conservative name remained well below the parliamentary threshold.
In recent elections, several other small Christian or Christian-led parties have also sought seats in Parliament, either in their own right or in cooperation with others. Yet, all have fallen short of the five percent threshold, with a combined result of just 1.13 percent in the 2023 election.
This is a sobering history. It shows how difficult it can be to turn shared moral concerns into a durable political organisation. Electoral thresholds, internal differences and failures of leadership all played a part. Meanwhile, however, many socially conservative Christians continued to find their political homes within more established parties.
Such participation can reflect a Christian political realism: recognising that a shared faith does not settle every question about economics, public services or political priorities. Even agreement on important moral questions does not automatically produce agreement on a party programme.
Perhaps the question for 2026 is therefore: which policies, candidates and coalitions best serve the common good, within the limits of what politics can achieve? Answering that requires weighing several goods. Christians will differ over the weight they give particular issues, and no ideological package automatically contains all the Christian answers.
Perhaps the search for a perfect political home will always disappoint. The more practical question is whether we can bring our convictions to bear within the political homes that already exist and, where necessary, form new coalitions around concerns shared by our neighbours.
Throughout this, Christians should also remember the limits of political power. Politics matters, and good laws can restrain evil and preserve freedom. But law cannot change the human heart, and politics cannot save us. Only Christ can do that.
by Dr Stuart Lange | 11 Sep , 2026 | About Christianity, Articles, FOCUS, Marriage and Family
Statistics indicate that less than half of adults in New Zealand are married, and the remainder are single, in de facto partnerships, or widowed, separated or divorced. But marriage still matters, and it matters that marriages be loving, healthy, and committed. Such marriages are good for everyone: for those within them, for children, and for our whole society.
There are many strong marriages out there. Tragically, though, many marriages struggle or fail.
Christians cannot presume to tell others New Zealanders how to live their lives. But the Christian faith and the Bible do offer many profound and timeless insights into marriage.
From the outset, and in Jesus’ teaching, the Bible presents marriage as the deep union of a man and a woman, a relationship that is loving, faithful, and life-long.
The Bible also attests to humanity being universally marred by sinfulness. Every marriage (including Christian marriages) involves two flawed people. It follows that a key dynamic in building a loving, stable, and happy marriage is to lean into God and experience his Holy Spirit changing us inwardly, so that we become better marriage partners.
It is good to bear in mind that much of the Bible’s teaching about how Christians should treat other people can also be applied to marriage. Like: loving others as much as ourselves, “love is patient and kind” (1 Cor. 13), speaking the truth in love, and being gentle, forbearing, peace-loving, and willing to forgive. A quick Bible search brings up multiple references to all these things, especially in the New Testament.
Marriage is a great gift of God, and not just for Christians. What matters most in any marriage is not the wedding celebration, but the quality of the marriage over the years ahead, a quality which can either grow or decline.
May God bless marriage in New Zealand, and may loving, flourishing, and enduring marriages – including those of many Christians – be helpful examples to our watching world.
by Dr Stuart Lange | 28 Aug , 2026 | About Christianity, Articles, Christianity in New Zealand
All political parties have values, and feel they do good for everyone. However, there are both good and not-so-good aspects in all political parties. No political party is immune to ideological bias, prejudice, influence from vested interests, internal conflict, and making policies and promises which are empty, misleading, or divisive.
In this pre-election season, when all political parties are eager to maximise their share of votes, they present themselves as the answer to all our problems, and often denigrate rival political parties as incompetent, untrustworthy, and dangerous. Complex issues are far too often reduced to slogans, accusations, and smear tactics.
So, as voters who are Christian, what might we like to see among our political candidates, MPs, and political parties?
Here are some suggestions…
- More focus on promoting good and beneficial policies
- Less focus on attacking and rubbishing other parties
- Much less spin
- A willingness to put aside partisan, adversarial politics, and more frequently to cooperate and collaborate across the floor, to ensure well-scrutinised, effective laws and a greater number of shared direction
- The basics of good government: justice, law and order, a sound economy
- A common commitment to fairness and compassion, and to the wellbeing of all people in New Zealand, especially those who are less wealthy
- Fair wages and income for all, a just tax system, and affordable housing
- A stronger health system
- A genuine will to honour the Treaty/Te Tiriti and Crown’s promises to Māori
- A respect and kindness towards new migrants
- A shared eagerness to care for God’s creation, the natural world, and to implement policies and laws that help better achieve that
- The ongoing protection of liberties of belief, conscience, and expression
- A deeper respect among MPs for Christian faith and values, along with respect for other faiths and for secularism
- Some members’ bills (which should be dealt with as conscience issues) which propose appropriate checks and balances amending those laws which now allow doctors to euthanise terminally ill adults and to kill unborn babies even in the late stages of gestation
- MPs who are compassionate, honest, and fair-minded, who have good personal values, and – where there are such candidates standing – those who are willing to uphold Christian values with courage, grace, and respect for all.
by Dr Malcolm Falloon | 17 Aug , 2026 | About Christianity, Articles
Some kinds of knowledge can be gained from a distance. We can observe an experiment, examine the evidence, or learn from a book. But relational knowledge is different. We may know facts about another person from the outside, yet we cannot fully know that person’s love without entrusting ourselves to the relationship.
Marriage provides an analogy. Before marriage, two people can learn a great deal about one another. They can spend time together, ask questions, meet each other’s friends and imagine a shared future. Yet there is a knowledge of a spouse’s love that becomes possible only through mutual commitment. In marriage, each person places their life into the hands of the other and discovers love from within the covenant.
Christian faith has this same relational character. An inquirer can examine the historical claims of Christianity, read the Bible, attend church and observe the lives of Christians. Exploration of this kind, in which honest questions are welcomed rather than suppressed, is an important stage in coming to Christian commitment, because faith is not a blind leap made in defiance of truth.
Nevertheless, a person can remain forever at the edge, knowing much about Christianity without knowing God’s love in Christ from within. At some point, exploration presents us with a decision: will I entrust myself to this God? Faith is not merely the confident conclusion that the central claims of Christianity are true. It also involves trusting that the God revealed in Jesus Christ loves us, that his promises are reliable, and that his intentions toward us are for good rather than for ill.
This commitment does not, in itself, make Christianity true, any more than marriage creates the existence or character of one’s spouse. Rather, commitment makes possible a kind of knowledge unavailable to the detached observer. “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” the psalmist says (Psalm 34:8). There are truths about divine grace that are discovered as we rely upon them: as we pray for a new heart, receive forgiveness, practise generosity, join Christian fellowship, serve those in need and begin ordering our lives around Christ.
This is why making a decision for Christ remains important. The decision must never be manufactured by emotional pressure or extracted by an evangelist intent on “closing the deal.” The inquirer is not a passive object but an active person who questions, explores, tests and responds. Christian friends can accompany that process, and the Church can make the Christian life visible and inhabitable. But no one else can exercise faith on another’s behalf.
Conversion may involve many small decisions and much gradual reorientation. Yet within that process there is a vital movement from observing to entrusting, from considering Christ to relying upon him. We come to know the love of God not only by looking at it from the outside, but by placing ourselves within its embrace.
