A brief history

The New Zealand Christian Network was formed in September 2002, as the outcome of two meetings (chaired by John Walton) of about 70 church leaders from across the denominations.

NZCN directly follows in the footsteps of a number of earlier organisations: the Evangelical Alliance in the UK (1846 – ), the New Zealand Evangelical Alliance, the Evangelical Fellowship of New Zealand, and Vision New Zealand. Key leaders in those earlier New Zealand movements included Ray Windsor, John Fulford, Brian Hathaway, and Bruce Patrick. Vision New Zealand ran three national congresses (1993, 1997 and 1999, and NZCN has run five more (2005, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2017). From 2003-2017, Glyn Carpenter was NZCN National Director. He was succeeded by Stuart Lange.

Over the years NZCN has been active in publishing, speaking up through various media, participating in the Heads of Churches meeting, helping co-ordinate the 2014 bi-centenary, representing a biblical Christian position in inter-faith dialogues and in parliamentary select committees, and helping evangelical Christians network in areas such as prayer, marriage, sanctity of life, evangelism, business, and politics.

Until 2008, NZCN was named Vision Network of New Zealand. The Board decided the name should explicitly include the word ‘Christian’. Using the word ‘evangelical’ was also considered, but it was thought that the word ‘Christian’ is more better understood publically.

In 2020, a revised constitution was adopted by NZCN, and the governance Board (chaired by Mark Powell) was disestablished and replaced by a Working Board.