Only a move of God — through love, prayer, and evangelism — can change the steady decline in the number of New Zealanders identifying as Christians.
That’s the conviction of Dr. Stuart Lange, national director of the New Zealand Christian Network (NZCN), and his team of leaders, who say political protests, legal reforms, or government policies may bring some positive change, but they cannot address the nation’s deeper spiritual crisis.
In an email update to supporters yesterday (July 11), Lange noted that New Zealand has never been fully Christian in a formal sense, yet the current rise of secularism poses new challenges to Christian faith and values. Lasting transformation, he stressed, will require a “significant turning of the spiritual tide” across all cultures — something only the Holy Spirit can accomplish.
“This can happen by the hand of God alone. The Spirit of God needs to sovereignly move in the hearts of many believers, and bring us to a deeper level of faith, prayerfulness, and discipleship.
“There needs to be more love, and more evangelism. The Spirit of God needs to call hundreds of thousands of unbelievers to himself, and to powerfully renew New Zealand churches and Christians.”
Christians in New Zealand generally recognise that they live in a free and diverse society, with freedom of religion, said Lange.
“At the same time many of us would love to see a growth in Christian faith among New Zealanders of all cultures, an increased number of committed Christians, a greater number of flourishing churches in New Zealand, and an expanding and more positive influence of the Kingdom of God in this nation.”
Is New Zealand a Christian nation?
The answer to the question about whether New Zealand had ever been a “Christian nation” was both “yes and no.”
“Up until the fairly recent past, the majority of the New Zealand population, both Māori and Pākeha, identified themselves as ‘Christian,’ though with widely varying degrees of faith, understanding and commitment,” said Lange.
This is evidenced by about 80 percent of New Zealanders identifying with a form of Christianity in census figures of 1966. This dropped to 32.3 percent in 2023, with the latter census noting that 51.6 percent of citizens stated having “no religion” at all.
“They acknowledged Christian ethics and morals, recognised continuity with the religious affiliations in Britain, and attended church at least sometimes,” said Lange about his countrymen and women in the 1960s period. “Many churches had strong ministries among children and youth.”
The prevailing identification with Christianity in the 1960s period meant the laws and customs of New Zealand society “broadly reflected underlying Christian beliefs and values.”
Lange gave examples of Chritian culture back then reflected in school assemblies, Bible in Schools, Anzac ceremonies, funerals and weddings, alongside the wording of the original parliamentary prayer, and later the popular national anthem “God defend New Zealand.”
“Nevertheless, New Zealand has never been an exclusively Christian society. it has always been the case that some people in New Zealand have been more nominally Christian, or not Christian at all,” Lange acknowledged.
Despite growth and encouragement in some churches, many churches appear to be struggling, and fewer young people and children are to be found in many churches, according to Lange.
“It is often publicly claimed that New Zealand is now ‘post-Christian’ and ‘secular’. Many newer laws and policies permit or promote things that are contrary to biblical values. Christian beliefs and values can often be misrepresented or disparaged in public and social media. Very understandably, most Christians are concerned that New Zealand appears to be gradually becoming less Christian than it used to be.”
However, church attendance in the country has never been as strong in New Zealand, compared to other countries—peak attendance was 30 percent in 1896. Lange said the exception has been among Māori, in the 1840s and 1850s.
The influence of Christianity, Lange noted, has still been felt in the structure of society in the country, in its politics and cultural diversity.
“There are certainly enduring spiritual elements in the way the Crown is constituted in British common law and understanding, as an expression of Romans 13:1, and this was understood by many Māori chiefs at Waitangi, and beyond. The Treaty of Waitangi has strong Christian roots, as recognised by many Māori.”
New Zealand always enjoyed freedom of religion
Even so, Christianity has never been fully recognised as the country’s official or only religion, Lange cautioned. Instead, an emphasis on freedom of religion has been a hallmark throughout.
“New Zealand law has never explicitly recognised Christianity as New Zealand’s 'official' or only religion. From the beginning, in 1840, there was freedom of religion, and no official State church or religion, even though the majority of both Māori and Pākeha identified as Christian.
“The 1990 Bill of Rights confirmed New Zealanders’ freedoms of religion, thought, and expression. Such freedoms are consistent with New Zealand’s Christian foundations.”
