Destiny Church is moving out of its purpose-built three-hectare premises in South Auckland after more than a decade of congregating there, 1News can reveal.
The development of the Druces Rd property in the suburb of Wiri was introduced in 2012 as the City of God.
Originally a pillow factory, the building was extensively renovated with funding sourced from the sale of its Mount Wellington site and a $1000 tithe from Destiny Church members.
The finished church, which opened its doors in 2014, never quite lived up to the scale models Brian Tamaki unveiled when he was looking for what he described as “lots of pennies” to build it.
See John Campbell’s investigation of tithing and the Destiny Church’s premises in his series Under his Command on TVNZ+
Destiny Church said in a statement that its departure from the Druces Rd property was “simply due to the long-expected end of our lease term”.
“The building is old, the new owners have redevelopment plans, and remaining onsite is no longer possible,” a spokesperson said.
“This is a routine commercial matter – nothing more.”
Massey University Emeritus Professor Peter Lineham said he was “really surprised” to hear Destiny Church was leaving its Wiri premises.
“There are so many aspects, a school, a health centre, a gym, there’s a lot of aspects in which it’s trying to serve an extraordinarily poor community. How’s it going to do that in another site?”
Lineham told 1News he estimated the size of the congregation had fallen by more than half from a peak of around 2500 at standing-room-only services.
“Destiny places a big priority in high earning people… they must have lost significant income in the last few years. I don’t wonder that they cannot afford to continue in the present location.”
