EMMETT STREET COMMUNITY CHURCH
106 -108 Emmett Street, Shirley, Christchurch, New Zealand
Who we are
We are a Community Church based at 106 Emmett Street, Shirley, Christchurch. ESCC began in February 1999 and has its roots in the Methodist Church. We are a grace based, evangelical church and are keen for all people to experience the wonder of knowing and loving God through Jesus Christ. Our aim is to inspire, encourage and equip believers to serve God’s purposes and to see His kingdom established in our community, nation and world. We aim to demonstrate the love of God by the lives we live emanating from our faith in Jesus Christ on the understanding that ‘faith without works is dead.’ (James 2.17)
We are a part of Grace Fellowships, who are a collection of like-minded churches around the country.
Pastor - Andre and Grace Posthuma
Andre trained in Christchurch as a Physical Education teacher before taking up a role teaching rangatahi who had been alienated from main stream education. After about 5 years in this work, Andre began theological education at RTC in Melbourne.
On returning to NZ in 2018, he took up a position at Latimer Church which involved some community outreach in Shirley, with the aim to church plant in the area. However, in God’s plan, He called Andre to Emmett Street Community Church to join the church in the work of bringing the good news of Jesus to Shirley. He took up the role of Pastor at ESCC in January 2022.
Andre, Grace and their 3 kids have lived in Shirley since 2019 and love being a part of this tight community. When they’re not busy chasing after their kids (or while chasing their kids), you’ll probably find them involved in something with the Shirley Community Trust or the Shirley Rugby League club.
Music Directors - Tim and Judith Bell
It is a privilege to worship together as a church on Sunday mornings, and I often mention that the congregation are an important part of the music team – they don't have to stick to rosters, but we're all worshiping together, and I appreciate the active participation of the congregation; it's not a performance by the music team!
We are blessed to have a large group of talented musicians who are rostered each week depending on availability. As has been the case for many people in Christchurch, there are many distractions and other commitments that members of the team are involved in that can make Sundays complicated, but we are fortunate to have always been able to put together a group to lead each Sunday.
We're grateful to the whole team for their dedication, commitment to excellence, and for sharing their talents.