New Zealand Baptist historian Martin Sutherland’s latest book may prove to be the most valuable research yet on who we Kiwi Baptists are, and why we are.

He looks at some of the grand themes of our short history, taking a contradictory approach to explore both that which has held us together and that which, at times, has threatened to blow us apart. 

Delving through the pages of the NZ Baptist and the Baptist Archives, Martin has come up with an absolutely fascinating story featuring divisive pastors, quarrels, disputes, theological debates, furious letters to the editor, lawsuits and even a flasher. Yet through it all, argues Martin, a sense of identity has been forged. Gradually the overriding desire for connection won out, despite some severe tests along the way.

Much of the book focuses on the early decades of our history as a Colony and Dominion. The early Baptist churches struggled their way forward, coping with an early rift between the influential Canterbury Baptist churches and the rest of the Union, some problem pastors, and finding new structures suitable for a colonial context.

Martin goes on to explore the importance of the NZ Baptist as an agent for forging identity, the move from a pastor training scheme to that of a training college, the desire for Baptist unity, the boom years of the 1950s, and the influence of the charismatic movement – to name just a few of the subjects touched on.

He concludes on both a note of concern and optimism. He suggests that we 21st Century New Zealand Baptists are a shrinking group with an “almost resigned air,” unsure of ourselves and unclear as to what we have to offer to the wider Church and society at large. 

But he also suggests the desire for connection remains strong and that our churches rarely die from conflict, but more from quiet indifference. He suggests that conflict, gently conducted, is not necessarily bad. It can help us face up to troublesome questions that cannot be ignored. “Baptists, by nature, must reinvent themselves constantly.”

In pursuing the themes of conflict and connection, Martin touches on many aspects of our story that need further study and makes us very aware that there are great depths to New Zealand Baptist history yet to be plumbed.

By Martin Sutherlan
Archer Press
NZ Baptist Research and Historical Society
PO Box 12149 Auckland
ISBN 978-0-473-19217-4

– Duncan Pardon