Wanaka Lighthouse was the first international church to be planted out of the Mammoth Home Church, it was started in 2005 by Dave & Stevies daughter Natalie Nelson (centre photo, with Jamie), some early members are still here today - special mention to Jay and Trudie Millar (right photo) who you can see here in this photo with baby Saffron who is now 18 years old and drums in the music team! Other early members are Amy and Mikey Northcott, both couples are still on our leadership team today.
Natalie led the church and ran it in various venues around the town until 2011 when she returned to the States to marry her fiancee Jamie McLeod. Natalie and Jamie are now the pastors of the Lighthouse Church in Mammoth USA.
OUR VISION: BELONG, BELIEVE, BECOME
As both Mammoth and Wanaka are mountain towns that attract people from all over the globe the Lighthouse very naturally became a global movement as those that visited to work or play and attended the churches in winter took the Lighthouse ideals (believe, belong, become, relaxed and relevant church) back to their homes.
There have been Lighthouse Churches or home groups running in Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and France, usually in mountain towns similar to Wanaka and Mammoth. We currently have bi-monthly Global calls which anyone is welcome to tune into and people from all these countries plus more regularly join in as part of the Lighthouse Global family. There are also annual Global Lighthouse Family gatherings.
After 2011 the church was run by various people and went through different seasons as leaders came and went.