History of the Congregation
In 1924 the North Invercargill Baptist Church started an outreach which eventually became Hawthorndale Baptist Church.
By the 1950’s it had outgrown its building and at the same time, the Invercargill City Council and State Housing Corp were planning a joint residential development in Glengarry - a few streets from Hawthorndale. The church purchased 3 sections on the corner of Yarrow St and Glengarry Crescent.
The church building opened in August 1962 and the adjoining Manse in 1966.
In the 1980’s the North Invercargill Baptist Church amalgamated with Glengarry Baptist anda few years later it became obvious that if the church was to survive the format would needto change.
In 1992 Keith and Ros Harrington were called to Glengarry as Church Planters under the oversight of Central Baptist Church to establish a new congregation with new ways of delivering ‘church’ under the name of Eastside Baptist Church. The new plant was very successful and the Harringtons continued to minister until 2001.
In October 2002 Chris and Karlene Lee commenced as Pastors at Eastside Baptist Church, building on the existing foundation. During their time they encouraged church members to adopt a welcoming and non-judgmental approach to newcomers, the concept of “belonging before believing” and developed a culture of social justice along with evangelism. The Lees finished their ministry in October 2018.
In early 2020 Pastor Derik Kotze and family started their ministry at Eastside Baptist Church. Several of the programmes were stopped, in order to have a pause and to pray to God for direction going forward. The main pillars of the Kotze’s ministry were prayer, discipleship and go. The “Go” mission started with the programme Alpha over 6-8 weeks where the congregation was involved in inviting non-Christians, supplying the meal and prayer for those attending, as well as the annual Christmas outreaches.
in 2024, the Kotzes moved to Central Otago to develop a Baptist work there. The former pastor Chris Lee was called to be the interim pastor until the church found a new full-time pastor.
