New Evangelism Partnership to New Zealand’s Hippie Scene 

In 2025, NZCMS is excited to start a new part­ner­ship with an evan­gel­ism min­istry to New Zealand’s new-age hippie scene led by Rev Mark Johnson and his wife Kirsty.

Sur­prised by a Kingdom Vision

NZCMS is a com­munity pas­sion­ate about God’s mission in the world. We are called by God to encour­age and support those who God calls to serve in cross-cul­tural mis­sions. This is the heart of who we are, and we love par­ti­cip­at­ing with God in sending people to the ends of the earth.

Since our begin­ning in England in 1799, CMS has always sought to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. One of NZCMS’ values is ‘Kingdom Vision” – we seek to follow the Spirit and be open to new, cre­at­ive oppor­tun­it­ies to join in where God is at work.

The invitation from the Diocese of Nelson to partner with Mark and Kirsty’s national ministry is an example of an unexpected leading of the Spirit. Mark and Kirsty, joined by several other families, have for the last few years been attending a variety of New Zealand festivals and sharing Jesus with many young overseas tourists traversing the New Zealand hippie trail. Young people are encountering Jesus’ love and being transformed. 

The min­istry is affec­tion­ately called “Wheels Min­istry” in ref­er­ence to the trav­el­ling nature and the house buses they live in.

Mean­while, Rev Mark has been jug­gling full-time min­istry as vicar of St Tom’s Anglican Church in Newtown, Wel­ling­ton. However, this year Mark and Kirsty sensed a change, and God started speak­ing. Rev Mark was appoin­ted as the part-time vicar of the Golden Bay parish, an area where the Wheels min­istry has already been active. Mark and his family, joined by others in the team, will move to Golden Bay in early 2025, and plan to estab­lish a min­istry base there.

An Invit­a­tion to NZCMS

While the Nelson Diocese are sup­port­ing Mark and Kirsty in their min­istry through the Golden Bay parish, the Wheels min­istry is nation­ally focused. There­fore, NZCMS has been invited to partner with and support the national evan­gel­ism min­istry of Wheels.

After much prayer, the NZCMS Board have agreed to support the Wheels Min­istry in the fol­low­ing way:

• Mark and Kirsty will seek, with support from NZCMS, to raise funds to release them to grow this trav­el­ling min­istry within New Zealand.
• NZCMS are not dir­ectly sup­port­ing this min­istry but will act as a conduit for pass-through funds. Any funding NZCMS receives for the min­istry will be passed on.
• Mark and Kirsty will be account­able to NZCMS and the Diocese of Nelson.
• NZCMS will stand with them in prayer. You will hear updates and stories from them so that you can pray.

NZCMS’ support is a one-off Spirit-initiated and led decision. This is not a change in direction for NZCMS. Mark and Kirsty will not serve formally as NZCMS Mission Partners, but this partnership aims to support their fruitful ministry at the invitation of the Diocese of Nelson.

An Invit­a­tion to You

We invite you to con­sider sup­port­ing Mark and Kirsty in their min­istry. They are taking a step of faith and looking for others to step out with them.

Mark and Kirsty need people who will pray into this min­istry, and they need fin­an­cial support to make the min­istry viable. You can support their min­istry here: www​.nzcms​.org​.nz/​w​h​e​e​l​s​-​m​i​n​i​s​try