Team

Our People

We value leadership who are:

• Authentic, honest, available and humble.
• Available to talk to and can provide pastoral care.
• Eldership that can challenge people’s thinking.
• Give oversight and help keep things safe.
• Facilitate Worship well.
• Who care enough to confront.
• Great role models that inspire others.

We value teams where:

• People have the opportunity to minister together and work on projects.

Gideon and Catherine Hoekendijk senior leaders of Harmony Church, have been married for 21 years and are the proud parents of four children. Gideon was born in Georgetown, Guyana to Missionary parents but grew up in the Netherlands. Catherine, born in good old Invercargill, grew up in Christchurch but went off to Europe in 1984 to go to Youth with a Mission in the Netherlands where she first completed a Discipleship training course and then stayed on as staff for a total of 5 years. During this time Gideon and Catherine met due to their common interest in music and were involved in a lot of big Christian music events in Europe and Asia. Catherine sings and plays keyboard and Gideon is a drummer. In 1988 they moved to Christchurch and got married spending their first year together in New Zealand. 1990 they moved to Singapore where they met with Jimmy and Carol Owens who some have described as the founders of modern Christian music. Together they worked on setting up a School of Music Ministry. This was a training school for musicians. It was highly successful and still continues today. In 1991 Gideon and Catherine found themselves back in New Zealand with the birth of their first child, David. In subsequent years they have been part of organising large nationwide Christian events including "Pray for the City", "March for Jesus" "Billy Graham Global Mission", and many Christian concerts with international artists such as Graham Kendrick, Bob Fitts, Israel Houghton etc under the umbrella trust which they set up, "Harmony Ministries".

In 1993 Catherine was employed by Spreydon Baptist, home Church for the Hoekendijks, as the Worship Pastor. During this time she was involved in service planning and building a large team of musicians, dancers, actors and technical crew. Both Gideon and Catherine led services and played on a regular basis and Gideon had some limited opportunity to preach. Both Gideon and Catherine completed their Diplomas in Basic Integrative Counselling skills and Personal Growth through Arahura Counselling Centre during this time. In 2000 with the imminent birth of fourth child, Fabian, Catherine resigned her position at Spreydon and Gideon commenced his study for a Diploma of Graduate study in Theology.

2002 saw the Hoekendijk's move to Auckland where Catherine took up the position with Greenlane Christian Centre of Worship Director and Gideon at Bible College of New Zealand (now known as Laidlaw College) as the national marketing manager. As part of Gideon's national role he initiated the nationwide 'Kingdom Builders' training seminars for Christian leaders.

After the death of Catherine's father, the Hoekendijks returned to Christchurch for family reasons in 2003. Gideon continued working for BCNZ and Catherine began her study on a Bachelor of Music in composition and ethnomusicology which she completed in 2007. At the end of 2007 the Hoekendijk's decided the stirring they had felt for a new expression of Church needed to be followed and they left Spreydon Baptist after decades of happy and close involvement. 2008 saw a group of other 'like minded' people begin to gather weekly in their home exploring possibilities in the south west area of Christchurch. A newly developing area with lots of growth possibilities. The group known during the course of that year affectionately as "The Barbecue Club". During this year Gideon completed his Masters study in Theology and Catherine completed a Diploma in Adult Teaching and Learning.

February 15th 2009 saw the quiet beginnings of what had now evolved into "Harmony Church".