Editing Destiny Church (New Zealand) (section)

===Locations and membership===
Destiny Church is located in South Auckland, New Zealand. The current site is in Wiri, and houses the church auditorium and its administration offices, a chapel, a multipurpose room, a fitness/boxing gym, a medical centre, an early childhood centre and school. The church began in [[Rotorua]] as "Lake City Church", which had a membership of 20 people. Within two years, it had grown to 300 members. Over the years, Destiny churches were established in the following locations:<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.destinychurch.org.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=26&Itemid=178 |title=Locations |access-date=7 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091107190908/http://www.destinychurch.org.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=26&Itemid=178 |archive-date=7 November 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|[[Auckland]] <small>- July 1998</small><ref>Destiny Church Auckland was initially named "City Church" but renamed to "Destiny Church" when relocated to Mt Wellington</ref>
|[[Whakatane]] <small>- March 2001</small>
|[[Tauranga]] <small>- April 2001</small><ref>Destiny Church Tauranga was formerly known as "Harbour City Church"</ref>
|[[Nelson, New Zealand|Nelson]] <small>- June 2001</small>
|-
|[[Hamilton, New Zealand|Hamilton]] <small>- June 2002</small>
|[[Christchurch]] <small>- April 2003</small>
|[[Whangārei]] <small>- June 2003</small>
|[[Wellington]] <small>- August 2003</small>
|-
|[[Wanganui]] <small>- May 2004</small>
|[[Taranaki]]
|[[Rotorua]]
|[[Brisbane]]
|}

At its peak in 2003, Destiny Church had a network of 19 church branches throughout New Zealand, with a total membership in excess of 5,000. By June 2012 it had 11 remaining branches, with around 3000 regular attendees. In 2019, Brian Tamaki claimed the church had in excess of 6,000 members. However, in the [[2018 New Zealand census|2018 census]], just 1,772 gave their religion as "Destiny Church", less than did for the satirical [[Flying Spaghetti Monster|Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster]] (4248) and [[Jediism]] (20,409), and only slightly more than [[Zoroastrianism]].<ref name=":7"/> In the aftermath, [[New Zealand Media and Entertainment|NZME]] described Destiny Church's membership as "surprisingly low",<ref name=":7" /> while ''[[The Spinoff]]'' went further, describing Destiny Church as "utterly marginal".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Braae |first=Alex |date=2019-09-23 |title=The most buzzy data points from the just-released Census |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-09-2019/the-most-buzzy-data-points-from-the-just-released-census |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=[[The Spinoff]] |language=en |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329080645/https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-09-2019/the-most-buzzy-data-points-from-the-just-released-census |url-status=live }}</ref> Church branches have closed in [[Porirua]] (the second in Wellington, after [[Petone]]), Wanganui and Dunedin.<ref name="Hurley201206">{{cite news |title=Destiny family firm: for theirs is the kingdom |first=Bevan |last=Hurley |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10810290 |work=[[The New Zealand Herald]] |date=4 June 2012 |accessdate=4 June 2012 |archive-date=3 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603201533/http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10810290 |url-status=live }}</ref> By June 2013, Destiny Church Wanganui was no longer listed on the main church website.<ref>{{cite web|title=Find Your Local Destiny Church|url=https://www.destinychurch.org.nz/locations|publisher=Destiny Church|accessdate=23 April 2018|archive-date=23 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423102603/https://www.destinychurch.org.nz/locations|url-status=live}}</ref> In addition, other branches such as [[Kaitaia]], [[Ōpōtiki]], [[Taumarunui]], and [[Hawkes Bay]] had either closed down or merged with other church branches.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Young|first1=Craig|title=Comment: Uncertain Destiny?|url=http://www.gaynz.com/article/print/31/article_1646.php|accessdate=23 April 2018|publisher=GayNZ.com|date=28 March 2007}}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>  Destiny Church has also expanded to Australia, with one branch formerly in Brisbane and a current one on the [[Gold Coast, Queensland|Gold Coast]].<ref name="auto"/> The Gold Coast has a very significant Māori population.<ref name=":6" />