Peter Lindop

Peter Lindop pastors GCI’s congregation in Rotorua, New Zealand and serves as chairman of the New Zealand GCI church board.

Peter and his wife Lillian joined GCI (then the Radio Church of God) in 1964. “We were baptized in September of that year at the festival.” That was the year after Peter and Lillian were married, which means that “we have been married for near on 50 years.” They have two daughters, the eldest is a nurse in Perth, Western Australia and the other a social worker in New Zealand. They also have two grandchildren, Savannah and Ryan.

Peter was raised in England. “Although I was born in South London, I was brought up in the Northwest at a place called Southport. After Lillian and I had been married for about five years, we went to live in South London. Then in 1974, we emigrated to New Zealand where we have stayed.”

Though emigrating to another country is difficult by any standard, Peter and his family made it an adventure. “I wanted to do something different so we bought a Land Rover and caravan and drove from London to Calcutta and then flew to Australia where we went to see my great uncle who lived in Sydney. Then we caught a boat and came to Auckland, New Zealand. The whole journey took us about nine months.”

Peter got involved in the local GCI congregation and was ordained a few years later. “I was ordained on May 19, 1979, just over 33 years ago—that sounds rather a long time ago!” What Peter enjoys most about being a pastor is “the satisfaction you get when through Christ and the Holy Spirit you manage to enter someone’s life and things change for them.” Along that line, what Peter appreciates most about being part of GCI is “the freedom to be what Christ called me to be.”

In addition to serving GCI, Peter is involved with Rotorua Gospel Radio and is on the chaplaincy team at Rotorua Hospital. At the hospital he spends time in the intensive care, coronary care, orthopedic care and mental health wards. Working with hospital patients is one of Peter’s great passions.