The Downward Spiral of Arise Church: Part 4
Despite a two year investigation by MBIE, Arise church refuses to make things right.
Hi,
Back in 2022 I spent a year reporting on New Zealand’s then-biggest megachurch, Arise, revealing the widespread abuse of hundreds of interns.
That series led to a harrowing review (leaked by Webworm) and the resignation of its founders and leaders John and Gillian Cameron, who fled to Australia where they now consult on how to build great churches.
In 2023 I reported that Arise had breached employment standards, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) telling Webworm that Arise had failed to comply with minimum employment standards in New Zealand — and that they would be pursuing action against the church.
Turns out you can’t just work an army of unpaid interns into the ground, to the point where some of them wanted to take their own lives in order to get some kind of escape.
Two years later, I wanted to know if the interns had gotten any kind of closure. I wanted to know what consequences the church — or its former leaders John and Gillian Cameron — would face.
David.
The Downward Spiral of Arise Church: Part 4 (The Bottom)
In July last year, former Arise Church intern Jess got some good news from The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
They told her they’d had a “positive” mediation with former Arise church leaders John and Gillian Cameron. Jess was told the pair had acknowledged various breaches in employment standards, and were wanting to resolve things.
“Our lawyer and the Cameron’s lawyer is working towards what that might look like ie. payment of arrears,” a labour inspector at MBIE told Jess.
While she was told nothing would happen until they met with Arise Church the following week, she felt — for the first time in a long time — hopeful.
Jess discovered Arise church during her first year of university in Wellington in 2016. The megachurch was on campus during orientation week, and Jess left her number with them. They followed up with a phone call, and within months she was attending church services, finding friendship and community.
She started volunteering at the church, making coffee on Sundays, entering information into the church’s Flocks database, and helping out in the office. After some encouragement, she applied for an official church internship. Interns at Arise were told this was the best way to serve the church, and God.
She was accepted into the internship programme, also choosing to begin studying towards a Diploma in Christian Ministry at Arise. She left university with one year to go on her other degree.
“Fees were $5,850, and I also had to pay $500 fees to Arise. The fees paid made it seem like they were the same as if I was paying for school. We were also told we needed to tithe, I couldn’t afford 10% so I paid $10 per week, we were incentivised with the tax return to give more.”
Her initial role was to be a senior pastor’s intern — looking after the needs of John and Gillian Cameron. She cleaned their office, picked up their lunch, did airport pick-ups and drop offs for staff and visitors, picked up the Camerons’ children from school, as well as taking their kids to various appointments and after-school activities.
“Everything I did and heard was confidential and I was told I needed to “be a vault” where information would enter and never exit. I got pulled in for a warning one day because I had a friend with me when I bought an Apple watch for a visiting pastor for conference.”
She also began to perform other roles at the church as a cafe intern, making coffee, ordering supplies, doing rosters, and reconciling the day’s sales. She helped organise kids groups, which included outings for them on Sundays or during school holidays.
Her official office hours were between 7.30am to 5pm, Tuesday to Thursday. She’d also work three to five hours every Saturday prepping for services on Sunday. When Sunday arrived, interns were split into teams.
“If I was on set up, I would start at 4.30am and finish by 7am — so then I would set up the café then run the kids group. In the afternoon, I would complete work for John and Gillian like refilling cars, getting dinners, being a runner for anything they needed or wanted.
If I didn’t have to pack down, I would finish around 9pm. If I was on data entry, I would finish at around 10pm.”
Then there was conference time, which happened twice a year.
“My biggest job in the lead up to conference was the senior pastors and guest pastor’s itineraries. They had to be perfect, and I would get calls in the early mornings and late nights to make small changes to them.
I bought gifts for the pastors, often things from David Jones and I Love Ugly. I would buy fruit and snacks to make gift boxes for select pastors in Arise and visiting pastors. I’d organise airport pick-ups and drop-offs. There were so many other jobs, it meant that I was working up to 12 hours a day just to organise the conference.
During the conference I was on my feet from 4am to 12am the next day. Weirdly, it was so energising and almost euphoric. I cried multiple times in the lead up and during conference out of pure exhaustion and that was seen as “normal” for an intern. It was seen as a good thing because it showed you were pushing yourself to work out of God’s strength.”
All these jobs started to take a toll. Jobs that needed to be done for the glory of God. This wasn’t an ordinary job — this was to honour God and get a spot in the afterlife.
“Doing all of these roles physically made me feel exhausted all the time. I was told that when I couldn’t push myself any further, I needed to find ‘strength in god’ and work to the point of burning out.”
She recalled all of this to a labour inspector at MBIE in June of 2023.
“I felt guilty saying ‘no’ when I was too exhausted. And so many other things. I ended up having a breakdown, suffered anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. At the end I ended up in the mental health ward after attempting suicide.”
In January of 2024, MBIE sent out an email to interns that had given evidence in the investigation into Arise and the Camerons.
MBIE said that in November of 2023 they had met with Arise and suggested a resolution outside of the Employment Relations Authority (ERA). However, after considering what Arise suggested, MBIE lodged an application with the ERA in late December 2023 against Arise and the Cameron’s — who were served in Australia.
“If the ERA rules in MBIEs favour that you were in fact employees, then MBIE will be seeking wage, leave, and holiday arrears along with penalties for you all going back six years from 2022 (when the complaint was received).
While the majority of you fall into this six year timeframe, some of you do not (you will know who are) which means you will not be entitled to any arrears or penalties, however, your evidence and witness statements will still be used to strengthen our case for the others.”
Jess did the maths. She’d interned from 2017 to 2018. She was within the timeframe.
Then came that optimistic email that started this piece: “Our lawyer and the Cameron’s lawyer is working towards what that might look like ie. payment of arrears,” MBIE had told Jess.
Then the inevitable happened. It’s a story Jess, and hundreds of interns who had spoken out about Arise, already knew. That outside of the free labour she had provided to Arise, she had no value. She was entirely disposable.
Her time, her labour, her skills, her entire being — they did not matter.
In December last year, Jess heard back from MBIE. She’d been waiting for five months.
MBIE told Jess that Arise did not agree with the Labour Inspectorate’s claim that all the interns were employees.
“They are only satisfied that some of the interns were in fact employees and are therefore only agreeing to pay wage arrears to the ones they accept were employees.”
They told Jess they hoped they’d have more news before Christmas. That news took four months to arrive, and it came yesterday at 10.54am.
“Mid last year we had mediation with the Camerons and also Arise church. From the mediation we proposed that Arise and the Cameron’s repay arrears owing to the interns that we had communications with.
Arise church has not agreed and has proposed that they will only pay arrears to a few interns that they acknowledge as doing work for the church.”
Jess wasn’t one of the “few” interns they agreed to pay. Her work didn’t reach employee level in the church’s eyes. MBIE asked if Jess was willing to speak to their legal team to look at next steps.
“One option is that we have an investigation meeting at the ERA and the member assigned decides the final outcome. This would involve all the interns giving evidence of their experience at Arise and also being asked questions by Arise and possibly the Camerons’ lawyers.”
Yesterday, Jess told Webworm she felt defeated.
“I was at work when I got the email from MBIE and it felt like a punch to the guts. Arise and the Camerons have been pulling this shit for so long to avoid being held accountable. I am still picking up the pieces that were broken during my time at Arise, talking to strangers about some of the most difficult times of my life.
This investigation has taken two years just for them to refuse. I never want to speak to the Camerons again let alone their lawyers.
Most of me wants this to be over and to just pull out of the investigation, but there’s a part that is so angry that they have been able to skip the country and continue as if nothing has happened.
The process has been long and mentally draining but I refuse to let them get away with this. They clearly haven’t learned anything, just saying and doing the same shit — probably harming a lot of people on the way, because that’s what they do — in a new country.”
Jess isn’t sure how she will proceed from here. But she knows she wants the public to know what Arise has done, and that absolutely nothing — nothing — has changed.
Webworm reached out for comment from Arise church’s current leaders Ben and Amy Kendrew. Arise responded from an unattributed spokesperson, saying:
“There is currently an active case between the Labour Inspectorate and Arise in the Employment Relations Authority. There are confidential and ongoing discussions between the parties about that.”
Webworm also approached John and Gillian Cameron, currently based in the Gold Coast where John has a media pack and is “in demand globally for his dynamic, faith-filled preaching and his leadership insights.”
They remain silent.
MBIE was also approached for comment. Labour Inspectorate Manager Jeanie Borsboom responded with:
“The Labour Inspectorate currently has an active case in the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) who directed the parties to mediation last year. While resolution was not achieved at mediation, discussions with a view to resolution have been ongoing since then.
The process is taking time due to the number of interns involved and the complexity of the facts and legal issues.”
A specific question from Webworm in regards to “how many interns Arise is paying out?” was deemed an Official Information Act request, buying MBIE up to 20 days to respond.
In all of this, I thought back to something Jess had written in her witness statement about her time working for Arise church: “I cried out of pure exhaustion — and that was seen as “normal” for an intern. It was seen as a good thing because it showed you were pushing yourself to work out of God’s strength.”
If you want to get in touch about Arise church — or related topics — in confidence, I am always davidfarrier@protonmail.com. Otherwise, see you in the comments. Please share this story, especially if you know anyone that attends Arise.
Jess is a legend and her journey of doing the right thing, being brave and speaking truth is the most beautiful contradiction to these cruel and weak abusers that hide behind lawyers and use people's faith as a way to manipulate and exploit.
Ending this journey at any point will never be a failure on her part. She has done enough already.
Any failures lie firmly and solely with these cruel and gross losers who can only achieve power through climbing over and bullying others.
As an ordained minister in a mainline Christian denomination let me be clear: it IS NOT normal for anyone to cry from sheer exhaustion and for that to be ok. Its called burnout. What has happened to Jess and the other interns does not meet the standard of loving/caring for your neighbour. It is exploitation and abuse. Period.