1991
With God's call confirmed in their hearts, Paul and Maree de Jong left their position as Associate Pastors to Ps Frank Houston at Christian Life Centre Sydney, and brought their three sons to Auckland.  They held the first service in the Auckland Teacher's College in Epsom on the first weekend of October 1991 with a total congregation of 21 including children!

1992
Having outgrown the Teachers College, Sunday services moved to the Mandalay Ballroom in Newmarket with approximately 500 attending.  The seating capacity there was soon full and so multiple services were held for the first time.  Everything needed for services was stored at the Ellerslie offices: setup crews started at 5.30am each Sunday, loading a rented truck with gear for the Mandalay and finishing the return journey sometimes at 11.30pm!

1993/1994
The work needed to maintain and grow the church also brought increased staffing needs.  The Ellerslie offices were vacated in 1996 and a big faith step was taken: the purchase for $1.1 million of an office building in Boston Road, Mt Eden.  Soon it was also too small for the meetings, music practices and growing staff numbers, so the building next door was rented.

1996
In 1996 the first Hillsong New Zealand Conference was held at the ASB Stadium in Kohimarama and continued as an annual event for 6 years until it was replaced by the annual Pursuit of Excellence conference.
1999
The Mandalay had become too small for the Sunday congregation, even with multiple services, so another huge step of faith saw them relocated to the Aotea Centre in the Auckland CBD.  When this venue was not available, services were held in a number of nearby hotel conference facilities!  Despite this nomadic existence, LIFE continued to experience God's hand of growth and blessing.

2000
In October 2000, Ps Maree had the vision to host the first Sistas Women's Conference in South Auckland.  From there this annual event grew phenomenally, with each year out-numbering the last.

2001
The need to frequently vacate the Aotea Centre for other events, and the inadequacy of the office buildings, prompted the search for a single location that LIFE could call home.  Another miracle of faith and provision resulted in the sale of the Boston Road building and the purchase of a nearby office building/warehouse complex at 95 Mt Eden Road for $6.5 million.  The warehouse was converted to an impressive 950-seat auditorium, where the first services were held in Christmas 2000. In October 2001, the 10th anniversary celebrations and banquet were held in this new auditorium.

2002
The church continued to flourish at this venue. By late 2002, weekend attendance was totalling 3,000 over four services in the City each Sunday plus two extension services held in rented halls at Hibiscus Coast (started in 1995) and Henderson (started in 2001.)  A café opened that same year as the church looked at creative ways to improve the facilities.  The site was quickly gaining recognition as an ideal venue for impacting and inspiring the unchurched.

2003
Organisational improvements saw the merging of both the Community-focused and Kingdom-focused departments, to form World Reach.  World Reach includes everything that LIFE does outside its four walls: Community Reach Teams, mission trips, conferences, and a New Zealand-wide Network of pastors and leaders.  In 2003 LIFE also launched their first men’s conference – Mandate.

2005
The theme for 2005 was “On Mission” and it was a year that experienced huge growth.  Sistas had become so popular that the conference was hosted at the Telstra Pacific Stadium in Manukau and still filled to capacity.  The office building now houses over 50 full-time and part-time staff.  The West Extension service out-grew their previous venue and moved to the Waitakere Trusts Stadium.  And the youth ministry at LIFE was living up to its new name of  “Unlimited Youth” with crowds on a Friday night of over 500!

2006
In February 2006 LIFE launched the new South Centre on a 16-acre park-like property just 5 minutes drive from Auckland International Airport. Already, hundreds of lives throughout the South Auckland area have been impacted through the South Centre's members, ministries and events. Early in 2006, The LIFE Leadership College opened on the same site, with 25 full-time students in the first intake.

2006 also saw LIFE's City Centre fully paid for! We are so grateful to all the faithful and generous givers who have sowed into the Centre over the years.

2008
"A year of unprecedented abundance " was declared over LIFE for 2008. We saw an abundance of people make decisions to become Christians or re-commit their lives to Jesus! An average of over 36 people every week. Great and inspiring stories of people facing great personal challenge, and reports of God’s amazing provision and ability to change things around from financial situations, sickness to relational areas.

2009
With a year focused on "Connection" we made adjustments to allow for our church to better facilitate the building of our relationships together. This was greatly boosted, when in March, we established LIFE East, and then the integration of Lifeway Ministries, from which we saw the commencement of LIFE North, as our sixth location, and the expansion of what was LIFE leadership College, now known as Lifeway College. A major highlight in 2009 was our Six for 600 Sponsorship event for LIFE Reach, which included a bike ride from Cape Reinga to Auckland, with a team that included Ps Paul and the Lead Pastors.

2010 The story continues...