Destiny: A life and death responsibility

Brian Tamaki. Photo / Martin Sykes

"You would be expected to take a bullet to protect your pastor."

That was the weight placed on Destiny Church members who worked as security guards for those preaching the controversial branch of faith.

The church's inner workings were revealed during interviews with two of its Taranaki congregation members.

They said church members were expected to take on church roles as a way of contributing to its growth.

Those roles included serving as security for the church and pastor, at a local and national level. The church has always denied it has security details.

One former member who says he was in the Taranaki security team said self-appointed Bishop Brian Tamaki had his own security team, which would travel with him for large events.

Locally, security team members whose task was to protect the pastor were expected to sit in the front rows of the congregation. Others would be placed at various points on the perimeter.

"If any aggro [aggression] went down you were supposed to get them out as quickly as you could.

If "someone pulled a gun" then "you were expected to take a bullet to protect your pastor", he said.

He said the church understood it was controversial and services could be interrupted. Security staff were given "good, strict" induction guidelines to their roles, which included physically removing people from church property.

Another former Destiny member said there was a high level of understanding of the roles church members played.

He also said that security team members were told to stand in front of pastors "if they were attacked".

The former church member said that the need for a security team was never proved. "I think it's getting paranoid."