On the move with a big vision and to a permanent building

As Rediscover Exeter gets ready to move to its huge new home, Chris Rolfe catches up with associate pastor Mike de Vetter to hear about his past two adventurous years

If you wanted a word to describe the past couple of years for Mike de Vetter, “relocation” would be a good choice. Since July 2024 he and his family have moved halfway around the world, helped Rediscover Exeter settle into a new pop-up home, then helped it move out again – temporarily to its old building. Now he’s helping it prepare to move again, this time to a permanent building with a big vision.

The call to the UK

“We weren’t actually looking to move or to leave New Zealand,” Mike begins. “We’d been pastoring a multi-campus church of around 400–500 for nine years and had deep friendships there. We weren’t pastors looking for greener pastures – we loved what we were doing, but felt the call of God to come to Exeter.”

This call came as Rediscover’s lead pastor Mark Pugh was nominated to become Elim’s General Superintendent, in February 2024.

“We’d been friends with Mark for 15 years and had come to minister at his church while also being over to speak at a Limitless event,” says Mike. “When Mark told us about the nomination, we immediately felt God was in it and by the end of the week we’d said yes to helping him lead his church.

“We didn’t know how or what that would look like, we just took a step of faith, sold up and arrived in July 2024.”

Moving meant a massive change for Mike, his wife Amy and their three children, Rosie, Josiah and Zoe.

“Rosie had to start her UK schooling at GCSE level. There were subjects she’d never taken that other students had spent years studying.”

Josiah was an easier sell, laughs Mike. “I’m a mad Liverpool supporter and he’s watched matches with me since he was young. I promised him a trip to Anfield and that was enough to get him on the plane!”

Pop-ups and power shares

A unique early challenge to navigate was shared leadership of Rediscover. How do you help lead the church of Elim’s often-travelling GS?

Fortunately, Mike was well prepared.

“We’d been serving in second-chair position at the campus church under a senior pastor so we’d learned to walk the tension of being responsible but not in charge.

“We’re here to serve Mark, so my words to him from the start were, ‘Can I carry some of your luggage so you can do what you need to do?’

“We’ve settled into a really smooth rhythm. The bulk of church operations come to me and I’m the voice the majority hear on a regular basis, but when Mark’s back he brings that apostolic grace that the church needs too, so it’s a beautiful mix.”

Another of Mike’s early tasks was to help the church get established in the pop-up home it has just vacated – a former Range store the church moved into shortly before the de Vetters arrived.

One of the benefits of this giant building was that Rediscover saw a growth in families.

“With bigger space and opportunities for fresh new programming, the kids ministry grew from 30 children to over 80 on a regular basis. The kids loved the extra space.

“Amy and I have a background in kids ministry and a natural passion for children and families, so encouraging this work came naturally.

“We’ve had a lot of engagement with families and have run a number of outreach activities like light parties and Lego parties. We also have all-age prayer nights which we encourage families to come to.”

The church has also witnessed spiritual growth.

“As a congregation we went through the season of consecration that Elim was invited into as a movement and we’ve seen a greater leaning into the things of God since.

“Our young adults, for example, took consecration as their theme for a year and came into 2025 really carrying a hunger for God and for intimacy with him.”

Mike has also sought to deepen connections and recently helped relaunch Rediscover’s life groups as connect groups.

All are united by three elements: connect, grow and reach.

“A heart to connect with others, grow through Scripture, worship and prayer, and a desire to reach beyond their groups to impact their community,” explains Mike.

Connect groups are now built around different interests or groupings.

“We started one for intentional parenting and have others for women, men, discipleship, local areas and so on.

“We meet seasonally, and within the 12–13 weeks of each season we encourage people to think outward, with an outreach or missional approach. Does that mean inviting five people to join the group? Is it doing something in a neighbourhood to extend the kingdom?”

Relocation, relocation, relocation

Rediscover Church is now gearing up for yet another huge move.

At the time of writing, the church had just agreed to purchase a new building to make its own, and pending finance and change of use consent, the leadership team have plans to create a community centre as a destination for locals.

“This building is perfect for us to become the hub we have the vision to be,” Mike says. “Planting is a part of our church’s vision; to plant in the South-West and beyond.

“We want to have a hub here where we can train, equip and release people into church planting. We also want to open a café for the community where we can continue all our family projects.

“Then the dream is to have a business hub too, where entrepreneurs and start-ups can hot-desk and connect with other business owners, with the café and commercial kitchen offering the natural place to connect.”

So the season of relocation for Mike and Rediscover will continue well into the New Year, but the leadership team believe that relationships forged in the connect groups will help carry people through the changes.

“When you move home you can feel a bit unnerved but we’ve tried to make sure there are deep connections that exist outside of Sundays.

“It’s a bit more of the unknown, but we’re excited about this new step and this next part of our journey.”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.