I mean, is it just a local and trendy alternative to ‘Church’, or is it a denomination or organisation of some sort?
What’s the context? It may refer to a church, possibly shared by different denominations, or to some sort of parish centre with various spiritual resources. It could be some sort of new age centre.
I came across the term a couple of times in the CV (resumé) of an applicant (from NZ) for a position in the (UK) church I currently attend; I’m trying to ascertain whether it is merely descriptive or whether there is some sort of monolithic ‘faith centre’ movement or organisation that imposes the term upon their places of worship.
Well, in that case, I’d say it’s probably just a trendy name for the local church, unless your applicant was stressing some special managerial/administrative expertise relating to some sort of spirituality centre. No doubt some of the resident New Zealanders can give a more up to date answer, but when I lived there, both the Catholic and Anglican churches were very big on all the meaningless new buzzwords.
Googling on “faith centre” site: .NZ gives some generic looking hits like this:
There’s no need for it to be considered “trendy”. It’s a more encompassing term than church, as it includes temples, mosques, etc.
Can’t say I’ve heard the term myself here, and I think most people would consider it odd in conversation {haven’t been to a “Faith Centre” since I was 14}, but given the current climate of political correctness and fondness for ugly neologisms in Godzone, Squink seems on the money: it’s probably more likely to be found in official or semi-official literature, for example a council offfice carrying information on local “Faith Centres”.
Or it could be Faith Ministries perhaps.
Here is the term in a context similar to the one I’m talking about:
http://www.cityfaithcentre.co.nz/
The generic term found in zoning regulations in the US is place of worship.