He made the comments at a service yesterday marking 140 years of continuous service at St Andrew's Church in Cromwell and said the task of spreading the word had never been more urgent.
''But people are still hungry to know the meaning of life,'' Dr Wright said.
''Today [Sunday] is not about the last 140 years; it should be about the next 140 years.''
The church was at risk of ''dying out'' in Otago and Southland and all sorts of things were contributing factors.
''But this is God's church. God will not let it die. God has a purpose for all of us and he has a purpose for his church,'' he told about 100 people who gathered to celebrate the milestone anniversary of the church.
Dr Wright said although people had a great wealth of spiritual experiences, often they did not come to church with those experiences.
''That is profoundly sad - they don't make that connection between those experiences and what we do at church on Sundays.''
Dr Wright led the service yesterday and four former vicars of St Andrew's - Barry Entwisle, Bernard Wilkinson, Denis Bartley and Bill Sim - were among those who attended. St Andrew's is the oldest church building in Cromwell and it was dedicated on November 29, 1874.
