Television New Zealand has axed its early morning showing of Destiny TV - five months into a year-long contract.
Last Friday marked the final 6.30am broadcast.
There will still be regular late-night Sunday and Monday shows, usually at around 1am - but Destiny followers are outraged at the week-morning canning.
Some say gay
MPs applied pressure to have it axed, in the lead-up to this week's passing of the Civil Union Bill.
TVNZ maintains it acted within its rights.
The 6.30am slot is now be occupied by a children's programme.
Bay Destiny Church Pastor Loa Bernard was suspicious about the axing.
"Especially when they renewed it for 12 months.
"It's always been a 12-month by 12-month tenure."
He and several other Destiny Church members had phoned TVNZ and written emails to voice their concerns.
Pastor Bernard was told the axing was perfectly legitimate when he called.
Another Bay Destiny follower, Dion Wynyard, has not received a response to his phone message.
"TVNZ has to wake up. There are gay people in Parliament who are trying to take us out ," he said.
Mr Wynyard knew several others from the Bay who had tried contacting TVNZ to no avail.
He was devastated the show had been dropped.
"I used to watch the show every morning. It's changed my life. It's helped me grow in my business," he said.
He introduced a number of his mates to the show and said it helped turn their lives around.
"I had a mate who was suicidal and he was ready to hang himself and I brought him to Christ and now he's got a job and he used to watch that programme too.
"He rang me up the other day and said 'Guess what? That programme has been taken off TV'."
Mr Wynyard has started a petition to get Destiny TV reinstated and plans to hit the streets of downtown Tauranga next week.
Public affairs manager Megan Richards said as a public service broadcaster, programming was tailored to best suit the needs of the general public, and could be rearranged at will.
"We are just looking at gaps in our scheduling."
As for Mr Wynyard's complaint, Ms Richards suggested he email to lodge an official complaint.
"If he emails he will get an automated response from the system and in due course will get a further response."
