Seed Church Melbourne is launching!

At 4pm this Sunday Seed Church Melbourne is officially launching!

Led by affiliated planter Nat Clarke, Seed Church has the mission 'to make disciples who make disciples'. It's their conviction that we need to get back to the basics of being disciples of Jesus. Not following some new program or way of doing church, but living out our identity as God’s people: a family of missionary servants making disciples. To that end they structure their church around Missional Communities, communities that love like family, serve like Jesus and live like missionaries.

Event Details:

Sunday 21 January 2018
4:00pm
Seed Church Melbourne

Visit the Seed Church Melbourne website to find out more.

 

The Vision for Grace City Chatswood

Grace City Church are excited to announce that in early 2018, they will be launching in the heart of Chatswood.

In the lead up to the launch, they have just released their Vision Film on how they hope to see Chatswood and its surrounding areas transformed by the renewing power of the Gospel. Watch the film online now.

You are also invited to join for their first public Vision Night coming up next month. This is an informal evening where you can hear the vision of the church, meet some of the team, and explore ways in which you can support this new venture in Chatswood.

Event details:

Saturday 11 November 2017
7:30pm-9:30pm
Chelsea Hotel, 14 Railway St, Chatswood NSW 2067

For more details and to RSVP visit https://www.facebook.com/events/286332668534784

 

Find out more about affiliated church plant Grace City Chatswood on our Church Planting page.

I believed in myself but it only led to despair

Chapel Hill Rozelle is a church passionate about bringing new life in Jesus to Sydney's Inner West. Recently they had the privilege of leading James Yao to come to accept Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. Chapel Hill celebrated his new life in Jesus through baptism in February earlier this year.

This is what James says about how the Christian faith has changed his life:

Before I came to Chapel Hill, I was always one who did not believe in God and only believed in myself and my own abilities. This led me down a path that prevented me from growing, not only as a person but spiritually and emotionally.

Relying on my own abilities meant that I put a lot of pressure on myself and the truth is, I always felt alone. I had anxiety every day and felt like nothing I did was ever good enough.

At the start of 2016, I walked into Chapel Hill and I immediately felt the warmth and love that only comes with family. Spending time with my fellow brothers and sisters here allowed me to see what Chapel Hill was, it was family.

Since then, coming to understand God and having a personal relationship with him has turned my life around completely for the better. I feel like I am truly alive and I now understand that there's more to life than I understood before. God and Chapel Hill have given me what I thought I had but in reality, lacked. They’ve given me closure, comfort, love and happiness. Here, I have found more than faith, I’ve found another family.

– James Yao

Do the big questions of life keep you up at night? Chapel Hill Rozelle invites you to come along to their Christianity Explored course starting on 17 August 2017. For more details visit www.chapelhill.org.au

Chapel Hill meets on Sundays at 10:30am, 665A Darling Street, Rozelle (NSW).

Village Church Launches in Burleigh

Ralph Mayhew (left), and Ori Zacher (right)

On May 7, Ralph Mayhew and co-planter Ori Zacher officially launched Village Church – a City to City Australia affiliated church located in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast. In this interview, Ralph shares with us about how the plant came about, and their vision for Village Church to become so focused on Jesus, that people would join them to see more of him.

---

How did you become a church planter?

I’ve been in full time ministry for 14 years, first pastoring a beautiful group of churches in Victoria and then leading the youth and young adults of Newlife Uniting Church on the Gold Coast. As my role was increasing and changing I felt a strong call from God to dream about church planting.

As I did a vision of what could be began to grow in my spirit as I pondered how we, the church, might more effective to win people to Jesus. The question of discipleship is huge for me. How do we help those who have no idea who Jesus is, journey to a place where they are making disciples who are making disciples? This is the approach which has shaped a lot of our thinking about Village Church. Trying to create a church that is true to the Gospel and culturally relevant as it evaluates the benefit and detriment of all that has been church before us.

So, after working closely with the leadership at Newlife, and feeling an enormous amount of support, Ori and Bec came on board to co-pastor and it’s been amazing. A year ago, we had no idea we would be doing what we are, but we’re so thankful God has called us to this. So, we gathered a team together, developed a culture, prayed through our vision and on May 7 went public to the people of Burleigh.

How did the church plant come about?

At the start of 2016 I sat with the statistics, that by 2050 the population of the Gold Coast will double and most of that will be up (multi-story) not out (land footprint). When you think about it, that means that to just sustain the number of people currently going to church in the Australian population (7-8%), our city would need 250 churches of 200 people or more in the next 35 years. This is frightening. It also doesn’t take into account anyone new following Jesus.

At the time I was also wrestling with the tension that people feel part of an intimate movement until the numbers exceed 150. When that happens people begin to feel disconnected from each other and the vision. What if a church could grow to that number and then multiply, each time inhabiting a new postcode, including multiple expressions within the same postcode. Pretty soon we would see a movement of church plants, enabling people to meet Jesus, connect with each other and go out into the world.

With that dream bubbling away in my spirit I approached Newlife’s leadership, spoke with the elders, worked with our Presbytery, and now we are seeing the birth of what we hope will make more and more disciples of Jesus.

Give us a description of the character of the community you’re reaching out to. What are some of the challenges involved in reaching out to this community?

Burleigh is an extremely diverse collection of people. It is a health centre on the Gold Coast, with a huge focus on good eating and fitness, it has a large community of people who engage in New Age Spirituality, there are a number of homeless people throughout the postcode, the housing prices are souring, leaving families struggling, 40% of the population is retired, there is a massive number of international students and visa holders who find their way to Burleigh. It really feels like a modern-day Athens that the apostle Paul preached to.

There are a number of challenges including how does the church offer something different (of the Gospel) than the multitude of community services already present in Burleigh. An obvious question we face is, how do we help the homeless and those with mental illness find life and hope, when we have very limited physical resources? A further challenge is not just connecting with people but discovering ways in which we might bless and love them deeply.

“We believe that the only thing we have to offer people is Jesus and if that is first expressed in our love, then the Holy Spirit will be at work in the exchange.”

Who's involved in the church plant?

To date it is led by Ori and I and we have a team of 33 adults and 15 children. That’s our team, which is different from our church. Our church would attract between 48 and 100 or so people who we are doing life with, loving, blessing and connecting with. We understand our church as people who we are journeying with in some form or another.

We have been well supported by Newlife Uniting, our sending church and also the Presbytery of South Moreton, who have been walking beside us.

What are your hopes for the future?

One of our goals is to be the church who, when asked about by anyone in Burleigh, will be explained as the Church who love us. We believe that the only thing we have to offer people is Jesus and if that is first expressed in our love, then the Holy Spirit will be at work in the exchange.

We want to plant other churches and other gatherings in and around Burleigh, which we know requires God to bless us richly and us to be obedient to what God is asking of us.

One of the other cries of our heart is that we would become so focused on Jesus, that people would join us to see more of him. That Jesus would completely define who we are, that those who don’t know Jesus would be driven to him by intrigue alone.
 

How can we be praying for you?

Please pray:

• That our passion for and devotion to Jesus would become all consuming. May we be so focused on Christ and the grace he gives us, that we might lose our lives to find his and in doing so give that life to others.
• For financial blessing. We have made the decision to never ask someone who we are reaching out to give to us, so the mission of the church is entirely supported by the team and their giving.
• That our team would be spiritually protected so that they may continue to make disciples and equip those they love for the kingdom.

To find out more, visit the Village Church website:
https://www.yourvillage.church/