Steve boxwell

Renew anglican church, Tuggeranong

Steve fell in love with Canberra by accident. When he was 18 he began praying regularly that 10% of Canberrans would be part of gospel-hearted churches in his lifetime. This prayer requires a quintupling of the gospel work currently in Canberra. At the time he had no intention of pastoring a church or living in Canberra. God put this prayer of Steve’s heart because he wanted Canberra on Steve’s heart. He now loves the crisp winter nights and sunny days, walking our daughter Florrie and dog Quincey around national landmarks, and smart people talking about complicated things. Anna already knew Canberra was great - she required no where near as much prompting by the Lord. 

Steve and Anna have served in an Anglican Church in South Canberra for the last several years and in 2017 have been released to plant Renew Anglican Church in Tuggeranong, in Canberra’s South. We have a great team of people who are eager to see your church grow and plant other churches to the glory of Jesus. We are begging God to see Canberra transformed by the love of Jesus. Canberra is a diplomatic city. There’s embassies and consulates and high commissions everywhere. Renew is an embassy of the Kingdom of God. We are convinced that when Jesus returns he will make all things new (Rev 21.5). Because of this we want to treat our city in the direction that Jesus will treat it when he de-thorns and de-thistles the earth. We long to see Canberra and Canberrans transformed spiritually, socially and in the public square - starting with us. Find out more about Renew Anglican here.

RALPH MAYHEW & ORI ZACHER

Village church, burleigh HEADS

Village is a church plant of Newlife Uniting Church, started in May, 2017. We are situated in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast, with the vision to go to the 85% of Australians in Burleigh who will never come to church, bless them and invite them to follow Jesus. Village is led by Ralph Mayhew, married to Lyndal with their two kids, and by Ori Zacher, married to Bec, with their three kids.

Ori and Ralph wanted to create a church where people who are completely unfamiliar with anything Christian or ‘churchy’ will feel at home, be transformed by Jesus and then invite their friends to meet Jesus too. Burleigh is the first of many church plants into other surrounding postcodes, contributing to making more disciples across the Gold Coast. Find out more about Village Church here.

adam cetrangolo

St Cath's Caulfield South

A little under four years ago, Heather and I moved to the south side of Melbourne to work across three Churches. Heather fell in love with a small community in Caulfield South and led the charge of major change-management while I was primarily involved in planting a new young adults congregation in Elsternwick. It was clear that the small community in Caulfield South was looking more and more like a plant than an existing congregation and required permission to be that if it was going to truly thrive and be an effective centre for making disciples and growing leaders. So in October 2013 it re-launched as St Cath's Caulfield South, with the tag-line: 'Real God, Real People' - a Church seeking to reach a post-church generation with authentic encounters with God through authentic people.

The re-launch gave way to a new worship style and informal services as well as new ways of doing ministry which have included free community meals, short courses and the hosting of concerts at our church as a way of seeking out people of peace. We are a fun, relaxed community for people of all ages. We offer a unique blend of emphasis on Bible teaching, Spirit-led prayer, social outreach and engagement in global issues. Our team is working towards being a church that nurtures passion and a disciplined prayer-life in a way that is tailored to each individual’s needs and gifts.

The arrival of our beautiful daughter, Mary, in March 2014 necessitated a re-imagining of our roles. In 2014, I was appointed as the lead pastor of St Cath's and gradually fazed myself out of the ministries at the other two churches. Heather is on the staff team and is also the chaplain at a nearby girls school, Shelford Grammar.

You can find out more about who we are by visiting the St Cath's Caulfield South website.

AKHIL GARDENER

redemption church: craigieburn

After a year of prayer, preparation, thinking and training, Redemption Church: Craigieburn, an Anglican Congregation, launched its weekly Sunday service on 3 February 2019. Craigieburn is one of the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne, an area home to 58,000 people and growing. Our vision is to saturate the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne with The Good News of Jesus Christ. We are looking to be involved in their community alongside other Anglican-agencies in the City of Hume and participating in local community groups and spaces through implementing a missional-community approach to midweek discipleship and mission. Visit our website to find out more.

ferdinand haratua

rock city church, Nunawading

Amid a rewarding career in the Marketing and Advertising industry, a fulfilling ministry as a lay pastor to a young adults' congregation, and a happily busy family life, Ferdinand felt God urging him to pursue a postgraduate degree in theological studies. For the next six years, he delicately balanced work, study, ministry and family to graduate from Christ College, Sydney. Soon after, he felt a deep conviction to plant a new church in another city and became more and more certain of this calling despite the many challenges ahead. In 2018, he uprooted his family of five from Sydney and moved to Melbourne to start ROCK City Church with the help of ROCK Sydney Church and City to City Australia. Ferdinand is married to Poppy, and they have two wonderful rambunctious boys and a sweet little daughter. 

ROCK City Church is a new church plant in Nunawading, Melbourne, which launched in March 2019. It is a multi-cultural church with a mission to glorify God by treasuring Christ, making disciples, and living out the Gospel in the everyday life. We are committed to the faithful teaching of God’s Word and serving in the local community. 

If you live in the area and want to get involved, or to find out more about ROCK City Church please visit the website.

ANDREW SEEDHOM & MARK TIBBEN

Sojourners church, werribee

People in the western suburbs of Melbourne are restless. They are living for the next holiday, for their children’s future, the aspiration jump up the social ladder, or the place down the coast where they can finally relax. But for most, the dream is always out of reach, or is unfulfilling when attained.

The Western Suburbs is full of sojourners or wanderers who don’t know where their true home is.

Our wandering hearts are desperately in need of rest, a rest we will only find truly in Jesus.

We call the church Sojourners Church, and our motto statement is “Wandering hearts finding rest in Jesus.” We meet at the local footy ground, and our prayer is that we can connect with those in our community who don’t know Jesus.

Get in touch or find out more at https://www.sojo.org.au

Peter Greenwood

Inner West Church, Kensington

Inner West Church was planted in 2015 in the Melbourne suburb of Kensington. The inner west is one of the most secular parts of one of Australia's most secular cities, and yet many people are not experiencing the kind of fulfilling lives they have been taught to expect from life without God. They are disconnected from any real sense of meaning and purpose and they struggle with a lack of deep relationships of trust and love.

However, we believe all this can change through something as simple as a genuine friendship with Christians whose lives shine the Gospel. Jesus said "As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35) In other words, for people to experience the joy of God's Kingdom, they have to experience the love of God's church.

To help us live this out, we have structured our church into 'Missional Communities" - small groups of Christians devoted to loving one another as family and reaching out to our neighbours as missionaries. As we show practically and declare courageously how the Gospel truly changes everything,  we hope that people might connect with God as Father and the church as family, be restored by the power of the Spirit and learn how to share Jesus with others. In this way we are becoming an everyday church, for everyday people, in everyday life.
www.innerwestchurch.com.au

LAWSON HANNAFORD

CITYREACH MARION

Cityreach Marion is a diverse, multi-generational, and multi-ethnic church in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. It is within one kilometre of a Flinders University with 25,000 students, Adelaide’s largest shopping centre precinct, and the new Tonsley technology precinct. 

With a heart to reach the people of the south of Adelaide with the grace of Jesus Christ, Cityreach Marion officially launched in July 2018 meeting in a local Christian school. God has been very kind to us over the last few months, our core team of 8 people has grown to approximately 75 adults and 15 children on a Sunday, we have been joined by an existing church (who have also gifted their building for the advance of the gospel!), and have seen spiritual renewal and baptisms across the church.

We have invested in future leadership development with five current bible college students and three part-time interns in our 2019 program and are looking to add more later this years and in 2020.

Recently we launched an outreach ministry at Flinders University and, Lord willing, have decided to plant a Mandarin speaking congregation to reach out to the growing Chinese community and international students mid-year.  

All that to say, Jesus has been building his church and it's all His work and for His glory and we are so thankful. 

Find out more and get in touch at the CityReach website.

Angus, Ali and Jasper

angus courtney

ST OSWALD’S, HABERFIELD

St Oswald’s Haberfield is a new church plant in a beautiful old building. In mid-2019, a team of people started meeting to pray about what it would look like to plant a multigenerational, multiethnic congregation that was on mission to Haberfield and the Inner West of Sydney. Like the local neighbourhood, St Oswald's values hospitality and eating together. Following the gospel, we seek to let grace shape every aspect of our lives, together and apart.

St Oswald's is a part of Christ Church Inner West, which also includes congregations in Ashfield and Five Dock. Weekly Sunday gatherings launched in January 2020. While a public opening planned for Easter had to be shelved due to Covid-19, the plant has grown and the congregation is excited about how God might use them to honor the name of Jesus in Haberfield and beyond. Angus Courtney is the site pastor and planter of St Oswald’s. He’s married to Alison. To find out more, follow St Oswald’s on instagram - @stoswaldshaberfield

WILLIAM TJOA

MOSAIXCHURCh, chatswooD

I feel like the oldest church planter with the youngest church! Our journey began when God called me out of the corporate world as a chartered accountant in my mid-forties and downsized me into a part time student pastor role in a Chinese migrant church plant. I saw an incredible movement of God among the second gener-Asians and began slowly discipling and mentoring a small group of Uni students to lead youth and disciple the next generations relationally through the transitions of life. To retain them God miraculously helped us (Lay Huan, my wife, and our inexperienced and ill-equipped youth shepherds) plant a church in Chatswood early in 2015 under CECA with a God-sized dream of becoming the first of many multi-plying, multi-generational, and multi-ethnic ‘fresh expression’, transformissional disciplemaking churches that transform lives, renew cities and heal the world. Not with gifted and talented pastors and leaders but with God-graced, Word-led and Spirit-empowered young, ordinary, weak, and even ‘boring’ disciplemakers lovingly serving the least and the lost, the lame, the lonely and the left behind. Even our Sunday FelloWorship gatherings have an informal, casual and authentic feel. Find out more about mosaixchurch here.

Blake Hatton

Bondi beach ANGLICAN CHURCH

My dad is not a church guy, but he understands the world pretty well and so moving to Bondi Beach I asked him, “How do I convince the richest and best looking people in Sydney that we’re lost and we really need Jesus for full life?” Dad said, “Didn’t Jesus himself say that it will be as hard as getting a camel through the eye of a needle?”

Bondi Beach is rich in so many ways. But there isn’t much going on down here in terms of the good news that Jesus is the Lord and that he saves. The gospel seems to be on low. But as well as it being extra hard for the rich to be saved, Jesus said that things that are impossible for us are easy for God. And so, having been set aside by Bondi Anglican, we’re asking God to plant a local church here where people will engage with Jesus and be changed for good. Find out more about Bondi Beach Anglican Church here.

Danny Ford

Joshua Tree, Petersham

This year God has brought together our vision for more people coming to follow Jesus in Sydney's inner west, with Ashfield Presbyterian's desire for a new work to be based out of a vacant property in Petersham. We are spending this year working out the details of this move and seeking to build a larger core group of Christians who desire to launch a new church in 2015. God is continuing to work in the lives of the team as we seek to grow in Him and desire to see others come to know Him. If you or someone you know are interested in finding out more about Joshua Tree, click here.

James mcfarlane, murray smith & jonathan pratt

Hornsby presbyterian church

The planning for Hornsby Presbyterian Church (HPC) began in 2014 when Jonathan, Murray and James (along with added wisdom from their lovely wives!) got together and started doing some "Gospel dreaming" about planting a new church in the north of Sydney. After receiving official support from the Presbyterian Church (Presbytery of Sydney North), the process of building a Launch Team began in July 2016.

After much prayer and planning, HPC held its first service of Gathered Worship on the 5th February 2017! We are deeply grateful to Barker College for allowing us to meet in one of their rooms in this initial period. We were also very encouraged to have 85 people attend the service. Our prayer is that this new church will join other local churches in proclaiming the life-changing Gospel of Jesus to the people of Hornsby. Find out more about HPC here.

JEREMY TAN

Redemption hill, green square

Redemption Hill is a new church in Green Square, which launched in March 2017. Our vision is ‘Jesus. Everyday.’. This means we are a church that is not just about Sundays, but we believe the everyday spaces of our lives, where we work, where we live, where we eat and where we play, matter to Jesus. He says about all these spaces: “Mine. It’s all mine”.

In August 2016, we began gathering fortnightly as a small group to dream, plan, pray and work out what a new church would look like in Green Square, an area which over the next 15-20 years, will see 40,000 people move in. Our prayer is to see whole lives, the whole of Green Square, our city renewed in a holistic way: socially, culturally, physically, relationally, and spiritually, until Jesus’ song resound and His Name is heard everywhere on earth.

Is this something you want to be part of? We’d love you to join us. To find out more, please visit our website.

Tim Clemens

Grace City Church, green square

Green Square is a new development area just 5km from Sydney's CBD. Over the next 15 years, Green Square is predicted to grow by 30,000 people. Most of these will be highly educated young professionals. We believe that Green Square provides a unique opportunity to plant a strategic gospel ministry in one of Sydney's fastest growing regions.

Our prayer is that God would use Grace City Church to see thousands of disciples throughout Sydney and beyond become radically committed to the cause of Christ. By God’s grace they will worship God passionately, love their church deeply, and serve their city boldly.

Tim is leading Grace City and is married to Emma. To learn more about Grace City Church, check out their website.

jonas lee

mathetes community, ashfield

Mathetes Community is a new Korean-speaking church in Sydney, which launched in February 2021. Our vision is to be ‘Mathetes’, which means ‘disciples’ in Greek. Following Christ’s example, we seek to be a community of Jesus’ followers within the Korean immigrant society. We dream of a gospel-centred church that connects the Australian and immigrant societies to create a gospel ecosystem that is grounded in Christ.

Mathetes is part of Christ Church Inner West, which includes congregations in Ashfield, Five Dock, and Haberfield. In August 2020, a launch team began gathering fortnightly as a small group to pray, plan and work out what Mathetes would look like, launching to the public half a year later. Please pray that we will become a gospel bridge that connects people of all cultures, languages, and ages to Jesus.

To learn more about Mathetes Community, visit our website.