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).

International Intensive for Asia Pacific Planters

Last month, church planters, church-planting spouses, network leaders and returning alumni joined together for the fifth City to City Asia Pacific (CTCAP) International Intensive in Taipei, Taiwan.

City to City Australia sent planters Jeremy Tan (Redemption Hill, Sydney) and William and Lay Huan Tjoa (mosaiXchurch, Sydney) to take part in the training program held at Star City Church Bethlehem (known as Star Church). Over 100 people were in attendance representing countries including Japan, India, Australia, Dubai, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Previously held over four weeks, the program was modified to a two-week configuration to better suit those with jobs and families. This also forced CTC trainers to be more efficient, prioritise the material and contextualise for Asia Pacific.

Katie Ellis, Program Manager for Asia Pacific and Latin America, says, “We usually start with theology, then go into discipleship and then practical ministry concepts. This year we started off with four days of gospel renewal—being shaped by God, dealing with idols of the heart, being continually renewed. This is so important".

The CTC trainers model openness and vulnerability as they share their own struggles, their successes as well as their failures and their need for the gospel to daily transform their own lives. Jeremy shares:

"It was a deeply transformative time for me personally, as we spent lots of time learning how to bring the gospel to bear on our own hearts in a way that addresses the deep-rooted idols of our hearts, so that we never stop experiencing the power, reality and joy of the gospel. I loved this emphasis on the church planter first before we even started talking about the ‘how to’s of church planting. We were also able to work through some of the practical aspects of church planting such as discipleship, evangelism, leadership development, budget and finance, and preaching, which sharpened my own thinking on what to focus on next in our own context at Redemption Hill Green Square."

In addition: two groups of church-planting spouses participated in Parakaleo, which William says, "was one of the best things that has happened for my wife and other forgotten and unrecognised ministry partners"; some CTCAP network leaders were there to shadow and learn, so they can provide this valuable training in the future; and alumni returned for a master class.

William continues, "the encouragement from seeing so many others committed to planting disciple-making churches that plant disciple-making churches has refuelled my passion to persevere despite the obstacles".

Please pray that God will multiply the fruit of this intensive and see more churches planted in the Asia Pacific region, and many, many more coming to faith in Christ.

Chapel Hill Celebrates its 2nd Birthday

Chapel Hill is a new church community that loves to be in Rozelle, Sydney’s Inner West. The church was started by Michael and Amy Nhieu as keen newlyweds with a dream for Chapel Hill to be an authentic and creative church where people from all walks of life could do life together as we worshipped God.

Now in its second year since the church doors opened in 2015, God has continued to build the church with a very diverse group of people who call Chapel Hill home. This diverse community has made the life of the church interesting, lively, fun and challenges us all to get out of our comfort zones. Through the diversity in the church, people have felt comfortable to be themselves, vulnerable to share joys and burdens and open to explore the Christian faith whilst making genuine friendships. But of course this has all taken time, perseverance and prayer!

“Through the diversity in the church, people have felt comfortable to be themselves, vulnerable to share joys and burdens and open to explore the Christian faith whilst making genuine friendships.”

Launching with 13 people, Chapel Hill now has 40 regular attendees of a Sunday and three active Community Bible Study groups during the week. Discipleship amongst the church congregation is growing and the desire is that organically people will connect and care for each other on this Christian journey.

At Chapel Hill’s recent second birthday close to 100 visitors attended and provided a wonderful support and encouragement for the regular members. The celebration was made to be even more special with the induction of Ben Yee and Nate Kemp as elders, marking a significant milestone of establishing Chapel Hill’s own leadership. Renovations have begun on the church building as well as in many of the hearts of those at church.

God is shaping Chapel Hill to be a place of continued diversity and a place that we long to be a real light and ‘city on a hill’ in the community of Rozelle and greater Inner West.

Chapel Hill meets on Sundays 10:30am at 665A Darling Street, Rozelle. You can find more details at www.chapelhill.org.au