As the year hurtles towards Christmas, many of us are making plans for next year. Perhaps a change of job or travel plans feature in your calendar. But for some, 2015 means a big, risky change: starting a new church. Below we profile four church plants launching, being conceived or finding their feet in 2015.
Pete Ko is the Senior Pastor at South West Chinese Christian Church in Sydney. No stranger to starting a church from scratch, Pete planted the congregation in Kingsgrove five years ago, seeking to reach Sydney’s Chinese community.
With that church in a stage of sustainable growth, Pete has decided it’s time to plant the seed elsewhere. Looking to launch the new church in early February in Bankstown in Sydney’s west, he’s not set himself an easy challenge. Bankstown has one of the highest crime rates in the state, and a low socio-economic demographic. A city of 30,000 people, it’s one of Sydney’s most multicultural areas, with a large Lebanese, Vietnamese and Chinese population.
But instead of seeing hard work, Pete sees need: “It certainly doesn’t rank high in terms of trendy new church plants; in fact, it has a higher death rate for churches than most other places. Because of this, the needs are enormous.”
With plans to launch in early February, Pete has amassed a launch team of 30, but is yet to find a meeting venue and the majority of the funds needed.
Up the other end of the spectrum in almost every way is City on a Hill’s new church plant. A vibrant inner-city church with Anglican ties in Melbourne, City on a Hill has so far planted two congregations: one in Geelong and one in the city’s west. But it has its sights now set on an interstate location: Brisbane.
The church has recruited Sydney pastor and blogger Dave Miers to lead the northern plant, which aims to open its doors in 2016.
“Brisbane has a young demographic, a growing population and a great need for more churches,” says Dave. “My wife and I have been praying for 10 years that Jesus would continue to be made known in South East Queensland.”
One of Australia’s fastest growing evangelical churches, City on a Hill is not shy in seeking to take their variety of trendy, evangelical Christianity around Australia.
“We pray that the story of City on a Hill will continue to be written in even more cities like Brisbane and beyond,” he says when asked if the church is planning to plant in every city in Australia.
Another church with big prayers is Hillsong. In the last few months, a group of people in Hobart have been quietly meeting under the “Hillsong Connect” banner. Without a senior pastor, the church gathers to watch a videolink of the day’s sermon from the Hills campus in Sydney.
“It all began 18 months ago in a family home,” says Joel A’Bell, Hillsong Lead Pastor. “From there, they filled their home up with people. Then they started another home meeting… We went from meeting in houses to meeting in a hotel ballroom once a month, and then once a week, then we moved into a school hall, and then we’ve moved into the cathedral. Last week, there were just under 200 people.”
The most exciting part about Hillsong Connect Hobart is the make-up of the group. “I think about 80 per centhof people who go to Hobart Connect have all become Christians through that service,” says Joel. “It’s highly evangelistic, very much a church plant. There’s not many at all who’ve come from other churches.”
At the moment there aren’t any plans to add live music or preaching to the meeting, although Joel says if it keeps growing, they’ll have to figure out what to do. “We didn’t know it was going to be this successful. It wasn’t even called Hillsong until about six months ago. It was just a home church.”
Not all the action is happening in the city. A new Presbyterian church is due to start next year in Albury, near the NSW border. Paul Sheely who has been living and serving in Albury for five years says the new plant will be in the centre of the city, and called Fresh Start Church.
“Our leadership are committed to growing new followers of Jesus throughout Albury -Wodonga & beyond through a strategy of multiplying small churches.”
Why Albury? “Albury Wodonga is a very large regional centre with thousands of lost people,” he says. The plant has been facilitated by the Geneva Push church planting network, who have facilitated hundreds of church plants and pastors’ assessments. Their annual conference Multiply 14 is coming up next week in Melbourne.
What about you? What plans does your church or denomination have in 2015?
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