A church shaped by God to shape the city

Grace City Church Chatswood is an emerging church plant with a vision of being a church "shaped by God to shape the city".

Led by affiliated planter and City to City International Intensive alumnus, Adrian Tam, last month Grace City Church Chatswood held their first Vision and Prayer Night in a café in the heart of Chatswood.

As told by Adrian:

Close to 50 people of all ages attended the event, which was a tremendous encouragement. We began the night with a time of worship, and given the amount of foot traffic that goes right past the cafe, there were many curious onlookers who peeked their head in to see what all the commotion was about.

During the evening, the Lead Elder of Grace City Church Dee Why shared about the journey God has brought them on over the past few years. After a time of prayer, Adrian spoke on the story of the five loaves and the two fish from Luke 9:10-17, challenging those present to consider their provisions, and how God might want to take them, multiply them and use them to feed the multitudes of spiritually hungry people in Chatswood.

Adrian continues:

It was incredibly exciting and invigorating to see a new community of people forming and rallying around the vision of seeing a new work of the Gospel planted in the heart of Chatswood.

Please pray for Grace City Church Chatswood as they embark on this new venture and prepare to commence their weekly launch team meetings.

Grace City Church Chatswood is a church plant of Grace City Church Dee Why. They are seeking to launch publicly in February 2018.

Monash to see a new church launched

Regeneration Church is officially launching next Sunday! They're a new church plant seeking to be a gospel centred, trans-cultural community.

They'd love for you to come along and join for this important occassion, and hear about how Regeneration Church want to engage in God's mission in the City of Monash.

Event Details:

Sunday 16 July 2017
4:30pm
St Philip's Anglican Church,
80 Catherine Ave, Mount Waverley

Visit the Regeneration Church website or check out the Facebook event for more details.

 

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.