For St Paul’s, Carlingford, the decision to start new congregations on someone’s ‘home turf’ – a local primary school hall and university lecture theatre – is attracting new people each week who are eager to hear the gospel. Many of the newcomers to congregations at North Rocks Primary School and Macquarie University were not Christians before the churches were planted earlier this year.
The Rev Neil Fitzpatrick, assistant minister at Carlingford, is pastor of the 9.30am North Rocks congregation. He says holding church in the school hall has made locals feel comfortable walking into a familiar place. “Culturally it’s easier. It’s their territory,” he said. “It’s really exciting to see people’s willingness to come and hear God’s word.”
The ventures were a result of necessity rather than any ‘bold vision’, says the Rev Michael Kellahan, who pastors the 6pm Macquarie University congregation, known as Mars Hill Anglican Church. When there were no more timeslots available for Sunday meetings at the St Paul’s parish centre, the need to move offsite became obvious.
The plants are part of the diocesan Mission and of St Paul’s ten-year goal of multiplying four-fold by planting new churches. Both the school and the university have been supportive of the moves.
“We have Macquarie Uni students who come along to St Paul’s. They convinced us that there were a significant number of students they were trying to evangelise,” said Mr Kellahan.
The lecture theatre venue is attractive to students who have a ‘sense of belonging to the university’, he says. The congregation works in close partnership with the other Christian groups on campus. “It’s somewhere they know and it’s new. Students explain it to their friends and invite them week by week.”
Many regular members are international students, who comprise 25 per cent of the university population. Students who have become Christians through the plant are now evangelising their friends.
“For students new to the country, uni is potentially a lonely time, an alienating time, so it’s great for them to meet a loving, caring group. There is an eagerness to find out about Christianity,” Mr Kellahan said.
“During Orientation Week two students came up to me and one of them asked ‘how much do I pay to learn about Jesus?’ People are hearing the gospel who just haven’t heard it before. Many of the international students who hear it for the first time think ‘this can’t be true!’”
The moves are part of a diocesan-wide trend to build up the ‘next generation of church-planters’. While St Paul’s had church planting strategies in place before the launch of the Mission, the structure has clarified their efforts.
“Ten per cent [the initial goal] has stopped us thinking about what we have in the building and started us thinking who’s in the community,” Mr Kellahan says.
However, both men say they are not doing anything out of the ordinary. “We’re just doing the average things. If ten per cent is going to mean anything, it has to be uncomfortable. It’s early days yet and a hard slog,” Mr Kellahan said.
‘I didn’t think of myself as a ‘church planter’,” says Mr Fitzpatrick. “It’s exciting that many have come, but the really hard work is the follow up.”
