St John’s, Camden, and its branch churches are experiencing strong growth, evidenced by the flourish of new services that have commenced this year.
A new 5 pm family service has started, giving another option to the overflow of members attending the 10am and 7pm services at Camden.
“The 5pm service is as full as the old 7pm service was last year. We’ve had more than 50 people attending. It seems 5 pm seems is a good time,” said rector Tony Galea.
A similar scenario has developed at St James, Menangle, where the church couldn’t hold the one hundred-plus people attending the single 9:30am service. An 8.30am and a 10am service were brought in to cater for demand.
Residents of Carrington’s retirement village have encouraged more ministry to be undertaken in nursing homes and retirement villages following the Sunday service there. “Some of our eight o’clock members go to assist,” Mr Galea said.
The frequency of two monthly services will also increase after Easter to encourage regular church attendance. St Paul’s, Mount Hunter and St Barnabas’, Werombi will go to two services a month after Easter. “We want give people more continuity,” says St James administration assistant, Brian Peacock. “Hopefully we’ll be able to do weekly services down the track. We need to encourage greater commitment from people who only attend once a month.”
Mr Galea believes using the rare opportunities when non-Christians attend church has assisted growth. “We’ve used services like Easter to attract new people. Guests fill out cards and we offer to take them through Christianity Explained. Handfuls of people have been converted through that,” he said.
“God has been very good to us by bringing people in. If this growth continues, we will need to find more space for new services. We may even start a church service off-site,” he says.