It is late afternoon in the city and the streets are congested. Pedestrians bustle past one another, keen to be home after a day at the office.

I am meeting Garage Hymnal, a band making quite a name for themselves across Sydney, and even as far as the US, the UK and Malaysia. Their melodic tunes like ‘Take My Life’ and ‘Come Lord’ are becoming church favourites. Sometimes soul-flavoured, sometimes rock, sometimes gospel, their sound is hard to pin down, but that is part of the appeal.

I'm soon chatting with three of the members - guitarists Richard Fenton and Greg Cooper, and keyboardist Andy Judd. As seasoned friends they joke and laugh, oblivious to the noise of the city around. After someone smashes a beer bottle behind us, Greg suggests we go to a café.

On the way we collect Steph Vanden Hengel, who " with Alanna Rodgers " sings the songs. Andy explains the rest of the eight piece can't make it " including Alanna, bassist Trent Prees, drummer Andrew Massey and guitarist Cedric Tang. He says the hardest thing about having such a large band is trying to organise meetings.

We trail into a skinny door and up some stairs into a café where we sit at lounges and pore over menus. We eventually decide to get a fondue and I ask them how they came to be Christians. I am met with stories as varied as their music.

Andy, who doubles as the band's manager, says his parents "always loved Jesus" and over a long process he decided to follow suit. "My dad listens to both Kenny G and Miles Davis and I had to decide very quickly which one of them I wanted to go with " and that was Miles Davis," he says. "It's the same with what they believe about more important stuff. And I decided they were right about Jesus."

For Rich it's a different story. As a child he was sent to church for good morals and later became a Christian out of mild jealousy of his youth leaders. "I had this great fascination as to why these leaders and Christians seemed to be so excited by life and be so confident in who they were. And I thought, "I want that' and it boiled down to that " it had a lot to do with their faith in God," he says.

Steph was raised in Niger with missionary parents and had mixed thoughts when she returned.

"Western society was really difficult for me," she says. "I got bullied in high school when we were coming back from Africa."

Pop culture and boys proved the greatest temptations, but at uni she came to appreciate her childhood.

"I was really blessed to have the life I had. Just to really understand poverty and to really understand what people are going through everyday," she says.

Greg grew up going to church occasionally, but became a Christian after a good friend was miraculously healed of a disease and gave his life to Christ.

"I wasn't completely certain that everything in the Bible was true," he says, "but I thought there's too much to gain here for me to not believe it."

As the fondue arrives the conversation turns to music and Steph makes a revelation.

"We all have a secret crush on Brooke Fraser," she says, smiling. Andy agrees saying, "We really respect Brooke. She's managed to do something that's very hard."

That "something', according to Andy, is to make good music without compromising on her faith.

Brooke is an award-winning Kiwi singer-songwriter whose albums have achieved multi-platinum status, selling over 100,000 copies in Australasia. She is also one of the principal worship leaders of the Christian worship band Hillsong United.

In contrast, Greg says he prefers secular music because Christian stuff is predictable. "A lot of Christian music will say the right things, but I think secular music can teach you to be very honest," he says. "With secular music you will often have people who have no barrier between their heart and the microphone " So for me, when I'm writing Christian music at the moment, I'm really trying to present songs that are encouraging but also honest, and that's a really hard thing to do."

In January the band are recording a new album in Byron Bay, and they describe it as earthy, natural and raw. "We're not going for a stadium rock sound," says Andy. "We're not going to sound like U2." Instead he says they're after an ‘organic’ sound. He says the question they ask themselves is, "What kind of music is going to work well for the churches we love?"

On February 8, the band will play at Kellyville for the Big Day In which will beam live to churches around the diocese. The event also features a performance from Colin Buchanan and an address from the Archbishop. The event is the launch pad for the Connect09 evangelistic campaign.

Anglican Media’s Russell Powell says the event was conceived as the most appropriate way to launch Connect09.

It had to be ‘part historic, part technological and fully local,’ he said.

“It didn’t seem to make sense to hold a central rally to mark the start of the campaign, given that Connect09 will be taking place in the local church using the mission plan of the local congregation,” he says.

“A television and web hook-up during which our congregations across the diocese ‘do church together’ is a much better way to start what is a global/local campaign.

“Seeing Anglican Christians from across the diocese singing together, saying the creed together and sharing our hope for the future is a joyous occasion. It also is an important marker for the 21st century that our churches can rise to the technological challenge of such an ambitious project.”

When the fondue is polished off it's time to part ways with Garage Hymnal.

Back on the street I notice how many people have iPods in their ears. Maybe music is one of the best ways to spread the good news in this city.