Even before the Diocesan Mission began in 2002, Toongabbie Anglican Church (TAC) has been looking for a way forward - but now is not the time, and this is not the place.
In 2004 they established a Church Plant Task Group (CPTG) to look at planting a new congregation.
Rector, the Rev Philip Basset, says visiting other church plants gave a better picture of the practical aspects of starting a new congregation off site.
"The CPTG looked at three church plants: Rouse Hill, Model Farms High School and South Penrith Community Church and discussed various issues with key people at each plant," Mr Basset says.
The CPTG observed the high level of commitment of both people and resources needed for an off-site plant.
CPTG committee member Gary Bennet says other TAC ministries would have been left under-resourced if people committed to planting a new church.
"We have 150 people across three gatherings. Pulling out 20 or 30 to form a core group would have taken too many resources away from a single gathering," Mr Bennet says.
Mr Basset says two schools " Pendle Hill High and Toongabbie East Public School " were potential locations for off-site church plants but the lack of Christian "culture' in the schools made a plant unlikely in the foreseeable future.
After attending a College of Church Planters conference in April 2005, the CPTG concluded it was not the right time to establish a new congregation, on or off site.
"The main reasons for coming to this conclusion were insufficient numbers of core people to seed a plant, a lack of consensus within the congregations about the type or target group of a church plant and a concern that a church plant would cause a loss of momentum in the mother church ministries," Mr Basset says.
The CPTG concluded that the church's thinking should move towards ministry multiplication.
"The primary focus of ministry multiplication needs to be reaching unbelievers. Many of our existing ministries need to develop an intentional outward focus," Mr Basset says.
Mr Bennet agrees. "Every Christian can minister to the community and it can be practiced anywhere and anytime," he says.
"We are seeing this working in our youth work, through the expansion of SRE and links with local high schools and with people undertaking short and medium term mission trips."
Mr Basset believes more work needs to be done to develop a culture of outreach-focused prayer in the church.
"We need this prayer not just at the level of individuals' prayer lives, but in our regular church meetings and at specific-purpose prayer gatherings," he says.
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