Sydney Diocese's newest church plant launched in Roseville East last Sunday with an attendance of over 50 people.
The new church plant is a joint initiative of St Barnabas', Roseville East and Christ Church, St Ives' evening congregation and is the result of six months planning.
The launch service at St Barnabas' was an exciting step towards reaching the changing Roseville community, says the rector of Roseville East, the Rev Michael Kellahan.
"In 1916 this church was planted by the good folks at St Paul's Chatswood who wanted to see the gospel go to people living east of the Pacific Highway around Chatswood. The challenge is greater today," he says.
"We are trying to reach the 95 per cent that are not going to church anywhere. By partnering with Christ Church, St Ives we were in a better position to do that."
A commissioning service was held at Christ Church the previous Sunday where the planting team of 30 was prayed over as they left St Ives for Roseville East to undertake this new endeavour.
Christ Church assistant minister and evening congregation leader, the Rev Nathan Walter, says the service created mixed emotions for St Ives parishioners.
"The biggest challenge has been the loss of our regular weekly expression of fellowship together. On top of that has been all sorts of normal anxieties and fears about how we can regrow our continuing congregation," Mr Walter says.
"There is all sorts of heartache that comes from seeing 30 people leave your church in one hit, but it’s worth it because we are striving for something greater than either Christ Church or Barney’s, which is reaching out to thousands of people on the North Shore who don’t know [Jesus]."
A welcome resurgence
Mr Kellahan acknowledges that the parish of Roseville East, which contains two church centres: St Barnabas', Roseville East and St Philip's, Castle Cove, has been through difficult times recently.
The parish has had no youth attending for several years and the Castle Cove church has not had any services there since 2001.
"We are a church that despite much faithful ministry, has been in decline and plateaued and been small in numbers for a long time," he says.
"But with the resurgence of Chatswood, increasing population densities and many more young families moving into the area the church has the potential to be reaching many new people."
Mr Kellahan says reaching these new people has meant the church has faced difficult change.
"An afternoon family congregation was closed. A new family morning congregation was started. The biggest change though is the start of the new evening service," he says.
Mr Kellahan sees the new congregation plant as a combination of the good property resources at Roseville East and the keen people of St Ives.
Mr Kellahan will lead this new congregation and is thrilled to have a new injection of young Christian leaders keen to join and serve in the church.
"These St Ives people who are joining our parish love Jesus, take his mission seriously, and have been really well trained by Christ Church to use their gifts for ministry," he says.
Some of the new evening church members from St Ives are leading the children's ministry at Roseville's 10am family service.
Mr Walter says Christ Church is keen to be busy planting new churches and congregations.
He says the invitation from current St Barnabas’ members to get assistance in reaching the community was a good opportunity for Christ Church members to form the core of a new planting congregation.
"The reality of God's kingdom is that it is growing worldwide, nationwide and citywide " not just on our patch of land. We want to support the growth of the kingdom throughout the world and this is one expression of that," Mr Walter says.
"Congregation members have talked about their excitement at being involved in something that is bigger than Christ Church and doing something that feels really biblical."
Mr Kellahan agrees.
"Hopefully what we are trying to do is not just grow the empire at Barney’s or Christ Church but see the Kingdom of God grow."
Michael Kellahan wants anyone interested in joining this new church plant to contact him on 9417 2377 or visit the St Barnabas’, Roseville East website.
