Telopea had an Anglican church meeting for 50 years prior to 2005. However, late that year a decision was made by the parish of Dundas-Telopea to shut down that church.

“The congregations [at Telopea] were relatively small but they were viable,” says senior minister, the Rev Alan Lukabyo.

“The reason we stopped meeting there is because we had a new strategic plan. [Telopea] was in a pattern of long-term gradual decline, so we decided to consolidate and re-energise our ministry at Dundas with the view of restarting the plant at Telopea when the time was right.”

That time came this year when the church employed its former student minister Ben Hudson full-time. Mr Hudson was given the job of relaunching the church plant in Telopea.

Two months ago, the new Telopea church had its first meeting with a launch team of about 25.

The decision to have the family service on a Saturday evening rather than the more common time of Sunday morning came from talking with the local community. “Ben did a lot of research about the best time for the service,” Mr Lukabyo says. “He spoke to non-churchgoers
and found that Satuday nights were generally free whereas Sunday mornings were taken up with visting grandma and swimming training.”

The Telopea church meeting begins at 5pm with a BBQ before the service starts at 5.30pm. “We wanted people to feel welcomed and a sausage sizzle is a good way to do that,” Mr Lukabyo says. “The introduction to church is then much more relaxed than walking into a formal service. it is also a good way we can serve families by providing a meal for their children.”

While it may be too early to become confident of a long-term pattern, the first signs of attendance have been encouraging to the launch team.
“In the first few weeks there were heaps of people who came that we haven’t had contact with before,” Mr Lukabyo says. “While it hasn’t been as strong in the subsequent weeks, every week we have seen new families joining us.”

The church plant has also been of benefit to the current congregation at Dundas, challenging members in how they should be acting. “One of the advantages of a church plant is that it shows established churches what they should be doing all the time,” Mr Lukabyo says. “It has shown the current congregation that every visitor is pure gold. it has also encouraged the congregation at Dundas to raise its profile in
the community. it has really re-energised the congregation.”

Feature photo: J.Bar