The Local: Ellenbrook officially comes on board as a TCH church plant this Sunday. Having spent some time with their main leader, Dave, and having met part of their core group, I get to do some introductions and Bible teaching (along with breakfast) with them this Sunday morning. It’s an exciting time. Dave, the young leader, has taken his group through some Big Picture stuff about the Bible and they have read through Total Church together.
The group had initially been a small church plant in what is a new and growing suburb about fifteen minutes drive from us. It’s one of those housing developments that has literally sprung up in the last eight or so years and now has around 17, 000 residents, with long term plans for 80, 000. It also has the highest percentage of 0-8 year olds of any suburban area in Perth. So, young families, new mortgages, fresh starts, they’re all the reasons for being in Ellenbrook. Coincidentally I’ve done some work in the area for my old job and the Shire Community Coordinator there is a fine Christian lady who has a real heart for the welfare of the suburb. I’ve told her about the group, so she says she will look out for them.
As a traditional model of church the group was foundering somewhat because it was competing with a number of other churches that filled the gap in Ellenbrook that were more “happening” than they. People would rock up to their meeting in the hall and would see few people and not a big kids’ ministry, and that was it. However they did start to see some non-Christians coming into their lives, in fact Dave and his wife Heidi have the gift of hospitality in their street, and their neighbours are starting to see their place as a drop-in zone. The fact that the houses are a lot closer to together than in other more established Perth suburbs gives it more of an urban feel to it also. A household model of missional church seemed to fit their strengths more and more. Having met with Dave for the last few months to talk about the shift to a household model I suggested that perhaps there were enough churches in the suburb to cater for the Christians and that Ellenbrook could probably do with an “open set” style of church in which non-Christians might be able to see Christian community lived out. On the back of that, Dave is committed to helping people understand the Bible, and there are actually a few people he has met who have expressed a desire to know what the Bible is about.
Of course the key is that the people in the group have been fired up by God’s big plan of salvation, and their own need to be missionaries in Perth’s newest slice of secular society. They are under no illusions about the task ahead, or perhaps they are, but are willing to have those illusions shattered along the way!
So from this Sunday we are two partnered congregations who will begin the process of networking with each other from time to time. We didn’t plant out because we grew by conversions (which is my strong hope down the line), however it is a real opportunity to do mission together in our part of the suburban sprawl that is Perth.
I’ll have some pix on Sunday.
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