HINDUISM, Buddhism and Islam are Melbourne's fastest growing religions, but Catholicism remains the city's dominant faith.

Monash University demographer Bob Birrell said the figures reflected the changing nature of Australia's migration program.

"We're now drawing large numbers from the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent as well as east Asia, and as far as the no-religion side of the coin is concerned, they reflect the secular trend in Australian society," he said.

"We have two ends of the spectrum, that migration is fuelling the ranks of religious groups, and yet at the other end, the secular trends are diminishing the ranks of people committed to religious faith."

*The graph above incorrectly shows Islam declining by 62% when it should show a 62% increase.

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Australia is experiencing the biggest population growth in our history with record immigration levels and a rebounding birth rate—one million new people every three years.

At one new church for every thousand new people we need to plant 1,000 new churches every three years just to keep up.

Not just any churches.

We need churches that can reach immigrants. One quarter to those new Australians were born overseas. Expect immigration to keep increasing as the average age of Australians continues to rise.

We need more churches in the boom states of Queensland and Western Australia.

We need churches that can reach a new generation.

next1000 aims at putting church multiplication back on the agenda of the Australian church. Our initial target is 1000 new churches. In the light of these population trends, that’s just a start.

According to the Age Australia's population is increasing by a million every three years, as record immigration levels combine with a rebounding birthrate to produce the biggest population growth in the nation's history.

Figures from the Bureau of Statistics estimate that the nation's population grew by a record 331,872 last year, a growth rate of 1.6%, the highest for almost 20 years.

Australia turned the corner into 2007 with almost 21.2 million people, one in four of them born in another country and half of them employed in some capacity.

Victoria mirrored the national trend. The state's population grew by a record 82,430 over the year, more than at any stage in either the postwar years of mass emigration from Europe, or the frenzy of the 1850s gold rush.

In just three years since the state's population reached 5 million, it has added almost a quarter of a million more — most of them from overseas, as Melbourne has become a magnet for foreign students, temporary workers and migrants.

Last year, Victoria gained 49,006 people from net migration, only slightly fewer than NSW (54,163). Overseas migration alone lifted the state's population by almost 1%, with only Western Australia experiencing a bigger lift.

Victoria lost slightly in net migration flows to other states. The bureau estimates that 3089 more people moved to other states than moved in from other states. Queensland (+25,647) was the big winner from interstate migration, as usual, while NSW (-24,028) was again the big loser.

Western Australia was the fastest-growing state, increasing by almost 50,000 or 2.4%, just ahead of Queensland, which added 97,000 for a growth rate of 2.3%. Victoria was third fastest, growing 1.6%, ahead of NSW (1.1), South Australia (1.0) and Tasmania (0.8%). At this rate, Victoria would grow to 6 million people by 2016, with most of that growth in Melbourne.

But well before that, Tasmania will reach a milestone that surprises experts. With its population reaching 495,772 at the end of 2007, and more people now moving in from interstate than leaving,

Tassie is on track to reach 500,000 residents by the end of this year.
The rapid population growth is driven by business recruiting ready-trained skilled workers from poorer countries rather than training Australians. In the six months to April, almost 100,000 temporary workers arrived, while the Government has just increased the quota for permanent skilled migration from 102,500 to 133,500.

Critics point out that there has been no increase in housing supply, so the arrivals are intensifying the housing shortage and helping to drive up rents.

On May 31, Floyd McClung will be in Melbourne for the Unlimited, the Crossway missions conference. One of his sessions will be on church planting another on preparing for long term overseas missions.

Philip Bryant was the church planting field worker when I planted our first church over 20 years ago. I recently caught up with him and talked to him about turning around a declining denomination.

How did you catch the church planting bug?

I was training at the Baptist College in Queensland. Mission to Queensland heavily promoted church planting to the students. They kept reminding us of all the opportunities to start churches.

A friend at College decided to do something. So he booked a new TAFE centre and told the denomination that we were starting a church. I was pastoring a church in the area so we and sent some of our people.

Years later that church at Bracken Ridge is still going strong.

I saw how the denomination had a vision to plant churches in a State that was and still is booming in population. They were looking for pioneers. Funds were limited. The church planters became “missionaries” and raised their support from within the churches.

That’s when the vision for church planting was born in me.

Tell us about your first church plant?

In 1983 I was interviewed by a church in Melbourne to become their pastor. I did my research and found that the nearby city of Keilor had 90,000 people but not one Protestant church. So I told the interview panel, if you call me as your pastor, I'd like us to plant a church in Keilor.

They called me and so in my second year I gathered a launch team and in 1986 we launched a new church. So now I was pastoring one church and planting the other at the same time. Today the church we planted has about 400 people. It’s in an ethnically diverse region and the church reflects that diversity.

How did you get involved at a denominational level?

Tim ScheuerTim Scheuer is contagious. If you meet him it doesn't take long before he's sharing his vision for reaching Aussies through church planting.

1. Why did you join the Church Army?

I was serving with YWAM Sydney and attending an Anglican church. It was through that church that I connected with the Church Army. I was impressed with their commitment to discipleship and evangelism among people on the margins.

Church Army is all about pioneering evangelism. It’s about the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel among people who have been overlooked by traditional churches.

2. How did you get involved in church planting?

I heard Bob Logan speak back in 1993 and got excited about church planting doing church differently. In 1995 I took up the challenge of making it work in a church plant in Branson Missouri. We focused on marginalized and broken people. It was a tremendous learning experience.

I learnt how to gather a team, engage and connect with people who are totally unchurched. How to make disciples and build them into a community of faith.

I learnt to do church outside the building.

3. How does church planting fit in to the Church Army’s calling?

The Church Army has been intentionally moving beyond just doing evangelism to evangelism that results in church planting. We want to start churches for people who don’t fit into a traditional church culture.

4. How are you turning that vision into reality?

We’re articulating a compelling vision that challenges people to exercise faith. God is looking for people with audacious dreams.

If we can do it without God it’s not faith. You have to step out intentionally and take a risk to reach people.

I ask people, “Does your faith make God sweat or put him to sleep?”

5. How have you seen God at work?

I’ve learnt to put the vision before the provision. We step out and commit ourselves to projects that have required more resources than we currently have. If God hadn’t showed we’d be broke.

In the last five years we’ve had a 500% increase in expenditure and our income has matched it and our staff has also grown five-fold.

6. How have you seen God come through out in the field?

Our plant in Berkley is a great example. It’s a working class town that has been a graveyard for churches. Wayne Pickford has outstanding job of putting together a team that is reaching the community in unorthodox ways.

How many pastors do you know who stage wrestling bouts to attract people? They’ve implemented “adopt a block”. After less than twelve months over 100 are connected with the new church. Thirty-five new believers have asked to be baptised. The team has grown from five to twenty-five and some of the new team members are people reached by the ministry.

Now Berkley is becoming an on-site training centre for future church planters.

All of this because people were will to step out and take a risk in faith.

Terry DavidsonRecently next1000 caught up with Terry Davidson and spoke to him about multiplying churches among Australia's diversity of ethnic groups.

1. What's your background in church planting?

My parents were very, very active members of the Salvation Army and my home was my introduction to church planting.

My first solo cold start “Aussie” church plant was in Blacktown, Sydney in 1979.

2. How did you get involved in church planting among ethnic groups?

In 1981 and I ran Ralph Winter's course: Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. It revolutionized my understanding of the cross-cultural composition and opportunities in Sydney.

We ran neighborhood surveys to see how we could help. I learned about demographics and to how read (exegete) my community and found how culturally diverse Sydney is.

In 1982 I was asked to pastor an Assemblies of God (AOG) church in Manly that I had helped get off the ground. We ran run an annual Missions Convention where missionary leaders like Dr George Forbes had a role in shaping my heart for other cultures.

Our Church ran some outreach events specifically targeting mainland Chinese students in the Universities. This was just before the Beijing massacre.

We had built relationships with a Jewish family in Mosman and around the same time a Tongan community contacted us. These relationships were the precursors to the Chinese and Tongan Congregations that grew in the Manly Church and an awareness of God’s ancient people.

Looking back the years at Manly AOG produced some missionaries, pastors and church planters.

We planted out another Aussie Church in Avalon in 1988.

3. How did you end up in Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA)?

In 1990 I joined the C&MA because emphasis on Christ Himself and the Spirit filled life as it relates to World Mission.

It was during the “Decade of Harvest” under the presidency of Dr Roger Lang who had a heart for Church Planting so I felt right at home.

For the next two years I worked as an Associate Pastor with a former C&MA Missionary to Vietnam and Chile. I started an Aussie church at Mt Colah.

4. How has your heart for ethnic church planting been expressed at Baulkham Hills?

In 1992 I became the senior minister at Baulkham Hills Alliance Church.

Cross Cultural Mission and Church Planting was the C&MA ethos so I went around the members to find out ‘who had a heart for what’ and was surprisingly rewarded with people who were interested in reaching Jews, Chinese and Spanish speaking people.

So I encouraged, resourced and connected them with people that could help.

Two of our ladies had a love for the Jewish People and after a long period of outreaches (and opposition) resulted in a Russian Messianic Congregation in Redfern led by Pastor Kon Michailidis.

One of the Peruvian Families was a catalyst in beginning two Spanish speaking works.

We combined resources with another Chinese C&MA pastor and to begin another thriving Chinese Church which stands on its own two feet a kilometer away from us.

I met Dr Daniel Shayesteh and he asked me to mentor him. Out of that relationship the Iranian Church and eventually Exodus from Darkness evolved.