A team of eight next1000 leaders met in Melbourne this month to plan the way forward.

L to R: Tim O'Neill, Peter Roennfeldt, Steve Addison, Steve Hall, Gary Hourigan, Colin Noyes, Grant Morrison and Dave Lawton.

Over the next few months we'll be connecting with church planting leaders around the country to widen the circle of involvement in planting the next 1000 Australian churches.

Here's a shot of the next1000 Summit participants at Stanwell Tops, near Sydney in March.

About 50 church planting leaders attended. We shared what we're learning from the field. Gary Hourigan, Peter Roennfeldt, Tim Scheuer and Glenn Towend provided some case studies from their experience.

We worshipped and prayed for the nation. We made plans to fuel church planting movements across Australia.

In May, a team of eight will meet in Melbourne to plan the future of next1000.

I met Graham Sercombe at the next1000 Summit this year. Here's his story of the birth of Twin Parks Community Church in Queensland.

What was your background before you came to church planting?

I have been in different forms of full time Christian ministry since 1978. I’ve been a youth pastor and a Baptist pastor, but my primary calling is as an evangelist. I was the Queensland Director of Campaigners for Christ. I’ve also served as Director for Evangelism with the Southern Cross Institute. We also commenced an interdenominational youth movement called Youth Arise with prayer and revival as the primary focus here and in the South Pacific Islands.

What led you into church planting?

In the mid 90's I noticed a shift taking place in Australian culture. It became obvious to me that the secular non Christian community was not responding to our traditional evangelistic methods that we had used effectively over the 70's and 80's. It became clear that the divide between the secular community and church community was widening every day.

It became clear to me that secular people wanted to see the gospel before they believed the gospel. Also we discerned that most secular people are biblically illiterate and therefore need to be taught the gospel. We discovered that most secular people do not have any real interest in Church but they do have an fascination for spirituality.

Therefore we were challenged on two fronts. One was to develop a style and shape of Christian community that secular people would relate too and secondly to develop new methods to explain the gospel to secular people in ways that they could understand and respond to.

We had a growing inner desire to develop a Church that reflected the DNA of the first century Church that is described in Acts 2. The young people we were ministering to also challenged us with the question, "Why can't we do Church like we do our weekend camps?".

Our camps were based on authentic transparent open relationships. Coupled with these questions we also were challenged about reaching our community with the gospel where we had lived for 17 years. Therefore we asked ourselves the question, "Could we reach out to the secular people in our community and start new generational church right in our home?"

I put on paper our dream with the vision and values for a "New Generational Church" and presented this to the board of Southern Cross Institute. The response from the board was, "Graham - go and do it!"

What a scary moment that was!

How did you begin?

I stopped taking any speaking engagements and we began the journey in our home in August 2002. Our church planting team was my wife and I and our seven children.

We committing ourselves to a month of prayer. We met each morning at 6.45am for an hour of prayer (the children coming in their pyjamas). God spoke to my heart and gave me the idea to write a Fathers Day card and introduce ourselves and our desire to commence a user friendly style of Church in the community.

To make the card attractive and to have and impact we stuck a small "Milky Way" chocolate on the front. I was suggested in fun that we could name this new Church "Church on the Milky Way"!

Certainly the card has the desired effect and people still remember the chocolate! We soon realised that we needed to earn the people's trust and this was going to take time.

I felt that God was saying to continue to write a 100 words card focusing on a relevant subject to help prepare the soil and help build trust. We did this every week for a year. This was useful to help clear the land so we could start ploughing. However, the further we went we realised that the soil was very hard.

We decided every two months to have a Backyard BBQ with an Australian Story. We invited a Christian to share their story of life change after the BBQ. These event became popular with the people and gave a great opportunity to share the gospel in a non confronting way. My neighbour who was not a Christian was my chief chef and he loved to serve in this way.

In 2003 we stepped out into the deep water and sponsored a "Palm Sunday Festival" in the sports park. Our aim was to capitalise on people's more open attitude at these times in the Christian calendar and to draw attention to the real meaning of Easter.

Five hundred people came and we were a little overwhelmed with the crowd. We had help from two other Churches to facilitate for this event. With jumping castles, baby animal farm, refreshments, Christian Hot Rodders and their cars, model powered aircraft to entertain during the early afternoon we concluded with a stage program of music, testimony and a gospel message. God used this to launch us into the community in a very public way.

We held our first public meeting on Good Friday morning at the local sports centre. A few folk from the community attended. We still needed to build our small team which now had grown to about 12 - 15 people. In August we felt we were ready to hold our Sunday morning Celebrations in the local sports centre.

How did the relationship with the local school emerge?

This was a critical time for us. The community was still indifferent and I was wondering what was the key for breakthrough. I began to search for the answer. An elderly man I was visiting in the community said, "Why are your bothered with me. I am 75 years old and I have made up my mind concerning life's decisions. Why don't you go to the children?"

This got me thinking. I knew most people who became Christians do so before they are 21 years old. I decided to talk to the editor of the local paper who had become a good friend. I said to him, "How do you think I could help people find a meaningful relationship with God?" He replied, "I sympathise with the challenge you have because even for me God is not on my radar screen. But why don't you go to the children?"

I talked with my neighbour who was a manager with Coke-a-Cola and posed the same question. Amazingly he responded in the same way, "I would start with the children!"

That was enough to send me to the local primary school which was one street away and talk to the principal to see if they needed Religious Education* (RE) teachers. They had no RE teachers or program. So we began one.

How humbling it was after being in full time Christian ministry for 28 years to go back to teaching children! But this was to prove God's redemptive key for the beginnings of a breakthrough in our community.

In November the Sports Centre we were meeting in was having major refurbishment and the management asked if we could find another venue. Where could we go? I approached the principal of the school and we were given permission to use the multi purpose room. We recognised that God was opening the school to us.

A new principal commenced in 2004 and he indicated that he was very favourable to our being involved in the school community. We decided to hold our Palm Sunday Festival in the school grounds. This was a fruitful time with parents being touched by the power of the gospel. We partnered with the school with their Christmas Carols.

That has become the pattern over the last 3 years. The school has made us incredibly welcome and we feel that we have been accepted and trusted by the school leadership. We now meet in the school undercover area (no walls) every Sunday morning for our Celebration and I guess we are known as a Church with out walls!

We commenced a lunch time program for the children called "Supa Club" and many children have come to place their faith in the Lord Jesus during these times. This year (2007) we have been excited to install a chaplain into the school for two days a week.

Recently the pre school in the grounds of the school has become available and the principal has asked if we would like to use the building for the Church activities. It is planned that this building be developed into a Community Centre.

The positive outcomes of our journey over the last four years have been very encouraging even though it has been the most challenging thing we have ever done in 29 years of ministry.

What are you learning?

We discovered that as we risked and put our feet in the water by faith and obeyed God's prompting, He would reveal more of his purpose. Each step of obedience helped us discern what God was doing. We have proven the truth of Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".

I recently caught up with Brett Mitchell who is planting a Crossway church in Craigieburn in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Q. How did you get into church planting?

A. The idea to Church plant has been brewing in me for almost ten years, however it’s always been about the right ‘timing’.

Ten years ago my family and I came out of some difficult ministry and personal life circumstances that made the possibility of Church planting possible but perilous.

Instead, the Lord had has enter into a period of restoration and further ministry development as he positioned us back in ministry at Crossway. Over this time I undertook further personal and theological training.

Last year the Lord once again challenged me about being open to the prospect of Church planting.

This occurred about the same time David Lawton at Crossway suggested a strategy I hadn’t considered before: ‘Why not take a day or two out of your present schedule throughout 2007 and plant a Growth (small) Group in the area we are considering for a church plant. We’ll call it an ‘outreach’ and let’s see what happens?’

‘That’s something I could do – I’ve planted plenty of small groups before – that’s easy’, I thought to myself, ‘I’d love to do that!’

Q. What happened next?

A. Over the next few weeks as Michelle and I shared this with our kids (Keshia was 16 at the time, Jemmah, 13, and Jarrod 11) God began to work in the life of each of our kids.

I was stunned at how the Lord went about calling our children with both a vision of what a Church plant might look like for each of them and challenging them as to whether they are ‘willing’ to uproot their lives, change schools and consider church planting (Isaiah 6:8).

The story of how Gary Hourigan and the Christian Outreach Centres are fuelling and Australian church planting movement: 10 questions for Gary Hourigan

Where most other denominations have failed, Church Army and local parishes have begun a radical ‘adopt a block’ strategy to reach the 6,000-strong community of Berkeley, NSW.

The new Berkeley mission base was launched on February 18, 2007 with three pro-wrestling bouts.

“Wrestling is not a gimmick,” says Church Army mission leader Captain Wayne Pickford, himself a former professional wrestler. “It’s about getting out with the people just like Jesus did.”

A host of churches, including the Pentecostals, have sought to plant churches in Berkeley but nothing seems to last. Only the Salvation Army maintains a presence in the community.

“Berkeley had a great Anglican ministry for years, but it died off,” says Wayne. “Everyone has written it off, but we just need someone to get involved in the community.”

The area is seen as Wollongong’s equivalent of Mt Druitt, but Mr Pickford calls it ‘classic working class’. Sure, there is a lingering hopelessness in some parts with buildings needing a good lick of paint, but there are also double-income families moving to the ridge to enjoy some of the cheapest water views in NSW.

More importantly, Mr Pickford says Berkeley is ‘a real community’.

“People hang around the area. They don’t go out of Berkeley and that means the Church can’t reach them,” he says.

Unlike previous efforts, this new initiative is not a conventional church plant with a ‘worship meeting’. Rather, each member of the mission team will adopt a block of 50 households as their ‘church’.

They will doorknock every house in their block once a month, seeking ways to offer Jesus’ love to them. They will also go out to community hot-spots, build relationships and share the gospel. Energy will be focused around a kids’ club and community BBQ to be held on a Saturday.

The Berkeley mission team has been blown away by the response from locals.

June Bock has seen people thirsty for the gospel in her ‘day job’ as an Anglicare hospital chaplain, but even she was shocked that a group of men walked from two suburbs away to come and talk to the mission team.

“They just walked in off the street and offered to come back and help clean up the old church hall. These are people who are not going to church at the moment.”

The initiative is supported by Church Army in partnership with two of Berkeley’s neighbouring parishes: Port Kembla and Dapto.

Port Kembla is providing the old Berkeley church hall rent free while Dapto will be housing Wayne Pickford and his wife.

Wayne and his team of ‘block pastors’ will remain members of their existing congregations at Dapto and Shellharbour City Anglican Churches.

“This is a church that has been closed for years,” says the Rev Steve Semenchuk, rector of Dapto. “We want people to get the message that this new ‘church’ will be different from the institutional church they may have already rejected.”

Mr Semenchuk rejects the idea that Berkeley is a ‘tough area’ for ministry and says he expects that Church Army will be looking to rebuild in ten years because the building will be too small.

“In places like Berkeley, once you lead people, they climb on board,” he says. “They will come to a BBQ or do the hard yakka. That is what makes ministry here easier than Sydney’s north shore.”

“People are starving for the gospel”

If his brother wasn’t in jail for drug crimes, Dave Cunningham, a 31-yearold electrician, might not be treading the streets of Berkeley scared witless as he knocks on strangers’ doors.

“Wayne [Pickford] told me he was putting a team together, and asked me to join. I think it’s because of the work I’ve done helping people recovering from drugs and alcohol.”

How did Dave feel when he discovered what being a ‘block pastor’ involved?

“I was absolutely scared. I wasn’t a fan of doorknocking. Mate, my legs were bricks,” he said.

But after two hours he was blown away by the response.

“I thought we were going to be persecuted, I was prepared for that. But not one house knocked us back.”

His only concern is the resources required to meet the ministry need.

“This job is going to be huge. It took me nearly two hours to do ten houses. The response we got was unbelievable.

“I spoke to one lady, and forty minutes later I had tears in my eyes. She had tried church before but, because she was divorced, felt people looked down on her.

“So I explained to her the gospel and how it was about grace – what Jesus did for us on the cross.

“I never realised how much people were starving for the gospel.”

And what does Dave’s brother think about this ‘adopt a block’ idea?

“He is very excited,” says Dave, explaining that his brother has become a Christian in jail. There is wonderful Christian ministry going on in jail but nothing for them when they get out.

“He says, ‘It is as easy to buy drugs at 3am as at 3pm. The church needs to be available 24/7 as well if we are going to support the addicts’.”

In February 1992 six hundred church leaders from around Britain gathered to pray and plan for a national church planting movement that will re-evangelize the nation.

The denominations and networks present committed themselves to plant 20,000 new churches by the year 2000, ensuring there would be one church for every 1000 Britons.

Within just a few years it became obvious that goal would not be reached. A church planting movement with broad national support had stopped in its tracks. Why?

Martin Robinson chaired the event. He give six reasons why he thinks this promising church planting movement stalled.

1. The process of arriving at the goal was flawed. At the Congress and afterwards, there was the assumption that the very declaration of the goal with a sufficient faith content would somehow cause it to be accomplished.

2. Those who were setting the goals usually had little or no capacity for committing their denomination to action. These individuals were often enthusiasts for church planting rather than representatives of their denominations.

3. The issue of the contextualization of the DAWN Strategy had not been faced. A strategy birthed in the Philippines needed to be adapted for Britain.

4. An unreasonable focus on the millenium meant that the British goal had to be achieved in less than ten years. The Filipinos set their goal for the year 2000 in 1974. They had 26 years, a whole generation, to a achieve it.