WESTERN AUSTRALIA Joel Chelliah

God has been so faithful to us over the last conference season. In a time of great uncertainty and change, the church in Western Australia has come together in a new level of unity and authority.

Leadership We are thankful for the consistent wisdom and prophetic insight of our state leadership team. There’s such diversity of churches represented by this team - regional and city, large and small, new plants and those with a long heritage.

We are excited to have appointed Dr Allyson Cawthorn as our Vice President. We honour Ken Fletcher, who has served in this capacity for many years and continues to lead as part of the State Executive. Christie Blaikie is a new member of the team and replaces Julian Kirtisingham, who now serves as an ex-officio member.

Stats • 6 new church/campus plants (2019-2020) • 68 new credentialed pastors (2019-2020) • 15% higher State Conference attendance (1,151 in 2020 from 998 in 2019)

Training & Resources We’ve seen the upskilling of our pastors and leaders through the focus on practical masterclasses. These included: • Preaching, • Youth and Children’s ministry, • Growing Churchs’ financial base, • Community Engagement, and • Building Contemporary Pentecostal Churches.

We’ve also continued to develop pastors through intensives, Safer Churches and Marriage Celebrant training courses. Highlights We have so much to celebrate in the last conference period, including paying off our State Hub building, simplifying and reducing our state dues, and saw our best-attended State Conference in history. My personal highlight has been the gathering of Senior/Campus pastors for dinner and how it has solidified our movement.

New Initiatives Our current season’s primary focus is to work collectively with churches beyond our movement to protect our religious freedoms in light of proposed conversion legislation. We already have many churches looking to the ACC for leadership.

It is truly an honour leading this state. As always, the Western Australian Executive are grateful for the visionary leadership of the National Team. We are so thankful for what God is doing in our nation.

JOEL CHELLIAH State President: Western Australia