Serving our Movement

Serving our Movement in the past conference period has been a privilege. We certainly live in interesting times, and I’ve come to appreciate how incredibly resilient the Church is. I’m so grateful for the hardworking men and women in ministry across our nation and beyond who put the Kingdom first in their lives.

The team from the National Office considers it a privilege to serve the pastors and churches of our Movement. We currently have over the 3,300 pastors on our database, who hold various credentials - SMC, PMC, OMC and others with Associated Overseas Ministry Certificates or Emeritus Status. Every credential is significant and represents a life dedicated to serving the Lord.

Church planting continues to be one of our key focuses. During this past conference period, we have added 71 church locations. By the end of 2022, we had 1,100 churches, which presents a healthy picture emerging from the pandemic.

Resourcing churches and pastors

One of the main commitments of the ACC National and State offices is to ensure that our churches and pastors receive excellent assistance and resources when it comes to management and governance.

There is an ongoing expectation that churches and Christian leaders uphold sound governance principles. We remain committed to our Safer Churches program by constantly updating information and providing training to ensure that our churches are safe places for every individual, child and adult alike.

We constantly review our policies and procedures to ensure pastors and churches receive up-todate information to assist them with their roles. We continue to develop position papers to assist pastors in responding on a solid theological basis to current social issues.

2021 Conference Business

Due to the extraordinary circumstances and practical challenges of holding a National Conference during the COVID-19 pandemic, voting at the 2021 National Conference was made available with an online registration for all persons holding an OMC and who had no National or State dues outstanding as at the commencement of the National Conference.

The 2021 Conference passed the following remits: Amendments to the Child Protection Policy, Ministerial Code of Conduct, the Doctrinal Basis Amendment to the United Constitution and the Theological Supplement to the Doctrinal Statement.

Health & Wellbeing

The National Executive’s emphasis on the health and well-being of pastors and ministry staff continued in 2021 and 2022 with online mentoring seminars for pastors. These focused on mentoring, supervision and counselling for leaders on the frontline.

Our States continued this focus of investing into the health and well-being of pastors with seminars and activities related to wellbeing. This included a pastor’s hotline established in New South Wales, and Chaplaincy Australia launched their 1800chaplain hotline in November 2021.

ACC Census

Due to the pandemic, the National Executive postponed the annual ACC Census during 2020 and 2021. Instead, it was decided to conduct a short survey in November 2022 to identify the strength of our churches emerging from the pandemic. We believe it was important that we be able to measure and compare the differences between pre-and postpandemic church life. The data of this survey will be made available at the 2023 National Conference.

The results of the Australian Government Census in 2021 revealed a decline in Christianity over five years from responses to the optional question of Religion. In 2022, Brad Bonhomme made a submission to the ABS Census regarding the 2026 Australian Census for a box entitled ‘Pentecostal’ under the question of Religion. This was declined as they concluded that not enough had written ‘Pentecostal’ in the 2021 Census to warrant this.

I want to commend Ally Cawthorn, who has significantly contributed to developing and clarifying pathways for women in leadership in our Movement. Seeing more women stepping into leadership roles across our State Executive and ministry boards is exciting. More than on third of our credentialed pastors in the ACC are female, which continues to increase.

National Redress and Insurance

I want to acknowledge my appreciation for Jon Holloway and the ACSF team, who provide an excellent suite of products that understand circumstances unique to our churches. ACSF clients include the majority of our churches, who can count on expert advice to help their church when unforeseen situations arise. This includes dealing with the realities of national disasters, such as the floods in 2022, including advice about risk management; and why being part of the National Redress Scheme is necessary for every church today.

Pentecostal Fellowship

The ACC remains connected with other Pentecostal fellowships in Australia and globally. This includes participation with the APMF nationally and with the international fellowships of the Assemblies of God in the Asia Pacific and World Pentecostal Fellowship. Meetings have been attended by Wayne Alcorn, John Hunt, and myself. At the end of 2022, John Hunt, Brad Bonhomme and I met with the AOG leadership in Papua New Guinea to discuss their vision and strategy and how we can assist them.

National Leadership

The National Executive these past two years has been an excellent team serving our Movement through their leadership and portfolio roles. I want to thank Pastor Wayne Alcorn for his incredible leadership, supported by John Hunt as Vice President and the team of Brad Bonhomme, Ally Cawthorn, Joel Chelliah, Matt Heins, Corey Turner and Mark Varughese.

The National Executive has continued to meet with the State Presidents twice a year at our Executive meetings. This has built stronger relationships between the States and National, serving our pastors and churches well.

In 2022, we combined the annual AGM with a leadership summit in Melbourne that included all National and State Executives and the National leaders of ministry departments.

I want to express my gratitude to the members of the ACC Review Group, under the chair of Ian Maynard, who provide external support and advice to the National Executive every quarter. Thank you to Ian and the team of Carl Wood, Graham Corney; Matthew Zschech; Michael Kilham, Stacey Bonney and Stephen Crouch for their professional expertise and insights that serve our Movement.

National Office

Our National Office team is a close-knit team serving and supporting our pastors and churches under the leadership of our ACC General Manager, Jeffrey Bartlett. I’d like to commend Jeffrey for his spirit of excellence in all he does for our Movement and all he carries behind the scenes. He is a gift to us all.

May I express my great appreciation to the National Office team of Ann Byron, Armando Tocci, Sharon Hamman, Daryl-Anne Le Roux, Chris Smith and Vanessa Charles for their diligence and faithfulness; this includes Robyn Douglass, who retired at the end of 2022.

Having been 12 years in the role of National Secretary, I’d like to thank my wife Lynda and my church in Canberra for releasing me to serve our Movement at this time.

Sean Stanton, ACC National Secretary