The Beyond Church journey

• A missional culture change is underway and we are confident that the LCA/NZ will see a growth of sending churches and partner churches and a corresponding growth of church plants.

WHY IS EQUIPPING THE LAITY IMPORTANT?

• Many pastors may wish to spend their time evangelising; however, the nature of congregational ministry means that they spend much of their time in pastoral care. • Let’s allow pastors to do what they do best – to pastor and shepherd the congregation. It is the role of the lay people (of all people) to share the hope we have in Christ. • It clearly reflects the New Testament pattern: the spontaneous expansion of the church through the ministry of the ‘non-professionals’. • Clearly the pastors have a key role in this – not least in the sending congregations, where they become facilitators for equipping and training as well as key agents in the missional leadership of the congregation.

WHO IS GOING TO LEAD OUR CHURCH PLANTS?

• The leaders of the church plant will emerge as a result of the training and support provided to the sending church. • The LCA/NZ is actively developing pathways for new leaders, identified by gifting, to receive training. They also receive on-the-ground mentoring. • The sending church retains oversight of the church plant until such time as the church plant wishes to be a congregation in its own right. • We’ve already seen a significant number of young church planters identified within the LCA/NZ and we expect that to increase in the coming years.

HOW CAN MY CONGREGATION GET INVOLVED IN CHURCH PLANTING?

• In the first instance, speak to Pastor Noel Due (Pastor for New and Renewing Churches) via noel.due@lca.org.au

The B E Y O N D CHURCH journey

BY CHRIS PODLICH

What a wild ride it has been! Later this year Beyond Church will turn five years old. Over the past five years we've had the joy of watching the Holy Spirit grow Beyond from one service to two; one connect group to nine; one youth environment to now having kids, junior and two senior youth environments; a single team of eight leaders to multiple teams that have more than 50 leaders in them; and GO Beyond service projects that started with just 10 people serving having grown to involve more than 30 people serving in them. A little more than 18 months ago the leadership team of Beyond Church stepped out in faith to follow God's calling again and, with a group of leaders whose average age was 21, relocated from Murrumba Downs in northern Brisbane, into the heart of the community at Griffin State School at nearby Griffin. That story in and of itself had God's handwriting throughout, with financial backing being provided and the sheer fact of a state school community welcoming a church with open arms.

As Beyond begins to mature, our focus has never been more locked in on continuing to create a church that unchurched people love to attend. We consider it a privilege that God is using us in his service and, while things might look a little different to the very first day we began, our mission is still the same: to go beyond church and lead people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. Chris Podlich, pictured above, is an LCA/NZ church planter and lay worker. Beyond Church was planted out of Living Faith Lutheran Church at Murrumba Downs in South-East Queensland in 2015.