Posted 1003 days ago

All Things Emerging Down Under

from a conversation with Fuzz Kitto, Spirited Consulting

The emerging church movement in Australia and New Zealand has two major paths. One is the “reactive” path—reacting against the traditional church. The other is the “pro-active” path—focusing more on creating new expressions rather than reacting against old ones. Many mainline denominations are actively involved in creating new expressions like the Anglican Church in Britain. In fact, as you will see from the outline of examples below most of the new expressions of emerging church are being birthed by traditional denominations.

Emergent Australia

Little Boat Big Ocean is an emerging Baptist church plant in Manly, Sydney, that was started with Michael Frost. They host community events and engage the community around them through arts, a coffee shop, dialogue and the creating of sacred spaces.
Northside Community in Sydney is a Church of Christ church plant where an old congregation finished up and a new congregation that had been planted elsewhere moved into the building. They are strongly involved in mission projects in Africa as well as in networking and serving those in their community. They are also generously sharing their facilities with mission groups like Youth For Christ and Soul Survivor among others.

The Basement is an emerging Anglican expression in Canberra comprised of a group of 20- and 30-year-olds. They are seeking to serve the poor, working with those in public housing and offering cooking classes for migrant women. They also started a coffee house to engage those in their community. They meet together for worship on Sunday nights in an old Church Scout Hall used for storing emergency food.

Lalor Park is a non-denominational emerging church plant comprised of people who have worked extensively in house-building missions overseas. Their intention is to serve those in the immediate community. Their neighbors often struggle with mental health, or are poor and unskilled. They have community dinners every Tuesday night, which is the expression of their love where they build strong, helpful relationships. Lalor Park emphasizes incarnational faith in action lived with those around them.

Emergent New Zealand

Cityside is an emerging Baptist church plant in Auckland that is heavily invested in the arts. This was started by Mark Pierson (co-author of The Prodigal Project) and has grown to be a numerically sizable worship gathering. The church sponsors amazing art installations for Easter, for which they get national media coverage. Small groups are a key part of their expression and they are very encouraging of people taking initiative.
Opawa Baptist is a traditional Baptist church that Steve Taylor enabled to become a more emerging expression of the church with three different services: Side Door, Digestion and the Café Congregation. Steve has also started a number of small group churches with people who have little to no church background. They also have great community celebrations and festivals—and excellent coffee!

Alan Jamieson at Central Baptist in Wellington is providing resources to those involved in a “churchless faith,” including home groups and other gatherings. They have a staff person who nurtures and reflects with these groups regarding faith of the children, household and mission.

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