Churches of Christ in Western Australia

42 Pages·2016·6.92 MB·English

Churches of Christ in Western Australia
ANNUAL REPORT
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IMAGE USED WITH PERMISSION FROM NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA
On Mission churches
MEMBER CHURCHES Merredin Church of Christ
Midwest Church of Christ
Albany Church of Christ
Morawa Church of Christ
Bassendean Church of Christ
Mount Pleasant Church of Christ
Beckenham Church of Christ
Mukinbudin Church of Christ
Binningup Church of Christ
Mundaring Church of Christ
Bridgeley Church of Christ
Narembeen Church of Christ
Bridgetown Church of Christ
Nollamara Church of Christ
Bruce Rock Church of Christ
Noranda Church of Christ
Bullcreek Church of Christ
Norseman Church of Christ
Bunbury Aboriginal Christian Fellowship
Perth Arabic Church
Carnarvon Church of Christ
Rockingham Church of Christ
City Church of Christ Perth
Roleystone Community Church
Collie Church of Christ
Serpentine Church of Christ
Cornerstone Church of Christ
Shalom House Church
Corrigin Church of Christ
South Bunbury Church of Christ
Dalkeith Road Church of Christ
Southern River Church of Christ
Dowerin Church of Christ
Spires Life Church
Dunsborough Church of Christ
Subiaco Church
Eastlake Church
The Rocks Church
Elevate Church
Thornlie Church of Christ
Encounter Church
True North Church
Esperance Christian Fellowship
Valley Church of Christ
Foothills Church of Christ
Warnbro Community Church
Fremantle (Subiaco Church)
Warwick Church of Christ
Geraldton Church of Christ
Wembley Downs Church of Christ
Harvey Church of Christ
Westcity Church
Indonesian Family Church
York Church of Christ
Jesus es el Camino
Kalamunda Church of Christ
RECOGNISED NEW WORKS
Kalgoorlie Church of Christ
Kelmscott Church of Christ Church at the Stadium
Kingsley Church of Christ Jesus Central Church
Lake Gwelup Christian Church Star Generation Church
Lifestreams Christian Church
Lifestreams Karawarra
Living Grace Dianella
Maylands Church of Christ
On Mission Partners and friends
Australian College Of Ministry Helium Digital Marketing
Bethanie Initiate Australia
Bethesda Moorditj Keila
Building Extension Mutual Fund SHalom House Group
Churches of Christ Financial Services SonLife International
Churches of Christ Sport & Recreation Association Stirling College
Compassion World Vision
Connections Counselling YouthCARE
Crossways Community Services Youth Vision WA
Global Mission Partners
Executive Minister
A young girl walks with a clutch of wildflowers. The
breeze is playful. The friendly sky is blue. The sun
radiates gold on potential. In 1935, innocence
stepped forward with confidence.
In 2016 we live in an age of complexity and
sophistication such that we can hardly recognize
ourselves in this poster. Our State has matured
and so have we as Churches of Christ in WA. Time
and circumstance have taken our innocence and I
sometimes wonder if they have taken our
confidence as well.
In his 2nd letter to the Corinthian Church, the
Apostle Paul writes to a church that ‘all is not
what it seems.’ As individuals and as churches, we
recall those glorious early days of walking with new
found freedom and confidence in Christ. Then, as
it always does, time and circumstance press hard
against confidence. Maturity requires that we move
from innocence to responsibility as we partner with
Christ in the mission of redemption in the world.
It’s with maturity in Christ that we step forward with
confidence.
Corinth was a beautiful city of great wealth and
potential. The church had lost its way and lost its
confidence. Paul writes this heart-felt letter to as anxious, as problem-ridden and as despairing
remind them that Christ “… has made us competent in our time as it was in Paul’s day. It needs, above
as ministers of a new covenant …” (2 Corinthians everything else, the declaration of the mighty
3:6). Gospel of God, the new arrangement for living, the
new covenant by which the Holy Spirit takes the
Mature confidence in Christ finds the content of its image of Christ within us and makes it fresh and new
declaration in the light and truth of the Word of God. to us, thus empowering us to live in the strength and
glory of his life in us.
Mature confidence in Christ is accessed through
dependence upon the glorious presence of the “And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the
Holy Spirit. glory of the Lord, are being changed into his
likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this
Mature confidence in Christ conveys a hope that is comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” May these
referenced by an eternal vision of heaven. truths grip our hearts in reality, we pray in Christ’s
name. Amen.
Mature confidence in Christ is marked by the joyous
recognition of the Gospel that transforms lives.
Tania Watson
Executive Minister
We step forward in confidence in Christ when with
gratitude for the presence and work of Christ in our

lives we share the good news life to life to life …
Our Father, we pray that the passion of Paul may
not be lost upon us today … that we may realize
afresh that the world is as sick and as troubled and
2015-2016 Highlights
It’s impossible not to be mindful that together, we matters of concern to the COCWA Board and Staff
are a part of each other within the Body of Christ. and we are exploring ways that we can deploy
I often recall the words of Romans 12:15 that we resources.
rejoice and mourn together.
At the other end of the spectrum, we celebrate
This year we recognise the closure of the significant church expansion projects. The Rocks
Kwinana Christian School and Rivers Church in Church in Cannington opened its new facility
Margaret River. Our mourning of course is not like opposite Carousel and has had the joy of
those who have no hope, but rather we give thanks seeing people added to their church through the
for the faithful witness of the love of Christ from proclamation of the Gospel.
these two communities for the season in which
they were present in their local community. In both
cases, the assets have been gifted to COCWA and
have been earmarked for property acquisition for
future Churches of Christ ministry presence.
We recognize that especially for churches in
smaller country towns and churches in some parts
of the Perth metro area, viability challenges weigh
heavily upon them. All of us have to wrestle with
the complexities of being faithful witnesses to the
Gospel but for those in smaller communities, it is
especially difficult.
The Rocks new building
Encouragement, support and being
identified with a community of people who will
stand with them is a challenge that belongs to all
of us. To our friends in these circumstances, we
affirm our partnership in the Gospel. These are
True North are within weeks of opening their This year we welcome into the COCWA family the
wonderful new community facility in Shalom House Group and their Shalom House
Merriwa as are Subiaco, Scarborough and Albany. Church. We are so blessed to have this remarkable
ministry where particularly men and their families
are given the opportunity to experience life change
in and through Christ.
We are excited to see church plants maturing:
Maylands Church, Lifestreams Karawara, Southern
River Church. We’re looking forward to the launch
of Church @ The Stadium in October.
We continue to celebrate the strengthening
of ministry partnerships. It’s been a real joy to
explore what it means to be in partnership and to
True North building in progress engage in the Church of Christ story together with
Bethanie through the provision of an
“orientation” day for their Directors, Executive Staff
and Chaplains.
We are currently working with CCSRA, Youth
Vision and a reactivated Kids Vision
towards the articulation of a partnership that can
harness the capacity of each of these
entities. We recognize that our combined strengths
through the vehicle of sports ministry has the
potential to provide significant missional
engagement opportunities for local churches.
Subiaco’s auditorium mid-build Working together in partnership with local churches
with a cradle to grave strategy, we are looking to
expandsports events that can open the door to
Mundaring, Bassendean, Dalkeith Road are among people encountering followers of Jesus in
a group of churches looking to expand and upgrade life-changing ways. This is a metro and country
their facilities. Noranda celebrated a huge strategy that we see as being a means of standing
milestone in paying off their building loan which with the broader network of the churches together.
was a significant financial turn-around from where
they were headed just a few short years ago.
Bethanie On Mission Day
COCWA Board
The Finance Committee meet on an ad hoc basis
The COCWA Board held 9 meetings in the 2015-16 providing oversight to COCWA’s financial operations.
year. This is a season of transition for the Board; The Committee have been strengthened by the
Max Rivett, Rod Cousins and Tamara Pilgrim addition of two of the existing BEMF Board
having completed their terms as Board members in Members, Werner Soontiens and Lyndsay
late 2015. This November we farewell Dr Andrew Whortlehock. These two gentlemen agreed to join
Robertson who has served (9 years), Michael the COCWA Finance Committee as a part of the
Petrossian (served 8 years including 3 years as transition to Churches of Christ Financial Services
Chairman) and Daniel Indradjaja (served 9 years). (CCFS). Their intimate knowledge of the transfer of
In May this year we welcomed Donelle Rivett business from BEMF to CCFS will be invaluable to
(Warwick Church) and Henry Thong (Subiaco) COCWA particularly in the short to mid-term.
following confirmation by the Members at the May
cocwa rules COMMITTEE
Council meeting. The Board is presently meeting with
potential new Board Members in light of the Board The COCWA Rules Committee comprises
Strategic Plan and existing Board make-up. Clive Robartson (Wembley Downs), Chairman,
Richard Affleck (Dianella), Des Croot (Noranda) and
It is with gratitude that we acknowledge the David Pyne (Warwick) along with Tania Watson and
following people as having served on the Board this Natalie Burgis.
year:
Ryan Laden (Warnbro), Chairman The Committee have been working on
Daniel Indradjaja (The Rocks), Secretary developing a model set of Rules for local
Michael Petrossian (Lifestreams South Perth) churches to use. However, the Committee has
Peter Roberts (Encounter) recognised that given the diversity of the churches, the
Andrew Robertson (True North) model Rules will most likely function like a “check list”.
Josh Nipps (Church @ The Stadium) The Committee will also make available four
Donelle Rivett (Warwick) different examples of Rules from COCWA
Henry Thong (Subiaco) Churches that demonstrate the variety of ways that
Tania Watson (Elevate) churches determine Rules in relation to their
governance structure.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Churches have 3 years from July 1st 2016 to bring
Michael Petrossian, Henry Thong, Werner Soontiens their current constitutions into alignment with the
(True North), Lyndsay Whortlehock (True North), changes to the WA Associations Incorporations
Natalie Burgis & Tania Watson serve on the Finance Act. Churches needing assistance are welcome to
Committee. contact the COCWA staff.
chairmans report
“Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with
these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity.
Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace.
Then the God of love and peace will be with you.”
2 Corinthians 13:11
One of the great things I can hear in this passage is
a nudge from the Apostle Paul to have some fun as
we seek to live as the Body of Christ on this planet.
It is hard to be joyful, encouraging, peaceful, and
in harmony with one another and still be in a bad
mood.
As we make our plans to lead people toward
maturity in their faith, we need to make sure that
this journey is occasionally accompanied with a few
smiles.
Recently a few of our churches ran some great
outreach events on Father’s Day that were great
examples of how we can infuse some fun into our
ministry plans.
We at Warnbro had a huge day with lots of fun
activities, thousands of smiles, and massive
numbers of people saying to each other… “I did not
know church people could be cool?”
The church in Mukinbudin likewise added some fun
to their Father’s Day and saw lots of faces from their
community that normally stay clear of the church on
Sundays.
Over in Kelmscott they encouraged the boys to bring
their toys to church and had a great time getting to
know a bunch of new people from their community.
All three of these events illustrate the benefit
and need of injecting a bit of high octane fun into
our plans to lead those around us into places of
increasing faith in Jesus Christ.
As we look back over the events of the last year
during this AGM, lets keep this call to be joyful front
and centre so that we might not miss out on the fun
of leading people into places of deeper and more
challenging faith.
As always, it is a pleasure to serve with you,
Ryan Laden
Chairman, COCWA Board
Properties committee
Properties Committee is appointed by the Board COCWA PROPERTIES
and comprised; Richard Affleck - Chairman Property Sales
(Dianella), Tania Watson, Audrey Ko (Subiaco), Two properties were sold during the year:
Jess Radny (The Big Table Church – Carlisle), • The Kwinana land, formerly the site of
Hedley Bond (True North), Simon Oeij (Rocks), Natalie “Powerhouse Church Inc” and “Kwinana
Burgis – (Churches of Christ in WA). Christian School Inc” was sold to the Anglican
Schools Commission, and
Our agenda over the last year has included:
• The Richardson Road, Parkerville property.
PROPERTIES STRATEGIE PLAN
An annual role of the committee is the preparation Port Hedland
for Board approval of a Properties Strategic Plan: The Church and manse property has been granted
a) For the properties COCWA owns – enabling for use by Global Mission Partners.
strategy specific plans for individual properties to be
Future Church Sites
developed.
No sites have been identified although work is
b) To enable the committee to offer useful support
underway to identify and secure sites. Funding
to the churches as and when called for.
should permit the acquisition of one site over the

next year. Our present focus is on the northern
COCWA PROPERTIES POLICY
corridor and the view of churches and senior
1. The policy has been reviewed and generally
Ministers is being sought as part of the process.
found to serve the Churches well. Additional policy
has been developed around dealing with the use THE YEAR AHEAD
by Churches of land that COCWA owns that has not In addition to the usual and routine matters the year
been paid for by the church, in an attempt to get a ahead holds for us:
reasonable balance between prudent land dealings • Continuing involvement in considerations of the
and encouraging churches to grow. future of the Beaufort Street property.
• Assessment and feasibilities of underused
2. We have continued to encourage churches who
COCWA land assets to maximise ministry
don’t own their own land to purchase it and it is
opportunities.
pleasing to report that two churches have taken up
• Identification of suitable land for acquisition for
this option to move to total ownership of their land.
future church sites.
Doing so frees up funds for the COCWA to use to
reinvest in securing land for future church use.
Richard Affleck
3. We continue to encourage churches to enter
into either a Deed or a Licence to secure their land
partnership with COCWA.
Youth Vision
2016 has been a year of change! At the end of 2015, Outlined below are some of the things that we have
we farewelled Neale Fong as our Chairman and been working on since the last COCWA AGM:
Rod Thom moved from the Director to the YVWA • In May 2016 we hosted ENCORE with the other
Chairman. They have both been an integral part of youth ministry organisations here in Perth. A one
Youth Vision WA over the years and continue to be day youth ministry conference full of inspiration,
champions of Youth & Young Adult Ministry in this training and networking for youth and young adult
state. We look forward to honouring both of them at workers across our state. Our special guest was
the AGM this year. Duffy Robbins from the US. It was a fantastic day of
unity across churches in WA.
This year was Cam Barnes’ last year as the State Youth
Games Coordinator. Cam ran SYG for 4 years and
• In January we had “Forest Edge”, a camp for
did an incredible job of building on the foundations
junior high students. The bushfires sadly burned
of those who had gone before him. Among his many
down the Forest Edge campsite one week before
contributions, Cam added new sports, increased
camp which meant that the YV camp was held at
participant numbers and changed the sign-up
Kerem Adventure Camp this year. Praise the Lord
process. Great job Cam! We will miss you!
for the way He provided another site so quickly.
Being at a different site meant that the YVWA camp
This year we also farewelled Leigh McIntosh, Youth
has been renamed to simply ‘Edge’ camp.
Worker, Spires Life Church. Thanks Leigh for your
contribution over the years!
• State Youth Games 2016 was another huge
With the staff changes, we stepped back and success. We had over 950 participants and about
did a bit of restructuring and realigning with 120 adult volunteers. Cameron Barnes and his
Churches of Christ WA. We have the privilege of organising team did a great job once again. Special
hiring two new staff: Amit Khaira is the YVWA thanks to all of our adult volunteers and sponsors
Leadership Developer & John Ingham is the new with a special mention to Church of Christ Sport and
YVWA Projects Coordinator. Recreation Association.
2016 Youth Vision WA Executive Team: • Recharge 2016 was held again this year at
Rod Thom, YVWA Chairman The Atrium Resort in Mandurah, run by Alethea
Emily Dickinson, Youth Vision WA Minister; Senior Ashby. Daniel Indradjaja and Taku were our guest
Youth Minister, Lifestreams South Perth speakers. We had heaps of fun, a good rest and
John Ingham, YVWA Projects Coordinator; Youth some great teaching. It was again a great weekend
Pastor, True North Church for our youth leaders who attended.
Amit Khaira, YVWA Leadership Developer; Director
Initiate • YVWA Peer Clusters continue to meet and network
Alethea Ashby, Youth Pastor, Spires Life Church across our state.
Ryan Clune, Young Adults Pator, True North Church
Kym Edwards, Youth Pastor, Thornlie Church • We have had several YVWA network breakfasts
Brendon Taylor, Youth Pastor, Kingsley Church. this year with a key one being taught by Martin
Sanders. What an inspiration!
All of these people and our resources enable us
to keep working towards our mission which is to
Emily Dickinson
champion Churches of Christ youth and young
Youth Vision WA Minister
adult ministries through developing, nurturing and
Senior Youth Minister,
resourcing sustainable leaders.
Lifestreams CC
Thank YOU, our Church of Christ family, for all you
do to partner, pray, fund, support and encourage
all the work of Youth Vision WA. And a huge thank
you to the YVWA Executive team for all of your hard
work this year. It’s a privilege to be on the team with
you!
cocwa staff
There are two aspects to the COCWA Staff team. The Operations team consist of Natalie Burgis
(Properties & Compliance), Sienny Wahono (Accountant), Jess Judd (Exec Assistant) and Joanne Ellery
(Reception). The Operations Team continues to develop on the delivery of administrative support services to
churches.
Sienny Wahono has been appointed to develop a suite of financial administrative support
services to churches that interface with the launch of Churches of Christ Financial Services (CCFS) from
October 1st. The COCWA Board have been keen to support a 12 month pilot project where up to six COCWA
churches will work closely with Sienny in relation to their bookkeeping and financial reporting needs.
Our objective is to see if we can provide an administrative service that will help churches to be focused
on mission and be released from some administrative functions that can benefit by being outsourced to
COCWA. We are aware that several churches are already outsourcing bookkeeping to financial service
providers. We believe that to develop an internal COCWA service will be beneficial and can be better
targeted since our service will only be concerned with the particular dynamics of churches.
The Church & Ministry Support team of John Hutchinson, Bill Addison, Barry Thygesen & David Stanford,
continue be in touch as much as possible with ministers and key leaders through all of the churches.
Church and ministry support - Bill ADDISON
In his letter to the Christians in Rome, the Apostle Paul reminds his readers that it is the Gospel that is the
power of God unto salvation; a reminder that has served to refocus the priorities of my COCWA ministry over
this last year.
With this renewed focus it has been my privilege to draw together Pastors for several ‘Good News’
Conversations and to continue to meet regularly with a number of our church leaders seeking to
encourage them in the priority of the Gospel as well as seeking to assist them in the many and varied aspects
of church ministry.
During this year I have worked specifically with several church boards including Rivers, Nollamara,
Noranda, Mount Pleasant and Roleystone. I have also had the privilege of engaging with leadership teams from
churches including Harvey, Warwick and Dianella.
I have valued the opportunity to preach to a variety of our churches and to relate to folk who have
attending our On Mission events over this last year.
It remains a genuine privilege for me to be part of a committed Church Resource Team and the
Association of Churches of Christ in WA. May we continue to encourage one another in the height, depth and
breadth of the good news of what God has done for us in Christ.