Finding a Place to Call Home

Within six months our Sunday meetings had grown to more than 300 people, and by April 1986 the need for more space became urgent. As such our church moved out of Willoughby Girl’s High School to a leased premises at 35 Gibbes Street, Chatswood (pictured left). Everyone agreed the new facility was fantastic. “Bumping” equipment in and out every week was a thing of the past; there was separate space for our children’s church; we had office space and meeting areas upstairs; we had room to accommodate some further growth; and to top it all off, the delicious aromas that wafted in from the Tip Top Bakery next door were an added bonus!

With the increased building capacity, new ways to connect with our community could be established; our youth group started attracting large numbers of young people, and the new “ShoreCare” team began supporting people who needed a hand in the local community – with a shopping trolley at the auditorium door being filled weekly with groceries donated by our congregation.

It was no more than three years later that we had to consider finding yet another premises for our church as we had again outgrown all available space. So, after much prayer and investigation, we embarked on a fundraising programme to purchase our own building in 1989. After a great deal of searching, a property at 171 Gibbes St was finally located, and plans for its purchase and conversion were undertaken.

Having secured a lease-to-purchase agreement, we made the transition into this new facility in June 1992. With continued growth, we established a Sunday afternoon Korean congregation, hosted ‘Real Rock Cafe’ nights where we transformed the auditorium into a venue for Australian gospel artists such as Colin Buchanan and Catie Halliday (pictured right on her 1991 CD cover), and started connecting with the elderly in local hospitals and nursing homes with our Chirpies singing group led by David and Denise Rogers.

In yet another phase of transition for our church three years later, the door to purchase the property we were leasing was closed. Not knowing what to do – God proved to us that He would build His church! The Bible says that it is God who closes and opens doors: so it was with great joy that we saw the door open for us to purchase a 2,500 metre² property on adjacent land just across Scott’s Creek at 175 Gibbes Street. Suddenly we were in a position to design and build new premises to our own specifications. In March 1995 our church celebrated its first decade in similar fashion to how we had started: in a school auditorium. During the planning and construction of our new facility, we held our church services in the auditorium of Chatswood High School. And just like the decade before, church as we knew it was about to change gear.