A Vision for Kingdom Expansion

J. John has said of evangelism that it is like “giving out an invitation to a party that is out of this world.” A large part of the church vision here at North Shore has always been evangelism, as well as its ‘sister’ – church planting. It’s about expanding God’s Kingdom.

The early vision under Ps Sean was to have at least one church plant out of North Shore by 1990. And we made it so. In October of that year, we had a team of 9 people pioneer a church in Berowra. Having since moved to the Old Hornsby Bowling Club, our first church plant - Breakthrough Church - is still going strong under the leadership of it’s founding pastors, Ralph and Narelle Estherby (pictured left).

Our commitment to Kingdom growth continued under Ps John and Anne Iuliano’s leadership; and in 1998 Carlingford Christian Church became our second daughter congregation. Ps Jeremy Hodson (pictured right with his family) was appointed pastor in 2000, and their meetings relocated to Ryde. Also in 2000 another team from North Shore pioneered a church in Hornsby, headed by Ps Daniel Iannuzzelli. During 2001, church staff member Barbara Archer was released to co-pastor a church in Galston with her husband; then in 2002 Ps Gary Costello and his congregation at Concord joined the North Shore Christian Centre family. Twelve months later, Ps Ricky and Carol Tan felt the call of God to plant an Asian congregation in Sydney-city.

Meanwhile, North Shore Christian Centre also continued to expand, and yet again more space was required. An extension to the building that would add another auditorium, more offices, a multi-purpose room and extra space for our children’s ministry was developed. In 2004 our extension was completed, and in 2005 the church purchased more land – the car park for $1 million – with plans to safeguard access, and to enable future planning.