Ministries – Christ Community Church

Gather

We gather together as a church family each week. Find out about some of the teams that help us do this.

Grow

As followers of Jesus we want to grow together and encourage one another. We believe the best context for this is within a smaller community.

Go

We go to all nations, sending, serving and sharing a message of hope. There are many ways we do this, both locally and globally.

Children

We want to help parents shepherd the hearts of their children.

Youth

We want to partner with parents to declare the gospel to their teenages.

Uni Students

We want to mentor uni students and see them become life-long labourers.

Discipleship

We want to encourage and train members in discipling like Jesus.

Missions

We are want to send and support labourers both locally and those doing global mission.

Practical Care

We want to extend the love we have received in Christ to others in our church and community. If you or someone you know is in need, we want to help with a meal or in whatever way we can.

Music

We value wholeheartedness in corporate and private worship. We seek to express our hearts together in song each Sunday, including some songs composed by members of our congregation.

CHILDREN

As God enables, we desire our children to continually grow in their enjoyment and declaration of the wonders of God’s grace in Jesus.

To that end we want to acknowledge, equip and hold accountable parents as the primary disciple-makers in their children’s lives as they do life as a family. At the same time each family forms a part of God’s family, the Church. And so the generational, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of God’s people also plays an important role in the disciple-making of our children. In this way (and in a very real sense) our children have a wonderful collection of “aunts” and “uncles” around and in their lives. Our hope is that each generation would declare the mighty acts of God to the next (Psalm 145:4) in this family context.

During our Sunday service, we have programs for children 8 months to 10 years (Grade 4). Each of these classes seeks to plant and nourish gospel seeds in the children’s hearts in a safe and nurturing environment. The children learn together about our Saviour Jesus through songs, Bible stories, memory verses, prayer, games and craft.

Providing a safe, secure and supportive environment for all and particularly for children and young people to grow, learn and be cared for is a fundamental concern of Christ Community Church. We meet this concern by adhering to our Child Protection Policy.

YOUTH

With God’s help, we purpose to partner with parents to share the Gospel with youth and grow Young Disciples who honour God in all of their lives, serve as part of their church community and reach out to others.

We desire to see them increasingly live to enjoy and declare the wonders of God’s grace in Christ for the good of Brisbane, Australia and the World.

Therefore our core values are:

Partnering with parents (and the wider church community) to shepherd the hearts of their children (Psalm 145:4, Ephesians 6:1-4).
Sharing the Gospel (the good news about Jesus’ death and resurrection) and all of God’s Word, the Bible, for everything we need for life and godliness (Romans 1:16-17, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3).
Growing Young Disciples, in the context of life-on-life relationships between leaders and young people, establishing and equipping them for a lifetime following Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20, 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8)
Honouring God in all of life, joyfully following Jesus and practically depending on the Father in prayer (Colossians 3:17, Matthew 16:24-25, John 16:23)
Authentic Christian Community (both as a peer group and the wider church) (Acts 2:42-47)
Serving others in ministry as part of their church community (John 13:35, 1 Peter 2:5, 9-10)
Reaching out to those God has already placed in our lives as we seek Christ’s kingdom (1 Peter 3:15-16, Matthew 6:33)

In essence, our focus is discipleship i.e. investing intentionally in the lives of our church children that they may, in turn, make disciples. We seek to “build up as [we] reach out” (Stewart, 2000). We will endeavour to establish and equip Young Disciples to reach their friends and help them create opportunities for their friends to hear and respond to the Gospel.

UNI STUDENTS

University Impact is a non-denominational Christian group ministering to university students in Brisbane. As a ministry of Christ Community Church, our focus is:

Building Christ-centred labourers at the university for the kingdom and glory of God.

Breaking this down further, we are intent on:

Building labourers

Building labourers takes many resources, but the returns on this investment are immeasurable. Our prayer is that students will graduate who are not only equipped to build their careers, but also the Kingdom of God.

at the university

The university campus is a strategic place. Uni students are at the crossroads of life making decisions that will become habits and move out to influence the world. This is an ideal time to challenge them to live according to God’s word.

for the kingdom and glory of God.

Our vision is that trained graduates would provide leadership in every sphere of influence (the church, medicine, community, business, education, missions, etc.) at home and around the world. The ultimate purpose of all creation is to bring attention to God and to glorify Him. We want to enjoy and declare the wonders of God’s grace in Christ for the good of Brisbane, Australia and the World.

DISCIPLE-SHIP

Some of the best spiritual training takes place in the context of purposeful relationships.

Peter Bradbury, Pastor

Our saviour Jesus modeled life-on-life training with his followers and commanded them to make disciples of all nations. Christ Community Church encourages and seeks to train our members in discipleship. We define life-on-life missional discipleship as: labouring in the lives of a few with the intention of imparting one’s life, the gospel and God’s Word in such a way as to see them become mature and equipped followers of Christ, committed to doing the same in the lives of others. You can register your interest in discipleship at Christ Community here.

We are also helping others in this great task of making disciples. We are a part of a movement in Australia and around the world which is seeking to bring relational and intentional discipleship back into the centre of what churches do. For more information, check out the life-on-life website.

MISSIONS

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

At Christ Community Church we don’t believe that “Missions” just encompasses overseas Gospel work, or just full-time ministry workers. We believe that every member of the Church is commissioned and empowered by God’s Spirit to live and speak as an ambassador for His Kingdom where we live, work and play (2 Cor 5:20; Acts 1:8). That said, we do place a great priority, and consider it a privilege to equip, send and support labourers for local and international mission. We have several members and friends doing gospel work here in Australia and around the globe.

Mission Locally

Here in Brisbane we have members of our church sharing the Gospel and building deep and meaningful friendships with university students at various campuses. A significant partnership of our church is with University Impact. We also support and encourage our city workers to get involved in City Bible Forum. It exists to help city workers connect and share the Bible with their colleagues. Find out what’s happening in the Brisbane CBD at citybibleforum.org. Finally, we partner with various churches to share what we’ve learnt about life on life missional discipleship and be mutually encouraged in our efforts to make disciples.

Beyond these, we encourage our church members to creatively look forward opportunities to participate – formally or informally in the local community. To assist in this – the Missional Living Guide 2018-19 is available here. It is intended to help you think about how you can participate in God’s mission where you live, work and play.

Mission Around the Globe

There are members of Christ Community Church in various places around the world on both long and short terms placements. Some are sharing the gospel with university students in Thailand. Some are living and working with refugees in Austria. Some families and individuals use their professional skills to love and serve and share in various South-east Asian countries. We are also working with existing ministries run by local Christians in Bangladesh and Thailand and India.

Short Term Trips

Each year we have a team of students head to Thailand on a Cross-Cultural project. Contact Grant for more information. We also working toward a mission exposure trip to Chiang Mai at some stage in 2023. If you would be interested to discuss being a part of this trip, contact Andrew.

Global Missions Team

The Global Missions Teams (GMT) provides prayer and practical support to missionaries, communicating with the church and caring for their needs.

To find out more about the GMT, contact us.

Missions Month

Each August, we set aside all our Sunday services to focus God’s heart for the nations, and our involvement in His mission, at home and abroad. This practice goes back to the very early days of Christ Community and has a big influence on our priority on missions. Each year in August we also publish a prayer book. We believe that a significant support role we play for our missionaries it to be be in regular prayer for them, and for those they are ministering to.

Is God calling you to “go”?

Thinking that God might be calling you to serve him in another nation? Contact Andrew or the GMT. We’d love to journey with you in discerning this step, and helping you be equipped for how God might use you.