A fortnight ago, I received an email from the chair of the Church Leadership Team at H3O; a church on the northern beaches that GBC was instrumental in founding. The reason for the email was to express their thanks to us as a community of faith as they celebrated their ten year anniversary.

It was a timely reminder of our heritage as a community of faith. Timely in the sense that we are in the first stage of our process of discernment in which we are prayerfully reflecting on where and how we have responded to the invitation of God in the past (If you are unsure what I am talking about with the process of discernment, it is contained in The Long Read; you can find it here.).

Our participation in the planting of H3O was not a result of a strategic plan, but an opportunity that arose. Our involvement was to send a few couples to begin the work (our own Matt and Samantha Willis were part of that group), but also through leadership support; we provided them accountability, structures, and other practical help (e.g., we oversaw their preaching roster and worked with their developing preachers). Once they were established, our involvement largely ceased. Perhaps we could celebrate these sorts of things a bit more, but I feel that this pattern is one that is duplicated throughout our history as a community of faith. And I wonder if it won’t be part of our way forward. Perhaps there is another start-up that we can be involved in (for we appear to love start-ups)?

I’m excited to see where God invites us to join in his work of making all things new and how we will fulfill God’s purposes! Let us continue to prayerfully reflect on where God has brought us and what that might mean for our future!

Marc Rader | Senior Pastor