BLOG hits facebook

The purpose of this BLOG is to inform and help communicate some changes, the transition, and things about the 2 Campuses at Hope City Church Darwin/Palmerston.
It is for the people who are Hope City Church ... and for anyone else I guess who wants to have a sticky beak.

Anyway - if you see my profile on facebook you will notice that this entry is posted on my wall.

Always Hope,
Kieran

New Paint ...

This weekend in church at Malak Campus you will notice some cosmetic changes. You will notice the new paint at the ends of the auditorium.

Over the next few weeks we hope to have the outside of the building painted also ... as you would have seen the paint from 6 years ago is quite faded. It will be a neutral colour and blend in well with the colourbond.

The building was painted about 6 years ago - and just like they have to change the shop fronts and their interior design in shopping centres it is also important for us to do the same. The church needs a bit of face lift ... "if a barn needs paintng, paint it!"

Connect Groups

Connect Groups are the life blood of Hope City Church - it is where pastoral care happens!

Currently there are a couple of groups still operating that were from the Malak Campus. They will continue, but we are having the leaders of these groups trained and mentored first through the pre- Encounter, Encounter and post-Encounter pathways. Great feedback is already coming from this process and we look forward to hearing more testimonies.

The main training for connect group leaders though is the School of Leaders which is the training we all need to go through. School of Leaders takes place after you go through the Encounter pathway ... and for 28 leaders from the Malak Campus there is only 7 weeks left of that. Congratulations for sticking with the process. Whether you have been a Christain for 40 years or 4 months you are are leader - whether or not you yourself see that - the fact is YOU ARE! But all leaders need growth, training and mentoring ... and this provides that.

Pastor Don and Priscilla will be running an open Connect group at our place (Kieran and Debs) on tuesday nights ...

this is from 7-8 pm

The PURPOSE is so Deb and I and those that attend can learn, capture and then impart the d.n.a and vision of our Senior Pastors to others and to also help build the culture that they instil so that we may all be on the same page.

One Vision is required. One God. One Heart. One Hope

more than one vision creates (di)-vision .... so the pathways of leadership and discipleship are important ...

I see peoples lives being genuinely touched as we all grow in this - and I see salvations happening through connect groups before unchurched friends even enter a church service. It is about relationship, not religion. Connection to God not conversion. Transformation, not conformation.

I see that our tag line which is 'providing hope and purpose for living' can and will be a reality

Always Hope ...

Hope on Mitchell

Quite a few people have been asking about Hope on Mitchell ... our service that we did in the cinemas on Mitchell Street throughout 2009. (see http://www.gatewayofhope.blogspot.com/)

We have put that on hold for now and are looking at other avenues to get into and do ministry on Mitchell Street. The target audience is not going to be reached at 10am on a Sunday morning ... the reality is they will be in bed probably with a headache from a late night. Been there done that myself some years ago ... and the last place I would go to in those days would have been a church.

So we are having another look at this idea and wanting to re-invent it to be honest. The cinema service was effective in that it opened the eyes of the church goer to something different and got us out of the 4 walls of the church - however Hope on Mitchell is not purposed for the church goer ... quite the opposite actually.

Getting onto the streets at night when the pubs and clubs are open and just being a shoulder for someone to spew on (I mean lean on) is just a practical way. Again we are looking at how, when and what training etc may be required for that.

Anyway, please keep asking the question about Hope on Mitchell ... another way may be to get a coffee shop or something that has a permanent presence on Mitchell Street, so that we are able to touch lives and not just talk about it.

'people remember the touch more than they ever remember the talk ...'

anyway until next time,

Always Hope!

Crossing Over - purpose of this blog!

(from left to right Kieran Ryan, Deb Ryan, Keith Ainge, Priscilla Dawson, Don Dawson)


On March 14, 2010 Hope City Church, Malak merged with Palm City Church, Palmerston... it became a two campus church.


Together we are HOPE CITY CHURCH (Malak Campus & Palmerston Campus)


Pastor Don and Priscilla Dawson are our Senior Pastors.

Myself (Kieran Ryan) and my wife Deb work alongside Don and Priscilla with a fantastic team.

The purpose of this blog http://www.themergehcc.blogspot.com/ is to keep communication of what is happening with the merge and the transition process in front of you - the people of Hope City Church.

It has been a few weeks now since the merge and a few changes have happened in the Malak Campus building that are both cosmetic (with the stage) and structural things (ceiling) that need to be fixed for safety reasons. The ceiling is being looked at as I write this ...

Our website is also being looked at but for now it is http://www.hopecity.org.au/ This is another means of communication but we are also looking at re-inventing the website to make it much more effective, more contemporary and much more useful to both the church but also people that are visiting Darwin and looking for us.

There is more to come ... keep checking it out a we hope to post some stuff about our monday nights and what the music team is doing

There's Always Hope!