Those of you who have read my highly critical posts about Hillsong may be led to wonder if "there is anything good that can come out of Australia". Well, today I can tell you about something really great in Australia - a biblical church!!!! There are no words to express my joy at finding so many of my friends who have abandoned the world of "kookiness and spookiness" for a body of true believers with true shepherds. It is so great to phone them from Denmark and and hear them say, after two years of attendance, that they absolutely love their local church.
Grace Bible Church in Brisbane (Holland Park if you're a local) is a fellowship led by a team of elders which includes two men who shoulder the preaching workload and also happen to be graduates of John Macarthur's Masters' Seminary - Dave D'Amor and Craig Lloyd. One could be forgiven in 2011 for thinking that Spurgeon's Down-grade controversy bottomed out a long time ago. But it is great to find a place in Australia with fidelity to the Gospel and a passion for biblical evangelism. They even practice - gasp - church discipline!So to all my Brisbane friends - if you're looking for a church or attending one where the major focus is "40 days of your best prayer of Jabez now", then go and check out Grace Bible Church where you'll get a warm welcome of genuine Christian fellowship. After church you can even have conversations about biblical topics without having it shut down on you by someone with exceeding cultural relevance. So if you find yourself screaming "no more" and running for the door at Hillsong's Brisbane franchise - just keep running for another three blocks and you'll end up at a real church!
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8 comments:
Great news!
I herd that they were good only they are on the other side of the country.
There is a good church starting up in Perth, we don't have a regular building at the moment but we are looking for one. the church can be contacted through there facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Harvest-Bible-Chapel-Perth/152282264801433
Oh and Our Pastor Frans is also a graduate of Master Seminary.
Cameron,
TMS and MacArthur are avowed cessationists which is kinda putting God in a box in my opinion. Who is to say that the Holy Spirit is out of the business of healing and prophecy when Paul says we should covet these gifts, and says we should despise not prophecies? I agree totally with MacArthur that the emergent charismatic and pentecostal church with their "Really Bad Doctrine" have done huge damage to the reputation and doctrine of the church as a whole, but I think that swinging the pendulum all the way to the other side (with its inherent anti Hillsong mania) is equally unbalanced. Christians not only need good doctrine, they also need to be inspired and moved. I'm quite sure that the apostles did not go to deaths reciting doctrine alone, but also rather in highly emotional circumstances. (This said, I cannot fault the rest of MacArthur's / TMS doctrines and practices).
I guess I am thinking that the church model (finance/the lot) that we have been running with in the west (for God knows how long) is on the verge of being rendered bankrupt and obsolete both by coming world financial events and also internet communication where the real Gospel is being revealed for those that have a God given ability to find it. This will be in the near future a real challenge for how churches meet and sustain themselves financially, and what they do in those meetings IMO.
Comments?
hi, i stumbled on your blog because i'm looking for a bible-based gospel-centered church in brisbane. i cldn't click on the link for this Grace Church you mentioned--do you know what has happened to them?
Hi spottiswoode. This link works http://gracebible.org.au/
Please check them out..
Sorry for the belated comment, but I only just joined the blog. Great news about this church...I will pass the deatils on to my friends up north, and post it on my blog. It is so important that we support churches who are preaching and defending the true Gospel, wherever we find them inthe world!
If anyone is looking for a biblically faithful, Gospel-centred, heresy-free church in Melbourne, Australia then Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Doncaster, Melbourne is a safe place to start. Wonderful expository preaching, a very Baptist approach to Anglicanism and a multigenerational, multi-national congregation of faithful believers...all are welcome! This church is free of purpose driven universalist contemplative prophetic apostles who are in the process of evolving into enlightened deities. Very refreshing.
(Cameron, it would be great to have you preach at our church if you are ever in the neighbourhood!)
Hi do you know of any real churches in Victoria, Australia. In particular the South Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne?
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