This site aims to give you an overview of our vision, mission, and strategy under God. Read it and pray for God to make our plans a reality.

Before we think about who we are as a church, or where we are going in the future it’s important we stop and remind ourselves about who God is, what we believe about him and how that shapes our actions going forward.

We are confident because we know that God is working out His sovereign purposes and that his church will prevail because Jesus is its Lord and Head. We respond in humble service to his Lordship in the power of his Spirit.

Propelled by God’s love, the purpose of the Church is to go into all the world and to make disciples of Jesus, baptising and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded. There are many good things we could do, but this is our primary task and the centre of all our activity.

God builds his church by preaching the Word, and through the prayers of his people, supported by their loving service of the world. Anglican spirituality is based on the biblical gospel and is expressed in our ministry of Word, sacraments, and prayer, and through acts of service.

God uses faithful people who have a mission heart to lead his church into growth. Therefore, we need gifted people (both clergy and laity) to serve our church God being our provider and us stewards of His gifts.

God owns all the resources for ministry in our parish and is able to bless and resource the ministry to which we are called. We need to be good stewards of these resources, unlocking and deploying them for His service, not for our comfort.

Part of the Parish of Clarence, first services were held in the area (then known as Beltana) in the late 1890s. Our current site was purchased in the 1920s and the foundation stone of the building was laid on 25th April 1925, and the church was partially completed and dedicated by 7th March 1926. In March 1953 the hall was moved from the corner of Lincoln St and East Derwent Highway to its current location next to the church. In 1958, the parish was formed as its own entity separate from the Parish of Clarence. On 8th July 1962, the remainder of the church and offices were completed.

Ongoing improvements to our facilities have been made ever since and are ongoing to this day. Our facilities, our capital, these are gifts that come from those who’ve gone before us and we ought to be thankful for their hard work and generosity and motivated by them to continue to build upon their foundations.

Of course, throughout our history, we’ve faced challenges too. In 2017 our church was facing the prospect of closure. We were an aging church with an average age of 72, no young families and we were drawing on our capital to pay the bills. In that year we began to trust in the promise of God that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us for His glory (Eph 3:20-21). And trusting God we took some big risks and made some big changes to the life of our church to try and reach the next generations with the good news about Jesus.

Since then, God has done immeasurably more than any of us could’ve asked or imagined! This is not for our glory, or because we deserve it, rather it is all through His power and for His glory!

All glory to God for the things He has done over the last 4 years!

• We’ve seen God change people’s live and bring their faith to life.
• We’ve seen families come back to our church for the first time in many years.
• We’ve begun reaching out into our community with our Playgroup ministry and seen attendance at services like our Kids Christmas Service increase dramatically.
• We’ve established a new children’s ministry and have seen it grow and we are seeing our children grow in their knowledge and love of God.
• We have added a one day a week extra staff member to help with this children’s ministry
• We’ve invested in modern technology to more effectively communicate the gospel in the 21st century.
• We’ve engaged with online ministry and social media as a space of real connection and engagement and continue to learn and experiment in that space.
• We ran an Alpha course and saw people take big steps forward in their relationship with Jesus.
• We’ve started 3 regular bible study groups.
• We have seen a huge increase in giving and generosity with some large gifts given along the way which has enabled us to step out in faith and trust in God’s provision for His mission.
• We’ve seen God work to grow His church spiritually and numerically.
• In September/October 2021 we will undertake the National Church Life Survey which will give us even greater clarity as to how we are traveling as a church family.

We give thanks to God for all He has done in and through us to make us a church for Lindisfarne, making disciples of Jesus.

To find out more about where we were in 2017 and the plans we made under God to change and reach new generations check out our 2017-2020 Vision Document.

• Proverbs 16:3 – Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
• Proverbs 16:9 – The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

We should make plans and seek God’s help to see them come to fruition. However, we can’t just make any old plan and ask God to bless it. Rather we must seek God’s will and ask Him to bless us and help us as we plan to do what it is he’s calling us to do.

• Proverbs 19:21 – Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

As we discerned back in 2017, God has called us to be a church for Lindisfarne, making disciples of Jesus. This is consistent with the words of Jesus as he ascended into heaven and commissioned the first disciples. In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus calls us under his power and authority to teach believers to obey Jesus (grow in their faith) and proclaiming the good news to others and baptise them (evangelising the lost). We are called to spiritual and numerical growth and our experience shows that when we align ourselves with his purposes this is the kind of growth God brings to his church. In 2021 as we considered together the kind of church we are, our strengths and weaknesses, and our hopes and dreams for the future we imagine a vibrant and growing church for Lindisfarne, making disciples of Jesus in 2026.

In 2026 we hope that our church will be a vibrant, growing church with ministry to all ages and stages of life. Under God we imagine:

• A church with 150-200 people attending in-person services and an expanding ministry to those who connect with us online. We will have at least two in-person Sunday services with a sustainable team of volunteers to enable the people of God to gather together and worship God together. We will also have a cohort of people gathering in the online space.

• Continued growth in our ministry to children with consolidation for our pre-school ministry and growth of our primary school ministry. At least 50 kids would be attending LA Kids regularly each Sunday. We also hope to be taking steps towards establishing some more formal high-school-aged ministry. We will have built on our current foundation and continue to have a culture of safety for young people at all times.

• There will be a culture of love of neighbor seen in the way we care for each other both physically and spiritually. Physically this might look like provision of meals to those in need, offers of practical help to those who need it. Spiritually this would look like a church where people invest in the lives of each other. Where there is a commitment to holding one another accountable to God’s word. Where people meet together to pray for each other and encourage one another with God’s word. Where people are trained to do this sort of one-to-one or triplet ministry with confidence. Where people confess their sins without judgment and are met with the grace of God in Christ Jesus and walked with as they seek to grow into spiritual maturity. The primary location for this ministry of love and support would be in a network of well-led bible study/small groups. We will have at least 50% of our Sunday attendees committed to a small group. There will also be a coordinated Pastoral Care team seeking to support those individuals with higher levels of need.

• We will realise our heart's desire for as many people as possible in our community to hear the good news about Jesus and to respond to that. We will do this by focusing intently on evangelism. Both training people to witness to their faith at an individual level, but also facilitating evangelistic opportunities through the running of courses (eg. Alpha) and other evangelistic events/services.

• We will actively seek opportunities for men’s and women’s ministry ensuring that everyone is able to thrive as the people God created them to be.

• An ongoing presence in our local nursing homes, and an engagement with local support services (eg. Anglicare/Salvation Army) seeking to provide pastoral care and support to the vulnerable and elderly.

• The Little Shop will continue to be a much-loved Lindisfarne institution with strong connections between the church and the volunteers. Money raised from The Little Shop will be used to fund our commitments to our overseas mission partners.

• We will have clear and strong links with our overseas mission partnerships and seek not just to support them but to share with them about what God is doing amongst us and how they can pray for us. When they visit us, we will not only invite them to share with us but to bring their outside eyes and offer us Godly constructive advice as to how we need to grow and change as a church family.

• Our ministry will be led by a staff team of 2-3 FTE funded from live-giving with the support of an army of mature, Godly, well-trained volunteers. We will have a plan for training and onboarding volunteers into their roles. Our Parish Council will be filled by mature Godly Christians using their spiritual gifts to oversee the governance, policies, buildings, and finance of our church.

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable William Temple who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942-1944 once said, “The church is the only institution that exists primarily for the benefit of those who are not its members." God has placed us here in Lindisfarne for the good of those 10,000 people who live in our suburbs but don’t yet know the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to be advocates for our community, champions of this place, and ministers who bring the grace and blessing of God to bear on our community as we seek to be a people of blessing.

Of course, there is no point in simply being great citizens for we know that our community not only has physical needs but spiritual ones too. And we know that the only way to find true peace and joy is by being reunited to our Creator. To be born again into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. So, we need to be strategic in making sure we’re constantly providing opportunities for people to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, and grow in their newfound faith.

Whether a person is not yet a Christian and engaging with Christians for the first time, or hearing the gospel for the first time, or has been a Christian for 10 or 60 years the path of discipleship involves taking steps each day closer to Jesus. As we repent of our sins, die to self, and live to righteousness each day is another step with Jesus. As a church, we want to help everyone, from the pagan who knows nothing of God, to the seasoned Christian believer take their next step.

We remain committed to having active pathways of discipleship. Also known as the Pathways

for Mission Strategy.

We have come a long way from our first Pathways seminar in June 2017. God has blessed our efforts and we have seen some good results from our Mission Focus Group of families with pre-school kids. Though of course more could be done.

Of particular note is a significant lack in the “Embracing the Gospel” space and a lack of people in that mission focus group serving in places like Parish Council, that is “Leading Ministry”.

There is also much ministry to be done in the life of the church outside the specific pathway and mission focus group. Areas needing particular attention are Training for Ministry and Leadership Development.

We’ve seen our way through 2020 and the COVID19 Pandemic well, this has bought up new opportunities (eg. online ministry), reduced previous ministry (eg. nursing homes), caused our focus to shift (eg. from plans and pathways to surviving and making most of opportunities like site renovations). We find ourselves regrouping in 2021 and planning to fine-tune our existing mission pathway and develop new Mission Pathways for a further mission focus group over the coming five years. Whilst our strategic focus remains on our Pathway, we continue to also work and growing the faith of all who call Lindisfarne Anglican home.

None of this will happen without God’s help. As Tim Keller says in his book on Prayer:

“Prayer is the only entryway into genuine self-knowledge. It is also the main way we experience deep change—the reordering of our loves. Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things he has for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire. It is the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life.”

Tim Keller

We must saturate ourselves, our church, and its vision, mission, and strategy in prayer. When

we describe what we see our church looking like in the future it is essentially a prayer asking

God to work powerfully in the lives of our community, our friends, and our family to see them

join our worshipping community because they’ve had their lives transformed by Jesus!

Glorious Father, God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Give to us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,

so that we may know you better.

Enlighten the eyes of our hearts,

that we may know the hope to which you have called us,

the riches of Christ’s glorious inheritance in your holy people,

and your incomparably great power for us who believe.

Please make us to be a church for Lindisfarne

to be known in our community for our love,

that Christ may be known and glorified through us.

Please help us to make disciples of Jesus in all that we do

through making us a loving, welcoming, community

with ministry to all ages and strategic gospel partnerships.

Father, You are able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine,

So, we commit this vision and plan to you

for the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,

in whose name we pray.

AMEN