Living Church
An ever-growing community of people who love the Lord and one another for the glory of God
Our vision is to be an ever-growing community of people who love God and one another. Our mission is to make Christlike disciples in South-East Brisbane and Beyond. We seek to do this in a culture that is authentic, intentional, welcoming, encouraging and grace-filled. All of these are based on our foundational values of being biblical, Christ-centred and loving.
We gather together through the week in small groups and larger gatherings to know and worship God, to strive to care for each other, and to be equipped to serve God and those around us in various ways.
We come from different places, we are in different seasons of life, and we have different stories to tell. But we are joined together by our faith in Jesus Christ and in the hope that his death and resurrection offers to all who believe.
We want to welcome you to come and join us as we do all these things. No matter where you are from, no matter who you are, we would love to have you with us as we seek God together. May the Lord bless you and keep you, and we hope to see you soon.
LIFE GIVING GOD
The first pages of the Bible tell us that God is the living God who gives life to the world. It says he breathed life into Adam so that we humans are ‘living beings’ (Genesis 2:7). In Acts 17 when Paul speaks about our relationship to God as humans he says, ‘in him we live and breathe and have our being.’
Genesis 1 and 2 show us the one true God making a good and beautiful world for people to enjoy. He made everything in the world and he made it good. He made humanity to have a good and beautiful relationship with himself. He made a world where men and women could live together in safety and peace with everything they needed for eternal life.
A DEATHLY CHOICE
But death came into the world when Adam and Eve chose to live their own way instead of God’s way. Ever since then, all people everywhere have gone our own way instead of God’s way. This choice to choose a different path from God’s way is called ‘sin’. Because God is the source of all life, the consequence of choosing a different path from his way is death.
A LIFE GIVING STORY
The story of the Bible is the story of how God makes it possible for us to live with him eternally again. It tells of God’s ongoing relationship with people that he chose in his mercy and grace to be his people. It tells us of thousands of years of history until the coming of a saviour, Jesus Christ, who came to give us the gift of eternal life.
A LIFE GIVING SAVIOUR
Jesus taught people that they needed to ask for forgiveness for their sinful choices and to seek the kingdom of God. He taught that he was God’s Son, that he was God himself, and that it was only through him that God could be known. Through his death on the cross he paid the price for our sins, and he rose from the dead to defeat death. And he promised that all who believe in him would live forever. When we put our trust in the resurrected Jesus, and receive his Spirit we are born again to new life. We become ‘the living’ in a world that is dying; the living amongst the dead. Together, believers in Christ become a living church.
YOUR INVITATION
If you want to know more about this story, and why it’s so important for you, we’d love to have more of a chance to tell you all about it.
You can join us any Sunday at Carina or email us at hello@livingchurch.org.au and we will get in contact with you soon.
SUNDAY SERVICE
It’s our hope that your visit is an encouraging and welcoming experience. But what else can you expect when you visit?
In our services:
- we sing songs that help us reflect on God;
- we talk to God in prayer;
- we hear some stories from our community;
- we have a creative Spotlight to help think creatively about the bible;
- we help kids engage with the bible in age appropriate ways
- we read from the bible;
- we hear a bible talk that helps us understand the bible, and it’s application in our lives;
- we spend time over refreshments catching up in community.
DURING THE WEEK
During the week, we encourage our people to meet in smaller communities called Growth Groups. Each growth group has it’s own culture and community, but they’re generally a space to dig a bit deeper into the bible, and live life together.
Enter via Fursden Road.
Office phone: 3398 4333
Sunday service times: 9am and 6pm.
At Living Church, we believe everyone has a next step – it might be coming back next week, coming along to a Connect event where you can find out more about our church, joining a Growth Group, or finding a way to serve in a ministry team.
WHO DO I SPEAK TO
On Sundays, we have the Next Steps Desk where our team can answer your questions, and put you in contact with the right people. Or during the week, drop us a line, and we’re happy to help any way we can
FAQ
The word “Presbyterian” refers to how the Church is governed. A Presbyterian Church does not function as an “Episcopal” or “top down” Church. There are no individuals with the power or authority of bishops in the way that word is used in some churches today. Likewise, the Presbyterian Church does not function as a simple congregational democracy. Most decisions in the life of a local congregation are not made by simple majority at the congregational level. Rather we are led by the church elders who have responsibility for shepherding the flock at Living Church, as well as by other men and women who have been appointed by the elders to serve the church in different leadership positions.
It’s also important to know that, in keeping with the Bible’s idea of the Church as a body, individual Presbyterian congregations share a connection with others Presbyterian churches as part of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland and the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
While our church members do not need to be Presbyterians, our ministers and elders have made promises that they understand the Scriptures in accordance with a Presbyterian framework, and that they will endeavour to assert, maintain and defend this understanding.
A Church who loves Jesus.
We believe the God who created the world has revealed himself to us in Jesus, a real man who lived, died, and was raised from the dead, in the Middle East, almost 2,000 years ago. We believe that this proved that Jesus was the king that the Old Testament promised was coming. We believe that Jesus then ascended up to heaven, and supplied his followers with the Holy Spirit – who works to make followers of Jesus more like him, more like the children of God that humans were created to be. This means we’re Trinitarian – we believe in one God, in three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This means we stand in the traditions of the earliest church, as recorded in the Bible and then made official by council meetings who put together things called “creeds,” which outline what Christians believe. All of our members are asked to confess faith in accordance with the gospel of the apostles.
A Church who loves the Bible.
Because we believe God wants us to know him through Jesus, and we believe the Bible tells us who Jesus is, we love the Bible and think that it is the best way for us to understand who God is. Feelings and emotions are good tools, but the Bible is the ultimate guide. So we want everything we do to be consistent with what the Bible says about Jesus.
A church who loves one another.
We believe that people who follow Jesus become part of God’s family and are called to one another. People in God’s family share a bond born of the Holy Spirit that is the ultimate form of human relationship – it’s deeper than marriage, more important than our own biological family. These things are great, and important, but the ultimate relationship is our relationship with God, and that flows into new relationships with his other children. So we seek to love one another well in all that we do.
Meet the Team
James Snare
Minister
Fiona Snare
Office and Operations
Andrea Pryde
Adults Ministries
Brandyn Rasmussen
Ministry Apprentice
Chris Pine
Youth + Young Adult Ministries
Tom Fittell
Kids Ministries
Izaac Cowling
Assistant Minister
Meet the Board
James Snare
Wade Iedema
Tim Collard
Sandra Hinrichsen
Lorraine Eastwell
John Wallace