Celebrating Four Years Of Grace In Parramatta, Australia
An update from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, Sydney and National Leader for Australia...
Not long ago we gathered together as a church for our 4th birthday. It was a day filled with celebration and joy as we marked four years of God’s kindness and faithfulness to us as a local body.
An anniversary can provide a timely opportunity to pause and reflect on God’s grace in getting us here. He has sustained our church plant through the middle of a pandemic. He has provided us with at least six different venues for our Sunday worship. He has encouraged a spirit of evangelism, which has borne fruit in the saving of individuals and families through the Spirit. He has grown the children’s ministry, with the young hearing about Jesus' love each week. He has matured believers in the faith, spurring them on to delve deeper into understanding and applying the Gospel. He has equipped a music team that leads the congregation in joyful praise for His glory. He has raised up pastoral interns and a deacon team to better lead and serve the church. He has empowered the preaching of His Word for the proclamation of the good news of Jesus through the books of Ephesians, Matthew, 1 Peter, Psalms, and other topical series. He does it all so that He gets the glory and we get the joy.
Added to our joy was the fact that we also got to baptize two of our newest members: Amane and Stefania! It’s their stories that really capture why we planted this church.
Amane grew up in Japan, and by God’s grace the gospel was shared with her by her friends at college. But it wasn’t until she moved to Australia to study at a local university in Parramatta that she came to finally place her faith in Jesus after one of our members loved her and shared the gospel with her. Amane testified,
“Before coming to Australia, I went through my lowest times. I was lost, lonely, and scared. But at the same time, this lead to events that brought me closer to God. The more I read the Bible, the more I thought about God, the more I prayed, the closer I got to Him, I realized that He had already given me what I needed. From that moment on, I was saved by Him and committed to live according to Him.”
Stefania had already turned to Christ years ago but was in and out of church, including ours, for years. Last year we ran the Alpha course and she came along and it was during this time and the subsequent one-on-one bible studies that God joined so many of the dots of the gospel for her and changed her life. She said,
“I used to beat myself up because I couldn’t reach perfection. I felt like I kept failing God all the time and had thought like maybe “I don’t love God” or maybe “God doesn’t love me because of my failures." I kept missing an essential point, that Christ was, is and will be the only man with a righteous and perfect life. I had and have a desire to obey but back then I was chasing after the wind and focusing solely on becoming the impossibility of perfection, when instead, I should have surrendered it to the Lord, in His righteousness and blood as that is what covers me… I am not perfect, but praise God that I am his work in progress and am slowly being sanctified. So I stand here today to get baptised, and declare to you that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour in whom I delight, believe in and trust. “
We desire to be a church that no matter where someone is at in their faith journey, they will come to know the glorious Gospel in the depths of their being so that it changes all of their life.
Over the past twelve months we’ve seen God on the move in many ways. We have been able to take on another Pastoral Intern, we’ve started a parent-youth group, and we have seen so many new people come to our church that we’ve had to move venues! Thankfully, even though our anniversary Sunday was one of our last services in our permanent facility, an old Brethren Chapel, God has graciously provided us a hall in a local public school and classrooms for our SG Kids program! We moved in there a week ago and are glad to have room to move and breathe and grow!
As we look to the future, we hope to install elders, seriously work towards church planting, continue supporting Global Mission, and partner with our sister church in Wahroonga, Sydney so that we can seek to reach more and more of Australia with the gospel. Thank you for your prayers, and please please please keep praying for us. The work of gospel outreach in one of the most multi-ethnic areas in Australia is always perplexing, challenging, and exciting!
“… praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.”
(Ephesians 6:18-19)
