Churches Partnering Together in Australia - Together 2022

An update from Brendan Willis, Pastor in Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney…

In July, Sovereign Grace Churches Australia celebrated a milestone in our very first combined churches conference, Together 2022 – Side by side for the Gospel! Sovereign Grace Churches has a rich history of local churches coming together to strengthen their gospel partnership, and to build rich relationships between churches. Since the very first Sunday service of Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga in 2010 we had longed for the day when we might be able to enjoy a similar level of regional partnership here in the southern hemisphere!

Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta was planted in September 2019, and though we had a small two-year COVID delay, we were thrilled to be able to come together as two churches for the very first time this year!

We decided to name the conference “Together” to reflect our heart that going forward this annual celebration would be all about our unity in the Gospel. As our inaugural year, we also planned our teaching sessions around the “Together” theme.

Dave Taylor opened the conference with a great message unpacking the way in which the Apostle Paul used the example of the Lord Jesus to inform not merely individual generosity in giving but corporate generosity between churches (2 Corinthians 8:1–24).

Brendan Willis continued our series with a message that showed us how the power and wisdom of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:10–31) enables us to remain deeply united despite the way in which our hearts might tempt us towards division.

Finally, Riley Spring closed out the weekend by reminding us of the only hope we have for genuine fruitfulness and growth… and that is to abide together in dependence upon the Lord Jesus (John 15:1–27)!

It was so wonderful at many points across the weekend to simply pause and give thanks to God for what he has done! For starters, we were so thankful for the opportunity to simply have fun together as churches. A classic example of this was the kids entertainer we hired for a bubble show who thought she was doing a small kids party but was welcomed into an amphitheatre with >100 kids! It was an absolute riot!

Even more than this, to watch and see the many late-night chats, deep discussions over dinner, times of prayer for those in need, passionate singing and the many people who gave hours and hours of their time to plan for and serve on the weekend was an absolute joy!

Here’s to praying God would enable many more “Together” conferences and multiply these for many more years to come!