OK, we didn’t actually choose a model; it’s more like the model chose us as it grew in our spirits.

We know that 85% of Australians don’t go to church, don’t see the value of church and/or will never step foot inside a church. This formed the first aspects of our approach. We needed to be a church that went to the 85%, and introduced them to Jesus.

We also knew that 150 people are the optimal size to achieve close-knit relationships in a large group. A larger group than this and people start to feel like they are not needed, everyone else fits in except them and cliques feel rife. It just so happens that the research tells us that a church only needs 120 regulars to be sustainable.

Building on this we knew that a new church has to be scalable, what you do with a few you need to be able to do the same thing with a lot of people.

We also needed to ensure that what we were developing was simple enough that we could in fact multiply it easily. By doing this we creating the opportunity to quickly plant more churches.

In 35 years (2050) the population of the Gold Coast will double, increasing the population from 600,000 to 1.2 million. As this happens our geographical footprint will only slightly increase, meaning a more densely populated city. This means the city will need an extra 240 churches with 200 people in them, just to sustain 8% of the Australian population who go to church each week. These statistics assume that no churches currently in existence decrease in size. There is a drastic need for more churches.

We further realised that the measure of a successful church is one who makes disciples who make disciples and meet the needs of the poor.

A final factor influencing our thinking is that a church in the city often finds itself frustrated by it’s lack of known impact, because it’s target geography is simply too great.

Each of these factors came together to provide us with our model. We are going to be a church who goes to that 85% in a postcode who don’t go to church. Our desire is to see them becomes disciples of Jesus, and disciples of Jesus need to come together to worship. We are creating a place where that might happen whilst also encouraging those who become disciples to plug into any church of their choosing.

We’re only going to worry ourselves with the postcode in which we exist. Our intent is to multiply into other postcodes as our size reaches 150 gathered disciples. Obviously this will mean eventually multiple gatherings within a single postcode. The focus of our church is to be missional, to reach out into the community, not to drawn people to our church, but to help them realise who Jesus is and what he is already doing in their lives.

This raises of course the question of international mission and support, which we are concerned about and will work out in due course.