Des Smith is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Church Lockleys in Adelaide’s west, which was planted by the Trinity Network in 2022. He was previously the Senior Pastor at Trinity Church Adelaide for four years.

What drew you to plant a church in western Adelaide?

As the Trinity Network, we’d wanted to plant in the west of Adelaide for at least ten years. It’s a big region with over 200,000 people, and one of the gospel-poorest regions in Adelaide.

Then COVID came along, and we thought it would slow down our plans even further. But we were wrong!

Due to the four-square-metre rule, we had to create an overflow for our 10:30am service at Trinity Church Adelaide. We just couldn’t fit everyone in the building. But as we had always wanted to plant in the western suburbs of Adelaide, we thought: why not try putting the overflow service there, and see what happens?

How did you get people involved?

We deliberately asked 10:30am members from the western suburbs to consider joining that service, letting them know that it might evolve into something bigger – but also, that they weren’t locking themselves in just yet. From there, it snowballed! By Feb 2022, it had become a full-blown church plant.

Initially, there were no plans for me to be the planter. I was very happy in the city. But we needed to strike while the iron was hot, and we didn’t have time to recruit a planter from outside.

As the hope was always to grow into a new ‘hub’ church, we also needed someone with experience leading a very large church; and ideally, someone who lived in the western suburbs too. After some brain-wracking, my wife and I realised: maybe we should do it? So that’s why we’re here.

What are your hopes for the next five, ten, twenty years?

In the next five years, I would love us to have planted another church.

In order for us to do that, it would be great to have doubled in size (from about 130 to 260 on a Sunday). I’d love us to plant from a big base so we can recover quickly.

In ten years’ time, I would love for us to have planted again, so we have three new churches in the west.

In twenty years, I don’t know! I think we just want to keep planting as many healthy, evangelistic churches as we can.

How can you work out when it’s the right time to plant?

We want to plant from healthy churches. One part of that is having enough people that the sending church won’t struggle to recover from a really small base.

Equally important is the spiritual health and vitality of the church. It might be full to the brim, but not ready to plant because the members’ maturity isn’t growing, or there’s no evangelistic urgency.

What are some markers of spiritual health and vitality?

First and foremost, we want to know God – how much he loves us, and how powerless we are without him. Knowing what God has done for us is the first and more important mark of spiritual health and vitality in a church.

We also want people to have a real passion for the lost – to look around them and see people as they really are, lost without Jesus. You can have people who know their Bibles really well – people who say their prayers and are involved in church – but if they’re not actually concerned about the lost, a key part of their spiritual health is missing.

Our church’s motto is love God, love each other, love the world. We just keep hammering on about those three things, and how what God has done for us makes that possible.

What’s been challenging lately?

We had a great run for our first two years. We were growing and there was a great sense of excitement. So, we made all these plans to really hit the accelerator in 2024, and then . . . nothing happened. We didn’t grow numerically and saw barely any conversions.

Don’t get me wrong: good things still happened in 2024! People grew in their knowledge and love of God, and grew in their love for each other and the world. We saw some evangelistic fruit. But we didn’t see the growth we wanted.

What happened?

I think it was partly because I lost focus on why we’re here – on God’s heart for us and for Adelaide’s west. I went into ‘maintenance mode,’ rather than thinking how we could see more people reached with the gospel. When I went ‘off the boil’ a bit, I think that trickled down to the rest of church.

Having realised that, we’re now working on refocussing for 2025, including creating a 5-year plan. We’re acutely aware that only God gives the growth, so we’re hoping and praying it will, because we know God wants to grow his churches. We’re praying to him for growth in numbers and maturity this year, and for many people to become Christians.

Do you have any advice for planters?

Two things.

Make sure you prepare properly. Reach Australia has plenty of great tools they can help you with. Don’t take shortcuts. Take time to build a team, and don’t rush into it.

At the same time, don’t hesitate out of fear. We need more churches in Australia. I think we can afford to be a bit brave about it. Even if you’re scared, that’s ok: go scared. God will work it out.

Any prayer points for 2025?

You can thank God that our church is full of enthusiasm and that we love each other. We’re looking forward to the year and what God might do.

You can pray for the Trinity Network of Churches in Adelaide, which is made up of fourteen churches and counting. With that growth in size comes a growth in complexity.

Please pray that in all of this we’ll keep coming back to what God has done for us. God gives the growth! But he also wants us to work hard and think strategically. So please pray that we’ll get the right balance between taking the initiative and dependence on God.