Impact Report '21

We support church leaders to start & grow thriving churches.

We're so grateful to God for what he has helped us achieve in 2021.

Despite the challenges that COVID has delivered across the network, we have seen new churches started plus established church leaders participate in our programs. Our desire is to see new people won for God’s kingdom and people grow up in the knowledge and love of Jesus.

All across our network of churches, we’re seeing people come to know Jesus as Lord.

Here’s a quick story from Duncan & Miriam at Trinity Church in Victor Harbor, SA:

How have we impacted the Australian church scene?

In 2021, we have helped 7 new churches start and have seen 36 church leaders complete our development program.

PLANT

GROW

Total Planter Assessments

We have assessed more than 180 potential church planters.

Planters Actively Coached

There are more than 64 church planters being coached.

Church & Online Consults

We’ve conducted over 20 in-person church consults.

Established Leaders Coached

There are 65 established church leaders getting coached.

Church Leaders in Cohorts

52 church leaders currently in a development cohort.

CHURCH PLANTING IN AUSTRALIA

Why is planting vital?

Firstly, new churches are more effective at reaching new people. There is a focus of purpose, drive and opportunity in church plants that allows them to reach new groups of people that existing churches might struggle to reach.

Secondly, new churches are incubators for new models of evangelism, ministry and leaders. While there is more uncertainty in church planting, there is also more opportunity to try new things. Some of these things may fail, but some take root and find their way into the ecosystem of the wider church, refreshing and renewing how we engage the lost with Jesus, while holding firm to an eternal truth.

We love partnering with our church planters to see new people reached with the gospel.

Here’s a quick story from Paul at Kingsway Evanglical Church:

WHATEVER IT TAKES

Despite COVID, we've seen 7 new churches launch in 2021.

Join us in praying thanks to God for his graciousness in seeing new churches started despite a global pandemic!

CHURCH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Developing leaders is a key platform of our mission.

The statistics are alarming.

50% of churches have less than 50 people
42% of people in church are over 60 years old with less than 15% under the age of 30
Over 500 churches have closed in the last 10 years

There is a desperate need to develop spiritually vital leaders to lead thriving churches.

Why are vital leaders key to gospel growth in Australia?

Firstly, vital leaders don’t change with the narrative. Changing with the cultural narrative results in the church losing traction, losing relevance. Leaders of thriving churches stay true to the gospel.

The Bible is relevant to today’s culture – Jesus is as relevant today as he was 2,000 years ago.

Secondly, vital leaders are outward looking – they are always on mission to see people saved into God’s kingdom. Vital leaders equip and support the flock to share the gospel and journey with people in their everyday lives.

Vital leaders also build strong community so that it is natural to invite people to church.

We love seeing leaders growing and learning in their contexts through the Leadership Development Program.

Here’s a quick story from Dave at Dubbo Presbyterian:

COACHING

Coaching is paramount to healthy, effective & growing church leaders.

All the evidence tells us that quality coaching has a significant impact on the effectiveness of church leaders and their churches. Our goal is to provide quality, effective & reliable coaching for every new church planter (husband and wife) as well as established church leaders and their staff, so that we facilitate the growth of Gods kingdom in Australia.

What makes our coaching effective?
1. Our coaches are experienced pastors who have planted churches and led growing churches
2. Our coaches are all homegrown – they are Australian
3. Our coaching methodology is to match the coach within the cultural context the church is operating within. eg country coaches coach country pastors
4. Our coaches provide monthly coaching for a minimum period of 2 years and up to 4 years for church planters

WIVES NETWORK

Support structures are vital to assist wives as they support their husbands.

The first team in a church plant is the husband and wife. The Wives Network has developed over the past 10 years to be a connection of like-minded, Gospel-driven women, who are serving alongside their husbands in many and varied ways and stages of life as they seek to reach the lost together.

Why is a wives’ network so important?

Basically, it is because many new leaders’ wives struggle with adapting to their new life as new pastors do. One of their key struggles is ambiguity – what role should she have and what are the expectations.

The wives network links experienced leader wives with new leader wives to support them and advise them when it comes to the ambiguity piece plus other issues.

"We've been associated with Reach for years and see clear alignment to their activities and supporting church growth. Their impact on our own church has been transformative and enormously helpful to both equip our leadership and facilitate alignment and buy-in with both lay leaders and parishioners. Reach has programmatically worked with our church to shape Gospel centred, culturally relevant, engaging and modern strategies which has under God seen significant growth (including new believers!!!)."

- Brad & Meg Cook

Resources

In 2021 we launched 2 new podcasts as part of our podcast network, added dozens of new videos to our YouTube channel and launched our first e-books.

2021 National Conference

The Reach Australia 2021 conference due to COVID ran in state based hubs in a live video format. We had close to 900 conference attendees across the nation. The conference had several key goals, these being:

Transform pastors thinking and practise surrounding change

Build the pastors’ network ‘We are Better Together”

Communicate the vision of Reach Australia

It's been a huge year. We're so thankful to God for all He's done.

Thanks for taking the time to have a read of our Impact Report. We need your support to continue the work we do. Without the support of partners, we’re not able to keep supporting new churches to reach new people across the country.

There’s three ways you can partner with us. Click one of the options below to learn more and take action today: