This is a simple snapshot from across the network — short, unedited stories showing how God is at work through the everyday ministry of local churches.
These moments are exactly what sits behind our shared prayer: thousands of healthy, evangelistic, multiplying churches, and the hope of seeing the number of Christians in Australia double by 2035.
Some of these stories come after years—sometimes a decade—of prayer and perseverance with nothing visible happening. There’s a lot to read, so settle in with a cup of tea and pray for each person as you go.
A mum curious about the change in her son
“Susan became a Christian at our church!
Susan’s son Rylan is one of our launch team members and he invited his mum to come to church with us.
She visited once and then kept attending.
When I met her for coffee a few months after her first visit, she told me that she had put her trust in Jesus and wanted to live for him. When I asked her how she came to put her trust in Jesus, she highlighted two things:
(1) What she was seeing in the Bible grew (firstly) her interest in Jesus, then (secondly) her desire for Him. She was convinced through Sunday sermons that Jesus was Lord and that she needed Him to save her.
(2) She saw the dramatic and genuine transformation in her son’s life. Once an aimless and dejected young man, now living and serving with real hope and joy. The change in her son’s life was undeniable and she came to see that it was actually because of Jesus that his life had changed so radically. PRAISE GOD!!!” – Trinity Evangelical Church Sydney
Atheists, walk-ins, and a Jordan Peterson listener
“4 walk-ins from community over last 2 months.
Self professed atheist 30yr mum comes to church after Charlie Kirk death, 6 weeks later comes to Newish event and describes herself as coming to faith in Jesus.
Husband and wife in 60’s walk in and 6 weeks later in grow group and professing faith.
Unbelieving father in 30s listens to Jordan Peterson podcast and wants to find out about Christianity, now coming for 6 weeks and embracing faith in Jesus.” – All Saints Anglican, Nowra NSW
A Gospel of Luke booklet at just the right moment
“During Christmas 2024, I encouraged the congregation to be proactive in handing out little Gospel of Luke booklets we had. One of the elderly members in our congregation happened to hand one to my sister-in-law (not realising she was related to me).
Later in January she was struggling with pregnancy pains and decided to read the whole gospel of Luke because she had heard us talk about praying to God in times of need.
After she read the gospel, she messaged my wife and said it was amazing and she wanted to be a Christian!
At Easter, I baptised her and my newborn nephew! Praise God” – All Saints Anglican Church, Mitcham VIC
A Hindu-background family races to the preacher after Easter
“A young hindu background family (with 2 under 5 kids) walked into church around Easter and said they’d been researching Christianity.
After the service they raced to the preacher and ended up praying the sinners prayer.
We ran a follow up Meet Jesus (Christianity Explained) and Just for Starters courses, and their initial faith was confirmed. We are baptising them in November.” – Campbelltown Anglican Churches, NSW
“I think I need to be baptised.”
“A young guy has been coming along to church for over a year because he was interested in religion. He came along to Life, then brought his mum along.
After hearing a talk on baptism he responded by saying he’d put his faith in Jesus and was keen to get baptised.” – Campbelltown City Baptist Church, NSW
A pathway leading to new life
“Andy came along to our Open House evangelistic series last July, did LIFE course with me, met 1-2-1 with a member and got baptised this May!
He’s now in my small group and just started serving on the band. He is why we have the pathway!” – Captivate Presbyterian Church, NSW
Two Year 6 boys who started reading the Bible at home
“2 boys in year 6 from non church backgrounds decided to start following Jesus after attending our afternoon kids club the last 2 years and are reading their bibles at home, and their families have started coming to church occasionally.” – North Tamworth Anglican, NSW
“I googled Presbyterian church near me”
“Taylah is a young adult who started attending church in January because she had a growing sense of need for God.
She spent time with a good friend in the USA over Christmas who is a Christian and who attends a Presbyterian church.
Taylah googled Presbyterian Church near where she lived from her hotel room in LA and the next week attended our church. She thought she’d feel awkward but was warmly welcomed.
She immediately started reading the New Testament, had a lady meet up with her and she attended the Faith Course.
At the end of the course she became a Christian and was baptised.” – Central Presbyterian Church, Ipswitch QLD
Three years of invitations. One yes.
“In 2022 David did a funeral for Sandy’s mum, Pat. Sandy lives on the Central Coast but has family in Dubbo.
At the funeral David was able to meet a number of Sandy’s family members who are not Christians.
After the funeral Sandy asked David if he could let her know each time we run our Intro to Jesus series at church because she’d like to invite her family to come along.
We’ve been running Intro to Jesus almost every term since then – each time David let Sandy know and she’s invited her family. As far as David knew there was never any interest.
Finally in Term 3 this year, after 3 years of inviting, Sandy’s cousin Nicola decided to come along to Intro to Jesus. She attended each week of the course, asked heaps of great questions and at the end decided to repent and believe the good news and to follow Christ from now on.
She is now in our More to Jesus follow up program and working toward regularly attending church.
We’re now praying for her immediate family, as well as more of the extended family, to come to Christ.” – Dubbo Presbyterian Church, NSW
A Year 12 walk-in with zero church background
“We had a young guy called Malaki come to our church totally out of the blue, He’s doing Year 12 at school and had a desire to work out who Jesus is.
Theres no previous gospel background in his family, he just wanted to know more about life and who Jesus is. He’s now been coming solidly for the last 5 months.” – Exchange Church, Shepparton VIC
A Chinese student who said yes to Jesus
“An international student from China came to our first evangelistic series in Feb this year.
He was extremely enthusiastic but only attended the follow up group occasionally and eventually stopped coming altogether.
His friend persisted in reaching out to him and encouraging him to consider Jesus.
When we ran our evangelistic series again in August he came to the last session and told us he decided to follow Jesus!” – Grace Christian Community, Box Hill VIC
She came to tick a box for her parents — and found faith
“A migrant from the Philippines came to Sydney to study, growing up in church but never truly believing for herself. When she came to Sydney she broke free from her family and got involved in partying, drinking, and the like.
Her parents, concerned for her welfare, pleaded for her to go to a church. So she typed, ‘Church near me’, and ended up at our church, intended only to come to get her parents off her back.
When she first visited she testified that she felt a powerful spiritual experience that she had never had before. She kept coming back.
She was lured back to the world for a time and decided to come back one Sunday which happened to be a baptism Sunday for another Filo. Seeing the baptism and then hearing the gospel preached, particularly
Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool. – Isa 1:18
Led her to go home, repent of her sins and give her life fully to Christ. Though it hasn’t been easy, she has renounced the world, changed her life, and has started bringing her friends to church. We baptised her in Sept! What a joy!” – Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, NSW
From many invitations to a baptism
“Our Community chaplain invited his friend Rob to church several times, Rob came after many invitations, and last Sunday (3 months later) he was baptised.
He really enjoyed the 321 course on the road to being baptised, has joined a small group and it’s wonderful seeing about 5 people working together intentionally to encourage him in his faith.
We also baptised 5 local youth, all from local and broken families, 3 from non churched and 2 from dechurched backgrounds- praise God and please pray because they are very tender shoots in the midst of a destructive culture.” – St. Mark’s Anglican Sadleir, NSW
Overwhelmed with questions, then the resurrection made sense
“We are thankful for a lady A* who became a Christian this year… she had been invited to social events (Trivia Night, picnic at the pool etc) but earlier this year we did a Questions for God series where we asked everyone in our church to get 3 friends/family to write the question they would ask God.
A* was asked by a family member from our church and she had so many questions she was overwhelmed.
She came to a guest speaker dinner about the same time, which she says was the first time she’d heard someone speak like they believe the resurrection is actually true.
She’s been coming to church since, done Christianity Explored and became a Christian through that.
Her husband was resistant at first but is regular at church now too, we pray for him.” – Kootingal Moonbi Anglican Church, NSW
A tradie on the edge of faith
“We’re nearly there! We had a young man who I’ll call Owen.
Owen is a 36 year-old carpenter who had never been to church a day in his life. He felt prompted to come along after Charlie Kirk’s death.
Now, he is regular in attendance, he has been to our evangelistic course Taste and See, and he is on the cusp of putting his faith in Christ.
It’s been very exciting to journey alongside Owen.” – Alkimos Baptist Church, WA
A breakup, a return, and a new beginning
“We first met Aiden (mid twenties) about 1 year ago after being brought to church by a mate. He began to become very eager and interested, always keen to know more and ask questions.
The way he was talking, it started to sound like maybe he had become a Christian himself. He was also coming to church pretty regularly for a while there…until he wasn’t.
He drifted off for 3-4 months when we had learnt he started dating someone who wasn’t a Christian. We continued to pray for Aiden.
Then June this year, he rocked back up to church again.
He talked of realising that what he thought he was initially chasing in God, he could find in other places, like a girlfriend, until they broke up, and then it was gone.
Aiden has since joined God’s family, seeing his need for a saviour.
We baptised him and 3 others back in October.
Aiden has begun serving God’s church on the Media team, invested deeply into a midweek bible study and is often spotted praying ad hoc with others on a Sunday.
He is a vibrant part of our local church family. Praise God!” – Village Church Bulli, NSW
A family drawn in by Christmas carols at the shops
“A family with 2 young children went to the shops last year where we were singing Christmas carols. We handed their young daughter an instrument while I talked to mum and dad.
They told me they wanted to come to church and turned up the next day.
Over the last year they have both read the Bible cover to cover and we recently baptised her (he had already been baptised), and they both confessed their faith in Christ publicly to the morning congregation.” – Narellan Anglican Church, NSW
A youth invited her friend — and everything clicked
“A girl from church invited her non-Christian friend to attend KYCK (Katoomba Youth Convention in Katoomba) earlier this year.
She came along, heard about Jesus and came to Christ! She now attends youth group regularly and comes to church often with this friend.” – Griffith Presbyterian Church, NSW
Four adults start fresh with Jesus — including one after a decade on the fringe
“Where do I start? God’s been working in the hearts of people in Narrabeen and it’s so encouraging.
We re-launched our Discover course in term 3 (after a difficult staff start to the year) and four adults made first time professions of faith.
One was a man who’s been in and around church for 10 years, but never given his life to Jesus. Another was a tradie that one of the older men at church invited.
We are also seeing people converted from the deaf community through Auslan Alpha.” – St Faith’s Anglican Church, Narrabeen NSW
“God has put me right where I need to be.”
“Girl from yr3 scripture hated school but loved scripture so her parents brought her to Church–no previous Church attendance.
Her Dad did the Alpha course and said, “God has put me right where I need to be”. They continue to be regular and serve on teams.” – New Light Anglican Church, NSW
“The sermons felt like they were speaking directly to me.”
“Around easter in 2025, we had a young family walk in off the street to our sending church’s (Tamborine Mountain Presbyterian Church) Good Friday service.
Katie subsequently continued to return to church each week, expressing that she struggles ordinarily with anxiety but has found being part of the church comfortable, safe and refreshing.
She was seeking to know Jesus and was feeling the sermons were speaking directly to her situation.
Later when our church planted in august she began to attend the services at Vine church, and in the past month completed the life series, and rang up to express her joy that she had turned to Jesus for life, hope and purpose.
She has now asked to be baptised and would like to join our church plant. We praise God for the work he is doing in her!” – Vine Church Yarrabilba, QLD
Across the network this year, the Spirit has been doing what only he can do: convict hearts, break patterns of sin, draw people to Jesus, and move them from death to life.
It is God building his church, calling people to himself, and writing new stories of grace in every corner of the country.
Give thanks with us. And pray that these new believers grow deep roots in Christ as they step into the fullness of the life he has won for them.
