TWO YEAR REPORT FOR JULY 2011-JULY 2013

INTRODUCTION: AMBER: We are absolutely ECSTATIC to be here today on a momentous Sunday in the life of our church. Today we celebrate two years together since Luke and I have had the great privilege of joining this our Empower Church family and what an incredible 2 years that its been. Before we talk about the 2020 vision which Ps. Luke will be sharing in a few moments, I first of all have the opportunity to celebrate some of the great things that have taken place over the last two years. and as we do I believe that theres something about this that creates a moment of Sabbath celebration for us you might wonder what I mean by that. Well Sabbath rest does NOT come from just vegging out, watching movies, playing computer games, getting a pedicure, or sleeping all day long. The bible says in the book of Genesis that on the seventh day God rested, and a part of him resting was looking back over everything that he had done and seeing that it was good, very good. Genesis 1:31-2:1 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Theres something incredibly powerful about taking time everyday, every week, and even every year as we are about to do now to look back over what God has done and what we have done in partnership with him and for us to genuinely be able to say that was good, that was very good. It leads to Sabbath rest, it leads to a genuine sense of thanksgiving and contentment what we are doing today, I believe, is good for our souls. So lets do this . . . 2 years, thats 8 seasons, 24 months, 732 days, 17,568 hours, multiplied by all of the people that call this church home what does that equal it equals a WHOLE LOT of potential,

2020 VISION

it equals an EXTRAORDINARY amount of collective strength and effort. It represents a host of heart, and soul, and dreams and goals, and prayer and care and hope and more. I know that each of us have a different individual tale to tell over the last 12 months. But heres a little bit of a look at our joint story together and how God has used the overlap and interwoven strength of our time, talent, treasure, prayer, effort and service to move this church towards its destiny and in doing so advance Gods kingdom. Major achievements over the last 2 years: It was only 2 years ago that our location was meeting in the Kirrawee Public School with an average attendance of 39 faithful people every Sunday, from there in August 2011 we moved to Miranda Community Centre and then since June 2012 have settled here in this spectacular Cronulla Central facility. Over the last two years we have covered multiple Sunday teaching series on Power Prayer, I.D., Vision, The Saviour King, Ephesians: The BattleReady Church (which was a whopping 14 weeks long), the Armour of God, After Gods Heart, Generation Revelation, Worship Wars, and most recently: Wordworx. In February 2012 we launched our Empower Her womans nights which has covered two bible study series on Ruth and this year weve been looking at the women of Genesis, and we also launched our Equip Discipleship evenings. In obedience to Isa 54 we expanded the borders of our tent with a PM service which included some awesome outreach nights with the Snow White Movie review, Holy Spirit Come, No Zombies, the Think BIG series, and our Resounding love night with the team from Culture Shifters. Weve now restructured our Sunday nights into the fortnightly Elev8 meeting for those desiring to go higher in prayer, discipleship, and leadership within the church, as well ofcourse as our Family Dinners which are hosted at our home and a great night of fellowship and feasting. Foodbank has been a fabulous success since its inception weve given away 37 food hampers to various families in need thanks to the after service hospitality teams fundraising with coffee and cake those funds have been redirected through Global Care and made a real difference in peoples lives. Were INCREDIBLY excited about the people that have moved house to come and partner with the vision of this church, including the Winnetts who moved from Penrith, the Lees who moved from Brisbane, and the Albistons who moved from New Zealand, along with the beautiful Joy Hostetlor who was a great bonus in the Albiston package deal. All of those couples are now filling an active ministry role within the church, and in fact at our last COC State conference we were very pleased to have Brendon & Deveri & Michael & Sarah set aside as Assistant Pastors for a 2

year period in active ministry where they have to opportunity to display proven fruitfulness and leadership after which time can be ordained as Assistant Pastors within the Christian Outreach Centre movement. Can you join us in congratulating them in this significant step in their ministries On the topic of Michael & Sarah, how good is our Empower Kids program? These guys have been doing a sensational job of ministering to our children and have not only trained children in the way they should go since their arrival 18 months ago, but have even released an iTunes EP of original praise and worship songs that are being sung in kids ministries all around the nation, as well as assisting us in hosting the National Empower Conference kids program for the last two years!!! Weve been greatly blessed by guest ministry over the last two years including our Senior Ministers Ps. David & Tricia McDonald, Ps. Andy Gourlay from Red Frogs Australia, Grant & Emma Shaw from Culture Shifters Brisbane, and Natalie Miller for our Christmas service last year. At the beginning of this year we farewelled some beautiful friends of ours, Kev & Dianne Matthewson the former Pastors of this church who are now settling well in Melbourne and planted in the COC at Geelong with Ps. Peter & Tina James. Weve no doubt that theyll continue to bring impact to Melbourne for Jesus. Another great achievement from the last two years of which Luke & I are very proud is the formation of our I.N.F.L.U.E.N.C.E.R.S leadership team which consists of people willing to go above and beyond the call of duty and shoulder specific leadership portfolios within the church. The INFLUENCERS team for 2013 consists of: Scott & Leeanne Hurren Michael & Sarah Winnet Jeremy & Crystal Lee Elise Blackley Jaco Herholdt Deborah Le Tabitha Hutchins Creative Ministries Empower Kids Service Hosts & Hospitality Guest Services Multimedia & Pastors Assistant Pastors PA Switch Youth Co-Ordinator

And were also pleased to welcome the newest additions to the team Brendon & Deveri Albiston Patricia Leigh DreamTeam (Volunteer Central) Urban Connection Co-Ordinator

Can we take a moment to thank and honour these awesome volunteers who give so much of their time and heart to serving Christs church!? In January 2012 we launched our PODOMATIC webpage where people are able to download our messages from all over the world, at first we werent going to report this because we thought that at least half of those downloads would be from Lukes Mum, who is still by far his number one fan and Im pretty sure is convinced that she gave birth to the second coming of Jesus but catch this we looked into the administrator back end of our sight and discovered that since this webpages launch in January 2012 we have had 3872 visits to our page resulting in 1044 plays and downloads of our messages from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Japan, Korea, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. How incredible is that!!? Our church services have undergone a radical transformation over the last two years, now thanks to the Leadership of Scott & Leeanne Hurren we have a full band and incredible sound of anointed excellence that rings out of this hall every Sunday morning into the streets of Cronulla. Were so thrilled for their leadership and the great team that theyve gathered since they joined us 18 months ago. We were also thrilled over peoples generosity over the last two years with over $20,000 raised above and beyond our regular tithes and offerings for our Operation Lift, Life & Launch Campaigns that raised funds towards kids room furniture, our lighting, multimedia and church iMac, our guest and invitation cards, our quarterly promotional magazines, empower church bali flags, our PM outreach services, and website which Luke will be sharing some news on soon. Your giving has made these things possible and we wanted to thankyou for your generous contributions towards makings these local church dreams a reality for the glory of God and the benefit of the community.

All of the above is exciting for us, because its signs of God moving in our midst and showing how he builds his church, that the gates of hell would not prevail against. But always more important to us than progress in programs is progress in people which is why the most exciting report that we have to give today is that our family has grown substantially over the last two years. In fact, in our first year from July 2011 to June 2012 we saw our service attendance increasing by a whopping 64% in our first year, and steadying to a more sustainable growth rate of 15% growth in our second year from July 2012 to June 2013. During this time we have had the privilege of seeing in our services, outreaches and through our youth ministry 74 people make decisions for Christ over

the last two years and we had the great joy of breaking the drought on Water Baptisms by having the churches first baptism service in 6 years in April of this year. Can we give the Lord a great round of applause for the amazing things that he has done over the last two years? Id love to invite you to turn your attention towards the screen as we introduce today our 2020 Vision. PLAY VIDEO

2020 Vision We love our land, we love its Christian heritage, we love that traditional Judeo-Christian values are still for the most part embraced by our residents and a part of our cultural DNA and thinking. But the reality is you can enjoy the fruits of second and third generation faith without personally being connected to the vine and that is tragically where the majority of our population lives. Enjoying the good life and good luck of Gods blessing upon us without personally being connected to his salvation plan through Jesus Christ for our lives. We MUST do something about this. Approximately 220,000 people live in the Shire and just under 1/5th of our population is 0-14 years of age making the biggest harvest point available to us as a church being our childrens ministry!!! Which says to me that its not long before were going to need another venue with more room for kids. Because 1 in 5 of our population is under 14 years of age. I in 3 are under the age of 24. Which is also statisctically the best opportunity of winning somebody for Jesus. If you havent won them before they are a young adult the chances are much less likely that you will actually win them for Christ. Its not impossible of course but statistically its much less likely. Which is why the scriptures state that we must:

Proverbs 22:6 (NLT) 6 Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. Of the 220,000 residents of the Sutherland Shire, less than 2000 called themselves Pentecostal which is, in my view, tragic. Less than 1% of our community is walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit made available to every born again believer. Church, weve got some work to do!!! Im grateful that of the community referred to themselves as some form of Christian in the 2011 ABS that means that the fields are white unto harvest and the vast majority of our land is at least open to the gospel, and has a Christian background of some sort, but for less than 1% of our community to be walking in the fullness of HS baptism means that they are missing out on the EMPOWERED LIFE and we as EMPOWER CHURCH are called to do something about that! We must see an outbreak of salvations in our land of genuine saving faith not just a loose association to something that your great Grandma once did but a personal saving faith in Christ, where he is your Lord and your faith in him is something that you possess, profess and practise. We must see people given the opportunity to receive the FULNESS of the Holy Spirits power operating in their lives for the Holy Spirits power is the key to freeing them from addiction, sanctifying their walk, and empowering to them the abundant life and destiny that God has for them. In addition to 220,000 residents that we have here - the area also sees approximately 1.1 million visitors each year, particularly in the peak summer season. And I guarantee you hundreds of thousands of those would be at some point in time a few hundred metres from where you and I are sitting right now in the very heartland of our harvest, which is why our prayer is to reach Cronulla for Christ!!! Our mission statement of impacting cities, influencing people is a national vision that we outwork locally through this congregation being impacted and then influencing others. This local church is the epicentre of impact and YOU and I are the carriers of Christs influence into our workplaces, schools, streets, and families. We are the church. We are Gods influence going somewhere to happen. And, praise the Lord things are indeed happening!!! Heres what we see happening in the coming years In the next 1-3 years, we will be putting priority emphasis on: URBAN CONNECTIONS
Launching 3-5 Successful Adult // Young Adult Urban Connections Taking our existing Switch Urban Connections to the next level

Training / Mentoring our Urban Connection Leaders Completing the Video and Written Urban Connection Resources Monitoring the ongoing health of our Urban Connections Creating weekly resource // Outline suggestions

WEBSITE / ONLINE PRESENCE

Creating text for our website Launching our new look locations website More effective use of Facebook Page, Twitter profiles, Groups & Blogs Online E Mag

KIDS CONFERENCE / OUTREACH STRATEGY

Plan for a brilliant ID kids conference Create props / backdrops and resources that we can use for ongoing school outreach Create a team that can make this work Source Gold Coast accommodation for everybody Create a strategy for ongoing kids outreach / concerts ID Music that will work with this years theme ID Curriculum that we could take as a Trojan horse into schools

CHURCH AUTONOMY
Form a Financial Committee of Management Create Independent financial administration

EMPOWERED FUTURE
Launch and management of stewardship and ongoing sacrificial giving, and researching potential tax deductible giving to the three areas of: VALIANT CHURCH 1. boldly courageous; brave; stout-hearted. 2. marked by or showing bravery or valor; heroic: a valiant effort. Finance raised in this fund will go towards our future building, foodbank, and initiatives that move our church towards making local community impact. VICTORY GENERATION Finance raised in this fund will go towards our childrens and youth ministries, the development of curriculum and the resourcing of families. PROJECT VANUATU Finance raised in this fund will go towards our new Vanuatu building and resourcing this local church as they minister to the people of Port Villa.

MARKETING
Brainstorming and implementing smart marketing to let the community know about our church, its services and how the gospel of Jesus Christ // being a part of our church family vision can change their lives.

CHURCH BUILDING
Permanent Lease of mid week venue that can house the Monday Saturday Operations of the church (offices, foodbank, training rooms, & Switch), OR A completely self contained venue which features main auditorium, as well as all of the above (must be accessible / visible to the public though.)

PASSIONATE SPIRITUALITY
Resources for personal devotions Resources for Urban Connections Bible reading plan Resources for parents to use with their children D.A.R.E resources Mid-week spiritual direction (Wordworx / Prayer strategy)

DREAMTEAM
Championing a contagious culture amongst our volunteers & leaders Forming policy & procedures for best service Developing ongoing training

NEW CHRISTIANS COURSE

Finalising our N.C. Course content & strategy Resources for N.C. graphically designed and printed Clear how to for use with other congregation members iPhone app?

DISCIPLESHIP PATHWAY
Forming and championing clear steps for people to take from New Christian through to living the empowered life including counseling / prayer ministry.

NEEDS BASED EVANGELISM // INVITING CULTURE

Championing a culture of invitation where people are confident A clear joint outreach strategy for our members to be a part of Cronulla outreach?? Red Frogs?? Empower Kids schools outreach

3-5 Years Ministry Training College Launched

With courses presented by experts and available for online download right around the nation. The National Broadband Network is going to change everything in the telecommunications world with speeds somewhere around 150MB per second. This will make online discipleship curriculum, HD inter-personal coaching, and HD / or even 3D ministry training resources / bible curriculums entirely possible. The key will be developing material worthy of such a system and doing it early which could well mean for the churches that are in front of the wave, that they become national leaders in discipleship training. Imagine the potential of students logging on for classes in our bible college all over the nation and doing the curriculum under supervision and outworking them in their local churches. Now THATs a seriously cool possibility. HD Live streaming between locations will become a LOT less glitchy and much more reliable. Which could well mean that we could stream Sunday preaches from this location into other halls, schools, homes and venues and vice versa, RADICALLY affecting our ability to plant churches. 5-7 Years Second & possibly third location launched Potential sights: Bondi, Maroubra, Woolongong Desired growth in coming years: 20% per annum 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 150 180 216 260 312 375 450 540 15% per annum 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 120 144 173 208 250 300 360 432

So now what about me? You might be asking?? What role do I play in the church and how can I make my contribution?

How can I be in this vision as well? Answer Keep your walk with God INSPIRED Keep INVITING people to Christ Become INVOLVED in deep community by launching or joining one of our soon coming Urban Connections Generously INVEST in Gods house with your time, talent and treasure And INFLUENCE your world. Refer people to journals wed LOVE to give you one of these as a gift