Priority 6 – From Exclusivity to Kingdom Partnerships: Meet-up with C3 Leaders
Our Elders (Pastor Simon and Pastor Wilson) and two RMCs (Pastor Kwong Lie and Pastor Denis) had the privilege to meet with Dr Phil Pringle of C3 Church over lunch during the C3 Conference on 23 August 2011. C3 is a leading church-planting movement in Australia. Dr Phil Pringle together with his family and a few close friends started the church in Sydney in 1980. The church has since bloomed into a movement with close to nearly 300 congregations around the world. Other than Dr Phil Pringle, three of his leaders were also present at the lunch namely, Gordon Moore, John Pearce and Simon McIntyre.
In line with our 5-year Strategic Plan, CATALYSE, this meeting was initiated with the objective of exploring possibilities of partnering with like-minded movements. C3 was chosen because they are well-known as a church-planting movement. Pastor Wilson is also quite well-acquainted with them. This preliminary meeting was done with the objective of getting to know them better in terms of their vision and beliefs. Beyond that, it was a good and rare opportunity to know them on a first hand and face-to-face basis.
Pastor Denis, one for the RMCs who joined the lunch commented with admiration that Dr Phil is a very positive and focused man. He loves to share ideas about church-planting and leadership. It comes out of him very naturally. He is a Kingdom-minded person who does not mind to relate with HIM at the level that we are comfortable with. He has a good relationship with his leaders and is very down-to-earth. From the meeting itself, Pastor Denis saw the value of catching up and interacting with like-minded people from different movements. He thought of it as an informal mentoring session and found it refreshing. Personally, it expanded his thinking.
Other than that, he learnt that one of C3’s strengths is contextualisation. The way they do things are geared towards attracting the typical Australian male who is generally not interested in God. They strive to keep their church age young. The average age of the congregations is about 24 or 25. Even in their music, they keep it young as well because they are serious about capturing the next generation. At the same time, they do tailor their services to different age groups or life stations. For example, in services for the older group, the music is toned down and the lighting is softer.
In addition, C3 is radical in their church-planting efforts. The average age of their church planters is 23 years old! All the top leaders in their global network are local pastors. They insist that the global leadership team must be made up of people who actively pastor a local congregation but at the same time taking on the added responsibility of doing the global work. This will keep them in tune and in touch with the latest changes, updates and trends.
In conclusion, this lunch meet up was a fruitful one. After interacting with them, our leaders found that we are like-minded, especially in our passion for global church-planting. HIM is an Asian movement trying to go global while C3 is an Australian movement trying to go global. The prospect of them being a potential Kingdom partner is a good one. Down the road, the Elders and the RMCs will discuss on the way forward.
- Catch Pastor Phil Pringle at our Global Conference in Chiang Mai from 10 - 13 January 2012!
Written by Nicola Song
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