Gen1k – Our shared goal

A few years ago the Association of Baptist Churches in NSW & ACT agreed together, with God’s enabling, that the legacy we would like to leave the next generation would be a tripling of the size of our movement to 1000 healthy churches by 2050 (the ‘Gen1K goal’). GEN1K is a bold goal to expand the Kingdom of God in our state and territory.

This would see existing churches (your church) continually renewed for gospel mission, and many, many new congregations birthed. Not just to have more churches, but to see lives transformed by the gospel and society changed for the better. This goal will encompass several areas of ministry if it is to be achieved.

This number represents the vision of our movement; growing to become a thousand healthy churches in a generation. A tripling of our congregations and staying in line with population growth.

If we meet our Gen1k goal, that would mean there is 1 congregation for every 10,000 people in NSW and the ACT.

This is the number of Local Government Areas (LGAs) within NSW and the ACT. Our team has mapped existing Baptist churches against the current and projected population for these LGAs and classified them as either critical, high, moderate or low priority areas for new congregations.

New Congregations Needed Across

ACT and the City of Blacktown.

Liverpool, Central Coast, Parramatta, Sydney City, the Hills, Camden, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Penrith and the Sutherland Shire.

Northern Beaches, Campbelltown, Randwick, Wollongong, Inner-West, Fairfield, Ku-ring-gai, Georges River, Tweed Shire, Shellharbour.

Critical Priority LGAs	Current Congregations	Goal	New Congregations Needed
City of Blacktown	7	52	45
Australian Capital Territory	14	55	41

High Priority LGAs	Current Congregations	Goal	New Congregations Needed
City of Liverpool	7	33	26
Central Coast Council	17	41	24
City of Parramatta	18	41	23
City of Sydney	8	31	23
The Hills Shire	9	29	20
Camden Council	3	22	19
City of Canterbury-Bankstown	33	50	17
Cumberland Council	12	29	17
City of Penrith	10	27	17
Sutherland Shire	10	26	16

Moderate Priority LGAs	Current Congregations	Goal	New Congregations Needed
Northern Beaches Council	15	29	14
City of Campbelltown	10	23	13
City of Randwick	5	18	13
City of Wollongong	12	24	12
Inner West Council	13	23	10
City of Fairfield	13	22	9
Ku-ring-gai Council	6	15	9
Georges River Council	9	18	9
Tweed Shire	4	11	7
City of Shellharbour	2	9	7

HOW DO WE GET THERE?

We plant in collaboration

In the Penrith LGA we’ve seen 8 churches collaborate across denominations to see the transformation of Penrith LGA by developing a strategic plan for planting, revitalisation, property development and community engagement. Developing these collaborative LGA strategies between local churches is fundamental for the next phase of our Gen1K goal

We work together

We’ve seen the healthy reproduction of congregations and community transformation when a smaller number of churches within a local government or council area work together. This allows for mutual responsibility, accountability and sharing in the joy and burden of Kingdom work. It also allows lessens the risks churches can experience when planting solo; loosing a critical portion of the congregation, slow financial recovery & long journey to retrain and replace leaders.

We form networks

2 years ago, Narara Valley Baptist Church planted Greenhouse church and established the Garden Network, with a vision for 13 churches. Together these two churches started Meeting Ground a few months ago and are joining with one another for leadership development, sharing of resources and local and global community transformation projects.

If just 3 networks were started a year & committed to reproducing a congregation every 3 years, we would produce 435 new healthy churches by 2050.

Movements start with one.

One church willing to dream big and partner with others.

In 1995 Andrew Cole and Paul Whiting felt called to plant a church that planted other churches. That year, in the western suburbs of Newcastle, New Vine was born. This vision for reproducing churches led them to ask different questions. Big dreams do this. They cause you to ask a completely different set of questions. They cause you to depend on God. Collectively we’ve experienced this as we align with God’s heart to see a movement of a thousand healthy churches in a generation.

This big dream caused New Vine to set aside Andrew Cole to work with other local churches and these collaborative conversations birthed the H100 goal of 100 churches in the Hunter Region, which inspired the broader Association vision of 1000 healthy churches. Motivated by this Greater West For Christ prayerfully discerned their goal, which sparked further innovation, collaboration and dreaming in other regions

What have we learnt so far?

Movements start with one. One church willing to dream big and partner with others. We’re calling these Resource Churches. Churches that have the capacity to reproduce every 3 years, starting and sustaining their own Networks (Like the Garden Network & New Vine). These churches are designated leadership farms that develop and release leaders for new Kingdom work.

Resource churches work well in densely populated areas with populations around or over 130,000. This is because of the sheer number of people and their often-transient nature; moving in for study or work and then moving out again.

So, Each year the goal is to plant, or transition an existing church, to become a Resource church that goes on to reproduce every 3 years. As we’ve observed churches that have transition to healthy reproduction a Movement Pathway has emerged.

Motivation

These churches have had significant representation at key vision moments for our Association. Events like the FORM conference. They engage with resources we develop like our Forming Church Podcast.

Mobilisation

These churches have intentionally developed a culture where disciples are mobilised, participating in processes like building a discipling culture (BDC) or our own Plan A.

Multiplication

These churches have built multiplication into everything they do; multiplying leaders, groups, congregations and networks. They have utilised apprenticeship models, ICNU conversations and engaged in processes like Catalyst Community Training.

Movement

These churches are partnership oriented. They grow smaller, starting and multiplying networks of churches, utilising the Leading a Reproducing Network training and community of practice.

Let’s Start Something new

Bushfire Relief and Recovery – Partnering with BaptistCare