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.
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
Mobilisation
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.