You might have got the wrong impression if like me the main thing you heard about City to City (CTC), a church planting network was that it was founded by Tim Keller, best known for successfully growing churches in the middle of New York City.
“One of the things that sets City to City apart in Australia is that we are truly non-tribal and non-denominational,” Mark Morley City to City’s Chief Operations Officer tells The Other Cheek.
“We love people who love Jesus and want to make him known. As an organisation, City to City has planted with Pentecostals right through to Presbyterians, in all states and territories of Australia. We have planted with older people, younger people, married couples, with single women and with single men, who all go through our training to become leaders in a Christian community.”
Facts on the ground prove this claim, you don’t have to be white or an alpha male, or of just one theological persuasion to lead growing a new church with City to City. It’s not a “church in a box.”
Asked what CTC learned from Keller, Andrew Katay the CEO of City to City Australia responds: “What Tim has taught CTCA, and actually CTC around the globe, is the questions that need to be asked to engage in faithful and fruitful gospel-centred ministry.
“Questions like, in an ultra-moralist world like the West, how do we make disciples, baptising them and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commended, in a way that doesn’t just add to that moralism? Or, in a world that copes with religious conviction by relegating it to the realm of ‘values’, as opposed to facts – which is just a form of dualism – how do we cast a vision of the Christian life that doesn’t unintentionally buy into the same kind of dualism by failing to overcome the sacred-secular divide, especially when it comes to the issue of our work life? And what resources does the Scripture offer us to be able to speak the apostolic gospel to a secular culture in a way that is more likely to be understood, and less likely to be misinterpreted? And how can the church go about being less divided, tribal and fractious than the world around us?”
“The answers Tim gave to these and similar questions for New York will be different from what’s needed in Sydney or Melbourne or Bendigo! But the questions are crucial, and having Biblically rich and theologically deep answers is very important.”
“A particularly exciting development for us has been the growth of church planting amongst non-English speaking churches and First Nations churches, says Morley. Thirty per cent of our new church plants are amongst communities of non-English speakers, and twenty-five percent of City to City’s new plants are led by a female pastor. This means that we have planted, for example, an Aboriginal community in Bendigo, a Vietnamese congregation in Sydney’s inner-west, a Mandarin congregation in Adelaide, and a Hindi-speaking church in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. These are all orthodox, gospel-centred churches that didn’t exist 2 years ago. Praise God!”
And Tim Keller did not set this movement up to copy his approach. In fact, City to City might just have outgrown its name.
“In many places, churches look different because there is a lack of available infrastructure for traditional churches, such as in new housing estates on the urban fringe. In rural villages, a missional community model that meets in local homes might be the most appropriate way of bringing the gospel to underserved groups of people,” says Morley. “Amongst pastors working in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, there is a need to tailor and contextualise the church’s ministry to a community that may never be able to afford a full-time pastor, let alone a church building.“
They work, with each planter as an individual says Morley – and given such a wide range, it is easy to see why they have to do it.
City to City has also hired their first “catalyst” to work with Chinese-speaking church leaders of Australia, in Melbourne.
“We hope to follow this up in future with additional resourcing for Hindi, Indonesian, Korean and Tagalog-speaking churches, as well as with a resourced focus on Aboriginal and First Nations-led churches,” says Morley.
CTC momentum is building in Australia. It has expanded from 9 to 25 staff in the past 12 months, and now has representatives in Hobart, Melbourne, Bendigo, Sydney, Canberra, Sunshine Coast, Adelaide and Perth.
City to City now also have a church revitalisation program, named Revitalise Australia, that is working with more than 85 pastors and churches across Australian cities and towns to grow and multiply their ministries via a dedicated consultation program.
An significant development in 2022 has been the launch of a partnership with Fuller Seminary. This year 45 new church planters are going through a 12-month CTC Residency – a course that prepares men and women to plant a church. At the end of these 12 months, planters receive an accredited qualification from City to City and from Fuller Seminary – one of the globe’s foremost providers of theological education.
After this Residency, City to City also helps planters to receive financial assistance in the form of a repayable grant, or a donation, to plant their church. There’s continuing support as CTC coaches planters as they grow and develop their new church.
The Other Cheek hopes to feature examples of church plants from CTC and other networks, such as Reach Australian and denominations planting churches.
Asked if planting a church or leading a network of church planters means you are optimists, Katay says: “I think the better category is ‘hope’ or ‘confidence’, but absolutely we are optimistic! Not in the sense that Tim Keller can show us how to do something ‘clever’. The only basis for hope is the goodness and grace of God. But what Tim’s ministry and the story of Redeemer Presbyterian Church has showed is that fruitful evangelistic ministry is possible in major secular cities. God isn’t done with Australia, and CTC have plenty of work to do for Him.”
You can find out more about City to City and its work to bring the gospel to more cities and towns across Australia here.
Image: City to City’s CEO Andrew Katay
Thanks John.
I would like to hear more of the specific strategies used, and how the gospel is shared to secular Sustralians? How is “church planting” different from one-on-one evangelism away from meetings in a building?
Doug, I hope to dig further by looking at the day-to-day work of church planters. If I can do that well it will answer your good questions.