Churches affiliated with Australian Christian Churches
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Churches affiliated with Australian Christian Churches refers to churches that are apart of Australian Christian Churches, the Australian organisation of the Assemblies of God (AOG), a Pentecostal denomination originating in the United States of America. There are over 1,100 churches in Australian Christian Churches that represent 180,000 adherents across Australia. Member churches work together to provide support for each other and cooperate in evangelisation.
Contents |
[edit] Church names
When the Assemblies of God in Australia was incorporated in 1937, churches generally were the name of the location and then the words Assembly of God. For example, the AOG church in Paradise was called Paradise Assembly of God (the church is now Paradise Community Church). When Frank Houston moved to Australia in 1977 to plant a church in Sydney, he called his church Sydney Christian Life Centre. From his church, Houston planted several others with the Christian Life Centre name.
From the 1990s onwards, there has been a large change in the naming of AOG churches. Many churches with Assembly of God (AOG) or Christian Life Centre (CLC) in their name, changed their name to make it shorter and more generic. Many churches have replaced AOG and CLC with Christian Church or Christian Centre. For example, Mt. Gravatt Assembly of God became Garden City Christian Church. Another trend is for churches to change their name to a popular name or word that represents the church. For example, Hills Christian Life Centre became Hillsong Church once the name Hillsong became more well-known than the church name.
[edit] Church style
Churches in Australian Christian Churches are known for their Pentecostal style services that involve contemporary praise and worship, speaking in tongues, lifting of hands in worship and biblical princibles teaching. AOG churches were originally seen to be cult like and strange, as they were very different to other evangelical churches. However, as other evangelical churches have evolved, AOG churches have become the forefront of the contemporary church.
[edit] Praise and worship
While Australian Christian Churches use a wide range of worship styes, generally churches use contemporary prasie and worship music for services. From using Hymns in the 1930s to 1950s, music from the Jesus movement in the 1960s and 1970s and the contemporary praise and worship of the 1980s to today, AOG churches have continually adapted to new styles of praise and worship.
In recent decades, churches affiliated with Australian Christian Churches have revolutionised church praise and worship. The largest driving force for this change is the popularity of Hillsong Music of Hillsong Church. Other influences are Planetshakers, Hillsong United, Youth Alive and Paradise Community Church. Many ACC churches have released albums containing songs written in the church.
[edit] Megachurches
Most of the megachurches in Australia are affiliated with Australian Christian Churches. In the 1970s and 1980s, the largest churches in the movement were Garden City Christian Church and Paradise Community Church. In the 1990s, Hillsong Church became the largest church in the movement and also in Australia. Today there are 10 Assemblies of God churches that are classified as megachurches with over 2,000 attending each weekend.
| Church | Location | Founded | Attendance | Membership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hillsong Church | Baulkham Hills, Sydney, NSW | 1983 | 20,000 [1] | ? |
| Paradise Community Church | Paradise, Adelaide, SA | 1982 | 6,000 [2] | ? |
| Shirelive Church | Sutherland, Sydney, NSW | ? | 3,200 | ? |
| Garden City Christian Church | Mt. Gravatt, Brisbane, QLD | 1955 | 3,000 | ? |
| Edge Church | Reynella, Adelaide, SA | 1994 | 3,000 | ? |
| Brisbane City Church | Bowen Hills, Brisbane, QLD | 1930 | 3,000 | ? |
| Planetshakers City Church | East Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC | 2004 | 3,000 [3] | ? |
| Liverpool Christian Life Centre | Hoxton Park, Sydney, NSW | 1981 | 2,500 | 5,200 |
| Kings Christian Church | Buderim, Sunshine Coast, QLD | ? | 2,000 [4] | ? |
| Faith! Christian Church | North Dandenong, Melbourne, VIC | ? | 2,000 [5] | ? |
[edit] See also
- List of the largest churches in Australia
- List of Churches affiliated with the Assemblies of God in Australia
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||||||
