| C3 Church Global | |
| C3 Church Global | |
|---|---|
| Location | International |
| Denomination | C3 Church Pentecostalism, Evangelical, Charismatic |
| Website | c3churchglobal.com |
| History | |
| Founded | Easter 1980 |
| Founder(s) | Phil Pringle & Christine Pringle |
| Significant associated people | 185,000 |
C3 Church Global, formerly known as Christian City Church International (C3i), is a Charismatic church movement founded by Phil Pringle and Christine Pringle. The first church was established at Dee Why on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia, and is now located in Oxford Falls. The movement changed its name to "C3 Church" in September 2008.[1][2]
As of 2011 there are over 280 churches situated throughout Australia, New Zealand, North America, South America, Africa, Asia and the European community. Phil Pringle is the founder and President of C3 Church Global, and the Senior Minister of the movement's largest congregation, C3 Church Oxford Falls, Sydney, Australia.
C3 Church Global holds an international conference every few years, gathering pastors from C3 Churches worldwide. Other events include conferences for the European, Asian, North American, African and Australasian arms of the movement.[3]
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Phil and Christine Pringle arrived in Sydney, from New Zealand, in 1980 to begin a pentecostal church.[4] Christian Centre, Northside, as it was originally known, began with 12 people on the Northern beaches of Sydney.
C3 Church Global is governed by an International Executive whose members are pastors of local churches. Each member oversees the leaders of various churches, and/or other overseers. However, C3 Church Global does not have a centralized structure. Local churches are governed by a local board (or executive). Reflecting C3 Church Global's leadership philosophy, churches are "led by call and vision rather than democratic principles", and decisions are not made by congregational voting but by the ministry team.[5] C3 Church philosophy is based heavily on Prosperity Theology. Members are expected to give a tithe to the church of a minimum of 10% of their pre-tax (gross) income.
The National Church Life Survey (NCLS) - the nationwide 'census' of Australian church attendance, for the year 2004 found Christian City Churches contradicting an overall downward trend (to the effect of 7%) in church attendance across Australia, finding the C3 Churches grew on average by 42% to a total membership of 11,400 (within Australia).
In 2002 in the tri-annual Worldwide Conference held that year in Singapore, C3 Church revealed its plans to have over 1000 churches worldwide with an average attendance of 500 people throughout the movement, setting this goal to be attained by the year 2020, this goal being given the title the "2020 Vision".[6] The average attendance is 270 people per week, this is in stark comparison to the worldwide average church attendance of all churches which at last report was 35.
Music from C3 Church Oxford Falls is published under C3 Worship.[7] Music from various C3 Churches in the USA is published under C3worship. As the central church of the movement, C3 Church Oxford Falls generally produces one album a year, under the leadership of music director Ryan Smith. C3 Church Oxford Falls digitally release their songs via their websites. Most C3 Churches release their music online using the iTunes Store and similar online vendors.
Since 2006, C3 Church (Whitehorse) has co-organised "Unite" - a Creative Arts Conference, featuring Australian musicians such as Roma Waterman and Michael Paynter. The Conference is organised together with Crossway Baptist Church, Gateway Church and Careforce Church.[8]
On 2 April 2007, C3 Church (Oxford Falls) scored a hit single on the ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart. The song "Here We Go" entered at #37 on the ARIA Report (and #20 on the ARIA Physical Singles Chart plus #6 on the ARIA New South Wales single sales list) making it the highest-selling religious pop song since 1970. The single dropped out of the chart the following week though as it was only available at the church.
C3 Church, as with any large or rapidly growing religious movement, has often found itself under media scrutiny, both in a positive and a more critical light. Recent examples include mention in the Business Review Weekly (BRW), Australian Edition article "God's Millionaires".[9]
The recent World Council of Churches caused a significant number of reports on the 'Mega-Church' phenomenon, with many newspapers and news reports specifically noting churches with other large congregations like Hillsong Church.