METRO Church Australia

METRO Church
Location 116 Ridgeway Avenue, Southport QLD 4215 (Southport Campus)
Country Australia
Denomination Australian Christian Churches
Website www.metro.org.au
History
Founded 22 March 2006
Clergy
Senior pastor(s) Garry and Kasey McDonald

METRO Church is a Pentecostal church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches (the Australian branch of the Assemblies of God) and located on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The church's senior pastors, Garry and Kasey McDonald, began the church in 2006 after being sent out from SurfCity Christian Church to start a new church.

While headquartered at its Southport campus on the Gold Coast, METRO is a multi-site church with a campus in Toowoomba and one on the Sunshine Coast.

METRO International Leadership College commenced in 2007 and in 2008 METRO Church released its first Worship Album.

History

Prior to its official launch, METRO began as a Bible study in a coffee shop. These preliminary meetings quickly outgrew the premises and METRO had its official launch in March 2006 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. Almost 4000 people attended the event, which included a free concert featuring Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian. After the launch the church began to host weekly meetings in a rented cinema. In 2008 METRO received an old church facility in Southport as a freehold gift, which was promptly renovated and re-opened in August of that year. METRO has quickly grown and has a congregation of around 1000 people in regular attendance.

Senior Pastors

METRO's pastors and founders, Garry and Kasey McDonald, grew up loving the local church and serving in a host of different leadership capacities since their early teens. After feeling called to start a new church from scratch, Garry and Kasey were commissioned and sent out from SURFCiTY Church with two other couples to begin a new work for God. The two churches maintain a strong, blessed and honouring relationship.

Garry and Kasey have travelled extensively, speaking and ministering to churches around the world. They are highly respected and have good relationships with many effective leaders of the wider church around the world. Garry and Kasey are widely known for their authentic and faithful commitments to the local church and to people in general.

Vision

BIG NOW YES GO sum up the overall vision for the church:

  1. // BIG is a church that is strong, flourishing, healthy and growing every day; BIG in number, BIG in generosity, filled with BIG spirited people who have a BIG influence in our BIG world.
  2. // NOW is a church that is the most relevant force in society every day; with a NOW style and sound, a NOW message, NOW answers, NOW resources, positioned in a NOW environment and making a geniune difference for good, NOW!
  3. // YES is a church that is unlimited; faith-filled, hope-filled and love-filled every day. Full of people who know in their hearts that YES, God is good; YES, all things are possible; YES there is a way forward and YES, we can do it together.
  4. // GO is a church that is proactive and energetic, taking responsibility for its generation and the generations to come every day. They GO find the lost, GO hel the suffering, GO take leadership in society, GO build the future and GO serve humanity.

METRO also has four core mandates that it follows:

  1. // 'LIGHTHOUSE' CHURCH A high-profile and stand-out church. "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light." Luke 8:16-17
  2. // 'FORERUNNER' CHURCH An innovative and a vanguard church. "No one puts new wine in old wine skins." Matthew 9:17
  3. // 'ROYAL HOUSE' CHURCH A church of excellence that places value on humanity. "You are of much more value than these"
  4. // 'LIFE-GIVING' CHURCH A church that boldly declares the new covenant of grace.

These mandates have led to the future vision of METRO building a worship centre that, itself, preaches night and day, an iconic structure that will include the tallest church spire in history. A facility that no one in the city can miss and a hub of community service.

Locations

SOUTHPORT CAMPUS // In 2008 METRO received a freehold gift of the oldest Pentecostal church facility on the Gold Coast. After a 12-week renovation, the old church was revived into a modern 21st century church facility. This is the current venue METRO meets in from week to week with three services every weekend - Saturday nights 6.15pm and Sundays 10.15am.

TOOWOOMBA LOCATION // In 2012 METRO launched a Toowoomba location. METRO Toowoomba's Senior Pastor is Brendan Kelly and the church has a range of programs and initiatives running through the week and three services on the weekend including a thriving kids program catering for ages 0-Grade 6.

SUNSHINE COAST CAMPUS // In 2013 METRO launched their Sunshine Coast campus with services held at Mountain Creek State School on Lady Musgrave Drive. Service starts at 10am. Kids' program each week and full cafe service available.

METRO MOUNTAIN // In 2007, METRO acquired its first property - 250 acres of pristine Gold Coast Hinterland, which included 100 acres of rain forest. In the future, the church hopes to develop a world class retreat facility on the site where people can take time out to seek God.

Leadership College

Under the banner of METRO Church, the training offered by METRO International Leadership College includes leadership training, contemporary praise and worship and specialised youth, children's and media ministries. Since January 2007 the college, in association with Alphacrucis (formerly Southern Cross College), has offered the Certificate IV in Christian Ministry and the Diploma in Christian Ministry

Ministries

METRO Church runs many different ministries in addition to weekend services and events. METRO, like other churches, runs a small group structure named "connect groups" which are interest based activities as well as “MOJO Locations” which are small groups of people reading their bible and sharing with each other about what they have learnt. Both activities happen every day across the city. The main ministries of METRO Church include:

KidZone

METRO provides a children’s programme from ages one to seven, catered for in three groups: Planet Green - ages one to two, Planet Blue - ages three to five and Planet Red - grade one to seven.

REVOLUTION Youth

Revolution is the youth ministry of METRO Church. Revolution is run by youth pastors Ben and Sabrina Peters and is held at the church on Friday nights for grades 7-12.

EDGE Young Adults

Edge is METRO's young adults ministries. Edge hold special events as well as cafes every few months after the Saturday night service, which provide a great chance for people to get connected in and spend time in fellowship.

International Care

METRO is involved in a number of international projects including: AFRICA // METRO’s target nation of Burkina Faso is a hot spot for human trafficking where one in five children don’t live to the age of five and one in thirty are HIV positive. METRO has a goal to sponsor 10,000 children in this country and is almost one tenth of the way there. The church is also supporting micro-financing projects in the country. INDIA // As one of the most densely populated countries on Earth, India is a land of incredible need. Through strategic partnership, METRO is involved in health and spiritual care in this country.

Events

Since its launch, METRO has hosted a number of events on the Gold Coast including:

Music

The METRO CHURCH BAND is an Australian rock and worship band. Their music is a contemporary style of praise and worship tempered with mainstream rock and pop.

Discography

References

News

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2012/12/14/443663_gold-coast-news.html http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/heres-josh-with-all-the-good-news/1848408/

www.metro.org.au

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