On this coming Sunday morning, February 13th, a new local church is being birthed on the northside of the sunshine state’s capital, Brisbane. Grace Church is the result of much prayer, thinking, hard work, and above all, God’s perfect will and timing.
But for some who have been keeping an eye on the statistics describing the Australian religious scenario over the last few years, it may sound counterintuitive to discuss the need to start new local churches. With a constantly increasing number of Australians claiming to be irreligious, with more and more churches closing their doors only to see their buildings become entertainment venues or something else, isn’t such an initiative bound to fail? One thinking according to the flesh would probably feel tempted to ask, “why open an ice-cream shop when people are eating less and less ice cream?”
