Hey Family!
Welcome to the AGM edition of 'The Scoop'
Here are the 2022 ministry reports and some plans for 2023 and beyond.
I hope these keep you informed, encouraged and prayerful as we press on together to make more & better disciples of Jesus in the beautiful region of ours.
I can hardly believe what God has done amongst us since CoastEC kicked off in 2009, but Jesus has been true to his promise: "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it" (Matt 16:18). We've seen people come to know Jesus for the first time; we’ve seen believers grow in their faith and maturity; and we’ve seen people grow in godliness and generosity. So praise God for all of that!
REGROUP AND REGATHER!
A huge part of our ministry over the last few years has been to regroup and regather after planting MBC, shutting down our 2pm service and then dealing with the challenges of Covid.
It's been so good seeing our community pull together over the last few challenging years!
THE NEXT FEW BIG THINGS?
Some of the big things we're trying to tackle this year as a church is to start a second Sunday Gathering (6pm) and to keep chipping away at our Building Project.
"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart" (Philippians 1:3-7)
It's a huge privilege to work on the staff team, and I'm really thankful to God for this crew!
Thanks Dev, Heather, Meg and Jason for all your work amongst us in 2022!
We'll miss having Jason on board this year, but we're stoked he's sticking around at Coast.
God willing, our next staff appointment will be a Kids & Youth Pastor
For more info, head HERE
We are one more step closer to having a place of our own!
We finally submitted our DA (Development Application) and we're working with Council to provide some additional information.
Please pray for Council to approve our application, and for God to provide the means for us to build it.
For more info (including pics and design/layout), head HERE
KRISTIAN'S STORY
Praise God for giving Kristian new life in Christ!
I went to church every week for 23 years before finding a relationship with Jesus. Now, as a young adult, I can share the story of how Jesus grabbed hold of me, changing my perspective and outlook on life. Transforming me from a proud and apathetic man to having a personal connection with my Creator.
My family went to church each week and I was surrounded by Christians at home but lacked meaningful Christian relationships at school, where I prioritised academic and sporting success, over relationships with my peers. My self-reliance made me apathetic. While I was happy to pray to God and live the outward life of a Christian, I had no need for him, and could trust in myself for my next meal, my next step in life and everything in general. I knew about God but had no reason for him to be in my life, and frankly didn’t care if he existed or not.
Going to university at a Christian college, I built many relationships with other believers but couldn’t understand the joy and optimism that they expressed with each other. This time however gave me a bunch of friends that would play big roles in coming to faith.
While writing my final university thesis, I was given a book called ‘The Reason for God’ by Tim Keller. It was the first time I had read an academic account for why believing in the existence of God is not stupid. Modern science does not have all the answers, and I was curious to read what other great minds had to say on the matter. Over a period of a few months, I had a hunger to investigate this subject and started watching testimonies and apologetics debates as well as reading Christian books and having deeper conversations with my Christian and non-Christian friends. This was also the first time I enjoyed reading the Word for myself. I became more engaged with Christians at church and Christian Surfers and experienced the outflow of their joy and relationship with God.
I cannot pinpoint the exact time I became a Christian; however, I remember reading the biography of Eric Liddell right up until an hour before my final thesis presentation and reading about God working powerfully in the life of this successful young man. This success however, he attributed to his Creator, rather than himself and he lived a life that reflected this truth, which resonated strongly with me. That week I noticed that the Spirit had changed the desires of my heart, from living for myself, to living for the kingdom and wanting to grow as a man in Godliness. I understood the sacrifice of Jesus, his death and resurrection and how I could not hope to measure up to God’s perfection. My desires changed from surfing for myself, to wanting to build relationships to share the gospel with others in the surf. My career objectives changed from worldly success to living for the kingdom.
Recently I have found myself coming down from this high, however reflecting on the last few months I can still see God working. Please be praying that God would hold me and help me plant deep roots in the Word and his Church, so that I don’t get pulled away by the temptations of this world.
BAPTISMS
I love seeing the Lord grab hold of people, wash them clean and make them His!
In 2022, we celebrated the baptisms of Kaiya Eason, Matilda English, Crystal Rowles, Marcus & Darci Stephens, and Rob & Tom Storrie!
SMBC MISSION
We had a team of students from Sydney Missionary and Bible College come and partner with us for a week.
It was great to see the next generation of gospel leaders being raised up.
Please pray for the Lord of the Harvest to keep raising up more workers for the harvest field (eg pastors, missionaries and church planters)
LIFE
It was great to finally run our LIFE series again! Club Forster seemed to work well as a venue, and we had a bunch of new guests hear the gospel.
I was especially encouraged by how many people invited their friends, and for the way our guests were welcomed so well!
Some have even started coming to church too!
We've filmed some new videos which we will give a run next time we run LIFE (in November, Lord willing).
CHURCH PLANTING
New churches reach new people.
As a church, we're committed to planting more churches and helping other churches get planted.
In 2020 we planted MBC in Taree.
Since then, the Lord has grown that work amazingly! Joel sent me through some very encouraging stats!
Average Attendance - 100 (66 adults / 34 kids)
Regulars - 165 (107 adults / 58 kids/youth)
Converts - 7
Baptisms - 3
Bible study groups - 7
Bible study regulars - 84
Total Involvement - 271 (176 adults / 95 kids/youth)
Self funded - 59%
We also financially support several churches (MBC in Taree, Anchor in Coffs and the new one that just kicked off in 2022 at South Grafton).
PLANTING TOGETHER
We're also partnering with the other churches on the mid north coast in the FIEC network to establish new churches in South Grafton and Kempsey!
Regroup & Regather
Praise God that He has 'regrouped and regathered' His people after an abnormal 2 years - over 94% of those who regularly gathered with us prior to covid have returned to our fellowship! It's such a blessing to gather together each week to worship the Lord and spur each other on.
And... God hasn't only regathered His people, but He has grown our family too - there hasn't been a single week of the year where we haven't had a new face come along from within or around our region!
Family News
Brayden & Jaz De Gioia welcomed their little girl, Grace Nova into the world!
Praise God for Meg & Boaz, Darci & Marcus, Mitch & Tamika, Dave & Lou, Elana & Ben, and Monica & Calvin as they are all awaiting on the birth of some little ones in 2023!
Laura Brisby & Matt Young got engaged and will be getting married in a few month’s time!
Newish
God is still growing his church!
We're still seeing a steady trickle of new people from all walks of life, meeting Jesus and plugging in with us.
Praise God for the timeless power of the gospel to save and unite!
Our newcomers have been blessed by the hospitality of Chris & Sharon Ekins, Pete & Steph Flower, Ally Hawkins and Carolyn Kinsela as they've opened up their homes and hosted lunches. It was super encouraging that Ally offered her gifts of hospitality to host after attending a Newish BBQ herself a few months earlier in the year!
Please be praying that the Lord will continue to bring people into our fellowship and that He would amplify each of our hearts for hospitality.
Formal Members
This year we've welcomed Ron & Lyn Eastman, Bryn & Tazia Humphreys, Jan Catling, Andy Young, Sophie France & Noah Hazlewood as formal members of Coast EC! We love it when more people choose to partner with us in the gospel and to get on board with our specific mission!
Loving & Caring Community
1 Thessalonians 1:3 'We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ'.
Over the course of the year, we were able to pass on your generosity towards the Love Bomb Fund to bless 13 people! This was in the form of subsidising counselling fees, helping with house moving costs, grocery and fuel vouchers, bond payments, and various bills.
If you'd like to make a donation to the Love Bomb fund to enable this ministry to continue to bless those in need, head here for details.
I've been blown away as I've witnessed the ongoing sacrificial love that our Coast EC family have extended over the past year. People have organised home and hospital visits, helped clean houses, mowed lawns, provided ongoing meal deliveries, offered transportation, delivered covid care packages to coast group members and gathered to pray with one another. It's a blessing to see 1 John 3:18 come to fruition within our church!
'Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth'.
After battling cancer on and off for many years, our sister Audrey went to be with the Lord in December last year. I was incredibly encouraged by the outpouring of love that was shown by our church family to Audrey and Ken over the months in the lead up to her passing. Amidst the sadness, it was heart-warming to witness God's body in action loving them deeply and generously through home and hospital visits, meals, communion and prayer. We praise God for the assurance and hope that we will one day see Audrey's resurrected body in the presence of our Saviour and King.
Please keep Ken in your prayers as he’s taking some time travelling to rest & rejuvenate with family.
GATHERING
We held our annual Sunday Roast event again this year! Sunday Roast is such an epic way to offer hospitality and gather together with new and familiar faces from within our church family.
Romans 12:13 'Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality'
While the SMBC team were up in Forster, we celebrated our 13th Birthday! We gathered at Camp Elim for a BBQ, some rope-swing fun & thanked God for the multitude of ways He has worked in and through His Church at Coast EC!
And… what a great joy it was to gather with one another for a holiday up at Scott's Head!
In September, 98 of us spent a beautifully sunny weekend together surfing, bike riding, spike ball-ing, playing card and board games, sitting around campfires, eating yummy food and enjoying sweet fellowship! One of the highlights of the weekend was having church together on Sunday morning and hearing Kristian share his testimony.
Lock in 15-17th September in your diaries for our 2023 holiday away - same location!
Coast Groups
Praise God we have over 160 people in 22 CGs - with 4 new groups planted this year. Woohoo! And each and every week our Coast Group Leaders help us to get deep in the Word. So a big thank you to them as they prep, pray and lead. It's a big task and I'm very thankful to them for the time, energy, and effort they put into loving and serving their groups. We always say that our Coast Groups are the 'backbone' of CoastEC and over the last couple of years this has really rung true - it's been great seeing the love as they've cared, shared, and been there for each other during a pretty rough time for all.
A special thanks to the Super Rev Michael Dasey, who has been writing the studies each week for our Luke series. They've been incredibly helpful for our leaders (and groups) and have helped us to dig in deep.
Renewed minds
Earlier this year the Super Rev Bill France ran a 10-week Preliminary Theological Certificate (PTC) subject called 'Introduction to the Bible'. We had a great crew sign up and commit for the duration of the course. Thanks Bill for the effort you put in. Golden! So golden that next year we are looking at having a crack at a different subject. We would love to hear at Dream & Scheme people's thoughts about what areas they'd like to grow in knowledge-wise for 2023.
Also a big thanks to Dave Fitzhardinge who helped run our RoundTable: Tech night. It was sensationally helpful to have some tips and tricks in running a tech-savvy household. There was great discussion and insight into how best protect our kids and teens as they use their phones, tablets and computers.
MAP - win!
Last year we 'coastified' the fantastic MTS discipleship program and it has been super good! Jason Little & Meg Graham both signed on to try and see if vocational pastoral ministry may be the best way to serve God and His people in the future. They've both been studying Diplomas of Theology online and have had responsibility over significant areas at Coast as they grow their ministry capacities.
We thank God for them hugely in what He has been doing in them and through them. Towards the end of last year, Jason decided that - for now - pastoral ministry wasn't the right fit for him and has finished up after the first year. In a weird way, that's a big win! He has saved himself another year of doing the program and possible further study at a College. Praise God for him making such a tough decision. Pray for guidance for him in 2023 as he prepares to study Teaching at Uni. More from him below in the Kids & Youth section.
Which means this year we have Meg 'solo-MAPing'! Please be praying for her as she continues to serve, grow and learn. What. A. Weapon!
GAP - reboot!
After a year's break, we are PUMPED to be having Noah Hazlewood, Sophie France, Andy Young, and Mitch Wilson join the staff team for 2023, as they do the GAP program!
Please be praying for them as they immerse themselves in God's Word and up their ministry capacities & capabilities!
Get to know a GAPer this year as we invest in them and love them well.
They'll have the hands in lots of different things throughout the year, however they also have some specific things to focus on designed around their interests and giftings.
Noah is going to be helping us upping our media game. Droning, filming, photographing lots of our groups and events.
Sophie will be leading our Preschool Team, as well as teaching our Primary kids. Plus, helping us with our social media presence.
Andy will be getting into lots of kid's ministry, plus helping reboot our 6pm service. He has been a part of starting up Christian Surfers in Forster and will help to create a smooth pathway between their and Coast ministries.
Lastly, Mitch will be focusing on our 4pm service and young families - and having spent years being a key leader within our youth ministry he'll be looking to grow in leadership of that community.
Pumped!
Here are a few other things to praise God for and to have on our radars:
Ministry Team Leaders
It's been a privilege working with our Ministry Team Leaders this year. I would love to do a big shout out to Carol Holm, Jodie Hazlewood, Grant Sweeney, Jason Little, Ann Roberts, Anna Davidson, Dave Fitzhardinge, Marty Lofberg, and Meg Graham! As we grow as a church we've been implementing new ideas - some of these greatly increase the responsibility placed on those leaders - and they've smashed it. So thank you to them and please be praying for them as they serve and lead their teams.
New Team, new ministry!
One of the goals we had was to start a Crèche ministry mid-way through the year. Praise God we have a great team, awesome leader (Sharon Ekins), and a classroom each Sunday that can take our super little ones - allowing parents to be involved and engaged during the service. Golden!
New people, new skillz!
Just wanted to give a special shout out to Anna Davidson! Every Monday arvo, Anna opens her house to a bunch of our youth and kids as they come to up-skill in their musical competence and confidence. You may have noticed that during our service more and more young ones are jumping up to play and sing. This has been such a blessing! One of our goals has been to build some musical depth as we look to reboot our 6pm service - Anna has really given herself to that task! Legend!
LIVESTREAM
Thanks Boaz and Meg Flower for hooking up the livestream!
It was a sweet plan B, but we're thankful to get back to God's plan A for church - gathering as His people!
New Time, new service!
We also kick off a brand new service at 6pm on Feb 5th!
This is huge and will, God willing, allow us to reach more people with the good news of Jesus in the years to come.
There are quite a few Coast people who can't make the 4pm service due to work commitments, lots that serve in Kids Church running parallel to the 4pm, and others that serve regularly in the 4pm service that find it hard to invite mates as they can't sit with them as they serve.
Please pray for us as we look to relaunch this service. Praise God for those who are keen to serve and have jumped on teams already.
Pumped!
Coast Kids is pumping! We've got so many kids that are being fed the Word Sundays in their Coast Groups! We've gone through stats/ numbers
And this would not be possible without the leaders there every week; Our team leaders; Sharon, Hazy & Amanda. Special shoutouts to Sophie, Petra, Gemma, Juliette, Liam & Lachie. As well as all our teen helpers; Kaylee, Summer, Darcey, Suraiya, Kaiya, Noah, Matilda, Josiah.
Their sacrifice to come help or teach the kids, instead of being in at 4pm. Is really one of the biggest encouragements for me this year. Sacrificially serving with no complaints just loving the Kids of Coast. Thanks Coast Kids Leaders, you are amazing and hard working and just genuinely the best!And lastly, a special shoutout to AJ Blair who has run our 'all-in' holiday program - sometimes with 40+ kids! She has done an amazing job with her team!
SALT
Massive Shoutout to Juliette for taking the reins from Codan on Salt and has done a fantastic job loving the kids and creating an environment where kids can feel safe and can work out their faith for themselves.
As well as Gemma & other people who have helped us out; Cooper, Tamika & Josiah. Who have all come in and showed the love they have for kids & worked hard to keep up with the kids energy and readiness to have a great time.
We've had some great wins;
17 kids have come to Salt for the first time. Including a girl, Haydn. Haydn has come every week since she got invited - which is a massive win.
Kids Takeover is a massive win - & it has given us a great opportunity to let kids step up and become leaders in their own peer group. We've seen many read the bible, but not run games, MC, or do the talk. Kids Takeover gives kids an opportunity to step out of their comfort zones and step up - as we have seen that most kids are fully capable of running games, we've had Hannah Ekins & Toby Fitzhardinge give MCing a go. Plus last term, Hannah did a talk, about us having a friendship with Jesus. Which was absolutely awesome! Which has encouraged Toby to step up this term and give it crack as well! Awesome seeing the maturity in all these kids.
Thanks
I would like to thank the Parents/Grandparents/Carers that have trusted us with their kids on Fridays and Sundays. Thank you so much, for partnering with us, whether that's with encouragement, food or volunteering yourself, Thank you
Thanks to the kids, firstly for being gracious. But for being the awesome humanoids that you are, for being super fun, ready to dance, sing, run around and just have a great time! We actually can't do Kids Church without you.
Prayer
Resilience and strength for the leaders to keep going
Prayer for more Kids Church & Salt Leaders as well as some more SRE teachers.
We've got some great things happening with the youth but first - I just wanted to quickly thank you. Thank you for the opportunity in 2022 to dip my toes into vocational ministry, getting to look behind the scenes of CoastEC, for trusting me to hang out and look after all your teenagers & kids. This was a fantastic opportunity and I just wanted to say a big fat thanks!
But I love Coast, and Coast is still my home. And I'm looking forward to still being involved with my faith-family for the years and years to come.
Jason
Youth = Riptide + Senior Youth
Praise God our crew are keen for Mission = 24 teens have come to Riptide for the first time this year.
Including Lily & Ashlyn - who this year have been invited to Riptide, continued coming, jumped into the girls Coast Group, and have also come to church and is still coming to all of these. Please be praying for them to continue to have the desire to get to know God and make the commitment to follow Him.
Praise God that at our last Amazing Race themed night had 36 teens come along to hear about Jesus! Epic!
It's been great to hear that the youth are gathering outside of our programs (still waiting on my invite though...)
The girls Coast Group, has become so big - they split in two when they meet!
We've also got teens serving hard! Some up the front with Band. Some on Mac. And a whole heap serving every week in Kids Church!
Mid Coast Youth Conference (MCYC)
In November our youth joined with other teens from FIEC churches on the MidNorth Coast. It was a sweet weekend looking at Genesis 1-11 and our 'origin story' as humans. God's design & purpose for us is good and best - this was something that Dale Brown (The Point Church in Port) helped us to see as we drank deep from God's Word.
Big thanks to the leaders for giving up their weekend to serve our youth! Legends.
The conference is such a success that we've decided it will go for 4 days in 2023 (Thurs-Sun) during the spring holidays.
Please pray that it continues to produce fruit in our young ones up and down the coast.
Thanks
To the leaders, Boaz, Codan, Tatz, Mitch, Tamika, Tom, Juliette, Gemma, Lachie, Cooper & Liam K, for being there for the teens of Coast every Friday & Sunday. Being flexible & keen to share the Gospel with all that come. Thanks for the hard work, you guys are amazing!
To all the parents, for tireless effort to; drive them to & fro, for partnering with me to help organise youth better.
Special shoutout to all those that have cooked dinner for Riptide, the food is spectacular because you are!
2023
We've already kicked off our year well (even before Youth has started!) with Dale Brown from The Point Community Church in Port Mac coming down to do some youth ministry training. It was a super full day but hugely beneficial as our leaders looked to grow in they way they lead and care for our teens.
Prayer
Pray for the teens as they continue to be bold by inviting/ telling their mates about the Gospel.
Be Praying that they continue serving hard to Glorify the Kingdom
Pray for the building - the Guide Hall is great, but severely limits us with it's size. Please pray for wisdom as we navigate capacity issues in the next few years.
It was such a joy for our women to gather together for the second year running at our Women's Weekend Away in May 2022! We switched up the venue from the previous year, and all drove up to Scott's Head, where we dove into the book of Philemon and reflected on what it looks like to biblically be 'refreshed'.
Thanks to the many hands that went into the weekend - especially Anna who ran an entertaining trivia night, Carol for enabling us to shed lots of tears and laughter as she shared her testimony, Tiana & Petra for their creativity (and patience!) in teaching us macramé, Pam for encouraging us in prayer, Amanda for faithfully walking us through the book of Philemon, and Jill and Celeste for your hard preparation in the lead up to the weekend. It really was such a wonderful time of growing closer with one another and with the Lord.
Some other women's ministry highlights from 2022 were:
Dessert night with the SMBC students where Amy encouraged us from the book of Ephesians about using our gifts to serve on another for God's glory
Equip conference where we were dwelt in the book of Lamentations and learned about the restoration that Jesus brought from the 'Old Jerusalem' to the 'New Jerusalem', and heard some inspiring testimonies of how Jesus continues to restore His people today
Women in the Word where we were encouraged from the book of Hebrews about approaching God's throne of grace with boldness & running with endurance in the midst of discipline and hardship from Julie & Meg
Venue options continue to be a challenge for both women's and other ministries - so we want to say a special thank you to Pam Kingston, Steph Flower and Felicity & Alan Suters for inviting us into their homes and being generous with hospitality for these events to run smoothly!
We're excited to continue gathering the women of Coast EC together this year - please be praying that the Lord would use the various events we have planned for 2023 for His glory - to strengthen the unity and faith of women, equip our women to grow in godliness, and bring new people to Him.
In 2023 we are going to try out some new things for helping our men gather and be on mission.
Over the spread of the year we will be having some 'low key' events focused around interests and hobbies.
We have two main aims for this - 1) for like-minded guys to gather and have fellowship, and 2) a chance to 'merge universes' as we invite some mates along who don't know Jesus.
I've asked a few who are interested in fishing, golf, camping, woodfire pizza, paintball, and boardgames to start thinking about how we can get this going.
On that note - if you are into camping, then I believe we've set aside the weekend of May 26-28 to head up to Kylie's Beach Campground. Guys will book themselves in and BYO everything as we look to get away.
Please pray for some good opportunities over the year to connect with men that don't know Jesus yet.
Aging Well
It was great to have guest speaker Lesley Ramsay come and speak to our seniors about living the years ahead with dignity, joy and purpose in August last year.
Senior's Fellowship & Connect Events
A special shout out to Deb Laurie, Yvonne Gunning & Jackie France for their enthusiasm and passion for gathering the senior's of our church to deepen fellowship and broaden connections!
Some highlights from the year have been barefoot bowls, shared meal outings, and staring up a bimonthly women's coffee morning.
They have various connect and fellowship days planned for 2023 so stay tuned for more info!
Finance Report
Thanks for partnering with us this year.
Here is snap shot of what has happened finance wise over 2022
To read the full reports please click below.
Partner with us!
1. Pray
Praise God for His provision through the generosity of His people and through government assistance. Please ask God to keep providing for us, and growing us in our generosity, so our treasure is where our heart is.
2. Grow in Generosity
Consider increasing your giving in one of these 3 ways: a) Increase your regular giving by 5% or $10/wk b) Set up direct/online giving instead of giving cash via the collection on Sundays c) Make a one off donation to either meet some of last year's shortfall or to invest in a specific ministry. See HERE