CoastEC started with a vision to grow the gospel on the mid-north coast by making disciples that made disciples, and planting churches that planted churches.
By God's grace we've seen Him gather many people to Himself, and we've partnered with others to start more churches.
It really is a privilege to be part of what God is doing amongst us!
My prayer this last year has been: "Holy Spirit, you blow wherever you want, and give life to whoever you want. Please blow like a raging nor-easter and not like a gentle winter westerly. Please bring waves of revival to your church! Please blow life into many new people and send them in waves (even if the waves make things messy!) And please protect your people from the spiritual blue bottles and rips sucking them back into the world)"
This last year has been a significant one of growth for God's church and there is much to be thankful for!
Here are the 2024 ministry reports and some plans for 2025 and beyond.
I hope these keep you informed, encouraged and prayerful as we press on together to grow the gospel in this beautiful region of ours, and beyond.
Love you all deeply,
Chris
"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!
Dev and Heather have been with us for many years, faithfully serving in their roles. Legends! Thanks for all your work amongst us!
Heather is due for some well deserved long service leave this year, so we pray she'll get some good rest and come back recharged and ready to roll for another season
The amazing Meg Graham has just finished MAP (our 3 year Ministry Apprenticeship Program).
She's now heading to bible college (SMBC) for the next 2 years to get better equipped for full time vocational ministry.
We are gonna miss her big time! She has been the most amazing and wonderful servant and an incredible team member!
Once she's completed her theology degree we're hoping to employ her full time in 2027!
Please also pray for Cooper Sweeney as he starts MAP this year!
Cooper will be overseeing our Youth Ministry and helping us run our Sunday gatherings.
And we're thrilled to have Michael Dasey join our team, volunteering 2 days a week to help oversee our Retirees/Seniors ministry.
He brings a wealth of experience and is just an all round top bloke!
Long term, we’re trying to build a staff team that will help us grow to 1000 people on a Sunday.
This will mean training up more of our own people, and employing others trained elsewhere.
Over the last few years we've been advertising for another assistant pastor, but we haven't found someone who's the right fit yet.
Please pray for the Lord to raise up godly and gifted servants, and for the resources to employ them.
A message from Meg
Thank you, CoastEC!!!
Thank you for warmly welcoming a random Wagga ranga import to join your Church family!
Thank you for your care, love, hospitality, generosity, grace, love for Jesus, spurring me on to love the Lord, setting godly examples of living for and like Jesus, and for everything in between.
A hugeeee thank you to Chris and Dev - for everything! Your leadership, investment, encouragement, love, and joy in serving Jesus has been an immense blessing to me.
I am blown away by God's incredible generosity in allowing me to be part of His Church at CoastEC with you all, and I think I'll always be reflecting back on these past 4 years with gratitude!
I look forward to visiting over the next few years, and will be coming along to Coast's Holiday Away in September so I hope to see you there too!
And... God-willing, I'll see you all post-college as I prayerfully look to come back onto the CoastEC staff team.
God Bless you all! Know that you're in my prayers,
Meg
ATEAM!
Our Admin Team look after the Business and Legals that help support the work of the gospel (stuff like legal compliance, policies, insurances, rental agreements, finances)
Thanks Brent Pakalniskis, Tom Brittle and Jill Hull for all the work you've done behind the scenes!
A special shout out to Aunty Carol for the amazing job she's done as our Treasurer!! We really appreciate all your time and effort!!
Lord willing, one day we’ll be in our own facilities that will enable to us to keep growing and housing our ministries.
It's been a long and slow process, but we're making some progress.
We've finally finished tweaking the design.
We're aiming to submit a DA in the next few months.
Once we've got council approval, we'll need a truck load of money to build it.
When we run our capital campaign, we'll be asking you how much you can give so we can work out how much we'll still need to borrow or raise from external sources before we proceed.
In the mean time, if you’re able to start giving monthly to our building fund (even a small amount), this will help us demonstrate our ability to service a loan.
If you’d like to help keep our block of land neat and tidy, speak to Sonya Mobbs about joining our Land Care Team!
MISSION
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19)
"We want every member of CoastEC to love the lost and to partner together to give as many of the 25,000 people living in our region as possible a compelling reason to believe the gospel"
Mission is about growing in our love for the lost and helping them come to know Jesus.
VISITORS
We had a crazy amount of new people visit one of our programs for the 1st time this year - almost 300!
Many of them have never been to church before and are open to exploring the faith.
Praise God for the way He is drawing people to Himself.
Let's keep inviting people along, and being intentional about welcoming them into our fellowship.
EXPLORE
We launched a new weekly small group for those exploring Christianity.
It was a great time of Q&A plus reading through Mark's gospel, as we ate dessert,
The Lord used that to bring Austin McElroy, Megan Johnston and Rhiannon Wilkinson into a relationship with Jesus!
These brothers and sisters had all attended LIFE at the end of 2023 and this was a great next step for them!
Thanks Ally Hawkins for co-leading with me!! Legend!!
Please also pray that many more come along this year and meet Jesus for themselves.
One of the suggestions at Dream and Scheme was to also run this one morning of the week, with child-minding, so young families could attend. I love this idea, and when we have our own building (across the road from the school), I'd like to give this a crack.
BAPTISMS
In 2024, we celebrated the baptisms of James Davison, Ryan Fryer, Megan Johnston, Mitch Loretan, Bec Maher, Austin McElroy, Pippa Nelson-Hauer, Ruben Nichols, Jaylee Teague and Rhiannon Wilkinson
How good is it seeing the Lord grab hold of people, wash them clean and make them His!
MOORE MISSION
We had a team of students from Moore 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
We ran our LIFE series at Club Forster and 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!
CHURCH PLANTING
New churches reach new people!
In 2020 we planted MBC in Taree.
Since then, our network has also started new churches in Coffs Harbour and South Grafton.
Later this year we'll be starting another new church up at Lennox Head / Ballina in partnership with other churches in our network.
Mike Davis will lead the plant. He's currently serving on staff at Lighthouse Church on the Central Coast.
We'll be supporting the new work up there in prayer and finances.
Please pray for God to gather His people up there, and consider moving up there to be part of the action.
FURTHER ABROAD
God's heart is for the nations too!
Petra Flower has been serving on the ship name with OM for the last 2 years. We're looking fwd to seeing her again!
Fi Ip is currently in Thailand with Interserve volunteering as a Physio helping fit out wheelchairs
Ron and Lyn Eastman are currently in Karratha serving with Seafarers mission
Please pray for the Lord to raise up many more to take the gospel to the nations!
Ephesians 2:19 "So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household"
"We want every member of CoastEC to love and care for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ"
Gathering
It's been a joy to see the Lord gather new people from various walks of life to CoastEC across 2024 - He has continued to shine His steadfast faithfulness and grace to us in growing His flock!
As of the end of 2024, we have over 360 people gathering with us on a regular basis - whether they're connected through Kids Church, Salt, Riptide, our Sunday services and/or mid-week Coast Groups. This equates to an overall 15% growth since December 2023!
I praise God for our connect teams who have played an instrumental role in welcoming everyone the Lord draws together on Sunday's and helping new people connect into our family. It's a beautiful gift we have from the Lord to welcome new people as an imitation of Christ's gracious invitation to us into His eternal family!
Our newcomers have been blessed by Pam Kingston, the Lofberg family, Grant & Luisa Sweeney, and the Young Family as they've opened up their homes and hosted Newish meals across the year - a huge thank you to you all for your generous hospitality!
Throughout 2025, we would love you to join us in praying that more people in our region would find joy in worshiping God at CoastEC and that the Lord would equip each of us to help connect new people into our family, all for Christ's glory!
Family
This year we've welcomed Brodie Barker, Robbie Clifton, Alison Clifton, Josiah Flower, David & Alyson Forsyth, Kath Harris, Ben Hendrie, Byron & Stevi Kovacs, Ben & Elana Merrick, Calvin & Monica Payne, Barry & Michelle Ward and Αustin McElroy as formal members of Coast EC! We are grateful to the Lord for drawing more people to partner with us in the gospel to see more souls saved, matured, belong and serve at CoastEC!
We praise God for Laura & Matt, Amanda & Codan, Tazia & Bryn, Jaz & Brayden, and Tash & Rob - who have all welcomed little ones into the world in 2024! We'd love you to be praying for these families, and all the families at CoastEC as they seek to raise their children to know and love their Lord!
As well as new life, we have also mourned the loss of a dearly loved wife, mum, sister and friend - Naomi Dasey. We are so grateful to the Lord for Naomi's precious life on earth and for being part of our Church family at CoastEC. We are also grateful for the confident hope and assurance we have in the Gospel, in knowing that she will never again experience sickness or pain, and look forward to a day coming soon when we will see her resurrected body in the presence of our Saviour. We would love you to join us in continuing to pray for the Lord to wrap His strength, comfort and tender love around Michael, Sam, Hannah and the rest of the Dasey family.
Extended Family
Fi Ip moved to Thailand in October in partnership with Interserve to serve God using use her gifts and abilities in the physiotherapy field. She would love your prayers to grow in her relationship with the Lord, to be a light to Thai people as she seeks to connect with them, and for the Bible's they distribute to people who receive medical help to be used to lead people to everlasting life in Jesus!
Petra Flower, who grew up in Forster and in our faith family at CoastEC, has been serving onboard the Logos Hope Ship for 2 years now! She's grateful to the Lord for His faithful hand at work in the lives of His people all around the globe, and for the opportunities to bear witness to Jesus through dance productions, teaching children, sailing the ship, and various cross-cultural ministries. She would love your prayers to finish well on board the ship, and to trust the Lord to direct her steps for the future as she travels back to Australia (and joins us again at CoastEC... woohoo!)
Care & Community
Over the course of the year, we were able to pass on your generosity towards the Love Bomb Fund to bless people with various bills. We are so thankful to those who have given to our Love Bomb fund, and also those who are generous in caring for those doing it tough in a multitude of other ways too!
Romans 12:13 'Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality'
In April, we celebrated our 15th Birthday at the Paka's farm with the Moore College Mission team in April! A huge thank you to Bec & Brent for hosting us! It was so great to praise God together over food, song and prayer for all He has done amongst His church over the past decade and a half!
We held a couple of 'Sunday Roasts' in May and August - thank you to those who opened their homes up to host meals! It was a joy to hear from some newer people who attended them that eating together was a really helpful way to form friendships and feel a deeper sense of belonging in our Church family.
In September, over 120 of us went on a holiday together, enjoying the unity we have in Jesus! As we grow and have two Sunday services, our annual holiday away is a great way to meet new people, deepen friendships and enjoy some refreshment with the beach as our backyard!
MATURITY
Colossians 1:28 "We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ."
"We want every member of CoastEC to mature in their faith and become more like Jesus"
GROWING COAST GROUPS
In 2024, we saw 22 CGs meet throughout each and every week. We ended the year with 201 people in our groups, which is absolutely AMAZING! Praise God for putting on people's hearts to meet together regularly in the Word and prayer.
As 2025 kicks off, we have already had 5 NEW Coast Groups start in Feb! Plus, with a few more in the pipeline. Thanks to Ben Hendrie, Ally Hawkins, Dave Warner, Byron Kovacs, and Ben Merrick for all kicking off new groups. Please be praying that God continues to growing our people in this way. We truly believe that our CGs are one of the best ways we can love each other and be loved by each other - as we continue to grow bigger as a church-wide community, it becomes more and more important to grow more smaller and deeper communities within Coast.
GROWING LEADERS
Year after year, God blesses our church community with incredibly godly leaders. A big THANK YOU to Pete Flower, Steph Flower, Matt Young, Dave Hayes, Codan Pakalniskis, Robbie Clifton, Dave & Lou Warner, Brent & Bec Pakalniskis, Alan & Felicity Suters, Michael Dasey, Chris & Sharon Ekins, Tazia Humphreys, Aimee Lofberg, Ann Roberts, Bill & Jackie France, Lynne Christie, Ali Brittle, Lachie France, Cooper Sweeney, Jason Little, Tiana Young, Juliette Schubert, Gemma Willmott, and....Meg Graham! Thanks for your prayers, prep, pastoral care, and leading so well.
One of our priorities as a church is training people for ministry. It has been a pleasure and a privilege having Meg Graham complete her Ministry Apprenticeship Program. She had a shout out and a little blurb at the top. So, I just wanted to put a picture of her sleeping during a work meeting (in fact, a Bible Study) - just so everyone knows she does occasionally do something less than par....
GROWING PEOPLE
We are also committed to investing in those who want to push their faith and knowledge of God's Word deeper. Since 2016, we've had many from our community (and some from outside of it) participate in our Gospel Apprenticeship Program. A 2.5 day discipleship microwave! In 2024 we had Steph Flower, Brodie Barker, Stephen Pinkney, and Caylah Hore complete their GAP Year with us. We were also blessed to have Taylah Henderson join us from Manning Bible Church as their very first GAPer. Golden times! The five of them absolutely smashed the year and I'm very thankful for their energies and effort.
One of the big things we pioneered last year was other churches in our FIEC Mid-North Coast 'hub' doing GAP. Not only MBC but Anchor Church (Coffs) and The Point Community Church (Port Mac) had intakes. Once a term we'd combine forces for a day-long intensive. They were sweet moments in GAP history. A big thanks to Jill Hull for giving her time on one of the days to help us navigate the ethics of Assisted Dying. Legend.
In 2025, we have Josiah Flower (our fifth Flower to do it - you could say we've had a bouquet of Flowers participate in GAP now...good one, Dev, good one), Harry Lee, and Alicia Merriman (MBC) all jumping onboard. Plus, another 6 from Anchor & The Point. Please be praying for them all as they grow and prusue Christ this year.
End Times Seminar
In March last year, we had a unique opportunity to prepare our people to spend time in the Book of Revelation. As the Moore Mission time was up for the week, Rev Dr George Athas gave a lecture on the 'end times' and what that means biblically. It was a fantastically helpful evening that was very well attended. We utilised the new MidCoast Library facilities and the night was well worth it as later we dived into the depths of Rev for 6 months.
1 Peter 4:10 "Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God"
"We want every member of CoastEC to serve one another faithfully with their gifts & abilities to the glory of God"
BUILDING TEAMS
By God's grace our people continue to grow in their love for serving one another. It's a key way that we worship God and respond to the generosity that He has shown us in Christ Jesus. Throughout the year our Ministry Teams put in a great deal of elbow grease into making our services happen. Whilst thanking everyone by name as they serve in or Mid-Week or Sunday Ministry Teams would be a sweet thing to do - that's almost 200 people - so...I won't. But if that's you - then THANK YOU for loving those at Coast so practically throughout 2024. We are grateful to God for your use or time, energy, and ability. Thanks for worshipping well.
Although, I did want to give a special shoutout to Jeff Turner, who does an absolutely MASSIVE amount of tech support each and every week. He manages our church intranet (I don't even know what that is but he manages it), admin systems, and database. Plus, is there pretty much every Sunday helping our 4pm Sound Team and he has been sticking around for the second service in order to help the younger crew learn the ropes as we develop or 6pm Sound Team. Weapon.
As we continue to grow, we will need more people and more teams as we serve each other throughout the week and as we gather. If you're keen to do that and aren't in a formal Ministry Team then I'd love to chat with you as we plow through February.
BUILDING LEADERS
However, I'd love to give a shout out to our Ministry Team Leaders for 2024. Tigers, thank you. For setting the vision in your ministries, for good comms, rostering, and training. Thanks for looking after our people so well. To Jodie Hazlewood, Grant Sweeney, Carol Holm, Bryn Humphreys, Marty Lofberg, Dave Fitzhardinge, Anna Davidson, and Meg Graham - thanks for leading our 4PM teams. Likewise, to Meg, Claire Hore, Noah Hazlewood, Liam Pakalniskis, Jason Little, and Cooper Sweeney - thanks for your leadership and time given for our 6PM Min Teams. I'm grateful for all of you.
I also wanted to acknowledge that Aunty Carol Holm has not only been leading our Slide Team at 4pm but has been doing the role of CoastEC Treasurer, as well. That's beyond incredible! To relieve some pressure, she has handed off the Slide Team Leader role to Cooper Sweeney. Thanks Carol for going so hard in two crucial roles!!
KIDS
"We want to make more & better disciples of Jesus, to the glory of God"
SRE
It is an immense blessing to be able to walk into Forster and Tuncurry Public School every Friday morning to teach young hearts and minds about their Saviour and King!
We are so grateful for the joyful and servant hearts of Saima Hayes, Andy Young, Brodie Barker and Caylah Hore who gave up their Friday's in 2024 to share the gospel with kids in K-6!
Some highlights throughout SRE in 2024 that we praise God for are: Jaylee coming to know Jesus after gospel seeds were planted during SRE, kids' curious questions week to week in response to Bible lessons, God's Spirit equipping us to teach His Word and answer big questions, and for the classroom teachers who were sometimes engaged in lessons too!
SRE is not taught in every state in Australia - so we would appreciate your prayers that the door for us to teach in NSW would stay wide open for many more years to come, and would bear great gospel fruit for God's glory.
KIDS CHURCH
One of the things that we hear lots from tourists, visitors, mission teams, and regulars is how good our Kids Church Program is. The quality of content and leadership is absolutely A-Grade! In big part, this is thanks to AJ Blair, who is our Kids Church Coordinator. She brings a wealth of experience, expertise, and energy to this ministry. Thank you!
In 2024, she oversaw our Team Leaders - Sophie France, Tiana Hazlewood, Kaylee Blair - as they led their individual teams. This is a ministry that runs for 52 weeks of the year. Our kid's community continues to grow and grow as more and more families join CoastEC. Depending on the week, they can have close to 70 kids under their care. To all those involved (leaders, helpers, and leaders in training) - Thank you! That includes Floyd and Bennett, who come along to help each and every holiday season. All of you have created a culture where our kids love learning about Jesus - that is a legacy that will last throughout this life and the next!
SALT
Each and every Friday arvo, the Girl Guide's Hall is full of laughter, learning, and kids! Lots of kids! A BIG thank you to the Salt Team - (Juliette Schubert, Gemma Willmott, Steph Flower, Stephen Pinkney, Brodie Barker, and Caylah Hore) - you guys are LEGENDS! Over 2024, SALT continues to grow and is a great chance for those in Years 3-6 to bring their mates along to hear about Jesus. Over the last couple of years, Juliette has grown the ministry and then handed off the leadership of SALT to Steph. Personally, for two of my kids, I know it's one of the highlights of their week. A great thing to look forward to at the end of each week.
In 2025, Steph is leading the Team with Caylah staying on with Josiah Flower and Harry Lee joining as part of their GAP Program. Pumped!
YOUTH
"We want to make more & better disciples of Jesus, to the glory of God"
Our Youth community witnessed the Lord's grace draw young people to Himself and plant seeds in new hearts through the gospel being shared in 2024!
We praise God for the many ways His Spirit has been working amidst our youth ministry - in particular for 4 teen girls at KYCK who responded to the gospel and gave their lives to Jesus, Pippa Nelson-Hauer and Jaylee Teague who were baptised in August, and for the many teens who were excited to invite their friends along to hear and know the gospel too!
We had over 50 teens come along to Riptide for the first time on Friday nights, many of those hearing about Jesus for the first time!
Both KYCK (Katoomba Youth Conference in April) and MCYC (Mid-Coast Youth Conference in July) continue to be golden conferences for our teens to hear the gospel clearly from gifted preachers outside of Forster, and are instrumental in sparking new and deeper friendships amongst our youth community.
A huge thank you to our Youth Team in 2024 for investing in our youth - Tiana Hazlewood, Juliette Schubert, Gemma Willmott, Caylah Hore, Jason Little, Codan Pakalniskis, Liam Pakalniskis, Noah Hazlewood, Lachie France, Cooper Sweeney, Stephen Pinkney and Brodie Barker! They gave up each Friday evening to serve, lead, pray for and love our teens super well!
We're excited to see what the Lord will do amidst our youth in 2025, and would love you to be praying that God would be making more and better disciples of Jesus for His glory alone!
Cooper Sweeney is overseeing our youth ministry in 2025, so we would love you to join us in praying that the Spirit would equip him for this role too!
"We want the women of CoastEC to be Gospel-women - to know it, embrace it, teach it to kids, shape priorities and choices"
In 2024, the women of CoastEC gathered for various events across the year which aimed to deepen our love for Jesus and His Word, and the sisterhood we have in Christ.
We gathered for...
Our annual Women's Weekend Away in Feb - some highlights were learning about how we 'Encounter' God in His Word, enjoying delicious food, beach swims/surfing and lots of laughs during the games night!
A dessert night in April with the Moore College mission team - with a talk on Psalm 46 accompanied by delicious sweets
The Equip conference in June - where we heard teaching from experienced women preachers on Revelation (sweet timing before we camped in the whole Book later in the year!)
Women in the Word in October - where we were blessed by wonderful teaching from Steph Flower & Julie Peacock as we learned about God's grace at work in Rahab and the woman at the well.
Venue options continue to be a challenge for both women's and other ministries - so we want to say a special thank you to the Lofberg's and Felicity & Alan Suters for inviting us into their homes and being generous with hospitality for the Dessert Night/Women in the Word events to run smoothly!
A huge thank you to Aimee Lofberg, Jill Hull, Pam Kingston, Amanda France and Celeste Suters for your time and energy spent organising, praying and caring for the women in our Church family to be Gospel-women!
MEN
"We want the men of CoastEC to be Gospel-men - to know it, embrace it, teach it to kids, shape priorities and choices"
In 2024, the men of CoastEC gathered for various events throughout the year.
Some of them had fishing comps, golf comps, a weekend going bush up at Kylie's Beach, and in July we gathered for woodfired pizza and hearing Al Stewart (FIEC Director) preach.
All in all - it was a cracker year with plenty of opportunities for our men to gather and encourage each other.
YOUNG ADULTS
"We want every young adult of CoastEC to be gospel-minded and grow to be mature disciples"
We praise God for the advancement of His Gospel amongst young adults in our region throughout 2024!
We ended 2023 with 1 young adults Coast group, and ended 2024 with 3 groups + more in the pipeline to be planted in 2025 too!
With splitting into different coast groups, it was extra special to head away all together in July to Tahlee for CoastEC's second young adults weekend away!
We spent time in 2 Corinthians 4-5 learning about God's design for us to 'live on mission' with talks from Josh Hayward (KYCK Speaker and Bible College student in Sydney). We also enjoyed some adventurous team games around the campsite, jumping in the water for a winter swim, and the opportunity to grow closer to the Lord and each other.
On the Sunday morning, it was a joy for us to come together to pray and reflect on the fruit that the Lord has produced amongst the young adults at Coast, in particular through our GAP program which we realised the majority of us have done over the past 9 years!
In 2025, we are excited to head away together again for a weekend to enjoy the fellowship we have through Christ, and be matured in the Word with Bible talks specifically aimed towards young adults.
SENIORS
A big thank you to Deb Laurie (in the first half of 2024!), Yvonne Gunning & Jackie France for their servant hearts in gathering the senior's of CoastEC!
Some highlights in 2024 were regular ladies coffees for deepening friendships and monthly dinners together.
We are super excited for Michael Dasey to come on board the CoastEC staff team 2 days a week in 2025 to oversee and further develop our Senior's ministry. We would love you to join us in praying for God to equip Michael for this work, and that God would grow our seniors in their love for Him and each other, and would give them an urgency for all their days for those in their neighbourhoods who don't yet follow Jesus.
