| Inspire Church | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country | Australia |
| Denomination | Australian Christian Churches |
| Weekly attendance | online |
| Website | inspirechurch |
| History | |
| Founded | 1982 |
| Clergy | |
| Senior pastor(s) | N/A |
 | |
Inspire Church, founded as Liverpool Christian Life Centre, is a Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God in Australia. It is located in Hoxton Park, in the City of Liverpool, in the Greater Western Sydney region, Australia.
The church was founded in 1982, with Pastors John and Carol McMartin as Liverpool Christian Life Centre (one of several Christian Life Centres). [1] [2]
In 2007, the attendance was 4,500 people. [3]
On 31 August 2008 Liverpool Christian Life Centre changed its name to Inspire Church.[ citation needed ] The church was registered as Inspire Church in January 2010. [4]
In 2012, the attendance was 5,000 people, making Inspire Church one of the largest ACC Churches in Australia at the time. [5]
In late 2020, John McMartin stepped aside from his role after being charged with sexual assault. His son, Brendan McMartin, is the pastor of the church's Wagga Wagga campus with his wife Melissa. [6]
The church is located in Hoxton Park, in the City of Liverpool, in the Greater Western Sydney region, Australia. The main building consists of an auditorium which can seat approximately 1,000 people. The senior pastors, chairperson and joint CEOs are Brendan and Melissa McMartin, [7] who were appointed after the NSW Police charged Senior Pastor John McMartin with Assault with an Act of Indecency in November 2020. [8] [9]
It is linked to other churches of the same name in Ingleburn, and Wollongong, [10] and is a member of Australian Christian Churches. [11]
Inspire College, (formerly Sydney Training Institute) is an initiative of Inspire Church, located 40 minutes from Sydney CBD. [12] The aim of the institute is to equip leaders for service in the church through an intern program. [13] [14] The college is registered with VETAB and its courses are nationally accredited. The colleges longstanding principal is Adam Boyse. [15] [16]
On 26 November 2020, police from the Liverpool Area Command of the NSW Police arrested former pastor John McMartin, and charged him with indecent assault. [17] It was alleged that McMartin sexually assaulted a then 19-year old parishioner at his Pleasure Point home in January 2013. McMartin appeared before Liverpool Local Court on 16 December. [18] McMartin faced court again on 27 January 2021 and the case was rescheduled for October 2021. He has pleaded "Not Guilty". [19] In 2014, McMartin had given a deposition [20] and testimony to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse [21] in his role as the NSW State President of the Australian Christian Churches, in relation to the denomination's responses to the paedophilia of ministers. [22]
The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union of Australia united under the Basis of Union. According to the church, it had 243,000 members in 2018. In the 2016 census, about 870,200 Australians identified with the church; in the 2011 census, the figure was 1,065,796. The UCA is Australia's third-largest Christian denomination, behind the Catholic and the Anglican Churches. There are around 2,000 UCA congregations, and 2001 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research indicated that average weekly attendance was about 10 per cent of census figures.
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Mission Australia is a national Christian charity that provides a range of community services throughout Australia. It has its roots in the Brisbane sector of The British and Foreign Bible Society’s sub-committee, The Colporteur Society (1869), and Sydney City Mission (1862), but was only officially established in 1996, bringing together a number of city missions across the country. The organisation specialises in the areas of homelessness and housing, families and children, early learning, youth, employment and skills, substance abuse, disability, mental health, and strengthening communities. Sharon Callister has been CEO since March 2022.
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Hillsong Church, commonly known as Hillsong, is a charismatic Christian megachurch and a Christian association of churches based in Australia. The original church was established in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, as Hills Christian Life Centre by Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbie Houston, in 1983. Hillsong was a member of the Australian Christian Churches – the Australian branch of the US-based Assemblies of God – until 2018, when it separated to form a new denomination. The church is known for its contemporary worship music, with groups such as Hillsong Worship, Hillsong United and Hillsong Young & Free with many musical credits and hits and a series of scandals and criticisms.
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