CityLife Church
CityLife Church is a multi-site, Pentecostal Megachurch located in Melbourne, Australia, with weekly services at their campus locations in the localities of Knox, Casey, Manningham and Whittlesea and on their Online Campus. Weekly services are also held in Mandarin and Cantonese at the Knox site. CityLife is the largest church in Melbourne and second-largest in Australia.[1] It has a strong emphasis on gathering in small groups called life groups. Its leadership team is headed by Senior Minister, Andrew Chisholm.
| CityLife Church | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Wantirna South, Victoria (Knox - main campus) |
| Country | Australia |
| Denomination | Pentecostal |
| Website | citylife |
| History | |
| Former name(s) | Waverley Mission, Waverley Christian Fellowship |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Founder(s) | Richard J Holland |
| Clergy | |
| Senior pastor(s) | Andrew Chisholm |
| Pastor(s) | Paul Molyneux (Knox Campus) James Thompson Godwin Shim Sam Grimshaw Brisita Rojas Ryan (Language Congregations) |
History
The church was established as Waverley Mission in 1967 by Richard Holland. In 1981, the church name was changed to Waverley Christian Fellowship and the following year, Parkmore Full Gospel Church and its Christian school (now Waverley Christian College) merged with it. In 1986, Kevin Conner became Senior Minister of the church (then about 600 members). Then in 1995, Mark Conner, Kevin's son, was appointed Senior Minister, and during his time as Senior Minister, the Church grew to over 10,000 congregants. In February 2017, Mark Conner handed over the senior minister role to Andrew Hill.[2] In April 2019, Andrew Hill resigned as Senior Minister and Andrew Chisholm now serves as Senior Minister.
In April 2006, CityLife Church Casey was established, followed in March 2008 by CityLife Church Manningham. On 18 November 2013, Open House Christian Fellowship in Whittlesea joined with CityLife to become CityLife Church Whittlesea.
Today, CityLife is a multisite strong church. CityLife plays host to over 6 services across Melbourne at Knox, Casey, Manningham and Whittlesea.
Ministries
CityLife has a children's church program (CityLife Kids), a youth ministry every Friday, (EPIC Youth), and a Young Adults ministry.
CityLife Church also runs CityLife Community Care which provides a range of community services including counselling services, health-related services, emergency accommodation and other courses and support programs.[3]
The church runs Waverley Christian College, a Christian school with over 1700 students at campuses in Wantirna South and Narre Warren South.[4]
Controversy
In 2015, CityLife apologised for distributing leaflets to students at a local public high school. Images of the leaflets obtained by The Daily Mail contained assertions as "If a woman becomes physically close and hugs a guy for 20 seconds it will trigger the bonding process, creating a desire to be near him" and "the more partners you have, [sic] the harder it is to bond to the next".[5]
In 2018, it was reported that CityLife-operated counseling centres had facilitated gay conversion therapists.[6]
References
- The Hallelujah chorus The Age, 24 December 2004
- CityLife Church History
- CityLife Community Care
- Waverley Christian College website
- "Melbourne church CityLife apologises for warning students not to hug". TheGuardian.com. 3 July 2015.
- "'I am profoundly unsettled': Inside the hidden world of gay conversion therapy". 9 March 2018.