City Edge Church – Melbourne Australia

Often people want to know what a church believes, what they can expect when they first visit and some history before they are ready to take the next step and come along in person.

We hope that the below information gives you an idea from the comfort of your web browser before you decide to come along in person and find out more first hand.

 

What can I expect when I first visit and what are some of the things you value?

We welcome visitors and will not embarrass them in anyway by asking them do anything that could potentially be awkward or uncomfortable.  We want visitors feel welcomed but not smothered.

We dress informally but more importantly whatever a person feels comfortable wearing. For some this may actually mean a suit and tie, but for others it maybe jeans and a tee shirt.  Our attitude is that God has created us all uniquely and what we wear and how we look come together to make up that uniqueness. We love how different God has created each of us and celebrate this diversity.

We sing songs to God rather than trying to perform for an audience. Our musical style is contemporary yet not over the top loud. God inhabits the praises of his people and we believe that we all need to be able to hear ourselves and others singing to God and it is in this attitude of common worship that God is honoured and we are drawn closer in our experience of him.

We preach and teach from the Bible as this is the most relevant form of teaching there can be for believers and those who are looking into the Christian faith. The Bible is as relevant for our lives today as it was when it was written to its first hearers. Motivational speeches are not what we are on about, but when the Bible is preached under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit it is hard not to be motivated to live for and love God more and to love and care for our neighbors, whoever and wherever they may be.

We have been created for fellowship with God and one another and this takes place throughout the whole week whether informally over coffee or dinners as relationships grow and develop or during the times that we have arranged together as a church. Our Sunday mornings are simply one expression of this fellowship and we want our Sunday gatherings to have a feel of unhurried time together. We start at 10:30am but you are more than welcome to come along around 9:30am for coffee and our prayer together at 9:45am, or simply sit and listen to the musos practice together before we get started.

We make much of Jesus because as he said when he is raised up, he will draw all men to himself. We aim to be a place you can bring those who don’t know him and allow them the time and space to hear about Jesus and come to know him as the saviour of the world. We want those who don’t know him to come along as many times as they like and to ask as many questions they have so that if they do decide to commit their lives to him that this is a decision that has not been forced in anyway and has been made with intelligence and faith.

The whole of life is to be one of worship to God and that we worship Jesus through our fellowship together, through hearing and responding to God’s word, by loving our nation, our city, our families, our neighbours, our work, our holidays, our friends, and our appreciation of God’s wonderful creation, as John Piper has said, “God is most glorified in us – when we are most satisfied in him.”

 

What are your core beliefs or do you have a statement of faith?

As a church we humbly seek to understand and live by God’s word and while it is impossible to sum up the whole counsel of God in a few brief passages on a web site, we realise that people do want and need to know about core beliefs as this will determine whether they would like to visit or possibly commit to being part of the church.

We hope the information below will help in answering some of these questions.

We are protestant in our heritage in that we believe a person is justified by God purely and simply through faith in Jesus Christ alone, being saved by God’s sheer mercy and grace for his good pleasure and his glory. This is in contrast to believing that through our own efforts or perceived goodness we can somehow “earn” God’s favour, mercy or grace.

This understanding of justification by faith became the central tenet of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century in Europe and as one of the reformers has said “it is the hinge on which all true religion turns”. When we move away from this knowledge we move away from a grace filled expression of genuine community to one that becomes moralistic, controlling and legalistic.

We believe that God is one, manifested as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore we believe in the complete divinity and complete humanity of Jesus i.e. he was not half man half God but fully man and fully God. We believe that the Holy Spirit is personal in the same way as Jesus is and is the Father.

We believe that heaven and hell are real and equally eternal and that God is both just and the justifier, which means he will judge people by his holy standards and will justify people by his loving grace.

We believe that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and all those who God has called and believed will be with him in his eternal kingdom.

We believe that all the gifts of the Holy spirit, the infilling of the Holy spirit and the ascension gifts from Ephesians 4 have not ceased with the completion of the New Testament but continue on as Jesus builds his church and God’s kingdom is advanced.

 

How and when did City Edge Church get started?

Saturday January 5, 2007 was the day my wife Rhonda and I first heard God’s call to start what was soon to become City Edge Church.

We had been discussing the previous night about the possibility of starting a new church within a 15km radius of Melbourne’s CBD, having felt for a month or two that God was moving us in this new direction. After looking at a local Melbourne map that night there was no area that we felt any real connection with - having been born and bred in Melbourne we knew the surrounding areas quite well.

The following day we needed to collect some resource material from a Christian bookshop in Blackburn which was about 30mins from where we were living at the time and as we were traveling back along Blackburn Road we decided to travel toward the City along the Burwood Highway. As soon as we had made the turn, I felt God say in my spirit “what about this place”?

I mentioned this to Rhonda and we both felt an immediate confirmation that this was to be the place and driving toward the City, the feelings only strengthened as we discussed what God had just said and the area which we were driving through.

Going a little further down Burwood Highway, we passed Deakin University on the right and both of us started to talk and dream about the possibility of starting a church that could meet at the University.

During this time we were still part of the pastoral team at Life to the Nations Christian Fellowship in Endeavour Hills (our sending church) and this meant that both of us wanted to pass this word by the team for their input. The team sensed that this was of God, but felt we needed further confirmation and suggested that we start a homegroup in the area and see what God would do. So, in May of 2007 we began a homegroup in Blackburn North with a great group of people from the area.

In August of that year, having wanted to prepare ourselves as best we could for church planting and to get final confirmation before setting out, we completed the 4 week full time church planting course in Adelaide that was led by Leon & Pat Van Daele from the NCMI Apostolic Team.

Coming back from this course further strengthened our understanding of what would be required and gave us the final confirmation needed to establish the new church.

With the blessing of the pastoral team we then announced it to our homegroup in Blackburn North and asked if they felt God calling them to be a part of pioneering this new church with us. We were very glad and a little relieved that every person in the group was good to go.

Just over one year had passed and City Edge Church began at Deakin University on Sunday March 9, 2008 – the call and the dream had become a reality to the Glory of God.

We hope this information is of use and if you have further questions then please call 0449254249

Hope to see you soon.

Tony Hodge
Pastor
City Edge Church