2022 Annual Report

The best is yet to come

Chairperson's Report

Greetings Church


Your Servant Leadership Team (SLT) has primary responsibility for the governance of your church. We not only support our Senior Pastor and the Ministry Leadership Team in guiding and leading our mission, but also have a duty to the secular wellbeing of our body corporate and the various enterprises we host.

 

Your generosity of giving supports the operation of the Church, and our outreach to the people around us through our Community Services and Beyond initiatives. We also have specific purpose funds, in Lifestreams Community Inc, Lifestreams Community Trust and the Building Fund. In addition, the Legacy Fund feeds a grants programme, which funds worthwhile projects and helps to keep our partnerships active in spreading the gospel.

 

In the interests of renewal, we invited Warren Smith and Stuart Roberts to attend SLT meetings with a view to joining us. They provided
valuable insights but sadly, both were unable to continue. As mentioned by Rod on Vision Sunday, we have since had Ry Beaver and Kelly Haughey attend, and we thank all four for their willingness to serve. Maxine Bown continues to support us and our special thanks go to her.


Here is a flavour of some of the things we dealt with during the year in no particular order, and certainly not an exhaustive list:

  • Kept our Conflicts of Interest Register up to date
  • Updated our Policies and Procedures on a rotating basis
  • Ratified recommendations for roles as Shepherding Elders
  • Scrutinised and approved where appropriate, grants from the Legacy, and other special purpose funds
  • Conducted a risk review
  • Joined the Redress Scheme via the COCWA Participating Group
  • Finalised the legal requirements for bringing Bull Creek into our family
  • Reviewed our position vis-à-vis the new Health & Safety Legislation
  • Signed off on external tenant reviews for entities such as Bethanie, Sonshine, French School of Perth, Alta-1, &  Masters & Co.
  • Conducted a Senior Minister Appraisal
  • Scrutinised and approved the budget for the coming year


We constantly pray that our governance meets the highest standards and is in tune with God’s will. We also thank those of you who pray for us, and we thank our loved ones for releasing us to serve.

 

We seem to have most of our family back in community here on campus on Sundays, and we’re still providing Church Online for those unable to make our services in person. We value your continued partnership both on campus and online.

 

May God bless you all.


Richard Moore

Chairperson

Servant Leadership Team

Senior Minister's Report

G’day Church,

Thanks for taking the time to read this year’s Annual Report. Please make sure that you read about all of the great things that have been happening in our ministry areas and use them as an opportunity to continue to pray and thank God for all that he has done and is doing in our church. I also need to thank God for his continued financial provision as seen in our financial reports. We continue to meet all of our financial commitments and we have been able to bless many other ministry organisations and individuals beyond us with the overflow. Thank you so much for your generosity and for sowing into our mission of helping people find and follow Jesus. It’s been amazing! Praise God we have been able to ride some significant challenges thrown our way over the last 3 years. Special thanks to Phil, Lisa, Flo, Eileen and Joy (at Bull Creek) for all of their hard work in the stewarding of our finances.


I want to take a moment to thank all of our servant hearted volunteers and ministry leaders, Vision Partners, Shepherding Elders, Servant Leaders and staff. You are the heart and soul of Lifestreams church and I consider it an absolute privilege to journey alongside you in our mission. Lea and I often say, “wow we have some incredible people in our churches.” You are all such a blessing and we thank you for playing your part in what we have been called to.


One of the things that I love about our church is that it is alive with the hustle and bustle of people in multiple locations not only on a Sunday but also during the week. We are blessed to share the South Perth Campus with fantastic ministry partners like Bethanie, Masters and Co, Sonshine, Sports Chaplaincy Australia, Alta-1, Lifestreamers Early Learning, The Loop Café, Lifestreams Karawara, Dynamic Church Planting International and Sonlife. However, this past year we were sad to farewell, after a significant journey together, the French School which is now operating and flourishing in Leeming.


I’d now like to highlight a few milestones/achievements and events throughout 2022.

Baptisms

In 2022 we had 12 at South Perth and 3 at Bull Creek. Let’s keep praying for more.

Staff Changes

- Matt Sonsee resigned in February after almost 8 years of service in worship and discipleship

- Tam Jones stepped up and became our Worship Coordinator

- In March Mel Crothers officially became the Team Leader at our Bull Creek location

- Julie Bond resigned in April after 27 years in pastoral care

- Bec Ellery added Belonging and People Care to her portfolio

- Amanda Mills-Ghani appointed as Lifestreams Community Services Program Coordinator

- Daniel Kitlar appointed as Facilities Manager & Tech Co-Ordinator

- Jasmine Fitzgerald appointed as Lifestreams Community Services Indigenous Community Consultant

- I-Yin Lim (previous Manager) re-joined Lifetreamers Early Learning

- Graham Faulkner resigned in December after 25 years of service 


We are so blessed with all of our current staff so when you see them next can you thank them and please continue to pray for them as they serve our church and our wider community. I also want to finish this section by acknowledging Matt, Julie and Graham. It’s always hard to say good bye but I am so thankful for the many years that I have been able to journey with these 3 quality human beings. I pray God’s best for them, their families and their futures.

Covid

We got our first real taste of Covid-19 in March when the borders were finally opened and we were seeing over 10,000 cases per day. We endured some restrictions and mask wearing and many of us contracted the virus and had to go into isolation. This interrupted some of our normal programming but when compared to other parts of the nation we’ve been pretty blessed.

Back to 1 Service on Sundays

In June after many, many years we decided to go back to one service on a Sunday. This proved to be a welcomed change giving our volunteers a lighter load and renewing our sense of togetherness. For me I have loved watching you connect with each other after a service; the atmosphere is fantastic and I’m continually hearing how much people are feeling welcomed when they come to visit our church.

Easter 2022

The Creative Planning Team treated us to a wonderful sensory experience in our Easter services. They encouraged us to engage in the “Stations of the cross:” with many of us being touched and moved as we walked around the foyer and auditorium remembering and reflecting on all that Jesus has done for us.

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Christmas Festival

I believe that the reintroduction of our Christmas Festival in 2022 was very well received by our church and the community. Combining it with the end of year wind-ups for Basketball and Lifestreamers Early Learning proved to be very fruitful with a crowd that far outweighed my expectation. Huge thank you to Tam Jones who did such a great job coordinating the event, to Brian Durand for shouldering a lot of the logistics and to everyone else who served to make it such a great event. 

Strategic Priorities achieved in 2022

Lifestreams BULL CREEK

  • We implemented a local prayer strategy
  • Shepherding Elders were identified and released to care for people in the church
  • A number of people became Vision Partners and were baptised
  • Children’s Ministry 
  • Praise God for the awesome job Mel Crothers is doing with her leaders and team of volunteers

The Launch of B.L.E.S.S

In 2022 we designed, launched and implemented the B.L.E.S.S framework that will develop a culture of relational Christ-centred evangelism across our locations. Do you remember what it stands for? Are you B.L.E.S.Sing the people God has placed around you?

LEAD

We enjoyed a wonderful year with Amy Durand as our very first Lead Intern. Amy mostly served in the worship space (you can read more about this in the worship report) and we have been and continue to be blessed as a church by her worship leading. We also thoroughly enjoyed sitting under four great leaders who inspired us and challenged us in our own leadership journeys. 

2023 Our Future

This year we are hoping to continue to work on the following Strategic Priorities:


  • Completed the review, bedded down and integrated the revamped discipleship framework into our ministry departments and the life of our churches
  • Prayed, investigated and developed a strategy for our next church plant or replant
  • Worked on the next steps for our broader block development and have refurbished our bathrooms and foyer, landscaped out the front and looked at the future implications for the café and Lifestreamers Early Learning.

Church I would like to finish by sharing with you the following Scripture. I hope this challenges you and encourages you as it has done me, as we face 2023.


Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.


I have a sense that this is something that God is super keen for us to continue pursuing. A couple of things that I notice about this text…

  • Devotion to prayer is not an option it’s a command
  • We do this together, it has the sense that we are to do this together
  • Am I being watchful and am I praying about the things that the Spirit places on my heart?
  • Am I being thankful?
  • What does it actually mean to be devoted to prayer? John Piper says, “Being devoted to prayer means that you are not haphazard and forgetful. It means you that you take steps to see that it is a part of your regular life, the same way eating and sleeping are.”


Keep praying and why not make it a priority to come out to one of our prayer nights this year. Praying God’s best for you and your family.


In this together,


Rod Thom

Disciple of Jesus, Husband, Father and Senior Minister 

Young Adults

We felt that 2021 was a stabilizing year for the ministry; we delivered frequent and consistent programming which provided lots of opportunities for young adults to connect. In 2022 we trimmed the offerings, with the goal of aligning to the year’s natural rhythms. The team took advantage of the good weather in the first months of the year and ran the ‘SYG Summer Series’ which was four different events that gathered people at the park or beach for games (and helped to get us all match fit for State Youth Games). State Youth Games and the Christmas party were the large events that anchored the year and we also got involved with things like the Ping-Pong-A-Thon and a clothing swap meet too. The young adult group enjoyed frequent after the service coffee, Sunday night dinners and a few nights around the fire pit. Alongside Sunday services and LEAD nights, we explored the topics: Christian Maturity, Renewal, Abiding in Christ, and Hearing God’s voice at the ‘Worship and Word’ gatherings. Looking ahead to 2023 I’ve been praying that our Young Adults would know “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”, understand this “love that surpasses knowledge” and choose to live in a way that reflects their faith and assured future.

Brian Durand

Minister Generations & Young Adults

Men,
Prayer &
Pastoral Care

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (Colossians 4:2)

This is a command to the community of believers in Colossae and also to us at Lifestreams. I really want to thank you for praying together and I encourage you to keep growing in our times of prayer together.

May you experience more of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in your life as you stay alert and pray with thankfulness.

 

Men

In May we started Real Men, a new men's ministry coordinated by Warren Wild. Some very significant topics (including Prayer, Friendship, Play and Money) were covered in these monthly events, resulting in ongoing growth in many men. Our final night we had Australian and WA cricketer, Jason Behrendorff, come and share his story. His humility and vulnerability made this a special time. Two evenings with the Shalom men and a men's camping weekend on the south coast were other great experiences. A half-day retreat and Soul Care course were very impacting and life changing for men and women.

This year also saw numbers of new men join our church; be connected in, receive ministry and become enthusiastically involved in ministry. It has also been exciting to see a few men converted and baptized this year. The growing connection between men has been a blessing to many. We pray it continues. Thanks so much to you, the men of Lifestreams, for your ongoing ministry to each other. It is often unseen by the masses but much appreciated by others. Meeting together weekly with a few guys, and praying for the men in our church and beyond continues to be a great encouragement.

Due to my other ministry job with Partners in Ministry, I have handed over the leadership of the Men's Ministry for 2023. I will still be involved with men in their journey of faith.

 

Prayer

I thank God that many of you pray, either alone or in groups, for so many different areas of our church and beyond; for people to find and follow Jesus. Prayer is crucial for building up the body and for the conversion and transformation of people and our community.

Times of prayer together include:

  • Early Sunday morning
  • A group praying weekly for our church leadership
  • A group praying weekly for our BEYOND (Local and overseas) ministry and
  • Numbers of Sunday evening prayer times.

We continued the season of Renewal prayer, meeting at various times each week. We seek the face of God and pray for God to renew our church.


Pastoral Care

In March, Julie Bond finished up on staff with our church. Julie had played a huge part in the Pastoral Care Ministry with our church and she has been sadly missed. Bec Ellery has stepped into some of the pastoral ministry and done a fantastic job. You can read more in her Belong Ministry report.

As in past years there have been lots of pressures, illness, grief, fatigue due to covid, mental illness etc in our people’s lives. I am so
thankful for our Shepherding Elders in the prayer and care they provide for people in a very diverse range of challenges. We are very blessed to also have so many of our church step up in caring for each other. Thank you.


Other Ministry

The ministry at Collier Village and Bethanie has continued to be a blessing to the elderly. God is moving through the aged care facilities.

 

The South Perth Ministers Group has continued to grow in unity and encouragement for each other. It is exciting that the churches in South Perth are diverse, yet aligned, in heart and Spirit.

 

May you be encouraged and empowered by the apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4;                    “16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

May God bless you abundantly.

 

David Stanford

Associate Minister


Worship

2022 saw us move into a new season in the Worship team, as we began with quite a significant leadership shift. We said our farewells to Matt Sonsee at the end of January, after nearly 8 years of him serving as our Worship Minister. As a team, we moved into a group leadership structure under the direct leadership of Rod Thom, which included administration and coordination support from myself, Amy Durand, and our existing worship team leaders. Our broader team responded really well and enjoyed the opportunity to have extra time with Rod during various team gatherings.

Throughout the year, the team engaged in rehearsals with a united sense of joy, and an embracing of the part they each play within the overall team. We saw musicians step up to take on more responsibility as Music Directors, vocalists move bravely to the microphones as Co-Vocal Leaders, and young men on our Audio Visuals teams step into roles of Producing for our Church Online services. It was certainly a year of growth when it came to new opportunities and roles.

 

We were blessed to place people in some key leadership roles that helped support the overall team dynamic. Daniel Kitlar came on as our Audio Visual Coordinator, and provided us with his many years of experience working with a large local church in this field. His focus was on improving our Church Online production and ensuring our online congregation felt connected and able to worship, while representing Lifestreams in a quality way. We also saw Amy Durand come on as our first LEAD Intern within the Worship ministry area. Amy’s experience in worship leading, and her heart for more freedom for the body of Christ, gave our team opportunities to grow in free worship and flowing together musically, through trusting the Holy Spirit. Amy updated the process, that was fairly dated, that outlines what new team members can expect, which is a valuable resource. I began as our Worship Coordinator, focusing on the administration and support of our Worship Team. I provided regular communication to the team, planning for rosters and weekly song lists, rehearsal facilitation, intentional team meetings for improving processes and resources and worked at drawing the team together. My passion for seeing next generations step up meant there were some intentional opportunities for our younger team members. 

 

The team enjoyed three all-in nights through 2022 which included; a new song workshop night, free worship night and a team social at the Gault’s house. These evenings were embraced well by the team, with positive comments and requests for more to follow. Another of our highlights would be the Easter weekend; our team spent time soaking in worship and communion on Maundy Thursday during rehearsal, and we contributed to the ambience of a Good Friday walkthrough which our Creative Team planned and executed beautifully. We ended the year with a bang at our Lifestreams Christmas Festival and couldn’t have been happier with the overall outcome. Our carols team worked hard each Sunday afternoon for a month and produced some really accessible, quality versions of well-loved Christmas carols. Our AV team worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the event sounded the best it could, with the help of hired sound crew. We finished the year with a wonderful Christmas Eve service, celebrating the birth of Jesus together.

 

2022 showed us that we are a united team, with a passion to serve our church to worship Jesus. As we move into the New Year, we look forward to further growth in number, skill and heart, and we choose to trust that the best is yet to come for us as a team and a congregation of worshippers.


Tam Jones

Worship Coordinator


Youth

If we cast our minds back to the start of 2022, we kicked off the year full of excitement for what is ahead! Term 1 brought new fun and memories, such as a night at the South Perth Foreshore, guy/girl splits and a particular Easter focus – bringing the Easter story to life through some acting from some of our Youth Leaders. In Term 2 we had our first ever real life Mario Kart night, with a race track around the car park and Wii competition inside. It was lots of fun and as far as I recall no injuries! Bonfire Night is always a hit, heading back to the Ballantine’s property, for a huge fire, sausage sizzle, some acoustic worship and a testimony from Sammy, who came to know Jesus in the year since coming along to Youth for the first time on Bonfire Night the previous year. We ended Term 2 with an overnighter at the church, followed by a day hike at Bells Rapids. This was a special time to be together, connecting and making memories. Term 3 brought with it a combined Youth event hosted by Bible Society ‘Youth Q’, joining with other youth groups at Mount Pleasant Baptist, our Ping-Pong-A-Thon, headed up by Adley and raising money to fight human trafficking, as well as our annual Amazing Race (likely one of the highlights of the year)! You can ask any youth for a funny memory of an Amazing Race and I am sure you’ll get a different story from each of them! We unpacked the Sermon on the Mount in Terms 1, 2 and 3 taking the time to unpack Jesus’ teaching through a message and in our small groups. Term 4, we handed over the ropes to our small groups – who  worked together to host and share a devotion for each of our Rise Nights, it was awesome to see so many of our youth step up and share something God put on their hearts. We had lots of fun to wrap up the year in Term 4, with a Quiz Night, Progressive Dinner, In the Pines Night and of course, Old School Youth, with veterans Brett, Rod and Dave coming back to make it a great night of throwbacks to youth group when there was less risk management.

 

One of the big highlights of the year is our annual Rise Youth Summer Camp – so we headed to the beach in Binningup! We had lots of fun, including beach games, a Colour Run, and night time games such as the glow stick game and foxholes. We had spaces of worship, devotions and messages on the topic ‘Under Construction’ – building a firm foundation on Jesus, and focused on building and going deeper in our relationship with Jesus throughout the weekend. We had a number of young people want to take next steps in their faith journey, and as leaders, we were able to reflect that if what we do as Youth Leaders helps even one person to go deeper in their relationship with Jesus, it is worth it!

 

Each week we put on a program that we hope points people towards Jesus, builds relationships and hopefully have a lot of fun in the process! We put this program on because we know the most important decision a young person will ever make, is the decision to follow Jesus – and we know that could change the trajectory of someone’s whole life if they make that decision in High School. This is not easy with competing distractions and the enticement of the world, but we do our best to be adding some value in the 2.5 hours we get each week. Maybe we might get to invest a little bit more outside the program too. We don’t see youth ministry as a program, we see it as discipleship. So please pray for us as we continue to invest in your kids. It isn’t easy but we love them and want them to know our Heavenly Father.

 

Overall we had a great year, memories were made, relationships built, we had young people being discipled and some even baptized. We had new people join us and those who had been with us for a long time, graduated. Our leaders served with passion, intention and love. What a privilege it is to be a part of youth ministry and what God is doing in this church. We can’t wait to see what God does in 2023!

LEAD

After a long time of praying, discerning and planning how we can equip people in our church to lead like Jesus, we launched our LEAD pathway in 2022. LEAD has two streams, LEAD Community and LEAD Internships.

 

LEAD Community offers leadership development opportunities for those leading in Lifestreams ministries and in the marketplace, equipping you for leadership as you go and encouraging you to live out His calling in your current sphere. LEAD Nights fall under this, and are opportunities for our leadership community to come together for encouragement, inspiration and leadership development. We heard from different guest speakers, including Daniel Indradjaja, Tim Healy, Mark Conner and Tania Watson, who shared unique understandings and experiences in leadership. If you missed out, these are available to watch on YouTube. We also have a LEAD resourcing email that goes out monthly, providing encouragement and resources such as books, blogs, podcasts and more to equip you in your leadership.

 

Our LEAD Internships offer an intentional yearlong program designed for those looking to grow as a disciple of Jesus. There is a specific focus on helping learn what it means to lead like Jesus through teaching, discipling, equipping and practical ministry involvement. LEAD Internships is an integral part of the LEAD Community. Our first LEAD Intern was Amy Durand, who spent her ministry time focusing on the worship space. This was a great pilot year, seeing what worked and what could be improved to live into our value of learning to lead like Jesus.

Overall it was an encouraging year, and we look forward to all that 2023 brings.

 

Grace Cook

Youth Minister


Beyond (Local)

Our Community Ministry area expanded significantly in 2022. I appreciate all the amazing work carried out by the great team of staff, consultants, counsellors and volunteers. 

 

B.L.E.S.S: In Term 4 we ran a five week preaching series to inspire and encourage people to ‘BLESS’ those in their community. I received positive feedback and people enjoyed all the testimonies that were shared. We also ran a Bless Night where 50 plus people attended to eat together and hear Bronwyn Bidoli and Daniel Faulkner share stories about how they put the BLESS principles into practice.

 

Bless Gathering and Bless Prayer: The Grace Gathering was renamed the Bless Gathering and continued as a weekly low-sensory, simple gathering for people within the community, including those struggling with dementia and mental health issues. The Bless Prayer time was a wonderful space to pray for all the activities occurring in our community.

 

Beyond Local Partners (Community Mission): We continued to partner with Indigenous Ministries Australia (IMA), YouthCare Chaplaincy and Eagles City Mission. I attended Eagles City Mission on Sunday evenings and preached once a month. I also helped with a bible study for the street community in Term 4. 


Community Groups: Mum Club was led by Kendall Stanford and Alicia Vandepeer along with a great team of volunteers. The group saw new mothers from the community attend. June Angus and Jan Barnard continued to do a fabulous job leading our Craft Group, with Jan also leading Open House on Thursdays.

 

Prayer Ministry: In 2022 we developed a prayer ministry team that completed online training with Dr Rob Reimer. They regularly provided prayer ministry for people, especially those linked to the Soul Care course and conference.

Lifestreams Community Services

Emergency Relief: Warren Smith moved to Mandurah and Linda Hall went back to the Philippines which left a gap in our emergency relief support offering. They both did an excellent job in running the care appointments as volunteers. Amanda Mills-Ghani joined the team as the new LCS Program Coordinator in August. She has done a great job expanding the emergency relief area and helping with the organisational logistics of LCS. In 2022 we had 100 care appointments, issued 70 food hampers (in the second half of the year) and 231 food vouchers.  Amanda, in partnership with Bec Ellery and Kids Church organised and distributed 111 Christmas Hampers. 

 

Mental Health Care: The mental health area expanded with two more counsellors, Conrad Classen and Amy Durand joining LCS as counselling service providers. Raelene Newall continued to work as the Mental Health Consultant as well as providing counselling. We supported 135 counselling sessions throughout 2022. Raelene ran Thrive (an anxiety recovery course) and developed and facilitated a new course, Resiliency Plus, that was open to people within the community to attend. We also developed Psychology Grants, working with Masters & Co in the second half of the year to establish them as the Psychology service provider.

 

Community Belonging: The Community Lunch attracted between 25 and 40 people each week. Our Loop Café provided fantastic food, with approximately half the people who attended being from the community and the other half from the Bless Gathering.  International Friends changed format and leaders in 2022. The group is now led by Anu and Jonathan Benjamin who are originally from India. They did a wonderful job facilitating the groups on Sundays at 11.45pm. We had people share various food and stories from countries like India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Zambia and South Africa. The group was regularly attended by 30 to 40 people, plus children.


Indigenous Care: Jasmine Fitzgerald joined as the new Indigenous Community Consultant in Term 4 of 2022. Jasmine has extensive experience working in community and in education. We are currently researching and exploring the possibility for a variety of indigenous programs for our local area for 2023.

 

Moving Forward: Ground Breakers continued to run at Curtin Primary School. Jess Thompson, Program Coordinator, did a fantastic job overseeing the program on Wednesdays which had nine mentors and children at risk. Emily Dickinson was contracted with LCS as a service provider for life coaching (Moving Forward Coach). Emily is available for clients who have a drive to focus on their future and achieve personal goals, with an aim to help clients who want to move off welfare. 

 

Liz Roberts

Community Minister


Lifestreamers Early Learning

What a great year we had in 2022! It was a year of growth and development in the life of our centre. We started with a name change to better reflect the service we provide to our families. We became Lifestreamers Early Learning and affectionately called ourselves LEL.

After initially coming on board for a short contract, I found myself in a permanent role when Laura Price decided to resign from her position of Manager. While this was not the original plan and we were sorry to see Laura leave our team, it created opportunity to reassess the direction we were taking and start implementing some new ideas the team suggested. The major change we made in 2022 was the expansion over to the Seminar Rooms to create a fourth group. This allowed us to reduce the age range in all groups which made a huge difference to the opportunities we were able to provide, especially for those preparing to go to school.

 

Our team

We lost Allira, Olga and Polly throughout the year as they moved into new opportunities. They all left holes to fill and we were blessed to welcome some quality educators to fill these gaps. We signed up our first trainee, Millie, in March and then a second one, Rachel, at the end of the year. We also welcomed Bek, Heather and Hannah across the year. Our team has now grown to 14 educators who bring many different skills and interests to the mix. We are excited to be implementing new experiences across our program in 2023.

We were also excited to see the return of I-Yin in November. She has also previously been a manager here at Lifestreamers and will be responsible for supporting the programs and implementing our Quality Improvement Plan, as we continue to strive for a high quality service for our children and families.

 

Chaplaincy

This has been such a positive addition to Lifestreamers. Tam has had the opportunity to connect with both families and the team over the year and to provide additional support to those who are struggling. Some highlights include praying with families, delivering meals as needed, discussions on parenting concerns, working with the team to develop conflict resolution skills and supporting our educators through times of stress and loss.

 

Our team are always keen to try new things and love to be involved in all they plan. 


Thank you to all who have supported us over the past year.


Jen Hamilton

Manager


Church Planting

In our Dynamic Church Planting International training, we often recite a saying: ‘If you are in Church Planting, you are in trouble’. Often our Lifestreams church planters and teams need deep encouragement and strengthening which has been provided through regular prayer meetings, 1-1 ministry and resourcing the financial and spiritual needs of our plants. Our leaders often say this is the hardest thing we have done but also the best. We praise God that we have seen many new disciples this year through our church planting efforts for Christ.


2022 NEW PLANTS

Lifestreams Karawara planted an outreach into an aged care home in Como which is now called Como House. Daron and his team have been ministering the gospel to residents and are serving communion and exercising the ministry of last rites to those who are close to death. This is a special ministry that has seen 25 people commit to coming to Como House.

Care Christian Fellowship (CCF) recently started an outreach to a new section in Swancare which is now named CCF Ningana. We saw 20 residents and staff come to the first meeting. 


OUR FAMILY OF AUSTRALIAN CHURCHES

Since 2012 we, together with our teams, have impacted the planting of 11 churches: 1 has closed while 2 churches have moved to be independent of Lifestreams.

Currently, we have 9 Perth-based churches and outreaches that are part of our Lifestreams family:

  • Lifestreams South Perth – Our beloved Mother Church to all plants.
  • Lifestreams Bull Creek – officially launched on 7th November 2021, the church continues to grow in every dimension under the leadership of Mel Crothers.
  • Lifestreams Karawara – turned 10 years old on 11th November 2022. The Church has just employed an Associate Pastor, Vandana Thavare.
  • Lifestreams Bentley (Curtin University) – Our Team Leader, Brian Durand, continues to minister to many students and staff on campus at Curtin University. We are hopeful that our Curtin International Friends ministry will restart and that we will have greater impact in reaching M’s and People of Peace so as to relaunch the church and birth micro-churches.
  • Lifestreams Stirling (DRC Congolese community of Perth) – continues to grow in every dimension bringing their beautiful harmonies and worship. We are pleased as to their Australian compliance and good governance practices.
  • Care Christian Fellowship (Swancare) – Our Team Leader, Ron Manning, continues to have a heart to reach the residents of Swancare. It is an amazing witness to about 100 residents.
  • Hope Avenue Church – Planted in January 2021. Our Team Leaders, Karen and Scot Dixon, have seen a couple of baptisms which have helped to establish the church.
  • Como House and CCF Ningana outreaches as cited above.


PLANS FOR 2023

  • One of our leaders has a vision for a local plant in East Victoria Park. We are working through the relationship and determining our involvement with Lifestreams South Perth.
  • The relaunch of the vision and development of the Lifestreams Global Family (LGF) network across 7 nations and 446+ churches.
  • An articulated vision for LGF Australia
  • Nurturing and solidifying all of our church plants, especially the new outreaches listed above
  • To employ a Pastor to Seniors to minister across CCF churches and Como House.


Daron Crothers

Church Planting Director


Children's Ministry

2022 was a year of great anticipation as we looked to navigating life through Covid, staff and volunteer changes throughout the year. I am, again, immensely grateful for our dedicated team of over 40 leaders who continue to facilitate the spiritual growth of our young people. I would like to extend my thanks to these selfless volunteers who take the time to prepare engaging programs, run games, lead worship, engage in crafting activities and help our families in the discipleship of our children. This year, we have seen the arrival of a number of new leaders and we bid farewell to those moving into new seasons, including Alex Mora and Keith Quyn who have made a significant impact in the lives of our families over their many years of service.


In 2022, our Children's Ministry was pleased to see an average attendance of a bit over 30 children per week, we welcomed new families, observed children bringing their friends to church, witnessed baptisms, baby dedications, and decisions to follow Jesus. In the weekly running of ministry we took a break from Hillsong curriculum and utilized The Story program, with a yearlong Genesis to Revelation “story book” style exploration of the Bible.


The children participated in Family Services, Beyond Sundays, outreach projects, a special Easter walk-through, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and explored BLESS Our Community alongside the church. They assisted in the preparation of over 100 Christmas Hampers in partnership with Lifestreams Community Services as our practical BLESS project, held our first “Bring a Friend” Sunday, enjoyed singing and dancing in our Christmas Festival and finished the year off with a special Christmas Eve Family Service among other initiatives.


Definite highlights were our Easter gifts foster care workers project, our BLESS Christmas Hamper project, Easter and Christmas services and Christmas Festival. It was also particularly great to see our long serving Children’s Ministry leaders investing in our young volunteers. Behind the scenes, we identified the importance of supporting families in the discipleship of their children and saw a need to connect church families together in easy, informal spaces outside of a Sunday. This sparked the introduction of Parents WhatsApp groups and continued use of social media to encourage families throughout the week.


TREK

Lynette Dewing and her wonderful team continued to run TREK youth group on Friday nights during school terms for children in years 5 and 6. The children usually come with lots of energy and the leaders did a great job of engaging them with games, activities and Bible teaching each week. 

Belong Ministry

It is with great sadness that we said farewell to Julie Bond in the area of Pastoral Care in early 2022. The amount of years, hours, energy and heart that Julie invested in the people of Lifestreams South Perth does not go unnoticed. She has left an incredible legacy and it has been an absolute privilege to pick up pieces that she worked on and “dip my toe into” the area of care this year.

I started in the middle of 2022 working alongside David Stanford in the area of “Belong Ministry,” looking particularly at the areas of Practical Care, Pastoral Care and Welcome. We have a heart to see our church connected and actively caring for one another. It has been a pleasure being on the People Care team, getting to know people on the Shepherding Elders team, Welcome team and working with Kirsty Faulkner and others to launch the Welcome Lounge for new people at church in 2023. We are working on our “Next Steps” processes, the processes of care in our church, the welcoming atmosphere and overall sense of belonging in our community.

We continue to be in awe of God's transformative power in the lives of our children, families, community, and leaders and eagerly anticipate more of what He has in store for us in 2023.


Rebecca Ellery

Children’s & Belong Minister


Sports Ministry

We had 20 teams and approximately 160 children participating in the junior basketball competition over the course of 2022; ranging from Under 9’s right through to Under 17’s. Whilst there are some families from our church community, the majority are from the wider community. It was great to see 1 girls team in Under 9’s and 3 girls teams in Under 15’s. We also had 2 adults teams playing in the senior Saturday competition. Deb Barnes has done an amazing job stepping in to coordinate the basketball ministry while Ashlyn Woods has been on maternity leave.

Bull Creek

With 4 months under our belt, 2022 was a year of continued re-establishment and revitalisation at Bull Creek. It has been a joy to see a growing unity and true sense of identity as Lifestreams Bull Creek.


After a bumpy start navigating some Covid outbreaks we settled into a great year with a number of new families and individuals coming along and quickly being welcomed into the life of the church. Many are now serving in areas such as the growing worship teams, children’s ministry, hospitality and grounds maintenance. We also welcomed several new Vision Partners.


Our Playgroup continued to host pre-school aged children and their parents or caregivers with a variety of different activities and experiences. Our monthly Messy Church saw an increase in numbers, with families coming together to celebrate their faith and worship in a non-traditional way. Activities included wonderfully creative crafts, music, games and bible stories. We were also able to put into practice the BLESS principles as we ate together and shared our stories.


Our Sunday worship gatherings have continued to grow and the establishment of a majority Bull Creek preaching team has enhanced our sense of identity as a church. Some highlights were the Easter weekend Stations of the Cross walk-through experience with Communion banquet table and the BLESS Series. We also celebrated 3 baptisms.


In June we set apart our first Shepherding Elders who have been doing an exceptional job of caring for and walking along side many in the church during times of struggle and celebration.


As we seek to help people find Jesus we established an outreach group named ‘Discovering Willetton/Bull Creek’. This group is committed to weekly prayer walks in the surrounding areas and seeking the Lord for His purposes and strategies to reach out to the community.


One of the great ways we were able to bless the community this year was through providing a special morning tea to the teachers and staff at Bull Creek Primary School. This was very well received and has resulted in an open door to further ministry in the school. We also join the combined churches Carols in the Park event in December.


2022 also saw continued physical rejuvenation of the facilities, with a space created for the teenagers, a welcoming and inviting foyer and some much-needed AV and instrument upgrades.


In conclusion, I would like to acknowledge everyone who served and sacrificed throughout the year. In particular, I’d like to highlight the efforts of Daron Crothers, Rod Thom and Victoria Bell. As partners in leadership, they have been a great support to me and brought much wisdom and passion. Thank you. 2022 was filled with moments of joy and celebration, as well as moments of growth and challenge. We look forward to what 2023 has to bring!


Mel Crothers

Team Leader

Beyond

2022 has seen more open doors and open opportunities for mission for the Beyond Family, thanks to the continued generosity of the church family.


After raising $214,531 in 2021 through the Beyond Fund, we raised $214,435 in 2022 through the pledges and gifts to the Beyond Fund. Praise God that through all the financial instability of Covid, economic challenges, rising interest rates and a host of other pressures, the generosity continues to flow to our Beyond family from Lifestreams.


One of the major highlights was the send of the Eow family to work overseas with OMF International. We prayed with them for over a year to raise the support they needed, while being able to contribute a significant percentage of their needs to help start their journey (and commit annually to their support). We also were able to increase support for the salaried position for LCC Sports Ministry, as well as the Indigenous Ministries Australia (IMA) scholarship program and the work at Curtin University.


At our campuses throughout the year, we welcomed various partners to share (in person or via video). Those who shared included Jason James from Cosmos Alliance, Bishop Kamau from Kenya, Ross Nancarrow from International Mission Ministries and Every Daughter Matters, and Jason and Cindy Eow in advance of their ministry with OMF. We also heard from Sports Ministry, Linda Hall, Sally Lee, Paul Jessop (OMF), Bible Society Australia and YouthCare chaplaincy.


There were also monthly prayer gatherings with the Beyond team, Lifestreams Global Family Summits with our various church planters around the world and Beyond Prayer nights throughout the year. Luke Tassell and David Stanford led many of these over zoom and invited overseas people to join and submit themselves to prayer.


As a committee, we met 6 times throughout the year to pray, discern and report on pastoral care of our Beyond Partners. We pray and long for more committee members and a passion and thirst for mission from young generations and hope for the possibility of traveling to see our mission partners at some point in 2023.


As 2022 came to a close, we dreamed and planned for a re-birth of Lifesteams Global Family, with foundational support from the Beyond Team for church planting around the world.


Beyond continues to be a ministry where generosity flows from our people, to our city, throughout our nation and beyond, to the ends of the earth (led by the foundation verse in Acts 1:8 where Jesus told his followers “Here’s the knowledge you need: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses, first here in Jerusalem, then beyond to Judea and Samaria, and finally to the farthest places on earth.”

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