C3 Church Global
| C3 Church Global | |
|---|---|
| C3 Church Global | |
| File:Christian City Churches logo.png | |
| Location | International |
| Denomination | C3 Church Pentecostalism, Evangelical, Charismatic |
| Website | c3churchglobal.com |
| History | |
| Founded | Easter 1980 |
| Founder(s) | Phil Pringle & Christine Pringle |
| Associated people | 185,000 |
C3 Church Global, formerly known as Christian City Church International (C3i), is a Charismatic church movement founded by Pastors Phil Pringle and Christine Pringle. The first church was established at Dee Why on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia, and is now located in Oxford Falls. The movement changed its name to "C3 Church" in September 2008.[1] [2]
As of 2011 there are over 230 churches situated throughout Australia, New Zealand, North America, South America, Africa, Asia and the European community. Phil Pringle is the founder and President of C3 Church Global, and the Senior Minister of the movement's largest congregation, C3 Church Oxford Falls, Sydney, Australia.
C3 Church Global holds an international conference every few years, gathering pastors from C3 Churches worldwide. Other events include conferences for the European, Asian, North American, African and Australasian arms of the movement.[3]
History of the C3 Church Movement
Phil and Christine Pringle arrived in Sydney, from New Zealand, in 1980 to begin a pentecostal church.[4] Christian Centre, Northside, as it was originally known, began with 12 people on the Northern beaches of Sydney.
Structure
C3 Church Global is governed by an International Executive whose members are pastors of local churches. Each member oversees the leaders of various churches, and/or other overseers. However, C3 Church Global does not have a centralized structure. Local churches are governed by a local board (or executive). Reflecting C3 Church Global's leadership philosophy, churches are "led by call and vision rather than democratic principles", and decisions are not made by congregational voting but by the ministry team.[5]
Growth of the C3 Church Movement
The National Church Life Survey (NCLS) - the nationwide 'census' of Australian church attendance, for the year 2004 found Christian City Churches contradicting an overall downward trend (to the effect of 7%) in church attendance across Australia, finding the C3 Churches grew on average by 42% to a total membership of 11,400 (within Australia).
In 2002 in the tri-annual Worldwide Conference held that year in Singapore, C3 Church revealed its plans to have over 1000 churches worldwide with an average attendance of 500 people throughout the movement, setting this goal to be attained by the year 2020, this goal being given the title the "2020 Vision".[6] The average attendance is 270 people per week, this is in stark comparison to the worldwide average church attendance of all churches which at last report was 35.[citation needed]
Each church is encouraged to grow through the strengths of its people, but also to the culture of the location in which the congregation is situated. As an example, inner city Sydney C3 Church Balmain is using musicians to hold monthly creative "Event Services" in the local community. These have included "Xmas in July" with Hi 5's Nathan Foley performing carols, with a full band and two snow machines in a 1 hour service.
Another plan is to have all C3 Churches use the same identification to make it easy to identify a C3 Church, because many Australian churches are named 'something' City Church. This was in part a reason for the change of name.
Music
Worship is an important part of the life of Christian City Church and new songs have sprung up out of the experiences and life of the church. Music from C3 Church Oxford Falls is published under C3 Worship[7] . Music from various C3 Churches in the USA is published under C3worship. As the central church of the movement, C3 Church Oxford Falls generally produces one album a year, under the leadership of music director Ryan Smith. C3 Church Oxford Falls digitally release their songs via their websites. They are written in simplified form to enable other churches, both within and from outside the movement, to utilise these songs as soon as possible. Most C3 Churches release their music online using the iTunes Store and similar online vendors.
Since 2006, C3 Church (Whitehorse) has co-organised "Unite" - a Creative Arts Conference, featuring Australian musicians such as Roma Waterman and Michael Paynter. The Conference is organised together with Crossway Baptist Church, Gateway Church and Careforce Church. [8]
On 2 April 2007, C3 Church (Oxford Falls) scored a hit single on the ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart. The song "Here We Go" entered at #37 on the ARIA Report (and #20 on the ARIA Physical Singles Chart plus #6 on the ARIA New South Wales single sales list) making it the highest-selling religious pop song since 1970. The single dropped out of the chart the following week though as it was only available at the church. [citation needed]
C3 Church in the Media
C3 Church, as with any large or rapidly growing religious movement, has often found itself under media scrutiny, both in a positive and a more critical light. Recent examples include mention in the Business Review Weekly (BRW), Australian Edition article "God's Millionaires".[9]
The recent World Council of Churches caused a significant number of reports on the 'Mega-Church' phenomenon, with many newspapers and news reports specifically noting churches with other large congregations like Hillsong Church.
References
- ^ "Phil Pringle's Facebook Page".
- ^ "C3 Church - Who We Are".
- ^ "C3 Church - Who We Are".
- ^ Barclay, John (1987). Arise! The Story of Christian City Church. Covenant Publishing.
- ^ "C3 Church - How We Operate".
- ^ "C3 Church - Where we are Going".
- ^ "C3 Worship".
- ^ http://www.acctv.com.au/articledetail.asp?id=5839
- ^ "God's Millionaires" Pentecostal churches are not waiting to inherit the earth. They are taking it now, tax-free. Business Review Weekly, Australian/May 26, 2005 By Adele Ferguson
External links
- C3 Church Global - Home page
- C3 Worship - C3 Worship Music for free download