C3 Church Global
| C3i | |
|---|---|
| Christian City Church International | |
| File:Christian City Churches logo.png | |
| Location | Oxford Falls, New South Wales |
| Country | Australia |
| Denomination | Christian City Church Evangelical, Charismatic, Pentacostal |
| Website | c3iglobal.org |
| History | |
| Founded | Easter 1980 |
| Founder(s) | Phil Pringle & Christine Pringle |
| Associated people | 185, 000 |
Christian City Church International is an evangelical, pentecostal 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.
As of 2008 there over 200 churches situated throughout Australia, New Zealand, North America, Africa, Asia and the European community. Phil Pringle is the founder and President of Christian City Church International (C3I), and the Senior Minister of the movement's largest congregation - Christian City Church, Oxford Falls, Sydney, Australia.
C3i holds an international conference every few years, gathering pastors from CCC churches worldwide. Other events include conferences for the European, Asian, North American, African and Australasian arms of the movement.
History of the CCC Movement
Phil & Christine Pringle arrived in Sydney, from New Zealand, in 1980 with a vision to begin a pentecostal church.[1] Christian Centre, Northside, as it was originally known, began with 12 people on the Northern beaches of Sydney. This church, now known as C3 Church Oxford Falls, has grown to become one of the largest congregations in Australia (currently has a membership of 6, 000+) and has been responsible for the planting of many churches around the world. Globally, the C3I movement now consists of over 200 churches spread throughout Australia, New Zealand, North America, Asia and Europe.
Structure
CCCI 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, CCCI does not have a centralized structure. Local churches are governed by a local board (or executive). Reflecting CCCI'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.[2]
Growth of the CCC 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 CCC churches grew on average by 42% to a total membership of 11, 400 (within Australia).
Growth of Christian City Churches and similar movements is attributed to their upbeat, modern and relevant approach to religious services as well as their wealth due to the running of the establishment more like a business than a traditional non-profit religious organization.
In 2002 in the tri-annual Worldwide Conference held that year in Singapore, C3i 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". 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 CCC 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 CCC churches use the same identification to make it easy to identify a CCC church, because many Australian churches are named 'something' City Church.
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 CCC Oxford Falls is published under CCC Worships. Music from various C3 churches in the USA is published under C3worship. As the central church of the movement, CCC Oxford Falls generally produces one album a year, under the leadership of music director Ryan Smith. CCC Oxford Falls digitally release their songs via their websiteas 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 Christian City Churches release their music online using the iTunes Store and similar online vendors.
Since 2006, Christian City 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. [3]
On 2 April 2007, Christian City 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]
Christian City Church in the Media
Christian City 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".[4]
The recent World Council of Churches caused a significant number of reports on the 'Mega-Church' phenomena, many newspapers and news reports specifically noting churches with other large congregations like Hillsong Church.
References
- ^ Barclay, John (1987). Arise! The Story of Christian City Church. Covenant Publishing.
- ^ Christian City Church International (2007). "How We Operate". Retrieved 2009-04-04.
- ^ 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 Magazine, Austalian/May 26, 2005 By Adele Ferguson
External links
- Christian City Church International - Home page
- C3 Worship - C3 Worship Music for free download