Crossway Baptist Church
| Crossway Baptist Church | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 37°51′33″S 145°10′02″E / 37.859083°S 145.1672922°E | |
| Location | 2 Vision Drive, Burwood East, Victoria, Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Denomination | Baptist |
| Website | www |
| History | |
| Former name(s) | Blackburn Baptist Church |
| Associated people | Rowland Croucher (former pastor) |
Crossway Baptist Church (previously Blackburn Baptist Church) is one of Australia’s largest Baptist churches[1] and is located in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Overall attendance for 2016 was 6,675 (measured by average weekly physical and online attendance of all events including year-on-year inclusion of Easter and Christmas period attendances).[2] Crossway provides a wide range of religious activities and community support services throughout the week.
History
The church was founded by the Reverend J.H Newnham in 1954 as Blackburn Baptist Church.[3]
It originally met in a small hall as a Sunday school class on the corner of Holland and Canterbury Roads in Blackburn South.[3] The church then relocated to 19 Holland Road, Blackburn South (now the headquarters of the Evangelical Chinese Church Melbourne), and later moved in September 1995 to the current location, 2 Vision Drive, Burwood East after which it changed its name to Crossway Baptist Church. The church current Burwood East site is 15 acres (61,000 m2).[citation needed]
Crossway has planted daughter churches in Craigieburn, Cranbourne, Moreland and Stonnington as well as a number of other smaller experimental church plants. Crossway also has language-based congregations with Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian and Korean services.[citation needed]
Since 2006, Crossway has also co-organised "Unite" - a creative arts conference featuring Australian musicians such as Roma Waterman and Michael Paynter. The conference is organised together with Gateway Church, Careforce Church and Christian City Church Whitehorse.[4]
Services
Crossway has nine congregations that hold services in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Indonesian languages. It also holds an online campus that holds multiple services each week.[5]
People
Senior Pastors:
- George Ashworth
- David Griffiths
- Rowland Croucher
- Stuart Robinson
- Dale Stephenson[6][7] (current from February 2008)
References
- ^ Barney Zwartz, (17 July 2004), Counting our blessings: faith’s demographics. The Age
- ^ "Crossway Baptist Church 2016 Annual Report" (PDF). Crossway Baptist Church. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
- ^ a b "New Church at Blackburn". The Age. No. 30876. Victoria, Australia. 17 April 1954. p. 8. Retrieved 8 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ http://www.acctv.com.au/articledetail.asp?id=5839[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Locations And Service Times - Crossway: Loving God, Loving People, Disciples That Multiply". www.crossway.org.au. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
- ^ Gary Tippet, (4 April 2010), Peace be with you, from the lion and the lamb, The Age
- ^ Barney Zwartz, (4 February 2008), Message comes full circle for atheist turned pastor, The Age