About Northern Lakes Evangelical Church

How Northern Lakes Evangelical Church began

As is often the case, God was working through relationships. One day, the founding pastor, Connan O'Shea, was chatting on the phone to David Sheath (who is the Senior Pastor at The Lakes Evangelical Church at Berkeley Vale). Connan and Dave knew each other from a previous Church. The Lakes Church had about 25 people who lived up in the northern region of the Central Coast around Warnervale. With the massive expansion of this region (including the new town centre), The Lakes Church had the vision of planting a church up in the area. These northern region people were meeting together in Bible study groups.

Connan had a passion to reach out to the lost especially through church planting. And so when he was chatting to Dave Sheath about church planting, Dave mentioned the Warnervale area. From there, Connan and this core group from the northern region met together and worked out that the church plant could go ahead.

Connan was working in Richmond at the time, and so from May 2005, he and Belinda travelled up each month to study God's Word and to work out logistics with the 25 people in the core group.
From the beginning the church started with a very clear vision - to establish a Bible teaching ministry that would put a fire in people's hearts for gospel work.

God provided a brilliant venue of Gorokan High School, which had the facilities needed and the right exposure of being next to Lake Haven Shops - the major shopping centre in the area. On Sunday 5th of February 2006 the Church had its first public meeting where God brought many adults and children. It was a great encouragement. We look ahead, praying that God would use his Word through us, to proclaim the glorious message of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Pastors

Connan O'Shea (Senior Pastor)

Connan grew up in Sydney and was saved in his first year at University.  He started going to a local church and the Christian group at uni.  After studying, he worked as a Veterinarian.  

Deciding to spend more time sharing the brilliant news of Jesus, Connan worked at a church in Liverpool for two years (doing the Ministry Training Strategy).  And then he went to Moore Theological College to study theology for four years.  Being ordained in Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church, he worked as a minister at Richmond Anglican Church and as a Christian Staff worker at University of Western Sydney (Hawkesbury Campus), for three years.

Seeing the massive expansion on the Central Coast in the northern region, and having been thinking about planting a church for four years, Connan desired to make the move up north, so as to share the message of Jesus with the people there.

Connan is married to Belinda and they have three children, Jayden, Joshua and Sarah.  Connan enjoys watching a DVD with Belinda, playing with the kids, sport (surfing, swimming, cycling and soccer), having friends around, watching Manly win footy, and sitting down with a coffee and reading a book.

Connan oversees Membership and Maturity, and is the main preacher on Sundays.

Matt Rowson (Pastor)

Matt grew up on a chicken farm at Mangrove Mountain on the Central Coast.  Having Christian parents was a real blessing, as Matt has always been brought up to know the Lord Jesus.

After starting a Computer Science degree at Newcastle Uni, Matt got a job working for Optus in Sydney and worked there for five years. He then studied theology at Sydney Missionary and Bible College for three years.  At the start of his final year at college, Matt and Jill were married.

After college, Matt worked at Drummoyne Presbyterian church for a year and then moved to Brisbane where he was a Youth Pastor for six years.  During this time Matt and Jill had two children, Harry and Lily.

At the end of 2008, Matt, Jill and the kids made the move back to the Central Coast to be a part of Northern Lakes Evangelical church looking after the areas of Ministry and Mission.

Matt enjoys watching movies and sport, playing and listening to music, hiking and camping in the great outdoors, spending time with the family, and helping people come to know Jesus and grow in him.

Our Mission and Vision

Jesus said: 'I will build my Church'. With these words he declared his mission. Immediately he went on to speak of his death and resurrection - the foundation on which the Church is built. Northern Lakes Church takes part in Christ's mission as we proclaim the good news of his death and resurrection.

So our Mission Statement: 'Building Christ's Church by Proclaiming God's Word'. What this looks like in more detail is seen in Our Vision:

Our Vision

Membership: We want people to belong to a community that gathers around God's Word. We will be committed to faithful Bible teaching and responding in trust, obedience, thanks and praise. We desire that our community will be a place people will experience the love of God. This includes: newcomers suppers, hospitality, picnics, church weekend aways, visitation, hanging out through craft or sport or social activities.

Maturity: We want every member to grow more like Jesus in every area of their lives, by knowing God more and loving and serving his people and the wider community This includes: Sunday Church and Kids church, Growth Groups, Daily reading notes, prayer times, one-to-one ministry.

Ministry: We want to be a body of people who are partners with Jesus, by being equipped and serving others to build Christ's Church. This includes: every person being involved in an area of ministry, on the job training in ministry areas, courses for training, one-to-one, MTS.

Mission: We want to be eagerly seeking to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the 80,000 people in the Northern Lakes Region, in Australia and throughout the world. This includes: people praying for 3 contacts, inviting people to hear the gospel, sharing the gospel, Simply Christianity, Summerfest mission in January, heightened evangelistic Sundays, dinners. 

Who are we

We are simply a typical bunch of people who in many ways have nothing particularly 'special' about the: At times we rejoice and at times we hurt or are disappointed. We struggle with many of life's difficult issues just like others around us.

However, there is one thing that sets us apart - as Christians, we all share the most profound experience imaginable - God has forgiven us of our wrong doings on the basis of Jesus' death on the cross, in our place, two thousand years ago!

This forgiveness enabled us to lead a new life in Christ and has established us as a part of God's family, now and into eternity. Extraordinary! All we do when we meet as a church grows out of this reality. It is truly life changing. It is a message we long to share. Why not join us?

Connan O'Shea
Senior Pastor