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 a core group of 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 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 so that we could reach out with the good news of Jesus.
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.
Read more: What is a Christian (and who is Jesus)?
