CityLife Church is a multi-site,

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

Megachurch A megachurch is a church with an unusually large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities, usually Protestant or Evangelical. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant C ...

located in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, with weekly services at their campus locations in the localities of Knox, Casey, Manningham and Whittlesea and on thei
Online Campus
Weekly services are also held in Mandarin and Cantonese at the Knox site. CityLife is the largest church in Melbourne and second-largest in Australia.
The Age, 24 December 2004 It has a strong emphasis on gathering in small groups called life groups. Its leadership team is headed by Senior Minister, Andrew Chisholm.

History

The church was established as Waverley Mission in 1967 by Richard Holland. In 1981, the church name was changed to Waverley Christian Fellowship and the following year, Parkmore Full Gospel Church and its Christian school (now

Waverley Christian College Waverley Christian College is a co-educational independent Christian school with two campuses - Wantirna South and Narre Warren South. The College offers Christian education to pre-school, primary, and secondary students. History Originally est ...

) merged with it. In 1986,

Kevin Conner Kevin J. Conner (February 6, 1927 – February 18, 2019 ) was a Pentecostal theologian who was formerly the senior minister of Waverley Christian Fellowship (now CityLife Church) in Melbourne, Australia. Conner is the author of nearly 60 books ...

became Senior Minister of the church (then about 600 members). Then in 1995, Mark Conner, Kevin's son, was appointed Senior Minister, and during his time as Senior Minister, the Church grew to over 10,000 congregants. In February 2017, Mark Conner handed over the senior minister role to Andrew Hill. In April 2019, Andrew Hill resigned as Senior Minister and Andrew Chisholm now serves as Senior Minister. In April 2006, CityLife Church Casey was established, followed in March 2008 by CityLife Church Manningham. On 18 November 2013, Open House Christian Fellowship in Whittlesea joined with CityLife to become CityLife Church Whittlesea. Today, CityLife is a multisite strong church. CityLife plays host to over 6 services across Melbourne at Knox, Casey, Manningham and Whittlesea.

Ministries

CityLife has a children's church program (CityLife Kids), a

youth ministry Youth ministry, also commonly referred to as youth group, is an age-specific religious ministry of faith groups or other religious organizations, usually from ages 12 to 30, whose mission is to involve and engage with young people who attend the ...

every Friday, (EPIC Youth), and a

Young Adults A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

ministry. CityLife Church also runs CityLife Community Care which provides a range of community services including counselling services, health-related services, emergency accommodation and other courses and support programs.CityLife Community Care
/ref> The church runs

, a Christian school with over 1700 students at campuses in Wantirna South and Narre Warren South.

Controversy

In 2015, CityLife apologised for distributing leaflets to students at a local public high school. Images of the leaflets obtained by The Daily Mail contained assertions as "If a woman becomes physically close and hugs a guy for 20 seconds it will trigger the bonding process, creating a desire to be near him" and "the more partners you have, icthe harder it is to bond to the next". In 2018, it was reported that CityLife-operated counseling centres had facilitated gay conversion therapists.

References

External links

CityLife Church Knox (Head Office) Website

CityLife Church Casey Website

CityLife Church Manningham Website

CityLife Church Whittlesea Website

CityLife Church Chinese Website
{{Megachurches Pentecostal churches in Melbourne Evangelical megachurches in Australia Christian organizations established in 1967