Horizon Church, founded as Sutherland AOG, and formerly more recently Shirelive, is a
Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with
Australian Christian Churches, the Australian branch of the
Assemblies of God
The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination."Assemblies of God". ...
denomination. The church's main campus is in the commercial district of
Sutherland
Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...
, a southern suburb of
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, New South Wales. The church's senior pastors are Brad and Alison Bonhomme, and the former
Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...
,
Scott Morrison, is a member of the congregation.
Apart from the original church in Sutherland, Horizon also has satellite churches in
St Andrews
St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...
, a south-western suburb of Sydney;
Dunsborough, Western Australia; and
Rote Island in
Indonesia, and is planning another campus in
Western Sydney.
History
Horizon Church was created by the Assemblies of God in Australia in 1949, under Pastor Norm Armstrong. The first meeting was in the Sutherland School of Arts Hall. In the early 1950s the church was built at its current location at 7-9 Stapleton Avenue, Sutherland.
[ ]
The church was founded as Sutherland AOG, being renamed the Christian Growth Centre. In 2000 it became a company
limited by guarantee, changing its name to Shire Christian Centre. In May 2006 the church was again rebranded, this time as Shirelive.
In 2007,
the church undertook a building project which consisted of stage one, major demolition of existing auditorium, youth centre with the construction of a new 1090-seat convention centre.
On 20 October 2013, pastors Brad and Alison Bonhomme were appointed as the senior pastors of Shirelive, and in 2018 the church changed its name to Horizon Church.
Governance
The church, as a limited company, provides reports to
ASIC
An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficien ...
and the
ACNC, and is governed by a board of directors.
Beliefs and practices
As a Pentecostal and evangelical church, Horizon is not a mainstream church in Australia. Some members believe in
divine healing
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...
, and practise "
speaking in tongues", which is seen as a miraculous gift from God.
Locations
Apart from the "mother church" in Sutherland, Horizon also has churches in
Dunsborough, Western Australia and
St Andrews, New South Wales
St Andrews is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 55 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Campbelltown. It is part of the Macarthur region.
...
, with a new campus launched on
Rote Island, Indonesia, in 2022, and a new one planned for
Western Sydney in 2022. Services are also held online.
People
The former
Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...
,
Scott Morrison, and his family are members of the Horizon congregation.
References
External links
*
{{AOG Australia
Australian Christian Churches
Evangelical megachurches in Australia
Pentecostal churches in Sydney
Christian organizations established in 1957