PETA MCCARTNEY speaks with Rev Dr Andrew Katay, CEO of the Australian branch of global church planting organisation City to City…
Australia needs thousands more church plants a year, with the current estimate of 200 new churches across the nation described as “catastrophically small” by founding member and CEO of the Australian branch of global church planting organisation City to City, Rev Dr Andrew Katay.
In his quiet surburban Anglican church office in Sydney’s Inner West, Katay speaks passionately and enthusiastically about the work he has been involved in since December 2010 within City to City’s Asia-Pacific region, whose “aim is to help bring local churches’ ideas and vision for growth to fruition”.
The church community at St Oswald’s in Haberfield, Sydney, a City to City church plant launched in 2020, part of the Christ Church Inner West community. PICTURE: Courtesy of St Oswald’s.
With representation on all major continents, City to City’s global reach grew out of US theologian Tim Keller’s Redeemer City to City ministry in New York, after a group of pastors from Amsterdam sought information, advice and lessons about its experiences for their own outreach.
“I think that consolidated or helped spark the thought that maybe what Tim had done in NY had learned some lessons, especially about what questions to ask in seeking to plant churches in a global city like NY; [which] would be useful to ask those same questions in Amsterdam [the most liberal city in Europe] or in Taipei, or Melbourne or Sydney or wherever – which would definitely come up with different answers because NY is not Sydney and Sydney is not Taipei – so different places will come up with different answers, but the questions will be similar,” Katay said.
“The question is, how to preach the Gospel in a way that both – in a sense – fits with that culture, so it’s not entirely alien to it, and at the same time ‘renovates’ or heals the culture so that people aren’t crushed by dishonour – because Jesus Christ was dishonoured for them, so whatever dishonour they’ve got He bought for them, so they live with permanent honour.”
– Rev Dr Andrew Katay, CEO of the Australian branch of global church planting organisation City to City.
Some of those important questions include, ‘What is the cultural context and how does it intersect with the Gospel?’ as church planters seek help to delve into culture and engage with their communities to bring them into relationship with Jesus Christ.
“For example, in Asia or Eastern contexts typically – [people] live in an honour/shame culture, where the greatest goal of life is to accrue honour and avoid shame – and this whole thing of ‘saving face’ impacts on how church life gets done in all sorts of ways.
“The question is, how to preach the Gospel in a way that both – in a sense – fits with that culture, so it’s not entirely alien to it, and at the same time ‘renovates’ or heals the culture so that people aren’t crushed by dishonour – because Jesus Christ was dishonoured for them, so whatever dishonour they’ve got He bought for them, so they live with permanent honour.
“If you said that to an Australian, because we don’t live in that same honour/shame culture, but at least historically, we’ve lived in a guilt/righteousness culture, that idea of honour and Jesus bearing our dishonour makes no sense to Australians.”
Rev Dr Andrew Katay, CEO of the Australian branch of global church planting organisation City to City, and senior minister of the Anglican Christ Church Inner West community. PICTURE: Supplied.
Katay is well-versed in the challenges of church planting.
He is senior minister of Christ Church Inner West community, a multi-site Anglican church that meets across three locations – St John’s at Ashfield, St Alban’s in Five Dock and St Oswald’s in Haberfield – the latter the youngest congregation following a church plant that finally launched in 2020, delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the (Korean) Mathetes Community.
A core group of 25 people from St John’s morning and evening services committed themselves to the new congregation at St Oswald’s, with numbers now around 60 adults and 12 children each Sunday.
The principles of City to City’s assistance are extensive, according to Katay.
“The work of a denomination is to have the map for their area and they’re the ones who look at maps. City to City is super clear that we are not a denomination and that’s what allows us to work ‘pan- denominationally’, so in that sense we more reactive or responsive, than we are proactive,” he said.
Once a church planter has a vision to plant a new church, they will seek out a church planting agency, of which City to City is one of several in Australia.
“The help is extensive, along the whole process of planting a church. First, we do an assessment to see what the gifts of the person are who has come to use and where there are gaps.
“Second, we do extensive and intensive training, in a range of formats, walking through the process of planting a church in a cohort setting.
City to City church plants – St John’s Ashfield in Sydney, New South Wales, and St Catharine’s Anglican Church in Melbourne, Victoria. PICTURES: Courtesy of City to City.
“Third, we provide a coach for the planter. Fourth, we provide seed funding for the church plant and finally, we provide a ‘family’ – that is, a network of people who are doing, or who have done, the same thing, and so can really support the new planter personally.”
Even in the New Testament, Katay says the “primary church planter” – Paul – did not do things on his own.
“You’ll see that he had a huge network working with him! Or another way to put that is that the Holy Spirit often gives us the gifts of other believers to encourage and work with us,” he said.
On the question of numbers, Katay seems both impatient and conservative.
“The National Church Life Survey – a very excellent data gathering and publishing agency about church life in Australia – estimates about 200 churches are planted in Australia a year. I think it’s catastrophically small,” Katay said.
But Katay estimates “thousands” more church plants a year are needed to reach communities across the nation.
He calculates that at that rate, “with say at the most, 50 [people] on average in those churches at the end of their first year”, there would be 10,000 people heading to church in a population of 25 million, 20 million of whom don’t go to church.
“So [there would be] 10,000 people at church because of church plants, [but] actually most of them will just have swapped from the church they were going to, to the new plant, so they won’t be ‘new’ people going to church.
“At the same time, hundreds and hundreds more churches will have closed that year, than will have opened. So we need thousands more church plants a year.”
“The National Church Life Survey – a very excellent data gathering and publishing agency about church life in Australia – estimates about 200 churches are planted in Australia a year. I think it’s catastrophically small.”
– Rev Dr Andrew Katay.
He said the ‘Exponential’ organisation estimates that 2000 church plants are needed each year, but added that the question is, how to increase from [the NCLS estimate of] 200, to [Exponential’s] 2000?
“We will plant 20 churches or congregations in association with City to City in 2021. We would like to maintain that and keep seeing that inch up until about 2025 when we are doing about 30 a year.”
Strangely, during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Katay says City to City had more church planters approach them and participate in their lead-up to church planting than any year before.
“The end of 2020 and first half of 2021, we have had more church planters enter our pathway to church planting than ever before and I don’t know why that is.
“City to City in Australia has recently added a second arm to our efforts which we’re calling ‘Revitalisation’. We have a program “Revitalise Australia” which is recognition that it’s great if we can plant 20 or 30 [new] churches a year, but if we could get the right staff on board and the right funding we could potentially see the revitalisation of up to 200 churches a year.”
