The Avenue hosts Intersection to Create Community
Jeremy Choo
Published
The Avenue Church started during COVID-19, when we, as a community, sensed God calling us to start a church that would unleash God-given potential in the lives of young people in our spheres of influence. While the church formally began a few years ago, its roots trace back to a Friday night ministry at NCC called Re:VIBE. Many of the leaders who led Re:VIBE graduated and wanted to do something for God in their new life stage.
Since then, Avenue has been a network of 4 different micro-churches called “Pathway Groups” that gather in houses and universities across the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
We’re all about community and genuine relationships where we help each other in our journey as disciples of Jesus. While the primary expression of our church is smaller gatherings of people in less formal environments, we gather all our Pathway Groups together every quarter for what we call Intersection.
At the Intersection, we celebrate what God is doing in our wider community and hear a message from someone who shares a sermon relevant to where we are currently at as a community. This event is an excellent opportunity for new guests to observe what our community is about from a distance before choosing to immerse themselves in the life rhythms of our church. It also encourages those in our community to see what is happening in our wider network.
Our last Intersection happened on July 6. Sashka Tikulin shared her message and story, moving many people in our community. We sang together and then highlighted various things that were happening in our Pathway Groups.
As a church community we have a heavy emphasis on discipleship and helping people walk with Jesus in the context of loving community. That is why church for us looks more like opening the Bible, praying, and encouraging each other at a table than going through the motions of sitting through a worship service each week. We still do believe in the value of worshipping together as a wider community, which is why we have regular Intersections and Prayer and Praise every Wednesday night. But for us, our desire is to see church be the dynamic, missional movement that it once was (Acts 2:42-47), sending missionaries into the spheres of influences that God has placed them.
