Of course! Especially if you can see how that’s going to be particularly helpful for them — this is part of the principles of “what’s good for others”. Alongside that, its important to remember that we don’t stop being friends when we’re not in the same congregation. And remember we’re all praying for growth, so even if we start in the same congregations with our friends, we’re all going to be welcoming new people at the same time (we hope!).

Probably before we launch would be good! We think most people are going to need a few months to think and pray through this. Some people won’t need that long. Others will need much longer. Our hope is that most people will have a pretty fair idea of what they’re thinking by March 2023. If that feels too soon for you, that’s okay too!

This is tricky. As various people in ministry teams make decisions about going to one campus, that will change what the needs are at the other campus. We’re expecting that some people will be more flexible than others, and that will help work out where the needs are. Who knows, maybe when we all stay what we’re thinking, it might just turn out perfect. #ministryteamprayerpoints

This is an important question that the elders and finance team have thought hard about. So here are some high-level details; we’ve got the money donated and pledged to purchase the Garden Suburb property — $5.25m (praise God!). We’ve got approval for a building loan of up to $3m for the renovations at Garden Suburb. We’ve also been given some grants that will help cover some of the launch costs of the City campus (about $400k in total). And we’ve been able to save a healthy surplus each year for the past 6 years. The plan is to draw-down into those savings to start with as we grow.

However, it’s very important that we all make regular giving to church a key part of our Christian walk. It’s part of God’s good plan for our lives.

It’s a common fear that as churches grow we think we’ll get lost in the crowd. But being loving isn’t a church size thing, it’s a heart thing. Small churches that don’t grasp the love of God can be really unloving places and large churches that do grasp the love of God and model it can be really loving places.

We’re already a church that is way too big to know everyone. But we are a church that values love and relationships with one another in the cause of the gospel.

Some of the advantages that can help a larger church be loving are:

• A diverse people: if God continues to bless us and grow us at HBC, we will grow in a diversity of people from different ethnicities, backgrounds, jobs, relationships, incomes, experiences. This can actually increase the love, care and welcoming of a church when it’s built on the foundation of God’s love.

• Meet the needs of more people: larger churches have bigger networks of care and support to draw on to meet people where they’re at. It opens up new ministry opportunities smaller churches don’t necessarily have capacity for. For example, addiction recovery or divorce recovery ministries.

At HBC this is why we have such a priority on Growth Groups. These are often some of the best places where we can develop deeper relationships and love a few people in loads of different ways.

We’re praying we will. Our hope has always been that God would continue to save the lost and grow his kingdom through HBC. That means for both City and Garden Suburb we will have plans to launch more congregations/service times as we grow at both campuses. In the future we may also look towards planting additional campuses with the aim to share Jesus in our region.