About Us

Church in the Market Place (CMP) is a congregation of the Uniting Church of Australia. We are a vibrant and growing local congregation that sees our purpose as:

CMP seeks to Connect people with God, with Self and with Others. We do this in a variety of ways such as ...

  • A discipleship community seeking to help people grow in their relationship with Jesus
  • An increasing variety of small groups throughout the week
  • An increasing number of Worship Services that have different styles and are at different times
  • A variety of community support services that help people in practical ways

Vision

  • We will continue to establish relationships with people of the Eastern Suburbs and beyond to enable them to experience the transforming love of Christ.
  • We will help them to become Christ's disciples and grow in their relationship with him as part of a caring community of faith, love, fellowship and service.
  • We will do this using creative, credible and contemporary means of communication and action, to the glory of God.

Our Goal

By 2010 have 300 disciples, 30 groups, 3 congregations.

Core Values

  • All people are significant to God and to us.
  • Faith in Christ unveils to each person their true identity and destiny.
  • Evangelism is a process usually occurring in the context of developing relationships.
  • Transformation and growth in Christ is encouraged in small groups and other relationships.
  • Mature discipleship is normal for believers.
  • Worship is a Christ centred lifestyle which includes communal celebration events.
  • The Bible is the guideline of lifestyle for all people.
  • Justice and liberty reflect truth and grace but injustice and oppression are manifestations of sin.
  • Striving for excellence honours God.
  • Prayer is God's gift of intimate communion.
  • Effective ministry is creative, credible, contemporary and culturally relevant.

History

July 2007

Life at Church in the Market Place continues as we seek to discern where God is leading us and how to be obedient to his voice. We've recently completed a 7 week course called 'Reality' which helped us grapple with how God communicates with us and how we can walk in sync with God. July to August we will be asking the question of how we do that communally as we look at the 7 letters to the churches in the book of Revelations. In late September we'll be having our quarterly combined service and have as a guest Jeff Crabb from Christian City Church. In October to November we will be taking time to consider how things are going and how we can improve into the future by corporately looking at the course 'Colour Your World'. And before we know it we'll be into another Christmas period which is traditionally the time we see the most visitors and share in the excitement of sharing together about the incredible things Jesus has done for us.

We've just recently grown to around 130 in average attendance which is the highest since 1990. It has been exciting to see the changed lives that this number represents. God continues to stretch us to his possibilities of multiplying innovative churches right across the Eastern Suburbs and we are setting the platform for the fulfillment of that vision in the coming years. And we continue the be challenged by the thought of "doing all we can to help those who live in the Eastern Suburbs connect with God, self and others by providing an intimate spiritual home where we together can learn about, experience and live out the extravagant love of God found in Jesus Christ".

December 2006

In 2005 Pastor Peter Watson took over the ministry of CMP following the seven year ministry of Reverend Malcolm White. At that stage we have one morning service of about 70 attendees and an evening congregation of about 30. In late 2005 the evening congregation was closed and replaced with a second morning congregation in 2006. We now have two vibrant but different morning congregations (9am & 10.30am) which together have an average attendance of about 125. We are planning on restart the Sunday evening congregation in 2007.

Throughout the week there are an increasing number of small groups, 6 bible studies, 2 sharing groups and 3 youth groups. New groups are being started on a regular basis.

As part of CMP's strong belief in caring and equipping we have added a bi-monthly Leadership Gatherings, a Strategic Leadership Team, a Preaching Class, and monthly BBQ's at Pastor Pete's house. CMP continues its strong outward focus by its active involvement in ministries such as TEAR, Opportunity International, Habitat for Humanity, Christianity works, etc.