Paradise Community Church
Encyclopedia
Paradise Community Church is a multi-campus Christian
church, located in Paradise
, situated in north east Adelaide
, South Australia
, affiliated with Australian Christian Churches
. The church was founded in 1907 by British
evangelist
Smith Wigglesworth
. In 1969, Andrew Evans became its first non-founding senior pastor when it shifted to Klemzig
. Under his ministry the church grew from weekly church attendance
of 150 to over 2,000 people. In 1981, the church moved to its current location in Paradise
. It is currently pastored by pastor
Ashley Evans. In 2000, Ashley and Jane Evans took over senior pastors, and they have since grown the church from 3,000 to over 6,000 people. Ashley has also expanded the church to five locations (Adelaide, Hendon, Elizabeth Park, Perth) and introduced a Friday night service. It is the second-largest church in Australia
.
, Planetshakers City Church
and Youth Alive
. Realising this trend, Paradise took advantage of this opportunity to found Paradise College of Ministries, an accredited bible college
in South Australia
. As the largest church in South Australia, Ashley Evans was crowned State President of Australian Christian Churches of South Australia in 2002, and a member of the National Executive of the Australian Christian Churches. His wife Jane Evans has attained similar influence as the national board member of charity
Compassion Australia
. Although burgeoning the usual dissent among episcopal
Christians, Paradise is regarded as ecumenical, training several key non-Pentecostal leaders, including Dean Eaton, father of radio and television host Tessa Eaton. Paradise launched the Influencer's Conference which have attracted several celebrity keynote speakers including Bishop TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar
, Samuel Chand, Joyce Meyer
, Jentezen Franklin
, Matt Crouch and Chris Hill
. The conference is a direct competitor of Hillsong Conference
, although focuses more so on the leadership
market.
The profile of Paradise was boosted after the inaugural Australian Idol
Guy Sebastian
and his girlfriend publicly announced his connection with the church as a singer, and subsequent marriage at the church. The church was also featured on A Current Affair, Compass
, The Australian
, and The Age
. Peter Goers
has commonly cited the church in rhetoric light. As a result of market perception of the church with Guy, the church launched its Paradise School of Music. Famous persons who have forayed the floors of Paradise include Channel 9
journalist Kate Collins
and actress Debra Byrne. Apart from media interest, the church has also has a television program which screens in different countries and recently started airing each Sunday on Channel 9. Paradise also utilises regular television and radio advertisement for marketing communications
, particularly during the Christmas
and Easter
seasons.
Although lacking the high profile connection of Nabi Selah with Hillsong, Paradise has distinctive business influence. Paradise has also attempted to make inroads into the women's market, initiating the annual bU fashion parade which attracts 3,000 women. It is advertised as Australia's largest fashion parade.
Some political figures have connections with the church, including former Family First
leader Andrew Evans. Liberal Party of Australia
foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer
commented positively on the church's focus on God
, the Bible
and the message of Christ
.
Paradise has a philanthropy
arm, that offers community services. In 2006, more than 10,000 clients were given food and clothing. Paradise has partnered with fast food chain McDonald's
to launch Adelaide's Biggest Easter Egg Hunt and city wide Christmas carol
s, which although require a gold donation per capita, attracts crowds in excess of 25,000. The donations thus far have solely been redirected to the Women's and Children's Hospital, although expansive philanthropy is expected in the future.
34.870053°N 138.668331°W
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
church, located in Paradise
Paradise, South Australia
Paradise is a northeastern suburb of Adelaide in South Australia. It is bounded on the north side by the River Torrens. Amongst its neighboring suburbs are Highbury, Dernancourt, Athelstone, Newton and Campbelltown....
, situated in north east Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, affiliated with Australian Christian Churches
Australian Christian Churches
Australian Christian Churches , also known as Assemblies of God in Australia , is a Pentecostal Christian denomination and the Australian branch of the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world...
. The church was founded in 1907 by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
Smith Wigglesworth
Smith Wigglesworth
Smith Wigglesworth , was a British evangelist who was important in the early history of Pentecostalism.- Early life :...
. In 1969, Andrew Evans became its first non-founding senior pastor when it shifted to Klemzig
Klemzig, South Australia
Klemzig is a suburb of Adelaide in the City of Port Adelaide Enfield. It is the location of the first settlement of German emigrants to Australia in the 19th century and is named after a village near the city of Zuellichau in southeastern Brandenburg in the German state of Prussia, where they...
. Under his ministry the church grew from weekly church attendance
Church attendance
Church attendance refers to the reception of religious services offered by a particular church, or more generally, by any religious organisation.-Participation statistics:...
of 150 to over 2,000 people. In 1981, the church moved to its current location in Paradise
Paradise, South Australia
Paradise is a northeastern suburb of Adelaide in South Australia. It is bounded on the north side by the River Torrens. Amongst its neighboring suburbs are Highbury, Dernancourt, Athelstone, Newton and Campbelltown....
. It is currently pastored by pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
Ashley Evans. In 2000, Ashley and Jane Evans took over senior pastors, and they have since grown the church from 3,000 to over 6,000 people. Ashley has also expanded the church to five locations (Adelaide, Hendon, Elizabeth Park, Perth) and introduced a Friday night service. It is the second-largest church in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Influence
Paradise Church has played a key role in mentoring leaders who have gone on to launch other mega churches such as Edge ChurchEdge Church
Edge Church is a Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God in Australia. The church is pastored by Danny Guglielmucci and his wife.-Establishment:...
, Planetshakers City Church
Planetshakers
Planetshakers is a Christian youth movement that began as an annual conference and grew into an international ministry and large church in Melbourne, Australia. The conference was born out of Paradise Community Church in Adelaide, South Australia by Pastor Russell Evans...
and Youth Alive
Youth Alive
Youth Alive is a not-for-profit multi-denominational Christian organisation dedicated to reaching the youth of Australia with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is run on a state-based structure with offices in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia...
. Realising this trend, Paradise took advantage of this opportunity to found Paradise College of Ministries, an accredited bible college
Bible college
Bible colleges are institutions of higher education that specialize in biblical studies. Curriculum is Bible-based and differs from that of liberal arts colleges or research universities. Bible colleges generally exclude the study of philosophy, unlike seminaries and theological colleges...
in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. As the largest church in South Australia, Ashley Evans was crowned State President of Australian Christian Churches of South Australia in 2002, and a member of the National Executive of the Australian Christian Churches. His wife Jane Evans has attained similar influence as the national board member of charity
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
Compassion Australia
Compassion Australia
Compassion Australia is a Christian holistic child development and child advocacy organisation that works in partnership with local churches to foster the spiritual, economic, social, physical and emotional development of children living in extreme poverty in over 26 countries.Compassion Australia...
. Although burgeoning the usual dissent among episcopal
Episcopal polity
Episcopal polity is a form of church governance that is hierarchical in structure with the chief authority over a local Christian church resting in a bishop...
Christians, Paradise is regarded as ecumenical, training several key non-Pentecostal leaders, including Dean Eaton, father of radio and television host Tessa Eaton. Paradise launched the Influencer's Conference which have attracted several celebrity keynote speakers including Bishop TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar
Creflo Dollar
Creflo Augustus Dollar, Jr. is an American Word of Faith teacher, pastor, and the founder of the non-denominational World Changers Church International based in Fulton County, Georgia. Creflo Dollar Ministerial Association , Creflo Dollar Ministries, and Arrow Records...
, Samuel Chand, Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer is a Charismatic Christian author and speaker. Meyer and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her ministry is headquartered in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.-Early life:Meyer was born Pauline Joyce Hutchison in south St. Louis in...
, Jentezen Franklin
Jentezen Franklin
Jentezen Franklin is the senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, and Free Chapel OC in Irvine, California. Franklin is the author of New York Times best sellers, Right People, Right Place, Right Plan and Fasting...
, Matt Crouch and Chris Hill
Chris Hill
Chris Hill is a British disc jockey. He worked at the club Lacy Lady in Ilford, as well as at the Goldmine Canvey Island. He was the head of the 'Soul Mafia' in London and the South East of England into the early 1980s. In 1975 he released a "break-in" novelty record, in the style of Dickie...
. The conference is a direct competitor of Hillsong Conference
Hillsong Conference
The Hillsong Conference is an annual Christian conference held each July in Sydney, Australia, London, Europe, and Kiev, Ukraine and hosted by the Hillsong Church. It features prominent Christian pastors, leaders, businesspeople and motivational speakers as well as worship artists like singers,...
, although focuses more so on the leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
market.
The profile of Paradise was boosted after the inaugural Australian Idol
Australian Idol
Australian Idol is a Logie Award-winning Australian singing competition, which began its first season on July 2003 and ended its run in November 2009. As part of the Idol franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program Pop Idol, which was created by British entertainment executive...
Guy Sebastian
Guy Sebastian
Guy Theodore Sebastian is an Australian pop, R&B, and soul singer-songwriter who was the first winner of Australian Idol in 2003. He is currently a judge on the Australian version of The X Factor. Sebastian has released six top ten platinum/multi platinum albums, including a number-one and...
and his girlfriend publicly announced his connection with the church as a singer, and subsequent marriage at the church. The church was also featured on A Current Affair, Compass
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
, The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
, and The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
. Peter Goers
Peter Goers
Peter Goers is an actor, director, reviewer, former academic and current host of the radio program The Evening Show on 891 ABC Adelaide, which broadcasts throughout South Australia and to the city of Broken Hill...
has commonly cited the church in rhetoric light. As a result of market perception of the church with Guy, the church launched its Paradise School of Music. Famous persons who have forayed the floors of Paradise include Channel 9
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
journalist Kate Collins
Kate Collins (journalist)
Kate Collins is a South Australian television presenter, and current presenter of Nine News Adelaide.Kate was formerly presenter of the Adelaide edition of A Current Affair, a position she held from 2008 to 2009....
and actress Debra Byrne. Apart from media interest, the church has also has a television program which screens in different countries and recently started airing each Sunday on Channel 9. Paradise also utilises regular television and radio advertisement for marketing communications
Marketing communications
Marketing Communications are messages and related media used to communicate with a market...
, particularly during the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
and Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
seasons.
Although lacking the high profile connection of Nabi Selah with Hillsong, Paradise has distinctive business influence. Paradise has also attempted to make inroads into the women's market, initiating the annual bU fashion parade which attracts 3,000 women. It is advertised as Australia's largest fashion parade.
Some political figures have connections with the church, including former Family First
Family First Party
The Family First Party is a socially conservative minor political party in Australia. It has two members in the South Australian Legislative Council...
leader Andrew Evans. Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...
commented positively on the church's focus on God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and the message of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
.
Paradise has a philanthropy
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
arm, that offers community services. In 2006, more than 10,000 clients were given food and clothing. Paradise has partnered with fast food chain McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
to launch Adelaide's Biggest Easter Egg Hunt and city wide Christmas carol
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...
s, which although require a gold donation per capita, attracts crowds in excess of 25,000. The donations thus far have solely been redirected to the Women's and Children's Hospital, although expansive philanthropy is expected in the future.
See also
- Saddleback ChurchSaddleback ChurchSaddleback Church is an evangelical Christian megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church was founded in 1980 by pastor Rick Warren...
, Willowcreek Church, Mars Hill ChurchMars Hill ChurchMars Hill Church is a Reformed Christian megachurch located in Seattle, Washington. Services are offered at multiple locations in the city; the church podcasts content of weekend services, as well as conferences on the Internet with more than 100,000 downloads every week... - List of the largest churches in Australia
- Churches affiliated with Australian Christian ChurchesChurches affiliated with Australian Christian ChurchesChurches affiliated with Australian Christian Churches refers to churches that are a part of Australian Christian Churches, the Australian organisation of the Assemblies of God , a Pentecostal denomination originating in the United States of America. There are over 1,100 churches in Australian...
External links
34.870053°N 138.668331°W