JourneyOnline
Phil Smith is a lay pastor in an ecumenical school in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. With the support of the Caloundra Uniting Church, he is helping to grow a new faith community called BELLS.
We are based on Australia’s Sunshine Coast in a new real estate development where there is no church building. I work half time for the Uniting Church as one of two campus ministers at the Unity College ecumenical school in Caloundra.
In Bells Reach and Bell Vista, people are moving from the colder southern states to live the dream in Queensland but many find it’s just another suburb – like the ones they left behind.
The estate surrounds the school, which is supported by Roman Catholic and Uniting Church parishes, and those involved in BELLS are people who live, work or go to school in that area. Using the College, BELLS has connected with 65 people in its first six months, meeting fortnightly on Sunday afternoons to hear one another’s stories and ask where we see and hear God at work in our lives. We don’t have a building or rows of pews; instead we get together either at Unity College or in the nearby park.
Read the rest of the report on the Fresh Expressions website.
