Welcome to the Better Gatherings website!

Our vision: Christian gatherings in which not only the sermon, but the whole service is a powerful proclamation of the gospel. Each element of the service combines to take us on a journey in which God makes himself present among us by his word, and we encounter him together. In this shared experience we are filled with repentance, trust and praise as we feel again the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our aim: To equip service leaders to craft meetings that by their shape, their contents and their tone proclaim the gospel of Christ, build his body in the unity of the Spirit, and bring honour and glory to God.

On this website we would like to help you reflect biblically and historically on just how good church can be, and give you the resources you need to put this vision into practice.

This site is designed to equip service leaders to craft meetings that by their shape, their contents and their tone proclaim the gospel of Christ, build his body in the unity of the spirit and bring honour and glory to God. On this website we would like to help you reflect biblically and historically on just how good church can be, and give you the resources you need to put this vision into practice.

You may be keen to go straight to the practical guidelines or resources sections, but take time to work through the biblical and historical sections, so that you are clear about God’s will for our gatherings and understand how Christians have sought to put biblical teaching into practice across the centuries.

For some of us, church may be so engaging and God-honouring that we should simply be praising God for it, not trying to fix it! However, for many people church can be a hit-or-miss affair.

Here are some diagnostic questions for you to consider:

• What is it that people don’t want to miss in the services you experience?
• How well planned are the various segments and the order in which they occur?
• Do service leaders reflect hard about the theology they are trying to express in the services they lead?
• Is the job of preparing and leading services treated with the same seriousness as that of preparing and preaching sermons?
• Do members of the congregation understand and appreciate why changes are made?

As Anglicans, it is also important for us to keep in touch with some of the rich treasures that come from our heritage in The Book of Common Prayer and in modern versions of this foundational resource.

So we need to be asking further questions, such as:

• What does it mean to be authentically Anglican and culturally engaged with 21st century Australia?
• How would you evaluate whether a more ‘liturgical’ service was helpful or not?
• How can traditional prayers and confessions of faith be effectively incorporated into contemporary orders of service?