Prince of Peace is a growing healthy congregation. In 6 years we have doubled in worshipping attendance. Our strengths are 1) Worship, 2) our Adult and Youth Education Programme (PoP Ed), 3) our Youth and Children's programme (including Confirmation Plus) 4) our Prep-7 School and 5) our positive relationships.

We are a Lutheran Church interested in making a difference in people's lives, through the good news (yes it really is good news!) of Jesus.

>> Our Culture

>> Our Church and its teachings

>> We Teach


History

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and Primary School at Everton Hills resulted from a vision to become more accessible and relevant to our surrounding community.  The original congregation was started in 1964, located at West Chermside in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, and had an average worship attendance of 45.  A few members took the initiative to plant a new community in the growth corridor towards Ferny Grove.  At that time a small group met together for regular worship in one of the member’s homes.

In the early 1980s, these two groups stepped out in faith and bought a 10-acre lettuce farm in Everton Hills with the vision of building a church and Primary School.  One of the classrooms in the early stages of the development also served as the new worship location until 1986, when the foundation stone was laid to dedicate the present Church building.  We celebrated 20 years of our primary school in 2004.

Six pastors have served at this location, beginning with Glen Schulz (1985 -1991), Peter Thamm (1992 - 1995), Dirk Willner (1996 - 2002), Melvin Mueller (2001 - 2005), Andrew McLean (2002 –present) and Rob Paech (2006- present).  The congregation moved to a two-pastor ministry team in 2001.

The expansion of the pastoral ministry team coincided with significant growth for the congregation.  As we moved from a small suburban congregation to a middle-sized regional church, there was the discomfort that normally happens as a church restructures for ministry.  Through strong, compassionate and collaborative leadership, we have well and truly left those issues behind.  We look forward to growing from a middle sized church to a large church.

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Our Mission

“We are a worshipping family who engage with, and enricheach other and the wider community to grow together in our Christ-centred life journey.”

This statement was formed at our 2002 Focus Retreat.   The statement, when formed, energised the group because it resonated so strongly with where we see ourselves anchored. Since then this statement has been used widely as a reference point. 

Key concepts include: - Worshipping Family.  Worship is what brings us together.  We seek to be family to each other.

- Wider Community.  Those we come into contact with; visiting worshippers, school families, local community, and those beyond our backyard.

- Engage with.  We are proactively open to connecting with people both within our worshipping community and beyond.

- Enrich.  We seek to enhance lives, and have our own lives enhanced.

- Christ-Centred Life Journey.  We recognise that all are on different stages of life, with Christ as our common anchor.

We aim that each meeting, programme and activity reflects our mission.

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Our Culture

People are drawn to Prince of Peace because of our values, our culture.  We are a healthy church, secure with God’s action in our community, and looking forward to what God has in store for us in the future.

There are a number of factors that contribute to our health.

• A grace-based message.  We proclaim the message of hope through Christ Jesus; we simply see Christianity as good news.  We first received grace from God, so that we can give grace and space to each other.

• High amount of involvement from worshippers.  More and more people are seeing where they can contribute to our mission and ministry.

• A permission-giving approach.  The leadership and staff are here to utilise the unlimited energy of our people. Our attitude is more likely to be “that’s a great idea; how can we make it work”, rather than the church’s traditional approach of “that’s never been done before”!  We believe that “the best methods have not been found yet”!

• Care for the individual.  As best we can, we care and honour the individuals story, the individuals place in life.  People are valued for what they are BEFORE what they do.

• A clear vision for the future.  Our worshippers have a clear understanding  and ownership of our vision.

• A wonderful working relationship with the school.  Having the Principal and Deputy as regular worshippers, and the fact that school leadership is committed to sharing the Gospel, is a gift that is critical to our mission.  All school council members are worshippers at Prince of Peace.

• Worship that is accessible.  Our worship is true to our tradition, and is relevant to where people are at today.

• Our focus on education. Through our adult education programme, we are growing in depth.  Our community is committed to life-long learning.  We haven’t arrived yet, but we are enjoying the journey.

• We are healthy!  We are not without conflict, but seek to avoid diversionary arguments and resolve material issues in love and concern.

• We provide community.  We have fun together, we worship together, we serve together.  In a fragmented society, we provide a stable community for many, many people.
  
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Our Church and its teachings

• The Lutheran Church is the largest protestant church in the world with around 60 Million Lutherans.

• The Lutheran Church is the oldest protestant church.  Martin Luther was a simple monk who challenged wrong teachings of the time.  Other churches (Anglican, etc) broke away after Luther.

• Luther didn’t want to start a new church; but reform the existing church.  He was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.  The Roman Catholic church, soon after Luther’s death in 1564, made radical changes similar to what Luther was asking for.

• Luther was angry (as this fiery little German often was!) when others started calling the church the ‘Lutheran church’.  He said, ‘I didn’t die for your sins, I am just mouse $%&$ (censored)”

• The Lutheran Church is: (beware of the barrage of church words!)

• Mainstream.  Even though we are not a well-known church in Australia, we are not fly-by-nighters!

• Orthodox.  We believe and worship in the Triune God (God in 3 persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit). 

• Ecumenical.  We affirm all churches who believe that Jesus is the (only) Son of God.  We enjoy other churches emphases, and insights.  We also aim to respect other faiths without giving up on our own.

• Liturgical.  We are a worshipping community.  We are stronger as community than as a ‘bunch of individuals’.  All Worship services (liturgies) follow a pattern similar to the pattern of Old Testament worship.

• Sacramental.  All churches believe God works in the world.  The Lutheran Church, along with the large majority of Christians believe that God works through the sacraments Baptism and Holy Communion.  We strongly affirm that our God is present in the sacraments.

• Confessional.  This means that we subscribe to certain teachings or confessions.  These include the Apostles creed, Luther’s Catechisms, Augsburg Confession and other writings collated into the 1560 ‘Book of Concord’.  These confessional writings are not higher than the Bible; but are informed by the scriptures, and help us interpret the Bible.

• Theological.  We take theology (knowledge of God) seriously.  Our pastors are all trained theologians (6 year double degree), and we strive to interpret the Bible conscientiously.

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We teach:

• Bible alone: All our teaching is directed by the Bible. 

• Jesus alone. If we are get to heaven by faith in Jesus alone; that means that lifestyle choices, moral mistakes, habits and addictions are not the most important thing in Christianity. We don’t find the need to create ‘cookie cutter’ Christians; but rather enjoy diversity of opinion, faith and personality.

• Faith alone.  Faith in Jesus is the defining matter.  Involvement in church life is a RESPONSE to God, and to be done willingly, not as some people see it, as a path to salvation.

• Grace alone.  We are only accepted by God’s gift, not because any of us deserve it.

• Law / Gospel.  We teach that God has two messages for us.  The most important is that Jesus died so that we can be friends with God (the ‘Gospel’ or Good news).  The second, and secondary is how God wants us to live (the law).  By recognising this distinction we:

• Keep the main thing the main thing.  We humans love rules; and given half a chance we slip back into focusing on the law.

• See all sections of the Bible in context.  When we preach a message that only contains law; we force ourselves to see it through a ‘grace lens’ (as we believe this is simply being true to the overall message of the Bible).  This is why our messages aim to be more ‘grace’ than ‘law’.

• Original Sin. We believe that we are all sinners; and in need of a Saviour. Churches that underplay Original Sin tend to help people ‘fake’ goodness!

• Care for one another.  As fellow sinners, we simply are trying to do the best we can in a tough life!  Life is a journey best taken together!

• Vocation: We teach that each Christian’s work in the world whether as Mother, Father, Prime Minister, Pastor, Missionary, Garbo or Teacher are all equally valid.  If all are equally accepted by God’s grace then there can be no ‘hierarchy’ of vocation. 

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