Church Planting In Australia with the Seric's

Planting Plans!

I am very grateful to God and excited to announce that we are working towards planting another church!

Over 13 years ago Dave and Emma Taylor came from the UK to plant Sovereign Grace Church Sydney, 9 years on from that, Riley and Maddie Spring were sent out with a team to plant Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, and now we are hoping, by God’s grace, to send out Joel and Jamie Seric to plant a church in the next couple of years. Joel and Jamie, with their children Amaliah and Tobias, and foster child (who can’t be named or shown) are members of Sovereign Grace Parramatta, joining our church plant on week 2!

The Story

It’s always been our prayer as SG AUS and as local churches to be raising up pastors and planters, which is why we started the ‘Pastors and Planters Academy’ in 2022 to help create a pathway for that to actually become a reality. Joel Seric was one of the men who stepping into that program. He took a leap of faith by reducing their single income family to only 4 days of pay rather than full-time so that he could investigate his calling into Pastoral Ministry.

Over the year it seemed clear to myself and the team that Joel is a man fit and able for Pastoral Ministry, and in Jamie he has an excellent helper for the task, along with their wonderful kids. So Joel continued in 2023 with a Pastoral Internship leading in our Maturity and Membership spheres at church as well as establishing and running our Youth program, G2G.

After our Together Conference in July with Mark Prater, we had a meeting with the Pastors and Interns from our churches to pray about and dream about our future as SG Aus. Mark had shared in this meeting about the need for risk taking and the need for leaders to believe in faith that God will bless us, “God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!” (Psalm 67:7), and so I asked in light of that “what do you see as the future of SG Churches Australia?” We went around the room and various guys shared great thoughts and then we came to Joel Seric who said, “I don’t usually do things like this but…I believe the Lord may be calling me to step out and plant a church!” There was a pause in the room as we took it in. And then there was a sense of joy, even just in Joel’s willingness to step out and put himself forward, knowing all the hardship and sacrifice that will come. We prayed over him and said we’d now have to go away and think about it and discern that calling.

And I am glad to say, that after discussions and planning, we have a faith to go ahead and plan for Joel and Jamie to step out, raise a team, and plant a Church, if it be God’s will!

Pastors College 2024/25

To help them in this task, we have decided that the next best training step will be for them to go to the Pastor’s College in Louisville Kentucky, where Dave and I went. This is a 10 Month program, starting Sep 2024, designed with rigorous theological education, geared toward true Pastoral ministry, focused on life, character and family development, all in the context of an amazing local church. It’s a big step to move to the U.S. for 10 months and I am so grateful for the faith of Team Seric to do it!

The Future

In terms of timelines, locations, teams, for the Church Plant, that’s all a bit too far off to be concrete. But we could envision that when they arrive back in June 2025, that they will be ready to start gathering a team, Joel to complete his ordination, and be preparing to plant! At this stage we do have a location in mind: Blacktown, just 20 minutes from SG Parra and 30-40 minutes from SG Wahroonga. This is not set in stone, we want to be led where the Lord wants us to go. But I mention it so that perhaps some of you will begin to start praying and thinking about it!

Prayer Requests

Please be praying for the Seric’s (Joel, Jamie, Amaliah, Tobias) as they prepare themselves for this process of training, ordination, and deployment.

Please be praying for their financial provision, spiritual protection, marriage and family stability, and their joy in the Lord

Please be praying for myself as I seek to lead them through this process, along with Dave and Brendan.

Please be praying to raise up more Seric’s! We need more pastors, more planters, and more members who are willing to go all in for Jesus…maybe it will be you one day!