Who We Are
We are a growing family church from different backgrounds. We are a church where you can find a place to BELONG, get to know God and who we are in Him; and find ways that we can live for Him in our families, neighbourhoods, workplaces and in the world around us.
Our Vision
Dig Deeper
▪︎ Into our understanding of God
▪︎ Into the Bible
Go Deeper
▪︎ In our faith
▪︎ In our Worship
▪︎ In our Prayer Life
Fall Deeper
▪︎ Into God’s Grace
▪︎ In our love for God and others
▪︎ In the life God has for us
Grow Deeper
▪︎ In Maturity
▪︎ In our Fellowship
▪︎ In our Mission
Our Values
Knowing God – Our ultimate goal in all we do is to know God better. It frames our vision and is seen played out as we “do” church together
People – Our church is made up of the people who attend and not the building itself. We welcome people from all stages of life, babies through to Grandparents and whether you come by yourself or you bring a bus full. You can find a home with us no matter where you are at in your faith journey, just checking Jesus out to someone who is desiring to grow deeper. We love joining together and supporting people at the all the roller coaster moments that life brings. We especially love families so there is no need to worry if you have little ones. We love to have them here.
Bible – We are a Bible-believing, Bible-based and Bible-teaching church. The Bible is the foundational authority for our faith and practice.
Discipleship – We are dedicated to developing and multiplying fully devoted disciples with Christ-like attitudes, values and lifestyles; Disciples who are passionate about Jesus, people and the Great Commission.
Involvement – We are ALL called to come and serve God together and this is a big part of who we are. Whether it is serving in a variety of ways in our local church or being equipped to serve in your family, workplace or local community. We want all who attend to understand “WHAT’S YOUR MINISTRY” and be empowered to do it.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Wesleyans believe in one God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the Saviour of all who put their faith in Him alone for eternal life.
We believe that those who are made new in Christ are called to be holy in character and conduct, and can only live this way by being filled with the Lord’s Spirit.
We believe in the Bible and its sufficiency to establish our faith and conduct.
We believe God wills for people everywhere to know Him and be made new in Christ.
We believe that the purpose of the Church is to worship God in spirit and in truth, and to reach a lost and fallen world with the gospel of Jesus Christ through its worship, witness, and loving deeds.
The following are terms descriptive of who Wesleyans are and why they do what they do. They describe the “soul of the Church”:
BIBLICAL AUTHORITY: The Bible is God’s holy Word. It uniquely and infallibly reveals God’s plan for His people and how to live out that plan, individually and corporately. Beliefs, practices, priorities, and our mission are to be anchored in clear biblical teachings.
CHRISTLIKENESS: Jesus Christ is the defining feature of God’s will and relationship with all humankind. In Christ is found both newness of life and the highest and clearest example for godliness. People made new in Christ find Him to be the source of faith, hope, and love in both the inner life and in our outward actions engaging a world desperate for hope and life.
DISCIPLE-MAKING: Making disciples is a clear mandate from Christ. This requires a strong missional focus on evangelism and training in spiritual growth and holy living. Done effectively, this will produce and promote growth and health in and among the churches.
LOCAL CHURCH CENTRED: The denomination exists to help local congregations grow and multiply, be more healthy, and more authentically reflect God’s plan. Local churches are the most fundamental and strategic points of evangelism and discipleship. The challenge of the denomination is to keep finding the best ways to serve, strengthen, and multiply congregations.
SERVANT LEADERSHIP: Wesleyans respect leadership that is placed over them, while realising that the authority and effectiveness of spiritual leadership is not primarily bestowed, but earned, and is characterised by a loving and willing heart of obedience that serves God and mankind gladly. Wesleyans desire to be leaders in serving.
UNITY IN DIVERSITY: There is intrinsic value in every person. Biblical unity becomes all the more important and beautiful in the light of the wide-ranging differences in personalities, cultures, races, languages, talents, and perspectives. Finding unity and mutual love in Christ eliminates devaluation and deprivation of life to one another.
OUR HISTORY
Pastor David Brownless started the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Rockhampton at the request of two families who left a message on Pastor David answering machine. The first service was held at the North Rockhampton Primary School Library on the third Sunday in October 1980. During the church growing they moved through a number of locations before coming to the Baptist Church in Lakes Creek. This building ended up being purchased in remarkable way and the Rocky Wesleyan Church started to begin its presence in the local community. Over the many years the church has been here, there has been a number of ministers who have served faithfully in the church and local community. Through the church there has been great opportunities to establish ministry work with Indigenous and Fijian communities as well as children and families throughout the local area. The church continues to work in ways to be a part of the local community in conjunction with the local school and local chaplains.
OUR TEAM
Keith Rose
Senior Pastor
About Pastor Keith
Keith joined the church in 2011 and has been pastoring here since that time. Keith has served previously in a variety of roles including youth and chaplaincy and pastoring in Brisbane for a number of years. He is passionate seeing people equipped and free to serve God. He is married to Elizabeth who works in Education and together they have 4 children; Tessa, Noah, Charlotte and Caleb. Keith has a variety of interests including Lego, camping, snorkelling and spending time with his family. His favourite bible verse growing up was 1 Timothy 4:12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” He is not as young he would like now but this verse is both an encouragement and challenge to the life we are all called to live.
CHURCH LEADERSHIP
Tony James
Treasurer
Bert Bunney
Secretary
Michael Ware
Parveena Ruben
Robyn Covington
WHAT IS A WESLEYAN?
We are a gathering of local churches and ministries from around Australia serving together under the umbrella of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia. We find our roots dating back to John Wesley who was a key component of 18th Century revivals in England. His desire was to spread the message of Scriptural Holiness around the world. This is our mandate today. From these beginnings came the ‘Holiness Movement’ and at its heart is the message of perfect love, which is to love God with all our heart, with all our mind and with all our strength and our neighbour as our self. (Mark 12:30-31 NIV)
We, the Wesleyan Methodists of Australia, are a part of a wider church that is connected together under the name, the Wesleyan Church. We are now found in over 80 nations. In 2011, worldwide Sunday morning worship attendance was 475,000 persons in more than 5,000 congregations. Worldwide total membership was 368,000.
In 1946, the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia was officially formed in Melbourne under the leadership of Kingsley Ridgway. While the initial beginnings were slow, we have now spread across the country with around 95 churches. Our people come from a variety of backgrounds, cultures and communities. While we do celebrate our diversity, we also acknowledge the values that hold us together – such as our love for the word of God, the bible, our commitment to Christlikeness, our passion for disciple-making, and our call to servant leadership.
The message we share is a message we are experiencing everyday.
It is a message of hope, it is the message of love, and it is the message of life.
It is the message of Christ and the Cross.