About Us

Churches of Christ in NSW, Australia and the world

Chatswood Church of Christ is part of a larger structure of associated churches in NSW and Australia. Each church is independent but retains key features such as the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper (communion). There is also an international umbrella organisation known as World Convention which connects us to our international church family. The next Global Gathering of associated churches will be held in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil from July 25-29, 2012.

Partnerships and Ministries

Chatswood Church of Christ is involved in national co-operative ministries such as Global Mission Partners (formerly the Australian Churches of Christ Overseas Mission Board), the Churches of Christ Theological College and the Australian Churches of Christ Indigenous Ministries.

We also participate and contribute to local community ministries such as StreetWork and REACH - High School ministry.

Please note, we are not affiliated with the Church Of Christ Scientist & Christian Science Reading Rooms bookstore.

Every church needs a leadership structure to function. The NT scriptures use a number of terms apostle, pastor, evangelist, teacher, along with elder, overseer and deacon.

There is no passage that says this is how you are to structure a church. There are however a number of scriptures that refer to the character of a leader. There are also a few passages that list spiritual gifts and some of these are likely in leaders.

As a consequence the way churches structure themselves varies but frequently there are two areas of leadership that revolve around the role of deacon and elder.

Within the structure there is also a balance of power between the leadership and the partners. Some churches have most of the control and power with the leaders and the people having little say. Other churches have the people with more power. Churches of Christ have leaders accountable back to the people. This accountability is through partners meetings.

In theory it is everyone who is responsible to discern the will of God, where Jesus is Lord of the church. In practice the way this is worked out is often dynamic, sometime with initiative from the partners and at other times from the leaders.

Some churches debate whether women should be in leadership. In the NT it would seem that there were churches where women were deacons, which may be surprising given the male dominated society in which the church was birthed. In this church we have women in leadership.

The Chatswood Church of Christ established a new leadership structure during the intentional interim period (2007- 09).

Senior Pastor

Dennis Long

Dennis and Rosalie Long came from New Zealand at the beginning of 2010 to become the senior pastor with us.

Dennis has lead three churches in New Zealand spanning 30 years. They have two sons both of whom are married. One is in Sydney, and the other currently in Montreal, Canada. There are five grand-daughters; four in Sydney.

Children's Worker

Sarah Hallam

Sarah Hallam joined us in 2011 as our children’s worker. This is a part-time role that will be focussed on our community children’s programme that is on a Sunday afternoon.

Pastoral Team

Rosalie Rofe, Mitchell Blyth & Ying Ng

The Pastoral Team consists of the senior pastor, and other pastors, and a minimum of four other partners.

This pastoral team is responsible for the spiritual oversight and leadership of the church. The pastoral team is accountable to the church by way of partners meetings and through their appointment being ratified at the Annual General Meeting.

Appointment is for two years and the terms are offset a year so that two new members are appointed each year.

This team oversees the vision of the church. It considers the different aspects of the church as a whole. New directions will be ratified at the AGM by way of support for the budget. However it is anticipated that there would also be communication through a partners meeting for fuller discussion and endorsement. Currently they will also lead a number of special prayer times through the year.

The Pastoral Team also have responsibility to the church for ensuring that the finances are maintained in line with the budget adopted at the AGM.

If you have concerns of a general nature about the direction of the church, current emphasis, then you should see a Pastoral Team member.

Church Administrator

Jana Horton

The church employs a church administrator who is responsible for the financial and administration areas. This person is a member of the ministry team forum.