When Jesus spoke about money and possessions, He urged us to invest in those things that will stand the test of time.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).
Author, Randy Alcorn, writes, “The money God entrusts to us here on Earth is eternal investment capital.” It’s a counter-cultural perspective, but a stunning opportunity: leverage money now, make a difference for forever. In Heaven, we’ll no longer have opportunity to build the Church, leave a generational legacy, or reach cities with the gospel. But now, we can use our money to do good, and in so doing, store up our treasure as a "good foundation for the future" (1 Timothy 6:18-19).
Each year’s Expansion Offering in Calvary is an opportunity to lift our perspective by directing our money toward those things that will stand the test of time. Our generosity helps our campuses to establish a permanent presence in their city, and to develop excellent ministry facilities with which to reach and host their community.
For every individual and family who call Calvary ‘home’, we simply ask that you pray and prepare your heart for Sunday June 9th, just like we’ll be doing in our house, as we all bring a special offering and make faith pledges toward this year’s Expansion Offering. In doing this, we know that together we’ll make a lasting difference in our church and cities for generations to come.
Dustan & Sarah Bell
Senior Pastors
Our Strategy
In late 2009, Calvary began the journey of multi-site church. Now, we are one church, meeting in ten locations across Australia, South Africa, and Papua New Guinea. Over the last 15 years our annual Expansion Offering has been location specific, with finance given directed to meet local facility expenses and improvements.
Having significantly developed the majority of our ministry centres across Calvary campuses, looking ahead, now is the time to adopt a church-wide approach to our Expansion Offering. A driving motivator to this approach is our commitment to planting successful and sustainable Calvary campuses in the years ahead. This commitment to church planting coincides with a cultural moment in which government and municipal groups are less inclined to open community facilities to organisations who subscribe to a classical Christian worldview.
Therefore, successful and sustainable church planting will require ownership of land and facilities. A vision to plant churches, without an equal commitment to acquire property, is short-sighted. To produce fruit, and fruit that remains (John 15:16), we must embrace the challenge to help Calvary campuses both at home and abroad, to possess land and build ministry centres.
From June 2024, our Expansion Offering will fund the development of ministry facilities church-wide. Giving as one, we will accelerate progress in our less established campuses, provide permanence and stability for new campuses, all the while continuing to improve our existing campus facilities. It’s a missional, large hearted, and future minded approach.
Our Objectives
To continue the forward progress and development of our ministry centres, from July 2024 to June 2025, we’re believing to:
Lease & fit out Port Moresby facility – Having launched Calvary Port Moresby in April 2024, now hundreds of people in PNG’s capital city call Calvary ‘home’. Currently our Port Moresby congregation gathers each Sunday in a rented hotel function, which is adequate but provides neither stability or permanence. Our desire is to locate, lease and fit out a suitable facility from which Calvary Port Moresby can continue to strengthen and grow.
Lease & fit out Yeppoon facility – Calvary owns a significant parcel of land just minutes from the centre of Yeppoon. As one of the fastest growing centres in the Capricorn Coast, we see the need to construct a purpose-built ministry centre on our land, to ensure Calvary Yeppoon is poised to influence the city for years to come. Sunday services currently run in Yeppoon Primary School; however, this facility has become unsuitable. Our next step is to secure expanded floorspace in our leased Calvary Yeppoon hub, provide a suitable facility to run Sunday services and midweek ministry initiatives while we prepare to construct our permanent ministry centre.
Expand Sunshine Coast workspace & group office hub – In 2019, Calvary completed a significant upgrade to our Sunshine Coast facility, however the final stage is yet to be completed. Our desire is to complete this fit out, creating workspace for our growing communications and church-wide ministry team who work from Calvary Sunshine Coast to serve our network of campuses.
Develop East London carpark & upgrade equipment – Having now paid off our upgraded facility entrance, our next stage of development in East London is to level, seal and landscape the Moore St car park. This will provide safe, secure and weather-proof parking for our congregation for our Sunday services and ministry events.
Reduce loan principal by $1 million AUD – Since 2017 we have completed $22 million AUD of development to our ministry facilities, including the purchase of new properties, upgrade of existing facilities, and expansion of ministry centres, creating space to reach our cities and house our growing church family. We now have a bank debt of just $3.9 million (as at May 2024). Our desire is to reduce the loan principal as quickly as possible, to limit interest payments and position our church to take advantage of future opportunities.
Our Responsibility
It’s our desire to own property and develop ministry centres in every city Calvary has opportunity to establish a campus. The Church is not a building, it’s people. But the Church does need buildings to effectively carry out its mission. By owning and developing ministry facilities:
We provide stability for a local congregation to flourish and grow.
We become ‘the head and not the tail’, meaning the church is not subject to the constraints and coercion of landlords.
We make a visible statement to the community, that the church in the city is here to stay.
We enhance our mission by creating an environment in which people can know Jesus, find community and make a difference.
We are resourced to facilitate mid-week ministry initiatives to reach and equip people at all life-stages.
We leave an inheritance for our children, passing the next generation assets rather than mortgages.
