Missions
God has called and charged His Church to be light in the darkness. This is the commission of our Lord. Mission is not a program! It is His call to the church to go and make disciples, to be His hands and feet that present the Kingdom to this hurting and broken world. At Southland Church we understand this and are fully focused on building God’s kingdom, loving others and putting Him first in their lives. Mission is His story of love, hope, mercy and grace that we, His church, share on a local, national and global scale.
SCHOOL of LEADERSHIP and THEOLOGY
SOLT is our partner training stream for those who are called to church planting, church leadership or further accredited studies. As well as providing some scholarships for candidates within our own church body, Southland Church provides scholarships through SOLT for many emerging and current church leaders across a variety of Christian churches and nations on the African continent (pictures below). SOLT provides Certificate and Advanced Certificate studies in theology and leadership that is both ‘Kingdom of God’ focused and Bible based. SOLT has an accredited partnership with the South African Theological Seminary. This will ensure that leaders and church planters who complete the Advanced Leadership programme at Academic Level can enter the Bachelor of Theology (B.Th.) degree and/or the Masters in Missional Leadership (M.ML) from Trinity Bible College in the USA and be awarded recognition of prior learning for their studies. Through this mission, Southland Church is partnering with other churches to help take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
GIA Church in Indonesia
Through our relationship with a GIA church in Indonesia, Southland Church helps equip our brothers and sisters to be the hands and feet of Christ. Food, medical assistance and other basic needs are provided to the needy in the community through the love of Christ.
EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLIES
Jesus commands us to “love our neighbours as ourselves.” At Southland Church, we take this mandate seriously. Through the Southland Church site, we distribute food and other essential items to those in need within the community. We also partner with other Christian organisations to help equip them to reach out and be the hands and feet of Jesus across a wider sphere in Adelaide. Such partners include the Schools Ministry Group and the School Chaplaincy program that brings assistance into the local state primary and secondary schools.
GENESIS PREGNANCY SUPPORT
Genesis Pregnancy Support is a Christian organisation in Adelaide that offers practical, emotional and counselling support to women or girls who are experiencing an unplanned or unsupported pregnancy, including the provision of affordable baby gear for mums and families who are experiencing financial difficulty. Genesis also provides post abortion counselling and a recovery retreat for women who are struggling after an abortion. Partnering with Genesis Pregnancy Support, Southland Church provides prayer and financial support to reach this vulnerable group. Several women from the church offer their services as volunteers to help staff the Genesis shop while others volunteer as house assistants to help staff the Embrace and Emerge retreat weekends.
ENGAGE WORK FAITH
Southland Church is known as ‘Southland Church in the Marketplace’. Although we live in a globalised world, the local marketplace remains an important part of our mission. We believe work and faith are connected, overlapping circles that help integrate people. Engage, Work, Faith is an organisation that exists to engage people in their workplaces in South Australia with the good news of Jesus Christ. By partnering with Engage, Work, Faith through prayer, financial support and church members belonging to the organisation, Southland Church can participate in the wider mission to reach the lost in the workplace with the gospel of Christ.
COMPASSION
Our partnership with Compassion helps us to equip the church and reach into the heart of child poverty through the love of Jesus. Compassion is Christ centred, Child focused and Church based. Its mandate is to provide holistic assistance that supports the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of the child and their community. Our church sponsors children in Peru, the Philippines and Indonesia; the latter two being future destinations for Southland Church mission trips as these relationships deepen. Southland Church also encourages church members to individually support Compassion as a ministry. At present, Southland Church and its members sponsor over 50 children and their families across Africa, Asia and South America.
