COMMUNITY CHURCH
Community Church + Collective
Our SHAPE: We are ONE Church expressing itself through multiplying Community Churches
The shape of Divergent will continue to be ONE Church expressing itself through multiplying community based and focused Churches.
What we will be doing in 2027 will not be the creation of a new model. It will be a return to this part of our DNA more closely, strengthening the community expression of who we have always believed God has called us to be.
Our rhythm of Community Church, Collective and ONE will be one of the ways we will increasingly live this out.
Community Church: where we will be Church in community
Imagine a community that meets as family.
Imagine a Sunday family brunch where children, young people and adults will sit around the same table and participate together. Community Church will be intentionally intergenerational, not separating generations from one another, but creating a place where the whole family of God will learn, worship, pray and live on mission together.
Collective will gather the community churches together and there will be a forward facing sense of praise and worship, word and witness, with key 'in - generation' communities with Kids and Youth. This will allow us to concentrate these gifts and efforts.
In Community Church we will naturally move from welcome and connection, into the Word being opened and discussed together each gathering.
As we respond to the Word, we will worship simply and with focus, creating room for prayer and the prophetic. Our worship will not be a separate moment but a natural response to what God will be saying and doing among us.
From our worship, we will naturally flow into witness, praying for our neighbours and the nations, discerning where God will be sending us and looking for ways to participate in His mission.
Community Church will be simple, relational and participatory.
We will gather around the table, around the Word and around the presence of God.
This rhythm will also create room for multiplication.
In North and City PM, the fortnightly rhythm will create space and capacity to multiply Community Churches.
In Queanbeyan, City and South, we will consider multiplying into focused Community Churches that will come together with the wider Church for Collective every fortnight.
This will continue and strengthen our community focus by re anchoring in Tuggeranong and the Weston / Woden regions, while guaranteeing that our community foundation in Queanbeyan and passion will remain strong.
What You Can Expect at a Divergent Community Church
A Community Church is more than another meeting in the week. It is the Church family coming together in a more local way to be the Church.
It is a community learning to live the way of Jesus together — sharing life, opening Scripture, praying, breaking bread, caring for one another and joining God's mission in the world.
In Acts 2:42–47, the early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. They ate together in their homes, worshipped God with glad and sincere hearts, cared for one another and lived in such a way that others were drawn into the life of the community.
That simple pattern shapes what you can expect when you join a Community Church.
WHERE WELCOME IS CENTRAL
There will be food.
Sometimes it will be a proper meal around a table. Sometimes it might be something simple shared in a home, a community space or wherever we happen to gather.
We eat because meals have always been part of the way God's people share life. Jesus ate with people. The early church ate together. Around a table, conversations happen, relationships deepen and people who might otherwise remain strangers begin to become friends.
So don't expect to simply arrive, sit in rows and leave.
Expect to share food. Expect conversation. Expect to make room for someone else at the table.
And sometimes, as we eat together, we will come around the Lord's Table — remembering Jesus, his death and resurrection, and the new community he has created through him.
“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
Acts 2:46 (NIV)
WE WILL LISTEN TO THE WORD TOGETHER
The Bible won't simply be something that was preached on Sunday.
One of the team will bring a short word and then we will open it together.
We will listen to what God has said, think about what it means and talk honestly about how it intersects with our lives.
There will be room for questions.
There will be room for honest conversation but there will also be an expectation that God's Word forms us.
We don't gather simply to become more informed Christians. We want to become people who hear Jesus and put his words into practice.
Expect the Bible to be opened.
Expect to discuss it.
Expect to be encouraged and challenged.
And expect what we discover in Scripture to lead us towards obedience.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42 (NIV)
WE WILL WORSHIP AND PRAY
Prayer won't be an afterthought.
We will pray for one another, for our families, for people we know who don't yet follow Jesus, for our communities and for the world.
We believe God is present and active. We believe he still answers prayer, brings healing, gives wisdom, changes lives and works in ways we cannot see.
We will also take time to worship — sometimes through singing, sometimes through thanksgiving, testimony, communion, Scripture or simply turning our attention towards God together.
We want to become people whose worship isn't confined to a gathering.
Expect to pray. Expect others to pray for you. Expect to encounter God and to learn to recognise his activity in your ordinary life.
WE WILL CONSIDER OUR WITNESS
A Community Church doesn't exist simply for the people who are already there.
As we gather, we will regularly ask:
Who has God placed around us?
Who are we being called to love?
Where is God already at work?
What might obedience look like?
Sometimes that will mean thinking about our own street, neighbourhood, workplace or local community.
Sometimes it will mean considering what God is doing elsewhere in Australia or around the world.
We will pray for people who don't yet know Jesus. We will look for opportunities to serve. We will consider how we can share the good news. And we will listen for where God might be sending us.
Mission isn't simply something another part of the church does.
Every disciple has a place in God's witness.
Our community gathers us, but it also sends us.
WE WILL SHARE LIFE
Ultimately, Community Church is about more than what happens during the gathering.
We want to know one another.
We want to notice when someone is struggling.
We want to celebrate when someone flourishes.
We want to carry one another through difficult seasons.
We want to welcome people who are new and make space for people who are still figuring out what they believe.
Acts describes a church where faith was visible in the way people lived with one another — eating together, praying together, sharing what they had and caring for those in need.
That is the kind of community we want to become.
Not perfect.
Not polished.
But present.
A people who are learning to follow Jesus together.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
So when you come to a Community Church, expect something fairly simple:
We will eat together.
We will open the Bible together, listen together and discuss what it means for our lives.
We will pray and worship together.
We will come around the Lord's Table and remember Jesus together.
We will care for one another and make room for others.
And we will consider together how God is calling us to live as witnesses — in our neighbourhoods and across the nations.
This is not simply a meeting to attend.
It is a community to belong to.
A people learning the way of Jesus.
And a people being sent into the world he loves.
COMMUNITY CHURCH FRAMEWORK
Divergent Community Churches are about becoming the Church together, not simply attending Church together.
These are a space where we gather around food, Scripture, worship, prayer and one another. We want to create communities where people are known, generations connect, faith can be shared honestly, and everyone can participate.
We gather around the Word, talk about what God is saying, respond in worship, share Communion, pray for one another and then go back into our neighbourhoods to live as the Church.
It may look simpler than a Collective Sunday, but it is not less Church.
It is Church expressed through community.
Our hope is that these gatherings become places where disciples are formed, leaders are raised, people are welcomed, neighbours are reached and new communities can emerge.
We don't simply want to gather people into Church.
We want to become a people who are the Church wherever God has placed us.
Example Shape. The times need not be rigid, but the idea of flow and focus is helpful. Context, the community itself will all naturally come into focus.
Time Element Purpose / Focus
0:00–0:15 Welcome + Eating Hospitality, food, conversation
0:15–0:25 Word 10-minute biblical reflection – people can eat
0:25–0:45 Discussion Engage Scripture together
0:45–1:00 Worship Respond in worship, prayer and the Spirit
1:00–1:15 Communion Centre on Jesus’ death and resurrection
1:15–1:27 Prayer Ministry, encouragement, healing and intercession
1:27–1:30 Witness / World Turn outward towards mission locally and globally
1. Welcome + Eating — 15 - 20 minutes
Food is central to the building of community itself.
People arrive, eat, talk and connect.
The leader doesn't need to rush everyone into "service mode". The relational environment is already part of the ministry, it is Church.
2. Word — 10 minutes
This is deliberately short.
A key leader gives a focused biblical reflection — perhaps one passage, one theological idea and one invitation to respond.
People can continue eating during this.
That actually reinforces something important:
The Word is being shared in the context of community rather than being presented as a sermon performance.
3. Discussion — 20 minutes
Now the room becomes interactive.
For example:
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What stood out to you?
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What does this show us about Jesus?
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What do you think God might be saying to us?
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What would obedience look like this week?
This is where the 10-minute Word becomes shared formation, rather than simply information. Forms of discussion such as DBS etc can all be actively embraced.
The goal is that where possible, all ages participate. Naturally the very youngest may struggle so room will need to be created for them but the goal is intergenerational community.
4. Responsive Worship
The worship leader can actually respond to what has emerged.
That might mean:
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singing one or two songs connected to the theme
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spontaneous worship
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Scripture
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thanksgiving
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silence
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prayer
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prophetic encouragement
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testimony
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responding through physical posture
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praying for a particular need
So the worship doesn't need to be a fully predetermined 15-minute set.
It becomes responsive worship.
The question becomes:
"Having heard God's Word and listened to one another, how do we now respond to Jesus?"
5. Communion
Then Communion becomes the centre of the gathering.
We eat together → hear the Word → discuss → respond in worship → come to the Table.
And at the Table we remember that everything centres on Jesus.
6. Prayer for One Another
From Communion, move naturally into ministry.
"Who needs prayer?"
"Who can we encourage?"
"What are we believing God for?"
People pray for one another in twos, threes or small groups.
This should feel natural.
7. Witness / Sending — 3 minutes – A short encouragement / news and prayer about witness local and global
Finish with a very simple outward orientation:
Who is God sending us to this week?
Where are we going to be the Church this week?
Short commissioning prayer and you're done.
QUESTIONS
WHERE?
The goal would be atleast 20 people in each Sunday gathering. This naturally lends itself to small venues that are community focused. There is still value in public spaces as this allows an easier open door but well positioned homes should also be a possibility. It also allows the community to be more naturally connected to its wider community if public and open the door to new people seeking a more intimate style community initially.
WHEN?
For practical reasons a consistent time with Collective Sunday would be wise, given this is a different rhythm, it does create more disruption. That said, times can be a point of discussion.
WHAT ABOUT…?
What about…the possibility some may ‘choose’ the Collective or a Community Church but not both. The short answer is that initially this is very possible, but such will be specifically spoke against. Part of the point is enabling the breadth of expression in the church community. We believe that both these expressions together will create more effective and healthy disciples and community.
What about…Kids and Youth? Whilst the goal will be to have specific Kids and Youth community at Collective, the goal in Community Church will be intentionally intergenerational. Continually, studies show that the separation of kids and youth from the wider community experience leads to many walking away as they feel no sense of belonging to the wider community. Conversely, we understand that kids and youth are walking in unique stages of life and require peers and intentional discipleship to equip and empower them.
Community Church Leader and team
Purpose of the Role
The Community Church Leader is responsible for cultivating a healthy, multiplying community of disciples who live the life and mission of Jesus together.
The leader is not primarily the person who does all the ministry. This is an important starting point. The Community Church Pastor does not exist to do all the work, but rather be part of the team that releases others.
Their primary responsibility is to help build, develop, empower and galvanise a team so that the Community Church can carry its pastoral, missional, relational and discipleship responsibilities together.
The Community Church Leader helps creates the environment in which people can belong, become disciples, discover their contribution and participate in the mission of God.
A significant part of this is ensuring that pastoral care and relational engagement are carried through the community itself, particularly through LifeCom leaders.
1. Lead the Community
The Community Church Leader provides overall leadership and direction for the local Community Church.
They:
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Hold the vision and purpose of Divergent in the form of the Community Church.
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Help the community remain centred on Jesus and aligned with the wider Divergent Church.
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Establish healthy rhythms of gathering, community, discipleship, prayer and mission.
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Create an environment where people are known, welcomed and able to participate.
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Discern what the community needs in its present season.
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Keep the community moving toward mission rather than allowing it to become simply a gathering or social group.
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Ensure that pastoral, relational and missional engagement is actually happening throughout the community.
The leader is ultimately responsible for the health and direction of the community, but does not need to personally carry every aspect of its ministry.
2. Build and Lead the Team
The most important responsibility of the Community Church Leader is to lead the team.
The leader, together with wider support ensures that the right people are identified, equipped, encouraged and released into ministry.
This means:
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Identifying people with leadership potential.
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Helping people discover their particular contribution.
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Building trust and healthy relationships within the team.
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Clarifying responsibilities and expectations.
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Developing emerging leaders.
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Creating opportunities for people to take responsibility.
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Ensuring ministry does not become dependent upon one person.
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Regularly reviewing the health and effectiveness of the team.
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Ensuring LifeCom leaders are supported and equipped to carry pastoral and relational responsibility.
The leader should continually ask:
“Who needs to be equipped to carry this?”
rather than:
“How can I do this myself?”
A successful Community Church Leader therefore becomes increasingly multiplicative, not increasingly indispensable.
3. LifeCom Leadership and Pastoral Engagement
LifeCom leaders are a particularly important expression of the pastoral and engagement posture of a Community Church.
The Community Church Leader ensures that LifeCom leaders are:
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identified;
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equipped;
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encouraged;
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supported;
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connected to one another;
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released to lead;
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developed as disciples and disciple-makers.
LifeCom leaders help ensure that people are genuinely known rather than simply counted as attendees.
They provide much of the relational environment in which people are:
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welcomed;
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cared for;
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followed up;
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discipled;
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encouraged;
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prayed for;
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connected into community;
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encouraged towards mission.
The Community Church Leader therefore does not become the pastoral bottleneck.
They provide oversight, development and support to the LifeCom leaders, while enabling those leaders to carry the everyday pastoral and relational engagement of the community.
This creates a distributed pastoral culture rather than a personality-dependent one.
4. Carry the Five-Fold Imagination Through the Team
The Community Church team as part of the wider Church family should particularly seek to embody the Pastoral, Supernatural, Missional and Biblical Focuses.
Rather than requiring the Community Church Leader to embody every ministry gift, the leader helps the team recognise and release different emphases.
These can be expressed as:
Relational — Pastoral
People who naturally notice, care for, encourage and walk alongside others.
LifeCom leaders will often be particularly significant in carrying this emphasis.
They help the community become a place where people are genuinely known and cared for.
Supernatural — Prophetic
People who cultivate attentiveness to the Holy Spirit, prayer, discernment, spiritual gifts and the expectation that God is actively speaking and acting.
Missional — Evangelistic
People who naturally look outward, notice people of peace, build bridges with those beyond the church and help the community engage its neighbourhood and networks.
Biblical — Teaching
People who help the community understand Scripture, think biblically and translate biblical truth into faithful obedience.
The Community Church Leader's responsibility is not to personally perform all five functions.
It is to ensure that the team collectively carries this breadth.
The Global dimension will natural carry throughout and motivation but the emphasis carried at a wider level.
5. Pastoral
The Community Church should be a genuinely pastoral community.
The leadership team ensures that:
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People are known and cared for.
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New people are welcomed and followed up.
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People experiencing difficulty are noticed.
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Appropriate pastoral support is provided.
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People are connected to others rather than becoming dependent upon the leader.
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Significant pastoral situations are escalated appropriately when required.
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The community develops a culture of mutual care.
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LifeCom leaders are actively carrying relational and pastoral engagement.
The leader doesn't have to personally pastor everyone.
They create a community and team in which people are pastorally cared for.
The pastoral health of the Community Church should therefore be evident through its people and LifeComs, not merely through access to its Community Church Leader.
6. Missional
The Community Church exists for more than itself.
The leader helps the community continually look outward.
This includes:
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Helping people identify their mission fields.
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Encouraging relationships with neighbours, colleagues, friends and family.
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Identifying opportunities for local community engagement.
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Encouraging evangelism and invitation.
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Helping people recognise people of peace.
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Connecting local mission with the wider mission of Divergent.
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Keeping a global imagination within the local community.
The question isn't simply:
“How do we get more people to our gathering?”
It is:
“How is God already at work around us, and how can we join him?”
7. Personal and Relational
Community Church is fundamentally relational.
The leader helps cultivate a culture where people:
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Know one another.
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Share meals and life together.
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Pray for one another.
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Carry one another's burdens.
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Celebrate together.
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Welcome outsiders.
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Develop genuine friendships.
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Move beyond gathering attendance into shared life.
LifeCom leaders are particularly important in making this culture tangible.
The Community Church Leader models this culture, equips others to carry it and ensures that people are not left on the margins.
The goal is community that reproduces community.
8. Discipleship
The Community Church Leader is concerned with goal that people are actually becoming disciples of Jesus.
The leader ensures that discipleship doesn't become simply attendance at a Bible discussion.
People should increasingly become:
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grounded in Scripture;
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prayerful;
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obedient to Jesus;
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relationally mature;
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missionally engaged;
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capable of discipling others.
LifeComs can provide an important relational context for this development.
The leader therefore looks for movement, not merely participation.
9. Gatherings
The Community Church gathering should reflect the life of the community rather than becoming a miniature traditional Sunday service.
The leader helps the team create gatherings that make space for:
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shared meals;
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conversation;
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Scripture;
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discussion;
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prayer;
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worship;
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the Lord's Table;
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testimony;
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pastoral care;
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mission and witness.
The exact form can vary according to the community.
The principle is that the gathering serves the community rather than the community existing to produce a gathering.
10. Connection to the Wider Divergent Church
A Community Church is genuinely local while remaining part of one church.
The leader therefore maintains connection with the wider Divergent Church through:
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shared vision and values;
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leadership relationships;
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common discipleship pathways;
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collective gatherings and rhythms;
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shared mission;
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communication;
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appropriate accountability;
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participation in the wider church's life.
The Community Church Leader also forms part of the wider Pastoral Leadership Team of the Collective.
This provides a genuine connection between the pastoral life of individual Community Churches and the wider Collective.
However, being part of the Pastoral Leadership Team does not mean the Community Church Leader must always be a key front person within the Collective.
They may contribute pastorally, relationally and strategically without being:
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a primary public face of the Collective;
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responsible for organising the Collective;
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the person coordinating every wider-church initiative;
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required to carry a major central leadership portfolio.
Their primary leadership responsibility remains their Community Church and its people.
They contribute to the wider Pastoral Leadership Team according to their capacity, gifting and the needs of the
Collective.
This allows the Collective to benefit from the pastoral wisdom and experience of Community Church Leaders without turning every Community Church Leader into a central organiser or public leader.
11. Develop Leaders
A major measure of the leader's effectiveness is whether new leaders are emerging.
The leader should continually identify people who can:
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lead others;
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facilitate community;
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disciple people;
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pastor;
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teach;
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pray;
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evangelise;
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lead mission;
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carry responsibility;
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eventually lead another community.
This particularly includes developing LifeCom leaders who can increasingly carry pastoral and missional responsibility.
The Community Church should therefore have a leadership pipeline rather than a single leader at the centre.
The leader's ministry is partly measured by who they release.
12.
A healthy Community Church Leader should eventually be able to point to a community where:
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people are known and cared for;
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LifeCom leaders are actively carrying pastoral and relational engagement;
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people are becoming devoted disciples of Jesus;
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Scripture is shaping people's lives;
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prayer and worship are normal;
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meals and relationships are central;
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the Lord's Table is honoured;
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people are engaging their neighbourhoods and the nations;
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different ministry emphases are functioning through the team;
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new leaders are emerging;
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responsibility is distributed rather than centralised;
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the Community Church contributes appropriately to the wider Pastoral Leadership Team;
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the Community Church Leader is not required to be the central pastoral figure for every person;
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the community can continue to flourish without everything depending upon the leader.
The Aim
The ultimate goal is not to build a great Community Church Leader.
It is to build a healthy Community Church that can make disciples, develop leaders, care for people, engage its community and participate in the mission of Jesus.
The Community Church Leader therefore leads by building others who can lead.
They create a community where pastoral care is distributed, discipleship is multiplying, mission is shared and leadership is continually being released.
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who is
what do we
why
Why are we different? Because Jesus said,
"my kingdom is not of this world" (jOhn 18:6)
BLOG . DIVERGENT CHURCH CANBERRA
At Divergent Church Canberra we are keen to grow in the Lord whilst we live in this amazing capital region. We are passionate about spurring one another onto the good God has called us all to. We are a spirited-filled Canberra Church passionate about Jesus and his Kingdom.
Below are some blogs about discipleship, theology, Divergent Church Canberra and even just why we love Canberra, Queanbeyan and the surrounding region.
