Red Church

Before C. S. Lewis ever climbed into the sidecar of his brother’s motorcycle and finally believed, he spent years caught between a mind of cold reason and a quiet longing for something he couldn’t name. He would later call it the “bright shadow,” and eventually, holiness. In week three of Growing Up in Christ, Trudi Sayers turns to Ephesians 4 and asks a question most of us rarely consider: are our minds attuned to holiness? Through Lewis’s reluctant conversion, the awe of Aslan (“he isn’t safe, but he’s good”), and Isaiah’s vision of the throne room, Trudy shows that we can’t mature in Christ without growing in holiness, and that holiness isn’t a tutorial to follow or something we borrow from others. It’s caught by drawing close to the One who is perfectly holy. In a world of endless distraction, this is an invitation to fix our eyes on Jesus and be transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.
To find out more about Red Church, head to https://redchurch.au/

Potholes have become one of the biggest issues in Victoria’s upcoming election, and as Mark discovered, they have a surprising backstory: decades of cutting back on quiet, unglamorous maintenance. In week four of Growing Up in Christ, Mark uses the humble pothole to name a deeper problem, the cracks appearing in our culture’s character as we trade becoming good people for having good times. Turning to Ephesians 4, he shows that Christ’s vision is far bigger than damage control, and draws on Dallas Willard’s VIM model (Vision, Intention, Means) to explain how Christlike character is actually formed: slowly, daily, and often unseen. Along the way, he explores why the work of character is more like road maintenance than a lightning strike, and why talent without character can’t carry the presence of God. A grounded, hopeful invitation to stop settling for sin management and start becoming the kind of people God can fill.
To find out more about Red Church, head to https://redchurch.au/

In week two of Growing Up in Christ, Mark takes us from the eerie “Backrooms” meme to the collapse of Enron, where the smartest people in the room made foolish decisions, and asks what we’re actually missing: wisdom. Drawing on Ephesians 4 and Proverbs, he shows that information fills the head, but wisdom changes the heart. It requires submission, and it can’t be downloaded; it’s caught from those who have walked the road before us. As a youth-obsessed culture runs short on wisdom, the church has a chance to shine like a light on a hill, and the invitation is to stop chasing more information and start asking God for his wisdom.
To find out more about Red Church, head to https://redchurch.au/

Trudi Sayers opens a brand-new series, Growing Up in Christ, by naming something many of us feel but rarely say out loud: our culture has stopped valuing maturity, rewarding emotional reactivity, entitlement, and the endless chase for instant gratification instead. Paul writes to the Ephesians that the church is meant to grow up no longer infants tossed by every wind of teaching, but built together in love until we reach "the full measure of the fullness of Christ", and Trudi traces what that actually costs, landing on the staggering true story of Maximilian Kolbe, who walked into a Nazi death bunker in place of a stranger. The chief mark of maturity, she argues, was never ambition or achievement — it's self-denying love, and the invitation this morning is to put away childish ways and discover what a mature church can do for a world in crisis.
To find out more about Red Church, head to https://redchurch.au/

Picking up where last week's message on intercession left off, Daniel looks honestly at the uncertainty pressing in on all of us AI, war, economic strain, a shaking world and asks a simple question: will the church shrink back, or step forward? Drawing from Hebrews 10 and the extraordinary true story of Brother Andrew, the young Dutchman who smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, Daniel makes the case that courage isn't a personality trait reserved for the bold it's hardwired into every believer's identity in Christ, and it's exactly what the enemy works hardest to steal. This message is an invitation to name your discouragement, take hold of faith and the Holy Spirit, and walk forward into whatever God has called you to.
To find out more about Red Church, head to redchurch.au