Red Church

In the first week of a new series on hope, Mark Sayers turns to the book of Ezekiel and a group of exiles in Babylon who had lost everything: their homeland, their temple, and any sense that God was still on the move. Looking for hope inside a closed system gets us nowhere, but when hope runs out, God breaks in. Mark unpacks Ezekiel’s strange, thunderous vision by the Kebar River and the promise of a snapped-off branch planted on a high mountain, and asks what it looks like to be disrupted by God rather than simply overwhelmed. A timely, countercultural word for a weary world, and an invitation to be consecrated for what God is about to do.
To find out more about Red Church, head to https://redchurch.au/

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, Trudi 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/

We spend our lives chasing two things: more stuff and more years. One is the drive of accumulation, the other the drive of extension, and neither can quiet the restlessness God has set in the human heart. In week five of Growing Up in Christ, Chris Magnussen asks what it would look like to reprioritise around eternity, and argues that eternity is far closer than we think. Drawing on 1 John 1 and John 5, Chris offers a better priority: eternity. It is fleshy, because eternity put on skin in Jesus. It is now, because those who believe have eternal life, not just will have it. And it is participatory, something we practice day by day. Chris makes it practical with an unexpected invitation: hospitality, the table where heaven’s feast begins early. A call to trade the temporary for what lasts.
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/