The church heritage of church@paravista has its beginnings in the Christian Brethren movement, dating back to England in the early 1800s. In the 1830s and 1840s a number of Anglican clergy, who were committed to the Scriptures, sought to rediscover the New Testament principles of church practice and fellowship. Guided by the Spirit of God, they began to meet in such a way as to follow the pattern of the early Christian Church in the Book of Acts. This involved a focus on the unity of the church as the body of Christ, the centrality of worship, the priesthood of all believers, believers’ baptism and a focus on the Lord’s Table remembrance. What emerged became known as the Plymouth Brethren, named after the place, Plymouth, where they first began to meet.
In 1901, William Neatby wrote about the Plymouth Brethren, “the Brethren sought to affect a fresh start without authority, precedent or guidance beyond the letter of the Holy Scripture. For them, essentially, the garnered experience of 18 centuries was as though it were not. Such an experiment in the hands of eminent men could scarcely fail to yield a considerable harvest of interest and instruction”.
Unfortunately, as has happened with many renewal movements throughout history, some men began to interpret the rediscovered principles in a very narrow way, which gave rise to a breakaway movement known as the “Exclusive Brethren”. This breakaway group became quite distinct from the continuing “Open Brethren” with which church@paravista is aligned. The Open Brethren today has no organizational link with the Exclusive Brethren, and demonstrates Christian fellowship that is characterized by:
From the early leaders in the Open Brethren movement, such as Anthony Norris Groves, the understanding of the church is that it is the household of God where:
Church@paravista had its commencement in 1985. The church fellowship first met in the Redwood Park Primary School as the Golden Grove Christian Church. Then in 1987 it moved to the Tea Tree Players Theatre premises and from there to the Delfin Real Estate building in Golden Grove in 1990. The church remained at this site for 19 years, until the current church@paravista property was purchased in 2009. Because the church was now located in the suburb of Para Vista, the church name was changed to church@paravista. The new facilities provided more room for the church and its ministries to grow.
A number of the original members who started the church in 1985 remain as active participants and there are many individuals and families who have maintained an active involvement in the church for over 30 years.
Our first full time pastor was appointed in 1991. Roy served the church as the Senior Pastor until 2005 before moving aside for the next generation of church leadership. Having served as the Youth Pastor for 8 years, Danny was appointed as the senior pastor. Danny’s effective leadership and pastoral influence enabled church@paravista to continue to grow to become a congregation of some 200 members and participants.
In January 2020 Nathan began in the role of Senior Pastor at Church@Paravista ably supported by Danny and, more recently, our youth pastor Ryan.