I was first introduced to St Matts when I was 18, by my friend Roslyn James, Curtin Christian Fellowship companion and fellow bus tripper from 1988. In between making me listen to Keith Green's "The Sheep and the Goats" and "So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt" on her Datsun's cassette player, she told me all about something known as "outpost groups" with her leader, Tim Chappell; and about the evening services at her church where the series of sermons was on Hell. Especially memorable was on one stormy night when the sermon reached a peak of hellfire and brimstone, and at that very moment the wind broke open the church doors, banging them shut and open again, making the entire church shake in their seats ... and take judgement a little more seriously perhaps!
I remember the first time I went to St Matts. It was the evening service, we sang songs I had learned from AFES, and the sermon series had moved onto Heaven. But the thing I remember most about that night is that after the service the first person who came up and introduced himself to me was Allan McLean. He asked me thoughtful questions, and later offered to pray for me, right then and there. I had no experience of this sort of "welcome" in a church before, and it impacted me greatly. In fact the whole evening service with its largely unorganized, quirky program and tough, uncompromising sermons
- migrating from Keightley Road to Hollywood High and then over to the QEII lecture theatre - changed many of my previous conceptions of God, church, community, prayer and Bible reading.
Congratulations St Matthew's on reaching your centenary. May you continue to make an impact on lives, both young and old, through the love and grace and strength of the Lord Jesus.
Shelley Chapman
I remember the first time I went to St Matts. It was the evening service, we sang songs I had learned from AFES, and the sermon series had moved onto Heaven. But the thing I remember most about that night is that after the service the first person who came up and introduced himself to me was Allan McLean. He asked me thoughtful questions, and later offered to pray for me, right then and there. I had no experience of this sort of "welcome" in a church before, and it impacted me greatly. In fact the whole evening service with its largely unorganized, quirky program and tough, uncompromising sermons
- migrating from Keightley Road to Hollywood High and then over to the QEII lecture theatre - changed many of my previous conceptions of God, church, community, prayer and Bible reading.
Congratulations St Matthew's on reaching your centenary. May you continue to make an impact on lives, both young and old, through the love and grace and strength of the Lord Jesus.
Shelley Chapman
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