2024 ANNUAL REPORT

Greetings Church,

To paraphrase Paul in his many letters, I thank our God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith, and the continued blessing of your generosity and persistence in prayer, enable us to pursue our mission to help people find and follow Jesus.

Your Servant Leadership Team (SLT) has primary responsibility for the governance of Lifestreams Christian Church. We support Senior Pastor Rod and the Ministry Leadership Team, in guiding and leading our mission, but also have legal responsibilities in conducting “the business” of Lifestreams, and the various enterprises we host and support.

Your generous tithes and offerings support the operation of the church, outreach to our local community, and internationally through our Beyond initiatives. We also have specific purpose funds, in Lifestreams Community Inc & Lifestreams Community Trust, and the Building Fund. In addition, the Legacy Fund feeds a grants programme, which funds worthwhile Kingdom projects, and helps to keep our partnerships active in spreading the gospel. Legacy Fund grants included the Bible Society for Noongar Bible Translation, Cosmos for Health Worker Training, Lifestreams Global Family – various initiatives, Living Child Inc for Midwifery Upskilling, Sonlife Ministries for DCPI Training, and International Mission Ministries for Every Daughter Matters.

We are blessed to have SLT members from a range of demographics and with specialist skill sets serving you. We have Malcolm Cowell (Deputy Chair & Chair of the Finance Team), Jackie Choo, Paul Swan, Ry Beaver and Sonia Newby with Rod Thom and Phil Porter as representatives from the staff team. Irene Farmer is still indispensable as our chief organizer and minute secretary, and on your behalf, I thank them for their service. Sadly for us, Maxine Bown retired her apron during the year, and we will miss her lovingly prepared meals at our monthly meetings. We wish her every blessing as she concentrates her time on those closest to her in this coming season.

Here is a flavour of some of the things we dealt with during the year in no particular order, and certainly not an exhaustive list:

• Kept our Conflicts of Interest Register up to date;
• Continued to update our Policies and Procedures on a rotating basis, and have now welcomed the expertise and support of Thelma Perso in an ex officio support role;
• Ratified recommendations for roles as Shepherding Elders;
• Scrutinised and approved, where appropriate, grants from the Legacy and other special purpose Funds;
• Maintained a focus on risk mitigation;
• Continued with the Redress Scheme;
• Monitored our external tenancies for groups such as Bethanie, Sonshine, Alta-1, and Masters & Co;
• Conducted a Senior Minister Appraisal;
• Scrutinised and approved the budget for the coming year;
• Continued to work on plans for the further development of our campus.

We thank those of you who pray for us, as we constantly pray that our governance meets the highest standards, and we thank our loved ones for releasing us to serve. We value your continued partnership both on campus and online.

May God Bless you all.

Richard Moore

Chairperson

Servant Leadership Team

Prayer

"Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6:18

Prayer is so diverse and powerful. There is an ongoing call for us to keep developing rhythms for praying, personally and together. 2024 saw us develop our Prayer Hub; God’s throne room where we can come together and experience the manifest presence of Jesus and pray God’s kingdom in to being in our church, city, country and beyond. We started our monthly day (day 7 of each month) of Prayer and Fasting in our Prayer Hub.

God loves it when His people humble themselves and join together to pray; listening, intercession, thanksgiving, praise, adoration, confession, blessing and declaration. Please don’t give up!! May you experience more of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in your life as you stay alert and pray with thankfulness.

I thank God that in 2024 many of you prayed, either alone or in groups, for so many different areas of our church and beyond; for people to find and follow Jesus. Prayer is crucial for building up the body and for the conversion and transformation of people and our community.

In 2025 we will be moving more intentionally into rhythms of prayer and fasting, in our Prayer Hub, homes, work places and beyond. I would love you to engage, and take initiative, as prompted by the Holy Spirit in our ongoing Prayer ministry.

Pastoral Care Ministry

As in past years, there have been lots of pressures, illness, grief, fatigue, mental illness, old age and broken relationships in our people’s lives. I am very thankful for our Shepherding Elders in the prayer and care they provide for people dealing with a very diverse range of challenges. We are also very blessed to have so many of our church step up in caring for each other. I see many people giving what they have to serve people.

Thank you to all who play their part in prayer and care for the people of our church. May you continue to follow the prompts of the Spirit in praying and caring for people. Your name may not appear in any report, but you are a significant player in God’s kingdom ministry.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds”. 2 Corinthians 10:3,4

I invite you, God’s soldier, to keep growing in your engagement in this war, knowing that Jesus Christ our commander, is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

May God bless you abundantly.

David Stanford

Associate Minister

Youth

As we reflect on 2024, we are filled with gratitude for all that God has done in and through Rise Youth. This year has been one of growth, transformation, and deepening faith as we have sought to create spaces where young people can find and follow Jesus. More than just a program, Rise Youth is a place where lives are being shaped, decisions for Christ are being made, and young people are being equipped to navigate their faith journey.

Youth ministry is such a pivotal space because it is often the crossroads where young people wrestle with their faith and decide whether to follow Jesus for themselves. Every Friday night, small group gathering, and conversation has played a part in this journey. Throughout the year, we have seen God move powerfully through the relationships built, the messages shared, and the discipleship that has extended beyond our weekly program.

One of the most encouraging things has been the way small groups have flourished, not just on Friday nights but throughout the week. Many groups have chosen to meet outside of our structured gatherings, delving deeper into God’s Word and growing together in faith. The willingness of our leaders to invest in young people beyond the program has been inspiring, and we have seen the fruit of this commitment in the lives of our youth.

This year, we also celebrated several baptisms—each one a testament to the transformative work of Jesus in the lives of our young people. A particular highlight was our Baptism Friday, where three of our Year 7 boys publicly declared their faith in Jesus. Additionally, on our SNR Road trip to Binningup, two of our senior youth made the same life-changing decision, saying yes to Jesus for eternity. Moments like these remind us why we do what we do.

As we continue to help young people Find & Follow Jesus, our Friday nights and small groups were focused on equipping young people to grow deeper in their faith. Our devotion and discussion times helped youth understand who God is and what it means to live for Him. Our SNRs space continued to be a place for honest and real conversations, where older youth could wrestle with big questions and be encouraged by one another.

We journeyed through Alpha’s ‘Life Essentials’ curriculum at the beginning of the year. Our SNRs completed ‘SHAPE’ – looking at how God has gifted each of us uniquely for his kingdom, and ‘The Prayer Course’ together, prompting great conversations and learning about incorporating prayer into our rhythms and lives. We studied Ephesians in the lead up to camp and in Term 4 we explored BLESS: looking at begin with prayer, listening, eating together, serving and story. One significant night was our ‘In the Pines’ gathering, where youth shared their stories of faith in a quiet, reflective setting. Another highlight was our ‘SERVE’ night, where we packed backpacks for those in need and prepared gifts through the Angel Tree project, allowing our youth to put their faith into action.

Rise Youth Camp was another defining moment of the year. Spending time away together, worshipping, learning, and having fun strengthened our community in powerful ways. Our SNRs stepped up to serve and lead more on this camp, and we hope to continue to equip them to do so into the future. The theme of the camp, ‘Armour of God’ – Ephesians 6:10-14, and this resonated deeply, leading to decisions to follow Jesus for themselves, get baptised and renew commitments to faith, as they encountered God in new and personal ways.

As 2024 comes to a close, this also marks the end of my time leading Rise Youth. Finishing up at the end of this year has been a bittersweet moment, but I leave with so much confidence in the leader team and excitement for what God has in store. Our leaders are passionate, faithful, and committed to seeing young people encounter Jesus, and I have no doubt that Rise Youth will continue to thrive and grow under their leadership.

I want to thank our incredible leaders, our supportive church family, and the parents who partner with us in investing in the next generation. Your prayers, encouragement, and commitment to this ministry have made a lasting impact.

Looking to 2025, we do so with great expectation, knowing God is moving in Rise Youth, and we believe He has even greater things ahead. Our heart remains the same—to see young people find and follow Jesus, to walk alongside them in their faith journey, and to create spaces where they can grow in relationship with Him.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Your prayers, encouragement, and support mean the world, and we cannot wait to see what God will do in the year to come!

Young Adults

The term ‘Young Adults’ is so varied, as we look at people who have just graduated high school, studying, working, getting married or even some starting their own families. We are so glad to see our young adults connecting in with the wider church community, serving and pursuing God in their own ways. We have a number of Young Adults belong groups, that meet in homes during the week, to connect and grow together – and I see this as such an important space for spiritual development. We would love to see this continuing, as it is so impactful as they are learning and navigating new and changing seasons of life.

State Youth Games is always a highlight of the Young Adult calendar, as we headed down to Bunbury for a weekend of sports, games, fun and fellowship, with over 120 participants and some incredible volunteers, feeding us and helping make the games happen. We came away with the Sportsmanship Award, Spirit of the Games AND 2^nd Place overall! What an achievement, to not only be able to bring home wins in sports, but be people who represent Jesus well while we do it! An incredible achievement from our SYG team (but hoping for 1^st place in 2025, after 3peat 2^nd place)

We held a Young Adult retreat in July at Myalup, where Young Adults got the opportunity to connect with each other and go a bit deeper in their journey of spiritual formation. We connected around the fire, worshipped together, did devotions together, spent time in solitude with God, and dug into some of our Lifestreams retreat content – as well as other fun, heading into town, kayaking in the lake, walking to see the cows, and drinking coffee at the Crooked Carrot.

As we look to 2025, we would love to see our young adults continuing to take responsibility for their faith, and grow in intimacy with Him so they can overflow with His love and grace into all the places God has them in their week.

Grace Cook

Youth and Young Adults Minister

It is a privilege and honour for me being part of the team at Lifestreams Christian Church as a Children’s Ministry Co-ordinator. It has been amazing to see children growing in their understanding about Jesus Christ, and being able to guide them in their own relationship with our Lord by the power of His Holy Spirit. I consider as a beautiful blessing the fact that God can use our roles as leaders and parents to participate in the expansion of the Kingdom of God upon this young generation.

In 2024, we had over 40 leaders with the commitment and faithfulness to facilitate the spiritual growth of our young people and I would like to extend my gratitude to these selfless volunteers who take the time to prepare engaging programs, run games, lead worship, engage in crafting activities, and help our families in the discipleship of our children. This year, we have seen the arrival of a number of new leaders and bid farewell to those moving into new seasons, including Katherine Jones and Lynette Dewing who have made a significant impact in the lives of our families over their many years of service.

Kids Ministry has been using the curriculum called The Gospel Project throughout the year 2024 and with this program we were able to provide our children a greater understanding of the Bible, where the stories fit, how they relate to us, to grow more in love with the person of Jesus and choose to follow Him.

During the season of Corporate Prayer in our church, we started an activity with the children called Prayer Box. The children decorated a gift box with stickers, stamps and Bible verses, and we use it as a reminder of our time to pray together, putting prayer requests and/or thanksgiving cards inside the box. The purpose of this idea is motivating and encouraging our kids to make steps of actions in Faith, allowing them to grow in their prayer life and having the expectation that God is doing something in the middle of the unseen.

Our Kids Ministry had many different events during the year; and two of them were celebrating Christmas Festival and Christmas Evening Service with a Song called Joy (Sing & Shout) by North Point. Children practiced some actions and moves of this song on Sundays during Kids Church, and the presentation of it was held on the stage for those special dates encouraging the congregation, adults and the rest of the children to join it. It was an awesome time together!!

Additionally, the children were learning about the BLESS principles and how practically they can apply them into their lives. During Kids Church families and children joyfully assisted in the preparation of over 100 Christmas Hampers to help those in need in partnership with Lifestreams Community Services as our practical BLESS project.

We are excited for the things that the Lord will do throughout the new year 2025 and we pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to bring His revelation and understanding upon every leader, family and child in their personal journey with Jesus.

Alejandra Richardson

Children's Ministry Coordinator

What a privilege it is that I am able to be the Beyond Minister across the South Perth and Bull Creek campuses.

I recommenced my role in January 2024, which means one of my primary tasks for the year involved re-establishing relationships with the leadership at both churches and the Beyond family. This has been a very positive experience and I am very thankful for the support of all the church leadership.

We ran four Beyond Sundays in 2024– the first being the launch in February 2024 where I preached from Acts 1:8. The big idea was that the Holy Spirit fills us so we can go out in mission. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Mission! Other Beyond speakers throughout 2024 included Sara David from Living Child, Liz Roberts who emphasised our local outreach and Jason and Cindy Eow who joined us via Zoom from Japan. We also heard updates from many of our Beyond family including Daniel Faulkner, Deb Barnes and Pastor Va Bi from Myanmar.

As the Beyond Pastor I also have the privilege of being part of the Lifestreams Global Family. It was a great experience to join this leadership and church planting network in Singapore and spend time face to face with members of our Beyond family. Out of this meeting came the genesis for the LGF Emerging Leaders Asia Summit that Liz Roberts and I will be leading in July 2025. It has been a very big faith step but I am thankful for how God is bringing the plans, people and finances together for this trip.

Our Beyond family continues to do many amazing things for God! They are planting churches, training leaders, providing clean water. They are serving in slums, teaching English and reaching international students. They are training birth attendants and teaching women to run a small business so they don’t need to sell their bodies. The Beyond team is proclaiming the gospel holistically, in word and deed, so that people everywhere can find and follow Jesus.

We continue to pray for a new generation of Christians from our church to take the gospel to the nations. We continue to pray for all the finances to support our Beyond family. Thank you for your partnership. 

Luke Tassell

Beyond Minister

Our community ministry continued to grow in the number of volunteers, activities and people cared for and served. This ministry is made up of both Community Outreach and Community Services. Overall, there was a great team of thirty volunteers and four staff: Liz Roberts, Community Minister and Manager of Lifestreams Community Services (LCS), Amanda Mills-Ghani, Program Coordinator, Jess Thompson, Groundbreakers Coordinator, Raelene Newall, LCS Mental Health Consultant and Counsellor, and Deb Barnes, Sports Coordinator.  I would like to say a big thankyou to the great staff and all the volunteers who work to love and bless our community every day.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

BLESS: We ran BLESS Sundays in November 2024 where we focused on encouraging and inspiring our church to put our BLESS principles into practice and reach out to neighbours, work colleagues, education and other community places with God’s love. Our kid’s church did a great job putting BLESS into practice by supporting the Christmas Hampers initiative, and youth carried out the Angel Tree project making up 20 school bags filled with school supplies. The Bless Gathering continued to have 15 to 25 attendees each week including some who are in the process of finding Jesus. 

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS: This group met fortnightly in 2024 at the Victoria Park Community Centre and had 15 to 30 attendees with most people not knowing much about Jesus. We had people from all across the world including Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The group held cultural dinner nights, Aussie pizza nights, and Easter and Christmas celebrations. The gathering included a “Finding Life” small group study that was appropriate for people learning English and who don’t know much about God.  A big thank you to the great team of eight volunteers who help to run this group. The group helped a Japanese lady, Mauritius Hindu man, Columbian lady, Korean lady, Chinese lady, and an Iranian couple along with many others come to know more about Jesus resulting in a few deciding to be baptised.

COMMUNITY MISSION SUPPORT: We continued to support YouthCARE Chaplaincy and Eagles City Mission through the Trust Fund. Our local chaplains contact us regularly for support for students from Lifestreams Community Services.

LIFESTREAMS SPORTS: Deb Barnes continued to do a fantastic job coordinating our sports ministry. In 2024, Lifestreams Basketball had 16 teams playing in the junior basketball competition at Lakeside Recreation Centre. There were approximately 160 children registered with 32 coaches and managers. Our coaches and managers are extremely committed to their teams and I can’t thank them enough for giving up their time for their teams. Some highlights were our mid-year skills clinic which Dan Woods ran. We had 30 children attend. It was a great time and the children received prizes from How Ridiculous and Lakeside Recreation Centre. We appreciate the generosity of all.

LIFESTREAMS COMMUNITY SERVICES (LCS)

We try to embed our values in all the programs and activities that we do. Our CARE Values are:

• Connection: Our goal is to help people find ways to have a greater sense of belonging in the community.
• Authenticity: We aim to create a safe place where individuals can openly discuss challenges they experience.
• Respect: We welcome and accept people from all nationalities, backgrounds and beliefs.
• Empathy: We endeavour to care for the whole person; physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

EMERGENCY RELIEF: Emergency relief continued to grow in 2024, mostly due to the financial pressures associated with the cost of living being faced by many individuals and families in our community. Many in our community faced various challenges, ranging from housing shortages, increase in alcohol and other drugs (AOD) addiction and mental health difficulties. LCS supports people in the community through the following ways:



Care Appointments: throughout 2024 we held 457 care appointments and drop in’s, compared to 330 in 2023. We continue to build relationships with our clients and see many attending some of the activities that we hold such as Community Lunch.

Food Hampers: During the year we were fortunate to work with some of the students from Alta-1 to create hampers for our emergency relief program. We were able to provide 412 food hampers in 2024, compared to 277 in 2023. The increase in hampers being issued was due to two main factors, the increase in financial hardship by the community and clients becoming more connected to LCS and our support. Lifestreams Christian Church (LCC) also supported our request to donate items required for food hampers. We thank the church members for their generosity with this initiative.

Food Vouchers: With the ongoing increase in financial hardship being realised in the community we issued 785 food vouchers in 2024, compared to 620 in 2023. In 2024, due to more people experiencing financial pressures, LCS revisited how vouchers are to be issued.

Toiletries Donations:  During care appointments, we experienced more requests for toiletries, from this we trialled asking LCC members and the community if they would assist us with donating essential toiletry items. LCS set up a table with a basket and a flyer outlining the needs required and from there we had the ability to issue necessities such as toothpaste, soap, toothbrushes, shampoo and conditioner, etc. We are thankful for the generosity of those who donated. The impact has been strong to those in need.

Pay it Forward:  LCS investigated ways they may be able to support the costs of the Community Lunch and other ways to support members in the community and the Pay it Forward initiative was established. The Pay it Forward process allows anyone from the church or community to pre-buy a lunch or coffee for $5 for someone in need. When a client attends the Community Lunch or a care appointment but doesn’t have access to funds to pay for their lunch or coffee, a Pay it Forward card is used to purchase it for them. It has been an effective way for LCC members to enact the values of the church through BLESSing someone and allowing people from the community to support our emergency relief program, which in turn assists LCS with managing expenses. We are so very grateful for all the support in this program. In 2024, 564 Pay it Forward vouchers were purchased and 456 were used. 

The CARE co-op: We commenced a partnership with Brot Bakery in Manning and Hands & Feet Community and Disability Services. Each week on a Tuesday, Brot Bakery donates their left over bread and sweet treats and we provide a donation ($3 per box) to secure 5 boxes of fruit and vegetables from Hands & Feet. With all this produce we have created the ‘The CARE co-op’ grocery store where people are able to take items they may need after they have enjoyed the Community Lunch. To assist with funding this initiative and the Community Lunch we have a donation box, so anyone from the community is able to ‘shop’ at our store. For those in financial hardship, there is no obligation to financially donate. LCS is so grateful to these businesses for partnering alongside us and for their kindness and generosity in supporting our emergency relief initiatives.

Christmas Hampers:  The BLESSing Tree initiative to receive donations towards Christmas hampers was in place for Christmas 2024. Between the items that were donated and monetary donations, we covered the cost of making up 200 hampers. Kids Church came together over two Sundays to make up the hampers, together with families/children from Lifestreams along with families from our community. The families from our community believe in this project and continue to get their kids involved, it was their third year participating.

This year we also had Churches of Christ in WA (COCWA) approach LCS to partner with Bethanie to support the BLESSing Tree project. They raised money and food to donate. We were most appreciative of their support and they have expressed their desire to be a part of the project again this Christmas.

We saw more clients attending the Christmas Festival when they came to collect their hampers.

MENTAL HEALTH CARE AND WELLBEING

The mental health area continues to contract Raelene Newall to work as the Mental Health Consultant as well as providing counselling. We supported 107 counselling sessions throughout 2024 compared to 69 in 2023. At the end of October Raelene facilitated Thrive, which is a six week interactive course that aims to give strategies to assist with how to manage the sometimes debilitating symptoms of anxiety.

COMMUNITY BELONGING

Community Lunch: The Community Lunch attracted up to 40 people each week at The Loop Café where they continued to provide a tasty meal. With the support of Jan Barnard, who made beautiful cards each week, we celebrated birthdays of regulars from our community. The Christmas Community Lunch and Carols was again well attended with over 100 people attending. We thank Ian Pickford for his ongoing support to MC the event and lead the carol singing and Delarn De Silva for playing the keyboard.

Senior Events: We held two events in 2024, an Easter Quiz and Morning Tea in Term 2 and the Seniors Appreciation Morning Tea and Quiz in Term 4 as part of Seniors Week.   As always, the attendees walked away with positive chatter and smiles as they enjoyed a performance by the children from Lifestreamers Early Learning, participated in the raffles, and had a good laugh as they competed in the quiz. We are so grateful to Ian Pickford who assisted with organising the quiz questions and facilitated the events with immense enthusiasm.

English Conversation Circle: held on Mondays at 5pm with a team of 5 volunteers. This group had between 15 and 25 people each week from a variety of nations. It was a positive way to bring people from different nations into a group to experience a sense of belonging and practice speaking English in a fun way.

GROUNDBREAKERS

This program continued to run at Curtin Primary School throughout 2024. Jess Thompson, Program Coordinator did a fantastic job overseeing the program on Wednesdays which had nine mentors and supported children at risk. Unfortunately the school made a decision not to fund the program into 2025, therefore the program has ended.

Liz Roberts, Amanda Mills-Ghani and Community Team

Community Team

2024 was a big year for Lifestreamers Early Learning (LEL). We celebrated our ten-year anniversary with a Saturday morning event and invited past and present families to attend. There were prizes and games and a few demonstrations of what the children do in their KIDDO physical sessions and their drama and dance sessions. It was a good opportunity to reflect on how we have grown from our humble kindy mornings to a fully-fledged Early Learning Centre. We are so thankful for the support over the years and the encouragement to try new things, it has been a blessing to be a part of this.

We also saw a few changes to the physical space of LEL with a revamp of the nature space and the installation of new cupboards and benches in the rooms. These have really helped with storage and organisation and have gone a long way towards creating an aesthetically pleasing environment. The nature space has been a great hit with the children and the new garden has yielded some very large zucchini, which the children ate in their lunches.

As a team, we grew from 18 to 23 educators and support team with a few leaving and many new ones starting. We have a high proportion of international students which has contributed to our culturally diverse team in many ways. I love seeing how they all interact and work together as they care for the children and families in our little community. Two of our educators have had babies this year as well as three families. 2025 will see another seven families having babies in the next few months, it is a busy time!

This year we launched a partnership with Bethanie, Como, where the older children went up once a month to have morning tea and do an activity with the residents. It has been such a special time and the children have really started to become talkative during these visits. The year finished with Bethanie coming down to us and watching a mini concert before decorating their Christmas biscuits together for morning tea. We look forward to renewing that program in 2025.

The children also sang some songs for the Seniors’ Week morning tea and the Community Christmas Lunch, they really do like performing!

As always, the annual family events were very well attended. We appreciate the opportunity to connect with them in a more relaxed setting while the children did special activities and ate some yummy food! These events take a lot of preparation and planning and I appreciate the willingness of our team to go the extra mile for our families.

With all the regulations around safety and cars and leaving the centre, we made a decision to focus more on incursions this year and had a number of community people come in and share with the children. The visit from the Police and a fireman were very exciting as the children tested out some of their equipment. We also had an indigenous incursion where the children listened to a story and did some art and craft; and a visit from a dentist to teach us all how to care for our teeth. South Perth Council donated a number of native shrubs this year for National Tree Day. We had some volunteers come and help us plant them into our large pots which will be placed around the yard once they are fully established. The children really do enjoy gardening!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the amazing team at LEL for their contributions over the past year, as they loved and cared for over 80 children and their families. It can be an emotionally draining role but their attitudes on even the craziest of days is a testament to their commitment to both the children and families but also the industry at large. We are blessed to have this group working with us.

Jen Hamilton

Centre Manager