Crossway Baptist Church

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Crossway Baptist Church is Australia’s largest Baptist church, located in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Regular attendance at Sunday services is over 3,500 people.

[edit] History

Crossway is regarded as a contemporary evangelical Church, with Bible based preaching. Previously known as 'Blackburn Baptist' the Church is now on its third site. It originally met in a small hall as a Sunday School class on the corner of Holland and Canterbury Roads in Blackburn South. The church then relocated just up the road to 19 Holland Road, Blackburn South following large scale growth (which is now the headquarters of Evangelical Chinese Church Melbourne).

The church was founded by Rev JH Newnham in 1954 and then followed over the years by other senior pastors Rev George Ashworth, Rev David Griffiths, Rev Dr Rowland Croucher and Rev Dr Stuart Robinson.

The church then relocated to its current position at 2 Vision Drive, Burwood East in September 1995. Shortly after this relocation, the church changed its name to 'Crossway Baptist Church' in order to reflect the congregation's regional nature. The church now enjoys a site of 15 acres in the centre of Melbourne expansive eastern suburbs.

Robinson, a former missionary, founded the Church at its current location and is now regarded as the Founding Pastor of Crossway. He has written three books including Mosques and Miracles, a book about Islam written from a Christian perspective and two books on prayer. Pastor Dale Stephenson, formerly from New Peninsula Baptist Church, replaced Stuart Robinson as Senior Pastor in February 2008. Stephenson leads a large team of approximately 60 staff and many hundreds of volunteers.

[edit] Crossway Today

Crossway has a large number of ministries for all ages including a children's ministry called 'KidSpace', a youth ministry called 'Surge', a young adults ministry called 'Vive' and ministries for the elderly with a '50+' service. It also has a wide range of community services with its community care ministry, 'Heartbeat Project' and Mothers of Preschoolers Program (MOPS).

The annual Crossway Conference attracts about 600 delegates, mainly comprised of pastors and teams from across Australia. Crossway has planted daughter churches in Craigieburn, Cranbourne, Moreland, and Stonnington as well as a number of other smaller experimental Church plants. Crossway also has language-based congregations with Mandarin-, Cantonese-, Indonesian- and Korean-speaking services.

Since 2006, Crossway has also co-organised "Unite" - a Creative Arts Conference, featuring Australian musicians such as Roma Waterman and Michael Paynter. The Conference is organised together with Gateway Church, Careforce Church and Christian City Church Whitehorse. ^[1]

As of April 2009 Crossway is undertaking a building extension program. A coffee shop and larger meeting areas will occupy the site of the former bookshop and small grassed area on Vision Drive. At the rear of the church a large elevator will be constructed to increase access for members. Additional storage will also be a part of the redevelopment project, due for completion in 6-8 months.

The bookshop is not currently open and will be part of the coffee shop area.

Copies of services on CD and or DVD can still be purchased from Crossway during the redevelopment phase.