The Journey Uniting Church is situated on site with Pedare Christian College near 2 other large schools in Golden Grove, South Australia. We are passionate about helping young people, families and single adults find faith and ministry as a community in Christ.

Our guiding vision is to ride the wave of the Holy Spirit from Golden Grove to Gawler and beyond to share Christ and serve the world. Everyone at the Journey UC can participate in sharing Christ with Pedare Christian College, Elizabeth Downs kids and  1-2 people you know and love through our missional goals.

We regularly give to support global justice initiatives, particularly through Uniting World, and support several initiatives in South Sudan, East Asia and Timor Leste. The Journey Uniting has been part of two church plants in Elizabeth Downs and Playford Uniting. Our worship is contemporary in a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. The coffee is fair trade and high quality!


How to find us: 
First entrance off Surrey Farm Drive from the Golden Way Golden Grove (Map)

Weekly youth & young adult events
Pastor Mike Wardrop  (mwardrop@thejourneycc.org.au)

Weekly kids events (including MOPS playgroup)
Pastor Bec Webb (bec.webb@thejourneycc.org.au)

Small groups and interest groups each week
Pastor Nic Zechner (nicole.zechner@thejourneycc.org.au)

Go and Grow
(UC membership, faith and ministry on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month during school terms)
Rev Andrew Hogarth (andrew@thejourneycc.org.au)

Office
Sandra Milne (office@thejourneycc.org.au)
P. 08 8251 7149    9-3 weekdays

Chair of Church Council
Ian Haywood (ihaywood@nalco.com)

The Journey Uniting proudly supports Pedare Christian College, a Uniting Anglican College.

The Journey UC Mission
Go and make passionate, resilient followers of Jesus Christ

SERVICE TIMES

Sunday 10am (inc. full kids program)
Sunday 6pm (inc. pre-school program)

The Journey UC Values
Values are the things that don't change. They are the things we gather around when we are at our best. They are what we always pursue, what we never give up and what underpin our decisions in crisis and conflict.

Living Passionately
We are made in the image of a passionate, fully alive God. The strengths, personality and gifts placed within us as created beings are core to who we are and are to be taken seriously. Fun, passion, creativity and joy are really important. Our natural personality and giftings combined with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit's gifting and anointing combine to create potent, passionate people and we exist to awaken and foster such passion.

Deeper Spiritually
We are more than just what we see. Jesus came to redeem and awaken our spirits to God the Father. Deeper spirituality is about a relationship with Jesus that awakens faith, engagement with God's word, love for others and ultimately a heart secure in God and passionate for others and God's world. We value the spiritual disciplines of prayer, scripture, confession, worship, communion and baptism with the gathered community. These are all signs and pathways to going deeper with God fed by his Word and secure in his grace.

Generous Community
We value the people of God and the inherent connectedness that comes from God's Spirit. Community is not an end in itself but rather, like the Trinity Community of Father, Son and Spirit, we are at our best when we express generosity and kindness to others. We value the human community and will stop at nothing short of sin to bless humanity and the world in the name of Christ. We value every gift, act and kindness no matter how big or small.

The Journey Uniting Church History
In 1986 Synod invited Modbury U. C. to outreach in Golden Grove. Rev Brant Jones along with some key leaders took up the challenge. At the same time a group of staff, parents & friends had begun worshipping together in the newly built Pedare Christian College. It started in a home on Father's Day 1986. Pedare Uniting became an official congregation in July 1987.

Generous Community was initially apparent in key people double- tithing and leaders volunteering countless hours to establish the church. Paid staff working simultaneously in the church and schools resulted in fruitful evangelism and growth. Homes in Golden Grove, fewer than 500 then, were visited twice a year. Windscreens were washed, prepaid newspapers handed out on Father's Day, community BBQ's, outdoor services, drama performances and garden maintenance offered - all free gifts with no strings attached, from a church with a heart to engage with the community. Energy, enthusiasm and involvement were high.
That value of generous community still inspires us. Recently sponsorship of a family from Sudan, shoeboxes of gifts for overseas children and Christmas Hampers for Australian families are ongoing expressions of that generous heart.

Passionate Living produced innovative opportunities for people to hear the Gospel in culturally relevant ways.  The first youth group ministered to younger teens from the Church family and grew steadily.  Later SK8 church and Easter Camp ministered to hundreds of young people and many came to faith.  Pedare was unique in the Uniting Church with a high proportion of young people involved. Cafe Pedare, now Cafe Aroma, was established to help people connect.
Pedare's passion for short and long term mission impacted locally through Beach Mission, YWAM, Schools Ministry and more recently cross culturally in Port Augusta. Overseas missionaries worked in Africa, Cambodia, China, East Timor and India. Pedare Children have been long term supporters of three handicapped Cambodian orphans through their own offerings and the Empty Christmas Tree appeal. In 2006, a team of leaders were commissioned to start a faith community in Elizabeth Downs.

Going Deeper Spiritually was first evident through high involvement in small groups (called FISH groups, for Fellowship In Someone's Home). Indeed most activities including office administration, playgroups and youth groups happened in someone's home. In 1992 the Church outgrew the  staffroom and moved to the Golden Grove Arts & Recreation centre for morning services before returning to lease the new office and chapel facilities at the college in 1999. Clearer structures to support and develop the vision and pastorally care for people became necessary as 300 + people worshipped weekly. Small groups flourished and began to include short term interest groups as well as traditional Bible study groups. The teaching in Alpha, Discovering Spiritual Gifts and Careforce Lifekeys have supported many on their faith journeys. Prayer vigils, retreats, prayer meetings of various styles and opportunities for prayer ministry over the years have contributed towards a growing culture of prayer. We learned a lot about grace by growing, changing and facing challenges together in Christ.

As the church moved into its second decade, debate arose over the way forward. In 1999 a review by SYNOD helped identify the strengths and weaknesses of the congregation and necessary steps to enable it to be the light on the hill it was called to be.
Pedare Uniting Church was found to be an exciting church, a new paradigm reflecting an emergent world rather than the settled world of previous generations. The nurture of children, youth and fellowship in homes as well as the work in schools was celebrated. The review suggested some changes but also strongly encouraged us to continue pursuing new ways of being the church.
Several years on we acknowledge the sacrificial contributions of all past and present faithful souls who have helped position us for God's promise of a bright future for this faith community we now call The Journey Uniting Church.

The Journey is grateful for both long term and shorter term ministry from gifted leaders in both paid and volunteer capacities. Many of our elders and key volunteers have ministered for a long time at Pedare /The Journey. Individuals and families have given much to see God's kingdom grow and to continually act on what God was saying, sometimes at great personal cost.

The story continues in you. People living passionately, going deeper spiritually and living in generous community have forged a culture of hearing God's voice and daring to risk in faith. That's us: welcome to the Journey.

Frameworks
1 Worship
Worship with God's people at one of our 3 gatherings each week for teaching, communion, creative worship, fellowship and giving.  What's on this week?

Worship God personally during the week in God's word, prayer, reflecting on your experience and loving those around you.  WORD outline and scripture readings

2 Community
Invest in your primary community of family, close friends and colleagues.

Invest fortnightly in a Journey group as you share in food, God's word, life experience, mission, prayer and care. Groups

3 Mission
Engage in local mission in your home, neighbourhood, work place, school and club. God has gone ahead to help you build relationships and serve others.

Engage in global mission to see God's grace and justice revealed in people's lives - especially the poor – through Uniting World Mission, sponsorship, supporting Journey missionaries, supporting refugees and organisations committed to church planting, community development and advocacy. Uniting World and Cross Cultural Mission

Some bits that are handy to know!
The Journey Uniting Church is part of the Uniting Church in Australia

The Uniting Church is an Australian Christian movement.
It shares with Australian people in the search for meaning, purpose and community in life.
We seek to be an innovative, growing church proclaiming Jesus Christ, empowered by the Spirit to transform God's world.

The Uniting Church SA seeks to transform lives and communities in a positive way.
We are...
* A Christian community following the example of Jesus Christ.
* An Australian church standing alongside Indigenous Australians and supporting rural and remote communities.
* A caring church dedicated to social justice and providing community services through UnitingCare.
* A diverse church with a wide range of worship styles and theology in our 300 South Australian congregations.
* A place of hope and support providing a safe place to explore life's many big questions.
We are a young church - formed on 22 June 1977 - with the coming together of the Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches.

The state website is http://www.sa.uca.org.au

In South Australia we are part of a network of churches called 3Dnet.

3D Net exists to build relevant congregations that are evangelistically effective and fruitful in their life and ministry.
Find out more by visiting http://www.sa.uca.org.au/site/page.cfm?u=350

What we believe
The Uniting Church confidently believes that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God brings us into right relationship with God, whereby in faith we can:
* live in a close, loving, personal, dynamic relationship with the living God;*
* participate in the worshipping, caring and serving community of Christians;*
* receive God's gifts so that life can be what God means it to be - loving, purposeful, joyful, eternal;*
* tell others of this good news and live it out in acts of compassion, service and justice in the community.

The Journey Uniting Church's beliefs are based on the  Bible as the inspired Word of God and the final authority in life and faith.
We are guided by the Apostles' and Nicene creeds.

The Basis of Union is the Uniting Church's founding document.

The Church also takes heed of the Reformation Witness in the Scots Confession of Faith (1647),
the Savoy Declaration (1658), and of the preaching of John Wesley in his Forty Four Sermons (1793).
It values biblical and theological wisdom and understanding.
The Church's Basis of Union brings together aspects of these writings and traditions and
sets out the church's way of living and being.