CLEARING UP A FEW CHURCH MISCONCEPTIONS

RE ‘ Geelong Mega Church’ ( GA, 23/12): Firstly, there is nothing “exclusive” about us. We get to name our church, and the name for years has been the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. We have been part of Geelong since 1869!

Our rapid relief team regularly provides warm food and a cold drink to our firefighters, including at Lexton and Dunkeld as recently as this week, and we also support various local charities.

We have operated at Lovely Banks since 1991, but outgrew the site.

That’s why we want to move to a new site a bit further out. The new hall would be located between the Batesford Roadhouse and Bell Park Sports Club.

Just like other churches, we will have gatherings and prayer meetings of between a few dozen people and a few hundred throughout the week, depending on the event.

And about once a year, we are hoping to invite neighbouring congregations over for Bible reading meetings of up to 1000 people; like we do now at our existing site.

This shouldn’t be a particularly big issue given our neighbours would be a petrol station and a sports field.

That said, we will take several measures to minimise impacts.

Our halls are generally not used until after 7pm. Noise from our services is no different to any other church, and won’t be heard outside the hall.

We are working with VicRoads on plans and timing of road widening and lighting to ensure safety. We will work with council on landscaping plans to ensure the facility looks nice.

And we would involve local tradespeople in the delivery of this $1.8 million construction project.

We are good Christians, and also good neighbours.

If anyone has any questions about the plans, please feel free to contact me. Danny Bumpstead, Geelong Gospel Trust feedback@ggt.org.au