Friday, November 26, 2010

Planetshakers

Planetshakers

Planetshakers is a Christian youth movement that began as an annual conference and grew into an international ministry and large church in Melbourne, Australia. The conference was born out of Paradise Community Church in Adelaide, South Australia by Pastor Russell Evans. Planetshakers expanded, and in 2004 moved to Melbourne to begin a church ministry (originally called Melbourne City Church). Planetshakers also has its own bible college which is located in several campuses throughout Australia.
Planetshakers' stated mission is to "empower a generation to win a generation".[1]

Contents

Conferences

Planetshakers runs annual conferences in several Australian states. The first conference held in Adelaide in 1997 had 300 delegates, growing to reach 20,000 nation-wide by 2004.
The 2007 conference period saw Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne as venues, and marking the 11th anniversary. Melbourne, being the primary venue, hosted the conference in Vodafone Arena, part of Olympic Park.

The conferences were held in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth in January 2008. Melbourne at Vodafone Arena from 2-5 January 2008; Brisbane 7-10 January 2008 at Brisbane Convention Centre; Sydney 9-12 January 2008 at Sydney Olympic Park in the Sports Centre (formally State Sports Centre); and finally Perth on 15-18 January at Challenge Stadium.
The 2009 Planetshakers conference tour will be moved to April, instead of January as in all past years.
Conference speakers have in the past included Glen Berteau, Jurgen Matthesius, Rich Wilkerson, Mal Fletcher, Pat Schazline, Jude Fouquier, Matthew Barnett, Judah Smith, Reinhard Bonnke, Reggie Dabbs and Chris Hill. With messages containing memorable catch-cries such as "crossing over", "seizing the day" and "breaking out of the box", and "SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!". They strive to "empower a generation to win a generation". Young people are often challenged to deeper levels of surrender, repentance, passion, and faith in Jesus Christ.
In September of each year, Planetshakers also runs the smaller Planet Worship conference. Speakers in 2006 included Glen Berteau, Russell Evans, and Henry Seeley. The conference has been held at the Dallas Brooks Centre in Melbourne.
Growing internationally, Planetshakers now also runs conferences in Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa, with a desire to expand to the United States of America. They ministered at Singapore's Faith Community Baptist Church in Singapore Expo's max Pavilion in 2006.
Internationally in 2007, Planetshakers band will play at events in Hong Kong, the USA, the UK, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa.
Planetshakers has also had relationships with Australian Youth Alive events, which often cross-promotes the conference and college to tens of thousands of young people.

City Church

Planetshakers City Church (formerly City Church Melbourne) is a Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God in Australia. The church started when the Planetshakers band and ministry moved to Melbourne in 2004, and currently meets in hired auditoriums throughout Central Melbourne. The church is pastored by Russell and Sam Evans and has attendance over 4000, and throughout most of 2005 ran three services per weekend, commonly approaching capacity. Currently, the church is held at the Dallas Brooks Centre, with two Sunday services, 3:00pm and 5:15pm (both with a full kids program). The church also made use of the Arrow building for baptism services but due to the increased attendance the baptism services have been moved to Richmond AOG Church in Melbourne.
The church's youth ministry called "PlanetBoom" is led by pastors Chad and Tiffany Harding, running Friday nights (7:15pm) during school terms at Collingwood Town Hall or Melbourne High School (check website for details). The youth ministry has become so successful that the Catholic and Anglican churches are looking at adopting Planetshakers' methods.[2]
The church also runs a children's ministry called "Planetkids", led by pastors Rob and Assunta Bradbury, which is held concurrently with the main church service at 3:00pm & 5:15pm. Planetkids also runs an annual children's conference, with the second conference for 2007 being held at Melbourne High School in the September holidays. ("Planetkids goes Space")
"planetUNI" is the church's university students ministry overseen by pastor Matt Fielder and comprises local and international students as well as recent graduates being active in the group. In addition to fortnightly meetings (Urban Life groups), a new outreach event will be held once a month on a Friday night aiming to attract university students.
"Urban Life" groups (basically cell groups) are run fortnightly in homes spread around all parts of Melbourne, offering discipleship and connection with other people outside of Church. They include different age areas, such as kids (held in the Church service each week), teenagers (PlanetBoom), university students (planetUNI), young adults and adults.
There are also various other ministries serving and reaching out to women (Beautiful Woman) and business people (Kingdom Life).

College

Planetshakers Ministries have set up a bible school for the gifted, aptly named, Planetshakers College. There are several campuses running in most major Australian states. In Perth (WA), Newcastle (NSW), Brisbane (QLD) and Melbourne (VIC). The college is affiliated with Southern Cross College and emphasizes on impartation, not academic learning. They offer a fully accredited course for the Certificate IV in Contemporary Leadership which runs as a year long course. Students can then choose to go on and complete a Diploma version for a second year. The aim of the college is the same as the Planetshakers movement, "empowering a generation, to win a generation". Many well known individuals associated with the Planetshakers conference including Henry Seeley, Russell and Sam Evans, Martin Steele and Mike Guglielmucci serve as guest lecturers during the course of the year.

Music

The Planetshakers band is the central part of their events, bearing a worship-woven modern pop-rock sound attractive to young people. The 2003 Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian was also a part of the Planetshakers band for several years, taking both lead and backup vocal parts on the 2002 and 2003 albums and conferences. Many of the musicians originated from Youth Alive South Australia, which also released CDs. Some of the songs written by current band members for the Youth Alive albums, such as 'Phenomena' and 'God of Miracles' (from Youth Alive Western Australia) have also featured on Planetshakers earlier albums.
In 2004, their CD Open Up The Gates was nominated for Praise and Worship Album of the Year for the Dove Awards.
Planetshakers announced at their 2008 conference that they would no longer be producing two live albums each year. They instead announced that they will record one live album per year, and they will release tracks via subscription to the "Planetshakers Revolution" - a new online music/resource distribution system designed to consolidate and build upon different products that they already offer. These include backing tracks, music videos, and new releases of CGI "music videos" based on CGI graphics used at Planetshakers City Church and conferences.

Planetshakers TV

A television show, titled Planetshakers TV is currently in production and is scheduled to air on the Australian Christian Channel in 2008. The program will include all-new filmed material as well as Planetshakers songs and preaching from the conferences and church.

See also


References

  1. ^ http://www.planetshakers.com/church/ministries.htm
  2. ^ Young believers pray and sway to a new beat - The Age (April 8, 2007)

External links


Australian


News Articles

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