You’ve gotta love Rockingham church unity at Christmas
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
While distrust, disunity and hatred appear to be growing worldwide, churches in Perth are coming together this Christmas to display unity, generosity and care.
The idea to partner with other nearby churches began developing for Captains Chelsea and Darrell Wilson many years ago, as they noticed needs in the community that were too great for them to meet alone.
Darrell said the pair saw a real strength of The Salvation Army as its emphasis on connecting with vulnerable people.
“We’ve always thought about ways that The Salvation Army could widen their support for people [by connecting] with other churches,” Darrell said. “Often, we see that we have this great connection but lack the amount of people [those] people need around them.
“So [we had] this idea that maybe we can continue to grow in partnership with [other] churches.”
The Rockingham Salvos corps officers began by partnering with their friend Greg Lake, Associate Pastor of Paradox Church and Chief Executive of The Crew Rockingham, a social outreach organisation run by Paradox Church. The Crew offers much of the same community outreach that Rockingham Salvos provides, including emergency relief and food assistance. Rockingham Salvos also hosted The Crew each Monday several years ago when they were waiting for their building to be completed.
In 2023, the teams combined for the first time. Together, they prepared more than 700 Christmas hampers for those doing it tough in the area, and this year, they are partnering with other churches in the area to do even more.
So began Love Rockingham.
The goal of Love Rockingham is to create and deliver 1200 Christmas hampers to community members, with the goal of raising $55,000 to fund the drive. So far, 10 additional churches have signed up to the drive, with more organisations donating to the cause. As of this article’s writing, the group has raised $35,000. Each hamper will contain treats such as chocolate, lollies, biscuits, and essential items like milk and grocery vouchers. The group is also collecting 5000 presents for children between the ages of 0 and 15.
“We’re so limited when we’re just on our own,” Darrell said. “We have limited resources, limited people, and the issues are just too big.”
Rockingham, a beachside suburb on the southwestern outskirts of Perth, has a population of almost 150,000. The unemployment rate in Rockingham is higher than that of broader WA and Australia, sitting at 4.8 per cent compared with 3.9 per cent across WA and 3.8 per cent across the country.
Chelsea co-leads a group of Rockingham church ministers from across denominations seeking ways to develop greater unity and resource sharing. Over the 14 years, they’ve spent in Rockingham, Chelsea and Darrell have come to realise even more that the body of Christ is much larger than just their own congregation and that different church groups offer various skill sets that, when combined, enhance their ability to meet needs.
They said that rather than encouraging other Christians to join The Salvation Army, they began seeking to mobilise Christians everywhere to join the social mission. They said Christians who are settled in other churches may simply thrive better when working within their own church’s leadership structures, but The Salvation Army could help mobilise and offer resourcing.
“We need to do something about the suffering in the world,” Darrell said. “That’s at the core of what [we] believe. It’s a no-brainer.
“It’s just really difficult to get enough people to support those who are quite lonely and facing hardship. So [began] this idea that we can’t support these people on our own, but there’s really good Christian people down the road who could assist.
“The positive that comes out of the high need is that people are working together.”
Beyond the Christmas hampers, Chelsea, Darrell and the Paradox team hope to build Love Rockingham into an ongoing collaboration throughout the year. They are very thankful to be able to use The Salvation Army’s fundraising platforms and resources to support it.
“We’re not trying to promote The Crew or the Salvos. It’s all about us mobilising churches in the city.
“It’s not [about] one church’s logo. It’s not ‘come and join The Salvation Army’,” Chelsea said. “Both The Crew and the Salvos are very known in this community and trusted … so we decided let’s lay down our logos and create something new.”
Greg said Love Rockingham was born out of a longstanding sense of unity and connection between churches in the area.
“We get to stand on the shoulders of all the pastors [who] have been collaborating for 30 years,” he said. “All of those churches [are] signing on because of our heart for unity. They know it’s not about us. We’re not trying to promote what we do.
“We’re not trying to promote The Crew or the Salvos. It’s all about us mobilising churches in the city. And for us and Chelsea and Darrell, our heart is that we’re exposing people in the churches to the needs in our city that we see every day.”
