About Us

The Local Church

In 1982 Pastor Des and Del Power from Bowen came to Proserpine every second Friday night to have an Outreach Meeting in the C.W.A. Hall in Faust St. As the local numbers grew they invited Ian and Marjorie Stephenson to commence a Whitsunday Christian Outreach Centre in Proserpine, which continued to be held in the C.W.A hall supported by the Bowen Church.

In 1984 we were having meetings on Sunday both morning and night and a daily prayer meeting at 6am underneath the Stevensons house. We were invited to hire the foyer of the then newly built entertainment centre for our meetings and the search was on for a place to call home.

In September 1987 we purchased the recently closed Mobil Service station and commenced services at out current location. A planned extension was made for where the current sanctuary is now, which was the old lube bay and workshop area for the servo.

Ian passed away in December 1988 and at his funeral Pastor Clark Taylor (founder of C.O.C,) ordained Marj to be pastor, and she became the first female pastor in the C.O.C. movement.

In 1990 Marj asked the oversight to send a married couple to look after the centre and Jim and Heather Forlong took up the position and cared for the church until they were transferred to Townsville at that time Pastor Barry Clarke and his wife Lynn were assistant Pastors and then continued to look after the church to see it reach it's potential. For 17 years they continued here building a strong spirit filled church speaking in tongues and see God glorified every time we came together. In 2011 they moved to N.S.W. and Pastor Trevor Holmes came to Care for the church.

In 2016 Mackay Christian Outreach Centre were sending Preachers and teachers and musicians to help. and a Sunday night meal was established . Feeling the call of God on their lives Joshua and Samantha Faltinsky moved to Proserpine to pastor the church in 2017, Since then God has been building his church, building our faith and the authority that we have, to see his Kingdom established here on the earth through us. They are empowering the body to grow in our spiritual gifts and are continuing to see God's goodness and mercy fulfilled in our lives everyday. So the we can Impact each other to Impact the World.

The Movement

History

Clark Taylor, founder of the then Christian Outreach Center, had been participating and preparing to take on the ministry in the Methodist Church , before beginning the project that would be the first COC congregation, which initially operated in his home with only 25 members.

The church grew rapidly, overcoming a number of problems, which earned them a reputation for inclusion of marginalized people such as the homeless, Australian Aborigines, drug addicts and ex-criminals.

In 1977, the then COC accredited the membership of more than 1,000 people, and began to establish new congregations in nearby towns.

In order to finance the costs of the growing congregation, it is decided to produce the television program A New Way of Living , which includes many claims of miraculous healing.

In 1985 the church moved to Brisbane - Queensland where a 5000 seat auditorium was installed. Today it is known as The Citipointe Church .

The installation of the COC movement has had a political impact in Australia, specifically in the city of Queensland.

By 1988, the movement had grown to 136 churches in Australia, including locals in New Zealand and the Solomon Islands.

International expansion

By the 90s, the COC, under the leadership of Neil Miers , began to expand to other countries in Europe and America , being able to establish itself in more than 30 countries.

Currently the movement is chaired internationally by Ashley Schmierer , and is present in countries such as Australia , Algeria , Argentina , Bangladesh , Brazil , Bulgaria , Chile , Colombia , Denmark , Ecuador , Egypt , the Philippines , Fiji , France , England , Iceland , Kenya , India , Malaysia , Malta ,Nepal , New Zealand , Pakistan , Peru , Dominican Republic , Serbia , South Africa , Tonga , Ukraine , Vanuatu, and Zambia .

Brand change

On October 1, 2013, on the eve of its 40th anniversary, the Christian Outreach Center changes its name and logo, changing its name to the International Network of Churches or INC , adopting the motto Born for More (in English), Born for More (in Spanish).

Described as "building in the past", instead of breaking away from it and creating a new international network of churches; stating that the characteristics "boldness, action and reliability" reflect the DNA of the movement.

Today, the leadership of 'INC' is headed by English Ashley Schmierer in his role as international president, followed by Australian pastor Ross Abraham as national president of the movement in Australia ; while the Chilean Maickel Caroca is the highest authority of the movement for South America and the Australian leader Fred Bartolo heads the same position, but in Malta .