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TAKING A BREAK FROM MEETINGS - Pastor Tony Case

Update - moving towards 2026 with faith and expectation: 2025 has been a watershed year for us. Since stopping our mid-year meetings we’ve had a wonderfully relaxing break, longer than initially planned but enjoyable. We’ve visited family in Brisbane several times, and been away in our caravan on a few trips for the first time since moving to Hervey Bay. We've spent quality time together, discovered the Brolga Theatre (so we don't miss QPAC as much anymore) and completed our renovations, making a significant difference to our quality of life at home. Making new friends and becoming more a part of our local community has also been a priority. Kate is involved with dance and bridge, and is our primary social director these days. We've even given our Trike a good workout a few times as well. At times it is necessary to pull back, take stock, reset whatever vision we have for our lives or ministry, and refresh ourselves.

Over the break I was asked, quite unexpectedly, to join the board of a local Christian school. This has proven to be both exciting and challenging at the same time. Working with such dedicated, professional people is both an honour and privilege. Few things are as important as a solid Christian education in a good Christian school in my view. We remain active in the local Ministers Association as well, which is more like meeting with friends than anything else, encouraging one another in our various roles, irrelevant of denominational differences or preferences.

We are asked fairly regularly when we will start meetings again, and what will the new church look like. We still receive regular requests from our website about services, which we do our best to redirect, and our Facebook page still gets good traction, which was unexpected. The answer is that in the New Year, after Christmas is behind us, we plan to start meetings again. Building from a more solid foundation than was possible before, we now have a chance to do what we came here for - establish a new church in Hervey Bay.

However, to answer some of questions we are often asked about why we took a break in the middle of the year, it is necessary to include some important background context. I have agonised somewhat on whether to share this, but have always believed transparency is critical in building trust. Integrity also requires we speak the truth if we want to be free, and move forward from what for us has been a difficult season. I like to think I've never shied away tough calls, or from being open and honest, whether in business, ministry or my personal life. Please bear with me as I summarise the following as succinctly as I can.

Our primary purpose for coming to Hervey Bay followed an invitation to pastor a local church plant. A group of people were meeting weekly in a home and the leader wanted to form a new church, but was unsure how to go about it. After moving from Brisbane to Hervey Bay things turned out somewhat different from how it had been presented, and certainly confusing to most of the people involved as it turned out. Over several months it became obvious there were other factors at play, and an undercurrent of contention steadily grew that eventually needed addressing. In a nutshell, this effectively led to a parting of ways in late 2024 as diverse expectations came to the fore, undercutting unity and leading to this unfortunate, but unavoidable outcome. We continued on as the bulk of the original people returned to what they were doing before. We have met some great people as meetings continued, but the shadow of this experience never seemed to be far away, and great disturbed to our spirits. Going our separate ways was done without rancour or any bitterness, evidenced by the sense of relief from conflict and disagreement that followed for us. It was a tough period, though mostly on a relatively small scale in the scheme of things.

Without a strong, vital and energetic team sharing a common vision and working towards common goals any venture, especially in the business of the kingdom, is doomed from the start. To find ourselves caught up with such dysfunction was indeed distressing, though to be fair, most of those involved were not aware of what was happening behind closed doors.

In hindsight we should have stopped the meetings at that point, reset our goals and vision, and prayerfully sought guidance on next steps. We knew with some confidence God had called us to Hervey Bay, and that pastoral ministry was a part of this call. Full replacement knee surgery for me occurred during this time, which meant my some of my focus needed to be on full recovery which ultimately took just over 12 months. Being in the middle of extensive home renovations overlapped this time period as well, complicating matters further.

We cannot learn lessons from such challenges by blaming others for the situations we find ourselves in. Only by seeing what we could have done differently, and not repeating mistakes, can we learn and grow. Failing to see this situation church evolve as it did is completely on me. New to town, working with unfamiliar people of a completely different church background and mindset to us, and hoping to escape the hard groundwork involved in starting a church from scratch all played its part I suspect. Hindsight is such a great gift, but foresight is better. Something birthed wrongly rarely has a chance to fully recover or achieve desired goals.

By mid-2025 we were tired, and unhappy with where things were heading. I sought advice from a couple of local senior pastors I had come to know and trust, as well as those out of town pastors I regularly speak with and have known for many years. We found agreement in making the decision we ultimately did in closing the meetings for a season, effectively putting the church on hold in order to take a break, allowing us to spend some time personal reflection and reassessing just about everything else. Turns out this was a good decision.

As 2025 draws to a close we are refreshed and energised, and our vision feels invigorated. We remain convinced God called us to Hervey Bay, and has a plan for us that involves pastoral ministry. Our plans going forward are still crystalising. At this point we want to get through the Christmas and New Year break period first, and then commence a mid-week meeting, inviting those who share our vision, hope and desire to see a new church planted in Hervey Bay. A new beginning. We want to start afresh as we should have back in 2024.

We are looking to meet people who have similar ideas, who are looking to be part of something new and different. The churches I have pastored before have always been unique because we are unique in our gifting and vision. Most healthy churches should feel the same I suspect. It is imperative to believe in what we do, and what we are building, especially in the kingdom, but also in life generally. We know it is God who gives the growth, but it generally falls on us, as His servants, to prime the pump as it were - get the ball rolling so the Holy Spirit has something solid to work with.

We have met so many people who are new to town, are in between churches or looking for something more relevant to their needs and may be willing to be part of something new. The harvest is ripe, the need is great and the opportunities endless when God is calling the shots. We will post more on this on our Facebook page over the next few weeks, and our website blogs will also recommence, so keep watching these spaces and get in touch if you would like more detail information on anything I have shared here. We’d love to hear from you.

- Vlogs, Podcasts and AI: I’ve been also thinking about podcasts a lot these past few months, working on some AI ideas and vlogs, which is probably the way of the future in promoting the things of God to a wider audience than just a local church community. I’ve posted a few examples on our Pathway FB page of the new wave of biblically oriented AI vlogs that are coming out. Humour mixed with modern interpretations of age biblical themes and stories - something not possible only a few short years ago.

We not only live in interesting times, but times that are both wonderful and far-reaching in possibility for the kingdom. Too many Christian fatalists seem to see only evil in everything from politics to the cashless society to the general state of the world, the evils of globalisation, financial, geo-political social collapse and more. Seeking an early return of Christ to escape this evil and adulterous generation does not take into account God is, and always has been, in control. Jesus will return when the Father says so and not before, and it will be a surprise to everyone, that’s for sure, at least according to biblical teaching.

However, while we wait for this end-times event we commanded to get on with the job of meeting needs, healing wounds, setting captives free and populating heaven. To do this we should utilise every tool available. Got is the great inventor and creator, not the devil, who can only corrupt and deceive. So let’s utilise all this awesome digital age has to offer, and use it to further the purposes of God’s kingdom, being the light and salt we are called to be. I've always been an optimist (with a realist bent), and there is still much to do in the kingdom before He does actually return, and much to still discover, invent, and enjoy as we seek to obey His plan for our lives as Christian believers ...