the 500Plus story

In 1994, we launched a conference in Australia called '1000Plus' - for senior pastors of churches that had 1,000 people or more in their weekend services. At that time, there were actually only 14 churches of this size throughout Australia and New Zealand across all denominations. Of those, 13 senior pastors came together for two days of sharing about common issues unique to the large church in our culture. We felt a key to growing our churches, in our culture, would be discovered by looking to one another, as all of us have a piece of the answer to offer.

From this, came the launch of the 500Plus Conference, for churches with over 500 people in their major services. These run for three days (midweek) every 18 months. They are not traditional conferences in the sense of everybody coming to hear from key speakers. Instead, they are a gathering together of peers for input, interaction, relationship building and relaxation. The formal sessions are held in the mornings with the actual speaking done by a selection of the pastors in attendance.

Building on the benefits we have seen by connecting the senior pastors and their spouses at a peer level, we launched the 500Plus Business Conference, designed for those who lead the operational aspects of the 500Plus Churches, including executive ministers, general managers, senior associate ministers, financial controllers, business managers, and IT managers.