The Zion story started miraculously in 2005. Guest Speaker Lee Grady at ImagineNations Conference in Sydney Australia pauses mid-sermon and, prompted by the Holy Spirit, asks ‘is there a city called Darwin?’ After confirmation from the crowd that he is not crazy, and there is indeed a city called Darwin, he then prophesies boldly ‘you will plant a church there"!’ The prophecy was politely put on the shelf for five years.
Fast forward to 2010, and Team Davis were sent out by Pastors Jack and Carol Hanes of ImagineNations Church, with a cake too amazing to ever cut and a loving church to cheer us on. We were young and dependent on Jesus to move, because we knew we couldn’t pull this one off without His Presence.
Landing in Darwin in March is a spectacle to behold. Being greeted by the wave of pure humidity and instant sweat patches, we instantly knew we were beyond our depth. We did KNOW however that this was orchestrated in heaven and this assignment had the breath of the Holy Spirit all over it. Before we moved to Darwin we put together a prayer list of breakthroughs we would believe for. It’s amazing how years later you look at that piece of paper and see answer to prayer all over it.
To get the church planting motor started, we utilised Easter as the starting point. We held pretty ‘unsuccessful’ outreaches in different suburbs of Darwin for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. To clarify ‘unsuccessful’.....I have to admit that faith led me to believe that we would see 50 locals at each event. We were lucky to have 20 people in total across both events, and most of that 20 were part of a missions team that helped us from Sydney. No one got ‘saved’, no miracles occurred, and no millionares wrote us a large cheque. Honestly though, we were just super stoked that we were in Darwin planting a church. On the other hand, deep down we were starting to realise it was going to be harder that what we imagined.
Easter Monday changed our trajectory dramatically. Somehow we were given a green light (with the help of taking on Red Frogs) to do an Easter service for students that resided at Charles Darwin University. We still scratch our heads as to how this door to share the gospel opened up. We were told that maybe 20 students would show up. So we cooked for 30 by faith. Well, 70 students turned up, and somehow we sort of watched the feeding of the 5000 unfold. There is no way we made that much food, but there were leftovers too. Anyone that is familiar with uni students knows they have one dominant love language: free food!
And here is the next miracle, most of the students didn’t leave after the food, they sat down and listened to the gospel. No doubt some heard it for the first time that evening. After the message, four uni students wanted to stay connected! Many more would join us later in the journey. We didn’t have a building yet, but we did have a house that we could convert into a church. So that’s what we did, and we put a hand-made sign up because we didn’t want to waste money on a sign. Let me tell you how much of a joy it was to see the first person walk through the door of our ‘church’. We actually had a totally different strategy in mind, but we sensed God was implementing His plan, so we decided that He knew best and rolled with that.
Amazingly others came to our house for church. We only ended up meeting at our home for Sunday service for three weeks. Our home however would be used for ministry almost every other day. Worship practice, women’s events and even Zumba classes. Funnily enough, a family that had sworn they would not join a new church plant, could not resist God’s prompting and came to our house for church. They then miraculously offered a venue, in a basement at the bottom of some holiday apartments, that not even google maps could find. That didn’t worry us, as it could fit more than our home and better yet, it was FREE!
It wasn’t convenient, it had a large pylon smack bang in middle of the venue, but it could fit thirty people and to our amazement people somehow found the venue and called our church home.
Moving from our home meant more work, but this is what we signed up for. Sunday morning looked like driving across Darwin with our gear, unloading, setting up, driving back across town to pick up university students, having service and then doing the above in reverse order again.
A few months had passed, and we were delighted to say that the room was full. We had half on one side of the pylon and half on the other side. Those that wanted to sleep through the message and remain a little anonymous at church strategically sat behind the pylon. We even had a kids church! Yeah it was only a few kids, but it was the beginning of something special! Knowing we needed a bigger venue, we went all out and approached Charles Darwin University. Honestly no church had historically met on the founder of evolutions campus :) up until that point. Somehow we met with the gatekeeper, and boom, they gave us a green light to have church every week on site! Other Christians were shocked and amazed that this happened. I want to take a moment to thank all those we never met that had previously walked around the campus years prior, praying doors would supernaturally open on campus for Jesus to move.
It didn’t come without challenge .. or countless complaints, but CDU was our home for several years. So many beautiful stories of students that just walked past and came to church for the first time. Others even drove across the ‘Berrimah Line’ to make our church home. For locals that is a geographical marker that most locals dare not cross. In all honesty it’s about a twenty minute drive from one end of Darwin to the other. Locals for reason think it’s a lot further. We started in Blue 5 and filled it, moved to Blue 1 and almost filled it. We moved to the epicentre of CDU, Mal Nairn Auditorium (Red 7), seating capacity, three hundred! Our dream was one day we would fill it with worshippers. It’s a dream that I still believe will one day happen. We moved there possibly a little early, but forgot to mention the craziest miracle of them all, the university wasn’t charging us! Correct, we didn’t pay a cent for four years! So if you can meet in the one fifty seater for the same price of the three hundred, you take the three hundred seater! And most important no offices were in that complex, so NO ONE could complain about us. The free pass arrangement would end after a few years with change of management. As we were trying to save funds, our next chapter would be using Casuarina Baptist church as our home. The next couple of years were rough. We didn’t see growth, students didn’t come like they use to, we had just lost the ‘vibe’ that we use to have. We knew something had to shift.
Church planting wasn’t easy. Along with great victories came equally tough seasons. The transient nature of Darwin was and still is our greatest challenge to contend with. There were years where 30% of our congregation moved at years end. Navigating this made us rely all the more on God. Many years prior, one of our strategies was to pray for every single home in our city by walking every street. We would highlight in yellow the areas we had done. We knew without prayer that we were labouring in our own strength and ability. Prayer handed it to Christ. Once we completed every street in Darwin, we actually decided to walk the streets of Palmerston too! Yes that meant crossing the ‘Berrimah Line’ and venturing into foreign territory. Whilst walking and riding the streets of Palmerston, the Lord prompted us to plant a church there too. I knew it was God, I just didn’t know if the timing was right, so we shelved it for a later day.
A couple of years passed and we were in the midst of our toughest season of church pioneering, God stirred my heart for Palmerston. The timing certainly now didn’t feel right, we were working so hard just to get our other service to health. But no matter how hard we tried, we could not shake the prompting to begin a work in Palmerston. Good people questioned the decision, and in fairness we were already stretched very thin so I didn’t chastise their lack of faith, rather I passionately would counter that I believed that God was in this. We had very few people, no venue, but a door opened to meet in a local politicians board room. My favourite church planter (well Nicole first) faithfully joined me every week to setup and believe that God would make a way to begin a work. We planned for months on how to launch, and then a wonderful opportunity arose. The local Christian school had just completed their brand new hall and wanted a church to fill it. Thankfully they believed in our heart and vision and opened their doors to us in 2016.
As the hall was not quite ready for use, we met on site at the school and prayed and had our first worship service with a ukelele and hope was stirred for this next chapter. Don’t despise small beginnings! We then held services inside each week and began our little church across the Berrimah Line and into Palmerston. Fast forward 6 years, the school is still currently our church home. We have seen the amazing goodness of God play out. Sure there have been tough spots and challenges, but our roots firmly began to go deep into the soil of Palmerston. We humbly watched our church family grow over the years.
In 2020 we renamed our church ZION! We also moved our night service out of the Baptist Church and back into CDU! And then BAM … COVID-19 hit, only a few weeks in, we were no longer able to meet on site at the university. Their door would remain closed for the entire year. It was in that season, we made the decision to halt our evening service and consolidate our work in Palmerston. Honestly one day I believe we will be back in the university, and one day we will see Red 7 filled with worshippers!
The church has had a special time at Palmerston Christian College, however in 2022, another miracle unfolded. Invited to come under Acts Global Churches, we were generously offered a block of land with an existing structure (future kids church) in Palmerston! When we moved in 2010, we always believed that we came for the long haul, and one day our church would have its own place to call home. Well that chapter is unfolding before our eyes as we get the final plans and approvals sorted to commence the work soon. It’s amazing to look back at what God has done over the years. Now that you’re caught up on a bit of our story, come join us for the wildest adventure and help write some new pages in our story!
Love from the Davis family.
