Our Story...
Cheil English Ministry began in 1991 as one of the first English Ministries that immigrant Korean churches started.
Between 1970 and 2000, a great number of Koreans immigrated to Australia for lots of different reasons: A better life for their children, better living conditions, and more employment opportunities. Given the large influx of Korean immigrants in Sydney, naturally, the Korean Christians set up churches. Today, there are over 300(!) Korean churches in Sydney, but in the 70s, there were only four. One of them was Sydney Cheil Church.
Those Korean immigrants had children, and as those kids grew up speaking English, the Korean immigrant churches needed to run services in English in order to teach the next generation (“the second gen”) about Jesus.
Cheil English Ministry has gone through lots of changes in the past 30 years,
but three changes stand out: Firstly, the congregation became more convinced that the Bible is true, and it grew into an Evangelical congregation which holds to the Reformed tradition.
The members of ChEMistry became increasingly convinced that the Bible really is God’s Word, and that the only hope for lost sinners – is the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. This first big change led to a deepened passion for evangelism, and in God’s kindness, that led to the second big change – which was numerical growth, and then the third big change: ChEMistry became more multi-ethnic.
“If Sydney Cheil Church seeks to reach all Korean speakers with the Gospel, ChEMistry strives to reach everyone else.“
Today, the Korean side (Sydney Cheil Church) and the English side (Cheil English Ministry) enjoy a rich friendship.
Along with sharing staff, finances and property, we regularly hold combined events and get involved in global missions together.
If Sydney Cheil Church seeks to reach all Korean speakers with the Gospel, ChEMistry strives to reach everyone else.
When it comes to our “Mission & Vision”, we try to keep it simple. We want to speak the truth in love. We want to engage with our world and embrace it in Jesus’ name. We want to take ourselves less seriously, and take Jesus more seriously.
We want God’s Spirit to illumine God’s Word to us – so that we might know God’s Son that much more intimately. We want to make disciples of Jesus from every corner of the world, but we will start right here in Sydney.
Join us this Sunday
We know that meeting someone for the first time can be intimidating, and going to a new church for the first time can be nerve-racking! We want to help make your first experience at ChEMistry as easy and comfortable as possible.