Welcome! - A SAFE CHURCH

Eltham Presbyterian Church adheres to the Presbyterian Church of Victoria’s Safe Church policy and code of conduct, in line with Victorian Child Safe Standards.


This includes appropriate personnel (both staff and volunteers) having a Working with Children Check, attending Safe Church training, and adhering to the agreed policy and guidelines to maintain a safe environment for everyone within the church – children as well as adults. We have a Safe Church Representative in the congregation who helps to maintain our records and procedures, and who facilitates a process for new volunteers to attain approval.



For further details please visit the Safe Church Unit website.

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VISION & PURPOSE


Our Vision is to be: 


  • Spreading hope through Jesus to Eltham and beyond

    Our agenda is totally focused on Jesus. Holding out real hope to others is the most loving and generous thing we can possibly do. For everyone who is a disciple of Jesus there is nothing more important than spreading the hope found in Jesus.

Our Purpose is to:


  • Grow in relationship with God through Jesus

    To love God truly we need to come to Him through Jesus the Messiah. A relationship with God can never be on the basis of any personal merit but on grace alone found in the Good News of Jesus crucified, risen and ascended. The deeper this relationship becomes the more we fulfil the reason for which we were created.

  • Grow in Christ-like character

    Becoming followers of Jesus through faith in what He has done for us means that we are to model ourselves on Jesus and live in a way that reflects our loyalty to Him. Every person redeemed in Christ has the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to enable the process of personal growth in Christ-likeness. The more we are known as Jesus like people the greater positive influence we will have on those around us.

  • Be a caring community of faith


    Coming into a relationship with God our Creator means we enter into His family and are called to live out the principles of love, grace, mercy and mutual responsibility. It is through living as a community of faith that we become the City on a Hill which Jesus talked about.

  • Share God’s message

    When people come to faith in Jesus they find forgiveness, redemption and Eternal Life. This is a life changing experience. The person of faith also becomes a member of God’s family and is guaranteed a place in His Eternal Kingdom. This is the ‘pearl of great price’ that is the most important treasure in life (Matt 13:46). The core business of every Christian is to share this wonderful, life changing message with anyone and everyone (Matt 28:19-20, John 3:16, 1 Peter 3:15-16).

  • Be people of grace, mercy and justice

    Our mission is to make sure that there will be more and more manifestations of His kingdom at work in our world right now. As followers of Jesus we are enlisted to be part of this process by performing acts of mercy and kindness as we spread the Good News of eternal hope in Jesus the Messiah. God’s Word clearly expresses His passion to see practical mercy and justice in our society (Is 58:6-7, James 1:27).

What we believe.

...about the Bible

We believe that the whole Bible is God’s Word and is infallible (without fault). As such it is our final authority for everything we believe and practice. As part of the Presbyterian Church, we accept the Westminster Confession of Faith, read in the light of the Declaratory Statement, as a reliable summary of the Bible’s teaching.

...about the World

We believe that God created the whole world and everything in it, and that He created it all good. However, we now live in a broken world because humanity rejected God as ruler, even though as Creator He is the only rightful ruler of the world. Now that we have a broken relationship with God, it is as though we are dead people walking – we might be physically alive, but we are spiritually dead, with no ability to save ourselves.

…about Jesus

We believe that Jesus is the only solution to our broken relationship with God. The Bible teaches us that He is God’s Son, that He lived a perfect life and died on the cross as our substitute, and that He rose again from the dead, so that everyone who trusts in Him will have their sins forgiven and will receive the incredible gift of eternal life. Jesus is also the King, and one day He will return as King to judge the world.

...about the Church

We believe that the Church is what the Bible calls the ‘body’ of Christ, a group of Christians who believe the Bible and the Good News about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and whose purpose is to worship God and to tell others about this Good News. We fulfil this purpose through meeting together to read, teach and apply the Bible to our lives, praying together, encouraging each other in our daily journey following Jesus, and sharing with others that Jesus is the Saviour and King.

Organic Outreach




Organic Outreach in a nutshell: While our Christian community is vital for our personal spiritual growth it is also important for us to own our part in the Great Commission to ‘go and make disciples of all nations.’ A starting point is to see that the ‘mission field’ is all around right where God has placed each of us. If we commit to making friends with non-Christians and allow them to see into our lives and as we also share something of their lives, spiritual conversations will happen. It is said that only 3% are called to be evangelists but the rest of us, the 97%, are all living, walking, talking ambassadors for the Lord Jesus right where He put us. The growth of the Church lies with us at the grass roots level as we go about our everyday business.


Prayer Cards:  We have wallet size prayer cards for members to write the names of non-churched connections. God has placed many people within our sphere of influence and this is a way to help us remember to pray for them, for opportunities to be a positive Gospel influence in their lives and that we might progress to talking about spiritual things in a natural way.  When it comes out of a foundation of friendship, that is when it is ‘organic.’


Organic Outreach Influence Team: The team includes the leader or a key representative of each ministry in the church. The gathering of these people into one team connects all the ministries of the church to create a unified outreach mind-set where every ministry stands behind and supports the efforts of every other ministry. Our desire is that even the primarily inward focussed ministries consider how that ministry can also have an evangelistic edge or at least strengthen the other more out focused ministry efforts.


Organic Outreach Literature: In our Lending Library we have copies of – Organic Outreach for Churches, Organic Outreach for Ordinary People, Organic Outreach for Families and Organic Disciples.

Pastoral Team

Senior Pastor

Don has been our pastor since 1996. He is married to Anne and they have two children. Don studied at the Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, and after serving as a minister in a country parish, he furthered his studies at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, with a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy. Don and Anne met while he was studying in the USA.


Don grew up at Ernabella and Fregon in Central Australia as both his parents were long term missionaries to the local Anangu people. As a young boy he was fluent speaker of the Pitjantjatjara language but, sadly, is fairly limited now.


Don loves preaching and teaching from God’s Word (The Bible), used to enjoy rock climbing and still enjoys watching Geelong win the football.

Pastoral Care Worker

Rebecca is pioneering a new part-time role for us at Eltham Presbyterian Church as she leads our Pastoral Care Team with a special focus on one-to-one ministry with the women in the congregation. Rebecca, Sam and Asha have been part of EPC since 2023.


Rebecca grew up in the Mt Evelyn Christian Reformed Church and has been involved in church ministries ever since she was a teenager. More recently she has been an active member of a church much larger than EPC and then she and Sam were part of  a launching team for a church planting situation.  She has a wide variety of experience in many aspects of Christian ministry but has a special passion for meeting one-to-one with other women in the church and families in need.


Outside of Christian ministry Rebecca has a certificate in Disability Work and a Bachelor's Degree in Community Development.

SESSION (Elders) - The Session comprises of elders who, along with the pastors, have spiritual oversight of the congregation.

Pastoral Care Team - The Pastoral Care Team assists the elders in ministering to the needs of people in the congregation.


There is a team of men and women who work together with the elders to provide pastoral care in each of the three zones the members of EPC are divided into. This team meets monthly to talk about and pray for the people in our church community.

OFFICE ADMINISTRATION

Holly Bligh has grown up in this congregation and is now hired part-time as our new Office Administrator.


All 'admin' emails will go through to her. Holly is responsible for a variety of administration duties including serving in the role of Safe Church Representative for EPC.


Any question about Safe Church requirements are to be directed to her.


Second part-time vacancy


Soon EPC will be advertising for a third ministry worker with pastoral duties to compliment the existing team, including sharing the preaching on a regular basis.

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