By Garry Sanossian
When Pastor Stephen Cha, Associate Pastor James Jang and their team at The Chapel Sydney decided to host a conference, they deliberately moved away from traditional church formats to reach people who might never attend a Sunday service.
“For years we’ve been doing traditional conferences, but we were finding that people wouldn’t necessarily come to hear a sermon or a message, but they did want to hear a story of a life changed,” James explained.
Senior Pastor Stephen Cha, who supported the vision, emphasised the intentional departure from traditional methods. “If you want to reach new people, you have to do new things. This is the first conference that we had that wasn’t preaching, it wasn’t a church service, and it wasn’t at church. It was all about story,” he said.
The Chapel Sydney testimony night meeting.
In practice, this meant the conference focused entirely on personal testimonies rather than preaching; making it easier for church members to invite friends. Instead of asking someone to attend a church service, they could simply invite them to come and listen to someone’s personal story.
The main speaker of the night was a Korean missionary now serving in Singapore’s villages. His own story, shaped by struggles with drugs and alcohol, became the powerful testimony of the night. “This guest speaker has had a pretty crazy story,” James Jang said. “God really changed his life and he’s given his life completely to the work of the mission field.”
The evening was not just about listening – it encouraged engagement. Between the four stories shared (three shorter testimonies and the main presentation), the organisers facilitated discussion times that encouraged attendees to reflect on their own experiences.
“We asked questions like, ‘What’s been the happiest moment of your life? What’s been the hardest thing in your life so far?’” James explained. “We really had people just open up.”
This approach drew an unexpectedly diverse crowd; creating an environment where people felt safe to explore questions they might never have considered before.
Ray, one of the attendees, found the evening particularly impactful. “My overall experience was it was very eye opening, just to see the way that God could touch so many people in completely different walks of life,” he said. The format created an atmosphere that felt distinctly different from traditional gatherings. “It felt like there was no pressure to do anything or believe anything,” Ray explained.
“It was just really welcoming – just stories that showcased the work of God in people’s lives.”
The impact of the evening was not about altar calls or instant decisions. Pastor James said, “It wasn’t so much about being able to say, ‘Oh, my friend gave their life to God’, but it was about ‘My friend started thinking about faith and thinking about things that they’ve never really mulled on before.’”
For Ray, the conference delivered exactly what the organisers had hoped for through the testimonies shared.
“This just shows me that there’s no limit to how far God is willing to go to pursue us,” he reflected.
As The Chapel Sydney team reflected on the new approach, they felt the conference format met a need in this cultural moment. As Pastor Stephen noted, “Evangelism is really important but, with our generation, it has to happen through relationship.”
The positive response has encouraged the team to continue exploring similar formats. It’s made them wonder if the most powerful way to share faith is not through answers, but through honest, human stories that invite people to lean in?