Central Church was established in the late 1980’s to reach the city of Seymour and its surrounding region. Originally known as Seymour Assemblies of God, the church has also been known as Highway Christian Fellowship and then Central Christian Church from 2006 to reflect its location in the north-central region of Victoria. At the start of 2021 this name was simplified to Central Church in line with our mission of Making Jesus Central.
The church was originally founded by Pastor Allan Herman in 1988 as a small group extension from Broadford AOG. After it became the hub for a successful bible college the church was then led by Margaret Stewart (1991-1995), Duncan Brown (1996-2004), Peter & Anne Brown (2004-2020) and Daniel & Fiona Sanders who are the present senior ministers. The church has met in a number of different locations over this time including the current Salvation Army hall, a school hall, the affectionately known ‘shed,’ at the the Seymour Baptist Church, and currently at the VRI Hall in central Seymour.
In its past the church was also involved in establishing a various satellite congregations in nearby towns such as Wallan, Euroa, Tongala, Romsey, Kilmore, Whittlesea and Yea, some of which are still in existence today. While presently meeting as one congregation in Seymour, Central Church desires to serve the region and has many congregation members from surrounding towns.
Our Mission
Making Jesus central in our lives, our church, our community and our world.
Our Values
Commissioned
Empowered by the Holy Spirit
Neighbourly
Together
Resilient
Advancing
Love Jesus
Pastors Daniel and Fiona Sanders have been the Senior Pastors of Central Church since July 2020. Daniel has had a broad experience in ministry which began as Victorian Director as Students for Christ, a role that was shared with Fiona. He has been an Associate Pastor at Imagine Church in Burwood (now Edge Church Melbourne) and Equip Church in Hoppers Crossing and more recently worked as Operations Manager for Alpha Australia. Daniel is also the state leader for ACC Community Engagement. Fiona has also had various ministry roles, most notably as the principal of South West (now Equip) Bible College, but also works at the University of Melbourne.
Daniel & Fiona love meeting people, developing leaders and seeing God’s kingdom expand in every sphere of society. They both enjoy travelling and cooking but beyond that their interests are varied with Daniel loving sport (especially Hawthorn) and music while Fiona relaxes by reading or sewing.
Central Church is part of the Australian Christian Churches, one of Australia’s largest groups of churches, and endorses their doctrinal statement as follows.