A New Era Together: Stepping into Our Kingdom Assignment
A Statement to the Revive Church Family
Dear Revive Family,
Today, we are standing at a historic and visionary crossroads. This morning marks a defining chapter not just for our future, but for our entire church family across generations. Your leadership team has spent over a year praying, fasting, and thoroughly discussing a grand vision before bringing it to the house today.
We want to give you total clarity from the very start about what this beautiful destination looks like. We are presenting a vision for a glorious new era: a strategic merger where Zion Church will join together with Revive Church as one single body.
We are entering this transition to establish a unified, multi-ethnic, multi-generational kingdom church designed to reach this nation. In practice, this means we will become one unified family, worshiping in one combined English service, meeting together right here on this site. Simultaneously, at this very moment, this exact vision is also being presented to our mothers and fathers at Zion Church. Because this is a monumental step for them as well, we are embarking on this revelatory journey together, anchoring our hearts in truth so that we can step forward into our future free from fear or uncertainty.
1. Honoring the Journey and the Sacrifice
To understand the weight of this moment, we must remember how we got here. In 1992, the first generation of Ethiopian and Eritrean believers arrived in Australia. They faced the immense trial of settling in a foreign land, and their primary focus was spiritual survival and preserving their faith.
By 2005, that generation realized their current model wasn't fully equipping the next generation. Guided by a profound prophetic dream of an unfinished house, a distinct vision was birthed during prayer to start a Youth Church, not just a side ministry, that would be a vibrant, relevant, fruitful, and effective church. In 2006, they stepped out in faith and sacrificed their resources to launch what is now Revive Church.
Revive is the literal fruit of their prayers, tears, and generational vision. Now, we are presenting a new era in the continuing work that God wants to do through us together. God’s original word to our community in 1999 was that we were brought to Australia to be a solution and a light to this land. We recognize a profound truth: a mono-language, single-culture church cannot reach a diverse, multi-cultural nation. To harvest the field God gave us, we must expand.
2. The Presentation of a New Sacrifice
As this vision is being laid before Zion Church today, it represents an invitation for them to make another profound sacrifice for the sake of advancing the Gospel in our city.
We are proposing that we join as one, which means asking our elders to willingly transition toward an English-primary, multi-ethnic kingdom home. This means laying down linguistic comfort and decades of cultural familiarity so that your peers, your colleagues, and the generations after us can walk through the doors of this church and feel entirely welcome. It is an incredible mark of spiritual maturity that our leaders and elders are even considering putting the global mission of the Gospel above personal preferences.
The Origin of the Vision: A Journey of Prayer and Wrestling
Now that we have looked at our mandate to reach this land, it is vital to understand exactly how God birthed this specific plan. This merger is not a sudden human idea, a structural trend, or a rushed decision. It is the product of years of silent prayer, spiritual testing, and intentional wrestling before God by your leaders:
- Around 2012: Pastor Zelalem first received this profound vision from the Lord. Recognizing its weight, he kept it safely in his heart, praying over it privately for many years.
- In 2018: Pastor Zelalem shared the vision with Pastor Jonathan. Together, they committed to a season of intense fasting and prayer, seeking God’s timing and strategy.
- In 2019: The Zion Church leadership team was informally notified of the vision.
- In 2023: Pastor Jonathan introduced the vision to the Revive Church leadership team for the very first time, allowing them time to process and pray.
- In 2024: The Zion church elders were formally informed and discussed the next steps with Dr. Alemu.
- In 2025: The Zion Elders and Revive leadership each began to prayerfully evaluate the vision within their respective leadership teams, considering its implications and the practical steps required for its potential implementation.
For years, leaders across both generations have had the time to pray, wrestle, and seek God’s perfect alignment. Today, we finally bring what has been forged in the secret place out into the light of the congregation.
3. The Antioch Vision: Our Multi-Generational Blueprint
We are moving from a "Jerusalem" mindset, which can become safe and insulated inside its own walls to become an Antioch Model Church.
Jesus’s original plan was always for the Gospel to break out of its comfort zone and move from Jerusalem to the very ends of the earth. As recorded in Acts 11:19-30, the Holy Spirit actually used the persecution following the death of Stephen to force the believers to scatter. Some of those who fled traveled to Antioch. While some spoke the word only to Jews, others stepped out in faith and began preaching the good news about the Lord Jesus to the Greeks as well.
The Scripture tells us that the Lord’s hand was with them, His grace was clearly evident, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. This historic breakthrough became the definitive birthplace of our identity, it was in Antioch that Jesus's followers were first called Christians.
Antioch serves as our ultimate scriptural blueprint because it represents:
- Model Christianity: A community where Kingdom culture completely swallowed up ethnic, linguistic, and cultural divides.
- Model Leadership: A dynamic team where leaders from vastly different cultural backgrounds and distinct spiritual giftings co-labored as equals.
- Model Mission: As seen in Acts 13:1-3, it became the ultimate mission hub where the Holy Spirit set apart Paul and Barnabas, fasting and praying over them before sending them out to harvest the Gentile world.
For years, Revive has been marked by incredible zeal, passion, and a genuine hunger for God. Yet a church made up predominantly of young people can sometimes lack the depth that comes from those who have walked faithfully with Christ through many seasons. Without the wisdom, experience, and spiritual foundations of older generations, there is a risk of building with enthusiasm but lacking the weight of a rich and enduring legacy. As Revive continues to grow, the vision is not simply to be a church of passionate young people, but a church where generations are united, where the faith, wisdom, and testimony of those who have gone before strengthen and guide those who are coming after.
God is proposing a truly multi-generational house. Scripture beautifully highlights this design in Titus 2:3-5, emphasizing the profound benefit and necessity of having older, wiser spiritual pillars helping, guiding, and mentoring the younger generation.
We desperately need their spiritual oversight, their deep prayer lives, their resilience, and their life experience. They need your cultural fluency, your local understanding, and your burning fire for this city. Paul and Timothy need each other. We see this same powerful design in the beautiful story of Ruth and Naomi, who walked together as one in an unbreakable covenant relationship, completely undivided despite coming from entirely different cultures and different generations. When the wisdom of the older generation anchors the passion of the younger generation, we become an unstoppable force. We will be undeniably stronger together.
4. What This Means for Revive: Strengthening Our House
We want to share how this vision will beautifully impact Revive. This proposed merger is not about losing our identity or being absorbed; rather, it is about strengthening and elevating what we already have. By joining together, we are bringing incredible spiritual depth, weight, and seasoned experience into our house by adding more gifted, older fathers and mothers to our family.
- Ministries Will Be Strengthened: Our current departments, worship teams, and community outreach will be enriched and expanded. We are not tearing down what we have built; we are injecting it with the diverse spiritual gifts and wisdom of a multi-generational family.
- Leadership Will Be Expanded: We will move beyond single-generation leadership and embrace the strength that comes from generations walking together. Our future leadership team will become a unified leadership body, where emerging young leaders and the spiritually mature fathers and mothers of Zion Church co-labor, make decisions, and steward the house side by side.
This shift will stretch our leadership capacity and invite us to walk in deeper humility and mutual respect. It is a powerful alignment that will ground our zeal with foundational wisdom, ensuring we are better and more effective together.
5. Moving Forward Responsibly
Because this vision is being shared for the very first time today across both churches, we understand it may come as a surprise. Change brings valid questions, and we want to assure you that we are handling this process with the highest level of care, order, and family transparency:
- Time to Process: Today is strictly an announcement to cast the vision. We are giving everyone plenty of time to pray, reflect, and digest what this means. We do not expect immediate answers from anyone.
- Every Voice Will Be Heard: We are committed to an open dialogue. Opportunity will be given for everyone to ask questions, share feedback, and seek clarity. Your thoughts and feelings matter deeply to the leadership.
- Respecting the Process: Because this is a sacred spiritual transition, let us guard the spiritual atmosphere of our church. We lovingly ask that you do not engage in sidebar alignments, rumors, or actions that cause division and grieve the Holy Spirit. Instead, please use the healthy, transparent avenues and forums provided by the leadership to raise your questions.
Revive, our parents built the foundation and raised the pillars. Now, a new era is being presented where we can stand beside them as one unified body to finish the house. Let us pray for our mothers and fathers at Zion as they process this vision today, and let us prepare our own hearts to step forward into the fullness of what God has for this nation.
Frequently Asked Questions
This vision is the product of years of silent prayer, spiritual testing, and intentional wrestling before God by your leaders:
- Around 2012: Pastor Zelalem first received this profound vision from the Lord and held it privately in his heart for many years.
- In 2018: Pastor Zelalem shared the vision with Pastor Jonathan, and both committed to a season of intense fasting and prayer.
- In 2019: The Zion Church leadership team was informally notified.
- In 2023: Pastor Jonathan introduced the vision to the Revive Church leadership team for the first time.
- In 2024: The Zion church elders were formally informed and discussed the next steps with Dr. Alemu.
- In 2025: Within their respective leadership teams, the Zion Elders and Revive leadership began prayerfully considering and evaluating the practical steps for the journey ahead.
First and foremost, we are honoring the clear direction and timing that the Lord is leading us into. As a house, we see a great and timely need for spiritual mothers and fathers to co-labor hand in hand with our youth and young adults. This represents a profound spiritual strengthening and elevation for our house. We are not losing our identity; we are enriching what we already have.
Key benefits include:
- Advancement of the Gospel: This is at the very heart of why God gave us this vision to merge. As an English-speaking house, Revive experiences no linguistic hindrance in advancing the Gospel, and we have been consistently seeing the beautiful fruit of this. Now, God is strategically enlarging our territory to reach even more people. By Zion joining us, they bring immense spiritual strengths such as deep spiritual maturity, a powerful, unwavering prayer life, and a deeper understanding of the Word that will dramatically enhance our collective capacity. With their foundational weight anchoring us, we will be empowered to be even bolder in spreading the Gospel. Together, as one unified body, our mothers, fathers, and elders can step past former cultural limitations to run actively alongside us, fully realizing the exact mission for which the Lord brought our community to Australia: to see this nation come to faith in Jesus.
- Generational Depth: We are adding deeply experienced, spiritually mature fathers and mothers to our daily church family, leaning into their deep prayer lives, resilience, and rich life experience.
- Biblical Covenant: We get to model a beautiful, biblical Ruth and Naomi covenant relationship and a Paul and Timothy dynamic, anchoring our youth-driven passion with foundational wisdom.
- Pioneering a Blueprint: We will serve as a model for the wider body of Christ. Many ethnic churches across Australia and the world face these exact generational gaps, language barriers, and struggles to pass on the baton of faith to the next generation. Together, we are creating a practical blueprint that shows how to successfully transition into a vibrant, multi-generational kingdom community.
The specific pastoral structure and senior leadership appointments are To Be Announced (TBA) as the leadership teams continue to finalise details. However, both pastors will continue in active pastoral roles within the unified church.
No, the name Revive will continue as our name moving forward. However, if for any reason the incoming unified leadership team deems it necessary in the future to change the name to better align with the church’s expanding global vision, that option remains possible.
Revive’s current leadership structure will expand into a unified framework. Our young leaders and the seasoned elders from Zion will co-labor, make decisions, and govern the house side by side. A clear process for selecting this unified team of elders is in place and will be shared as we move forward.
No. Both Revive and Zion are already under the Australian Christian Churches (ACC) banner, meaning our denominational oversight, covering, and apostolic accountability remain exactly the same.
Our main joint service will take place in English at 11:30 AM. To honor Zion’s elders and provide them with a healthy transitional bridge, Revive will host and support several measures:
- Amharic Pre-Service Gathering: Zion will host a 1-hour prayer and worship service in Amharic right before our main service begins. This will run for an initial 6-month transitional period.
- Translation Support: We will offer translation tools during the 11:30 AM English service for any family members who struggle with fluent English.
- Amharic Worship Nights: Revive will host dedicated Amharic worship nights for a period of time to specifically help those who find it difficult to engage in English worship until everyone comfortably adjusts.
Because we are meeting together on this site, our current facilities may undergo renovations to optimise the spaces for a much larger, multi-generational family. Concurrently, the unified leadership will be actively looking into securing a new, larger premise to house our long-term growth.
Both Revive’s and Zion’s current missions projects, partnerships, and initiatives will be assessed by the incoming new leadership team. Together, they will determine their continuation and evaluate how we can best support, align, and expand our global impact as a unified house.
The specific structure and operation of ministries are still being finalised and will be announced in due course. As the leadership teams continue to prayerfully plan and work through the details, our desire is to see ministries strengthened and aligned to effectively serve the unified church and its vision.
No. Revive members do not have voting responsibilities.
We are planning to officially launch this joint kingdom mission in February of 2027, working intentionally toward full organisational and structural integration by September of 2027.
As the host house welcoming our mothers and fathers, your leadership asks you to step up in four ways:
- Pray and Intercede: Take this vision to the Lord privately, asking Him to prepare your heart to walk in deep humility and mutual respect.
- Attend Town Halls: Be present at our upcoming internal forums to ask questions, understand the operational shifts, and get clarity. There will be two key meetings held in the month of July, on July 11th and July 25th. To help the leadership team come fully prepared to address your specific thoughts, you can submit your questions ahead of time via the church app.
- Guard the Atmosphere: Honor the sacredness of this transition. Refuse to engage in rumors, sidebar alignments, or division that could grieve the Holy Spirit.
- Prepare to Welcome: Prepare your heart to stretch out of your comfort zone, welcoming a beautiful influx of spiritual wisdom, diversity, and generational depth into our community, ministries and teams.