Planetshakers is a Christian youth movement that began as an annual conference and grew into an international ministry and large church in Melbourne, Australia. The conference was born out of Paradise Community Church in Adelaide, South Australia by Pastor Russell Evans. Planetshakers expanded, and in 2004 moved to Melbourne to begin a church ministry (originally called Melbourne City Church). Planetshakers also has its own bible college which is located in several campuses throughout Australia.
Planetshakers' stated mission is to "empower a generation to win a generation".
Conferences
Praise and worship during a Planetshakers conference, 2005
Planetshakers runs annual conferences in several Australian states. The first conference held in Adelaide in 1997 had 300 delegates, growing to reach 20,000 nation-wide by 2004.
The 2007 conference period saw Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne as venues, and marking the 11th anniversary. Melbourne, being the primary venue, hosted the conference in Hisense Arena (formerly Vodafone arena), part of Olympic Park.
The conferences were held in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth in January 2008. Melbourne at Hisense Arena from 2-5 January 2008; Brisbane 7-10 January 2008 at Brisbane Convention Centre; Sydney 9-12 January 2008 at Sydney Olympic Park in the Sports Centre (formerly State Sports Centre); and finally Perth on 15-18 January at Challenge Stadium.
The 2009 Planetshakers conference was moved to April, instead of January as in all past years. It was themed 'ONE' as the 4 conferences in the 4 venues were merged to become ONE major conference in the Hisense Arena from the 13 to 16 of April 2009.
Conference speakers have in the past included Glen Berteau, Jurgen Matthesius, Rich Wilkerson, Mal Fletcher, Pat Schazline, Jude Fouquier, Matthew Barnett, Judah Smith, Reinhard Bonnke, Reggie Dabbs, John Bevere and Chris Hill.
Growing internationally, Planetshakers now also runs conferences in Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa, with a desire to expand to the United States of America. They ministered at Singapore's Faith Community Baptist Church in Singapore Expo's max Pavilion in 2006.
Internationally in 2007, Planetshakers band played at events in Hong Kong, the USA, the UK, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa.
Planetshakers also has relationships with Australian Youth Alive events, which often cross-promotes the conference and college to tens of thousands of young people.
City Church
Planetshakers City Church Logo
Planetshakers City Church (formerly Melbourne City Church) is a Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God in Australia. The church started when the Planetshakers band and ministry moved to Melbourne in 2004, and currently meets in hired auditoriums throughout Central Melbourne. The church is pastored by Russell and Sam Evans and has attendance over 4000, and throughout most of 2005 it ran three services per weekend, commonly approaching capacity. Currently, the church is held at the Dallas Brooks Centre, with three Sunday services, 10:45am, 3:00pm and 5:15pm (all with a full kids program). The church also made use of the Arrow building for baptism services but due to the increased attendance the baptism services have been moved to Richmond AOG Church in Melbourne.
The church's youth ministry called "PlanetBoom" is led by pastors Chad and Tiffany Harding, running Friday nights (7:15pm) during school terms at Collingwood Town Hall or Melbourne High School (check website for details). The youth ministry has become so successful that the Catholic and Anglican churches are looking at adopting Planetshakers' methods.
The church also runs a children's ministry called "Planetkids", led by pastors Rob and Assunta Bradbury, which is held concurrently with the main church service at 2:59pm & 5:15pm. Planetkids also runs an annual children's conference, with the second conference for 2007 being held at Melbourne High School in the September holidays. ("Planetkids goes Space")
"planetUNI" is the church's university students ministry overseen by pastor Matt Fielder and comprises local and international students as well as recent graduates being active in the group. In addition to fortnightly meetings (Urban Life groups), a new outreach event will be held once a month on a Friday night aiming to attract university students.
"Urban Life" groups (basically cell groups) are run fortnightly in homes spread around all parts of Melbourne, offering discipleship and connection with other people outside of Church. They include different age areas, such as kids (held in the Church service each week), teenagers (PlanetBoom), university students (planetUNI), young adults and adults.
There are also various other ministries serving and reaching out to women (Beautiful Woman) and business people (Kingdom Life).
College
Planetshakers Ministries have set up a bible school named, Planetshakers College. There are several campuses running in most major Australian states. In Perth (WA), Newcastle (NSW), Brisbane (QLD) and Melbourne (VIC). The college is affiliated with Southern Cross College and emphasizes on impartation, not academic learning. They offer a fully accredited course for the Certificate IV in Contemporary Leadership which runs as a year long course. Students can then choose to go on and complete a Diploma version for a second year. The aim of the college is the same as the Planetshakers movement, "empowering a generation, to win a generation". Many well known individuals associated with the Planetshakers conference including Henry Seeley, Russell and Sam Evans, and Martin Steele serve as guest lecturers during the course of the year.
Controversies
On August 21 2008, former Pastor Michael Guglielmucci confessed publicly to having mislead family, friends, and the broader community regarding his illness. Although he was no longer at Planetshakers when this confession was made, the confession related to his time in ministry at Planershakers also. Guglielmucci was stood down from his position at Hillsong Church after his confession, and is believed to be seeking professional help.
Music
The Planetshakers band is an Australian rock and worship band, a part of Planetshakers's ministry. Their music is a contemporary style of praise and worship tempered with mainstream rock and pop.
The Planetshakers band is the central part of their events. The 2003 Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian was also a part of the Planetshakers band for several years, taking both lead and backup vocal parts on the 2002 and 2003 albums and conferences. Many of the musicians originated from Youth Alive South Australia, which also released CDs. Some of the songs written by current band members for the Youth Alive albums, such as 'Phenomena' and 'God of Miracles' (from Youth Alive Western Australia) have also featured on Planetshakers earlier albums.
In 2004, their CD Open Up The Gates was nominated for Praise and Worship Album of the Year for the Dove Awards.
Planetshakers announced at their 2008 conference that they would begin to release tracks via subscription to the "Planetshakers Revolution" - a new online music/resource distribution system designed to consolidate and build upon different products that they already offer. These include backing tracks, music videos, devotionals and leadership videos.
Source: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/planetshakers/biography.html
