History

The Church in Cooma first started when Ps. Claire Singleton travelled from Jindabyne down to Cooma. Claire started a house church in Cooma, as well as Adaminaby and Nimmitabel, however over time the house churches in Adaminaby and Nimmitabel closed and the people there began to attend either the church in Cooma or Jindabyne. After about two years, around 1988, the church started Sunday morning services in the Cooma CWA hall.

Bethel Christian Fellowship was established in 1989, as an Assembly of God Church, under the leadership of Ps Phil and Adie Price, meeting at the Cooma Public School Hall.

Ps Michael and Diyanne Podhaczky took the helm at the beginning of 1994.  We moved our services to the common room at Monaro High School, and became Cooma Assembly of God.

In July of 1996 Ps Michael and Karen Reading and their family, Joshua, David, Daniel, Claire and Melinda moved to Cooma and began pastoring the church. In July of 1997 Cooma Assembly of God moved from the High school staff common room and into an old paint shop in Bradley St. The church remained here for a period of time where many great things happened, God grew the church and ministries were established that developed and ended up having a large impact in Cooma and the surrounding region.

In early 1998, through the passion of one of our members, Maria Munn, Resurrected Fashions was established. Resurrected Fashions was a second hand clothing store that was set up with all profits going to missions. Resurrected Fashions moved through a lot of locations over the time that it ran and at the time of its closure over 100,000 dollars was given to missions. Over the years a lot of work went into the running of this effective ministry and many lives were touched and blessed by it until it was closed in 2013

In July of 1998 Matthew Rendell became involved in the youth ministry and through his ability to network many new connections were made established.

In August of 1999 we started ‘The Centre’ our youth and community drop in centre. This began in Commissioner Street and we had a café, pool tables, arcade games and Resurrected Fashions all housed together. The Centre was purely an outreach into the community and allowed us to impact the town of Cooma in a way that we had not yet been able to. Over the time that this building was used we held dance parties, concerts and of course plenty of pool comps. In 2006 we were approached by the local council about joining forces with the YMCA and other organisations and out of this ‘The Hub’ was born, a ‘one stop shop’ for young people to come and be able to get the help they needed. ‘The Hub’ was opened in March of 2007. During the time that we were involved in running ‘The Hub’ it was used for a variety of youth events and concerts. ‘The Hub’ is still running today, although we are no longer involved in the running of it.

In late 1999 discussions began between the leadership of Bega Valley Assembly of God, Snowy River District Assemblies of God and Cooma A.O.G about working together to plant a church in Bombala. These discussions led to services beginning in early 2000 on a monthly basis and continued on with the planting of a church. In the coming years the three churches were joined by churches from Pambula and Mallacoota. This combined gathering became known as ‘MTC’ and through the joint venture two adjoining buildings in Bombala were purchased as a permanent location for the church and Abundant Life Centre was established.

In the year 2000 the name was changed from Cooma Assembly of God to Snowy Monaro Assembly of God to allow for the greater vision that God had given us for the region. This vision included the work in Bombala and reaching beyond the borders of Cooma and our shire.

Through the relationship that had been established that was had with the other churches involved in the work in Bombala a regional youth camp was born. In October 2000 ‘LIVIT’ was held in Bombala and helped establish the church there and to strengthen the ties between the churches in the region. Youth groups travelled from as far as Grenfell and Goulburn in NSW and as far south as Lakes Entrance in Victoria. In 2005 ‘Livit’ was held at two locations, North in Goulburn and South in Lake Tyres in Victoria, to try and accommodate everyone involved. ‘Livit’ camps continued through until 2006 with youth groups from across a large area joining together for a great time.

In early 2004 Snowy Monaro AoG moved from the building in Bradley St to Cooma North Primary schools brand new hall. This was only to be a short period of time. In November of 2004 we purchased Platypus Lodge, a former function centre. Over the years many man-hours has gone into improving the building and it has come along way from when we first purchased it. In 2013 we had our building miracle, in less than half of the designated time we had paid off our building.

In September of 2013 with the leadership wanting extend the borders of the churches vision again the name of Lifegate Christian Church was passed. On the 2nd of March 2014 the name was launched.

After leading and serving the church for 18 and a half years Ps Michael Reading felt the time had come to move into the next season of his ministry in January 2015.

On the 1st of February 2015 Ps David and Tara Reading were appointed as the new ministers for Lifegate Christian Church.