In the outer southern suburbs of Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) something special is happening. A spiritual wildfire has been sparked among the youth and young adults at Ingreign, a ministry running monthly on a Friday night at Eight Mile Plains church. Each month at Ingreign, young people from right across the region are coming together to worship and get to know Jesus in community with one another.
Ingreign began back in 2018 when some of the youth leaders at Eight Mile Plains identified a need for a regional gathering of youth and young adults. They could see that young people were craving the chance to attend big events where they would have the opportunity to meet other youth and young adults from different churches. An idea began to developing a place where young people could not only socialise and connect, but also be spiritually fed and feel welcome and comfortable, no matter their stage of life. From this idea Ingreign was born, with the aim of growing local churches through the connections made.
Ingreign has experienced amazing growth over the years, increasing its average attendance from 90 in 2018 to 280 in 2024. Their highest attendance peaked at 315 in October 2024. The team at Ingreign believe that this growth is an indication that it is serving the needs of their attendees, spiritual and otherwise. Ingreign programs provide dinner, a full church service on a Friday night each month, and free drinks and snacks at the café afterwards. Matthew Nicolson, one of the founding leaders of Ingreign, reflected, “We believe the success has come from creating a space where people can encounter Jesus, hang out with their friends, make new friends and enjoy a program that is tailored to their age group.”
Ingreign has three goals by which they operate: (1) To integrate high schoolers into young adulthood; (2) to grow loving disciples of Jesus; and (3) to connect youth and young adults from local churches. In this goal of connecting young people, Mr Nicolson said, “Over the years, we’ve had many people attend who are not connected with any church. People bring people. . . . We’ve had many new faces, people who don’t go to any church, and people who have left churches.”
Having people attend Ingreign who are not connected to any church has provided the team with the opportunity to connect them with youth and young adults from churches local to them, creating church growth as a result. On this, Mr Nicolson said, “We often receive messages on Instagram of young people who are lost and seeking Jesus. They’ve felt comfortable enough to reach out and we’ve been able to meet them at Ingreign and now see them regularly attend.”
The Ingreign team include Jesus in every part of their ministry, recognising that it is only through Him that the team is enabled and empowered to do their ministry. Mr Nicolson said the most important facet of Ingreign is that, “everything needs Jesus. I’ve found that every aspect of running Ingreign works better when it’s being led by Him. Without Jesus, we are just humans trying to entertain humans.”
Each year the Ingreign team seeks to serve Jesus more faithfully, striving to encourage and initiate meaningful connections to grow local churches and assist in bringing youth and young adults to Jesus. Looking forward into the future, the team is simply letting Jesus lead as they follow Him. “As long as we are serving Him, I know that Ingreign will continue to grow and have meaningful impact on the lives of those who attend,” said Mr Nicolson.
For more information on Ingreign, visit their Instagram page “ingreign” at instagram.com/ingreign/.
Olivia Fairfax is an assistant editor for Adventist Record.
