Our story is one of God’s divine appointments, miraculous coincidences and the magnificent provision of God.
And it begins in the early 2000s when the Lord began to stir in pastor Ken Teo’s heart a challenge about ministry in Australia.
This prompting eventually led to pastor Ken, his wife Carol and daughter Claire taking a step of faith to migrate to Australia and their arrival on the 26 January 2005 in Melbourne.
Their move was a culmination of God’s divine providence and the opening of doors as they stepped out from their comfortable circumstances in Singapore to pioneer in a new land. But God is faithful and good – even in difficult circumstances. And it so proved, with strategic relationships being formed with people like pastor Ang from Evangelical Community Church Inc. (ECCI), Blackburn South; as well as with pastor Geoff and Ava Stafford who felt led to commit themselves to standing with pastor Ken in the church planting work for a period of 5 years.
These early steps of faith culminated in a home fellowship group being established on the 8 July 2005 at 6 Madden Retreat, Berwick with 5 people in attendance. It was a day of small beginnings, but the flame had been lit and this humble little gathering began to grow.
By the end of the year, the group had grown to a point when the prompting of the Lord was to start planning to launch a Sunday service.
Our inaugural Sunday service was launched on the 5 March 2006 at Brentwood Park Community Centre, Berwick. It had been, and was, a God given place for us at that place. Our official opening as “ECC Casey Church” (a daughter church of ECCI Blackburn South) was on the 30 April 2006. The next one and half years was a time of growth as new families were connected as well as connections established with international students at the (then) Monash University’s Berwick campus.
As the church began to outgrow its premises at Brentwood Park Community Centre, the leadership team (John Tan, Stephen Sia, Melvin Low, Bob Sharon, pastor Geoff Stafford and pastor Ken Teo) began to sense that perhaps it was time to become an autonomous assembly.
On the 16 March 2008, we launched our new name of “Casey Life International Church Inc” with the tag line of “A family church for all” and all existing worshippers were invited to “come ‘CLIC’ with us” by entering a membership covenant to commit to walking together as brothers and sisters in this local expression of the church at Casey.
In this period, we continued our search for a new meeting place and this led to us renting the Berwick Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church Hall at 23-25 Intrepid Street, Berwick on the 19 October 2008. To tell the next stage of our association with this location would take too long but it was, is and remains, an amazing story of God’s divine appointments, provision, “coincidences” that no man could have engineered. Essentially, on the 19 May 2009, pastor Ken Teo received a confirmation from SDA Berwick that they had accepted our counter-offer and on the 24 May the church members affirmed that the leadership could proceed with purchasing the building at 23-25 Intrepid Street, Berwick. Truly, to God be all the glory and thanks to the sacrificial giving of the members we were able to take over the building on the 21 August 2009.
In this period, we continued our search for a new meeting place and this led to us renting the Berwick Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church Hall at 23-25 Intrepid Street, Berwick on the 19 October 2008. To tell the next stage of our association with this location would take too long but it was, is and remains, an amazing story of God’s divine appointments, provision, “coincidences” that no man could have engineered. Essentially, on the 19 May 2009, pastor Ken Teo received a confirmation from SDA Berwick that they had accepted our counter-offer and on the 24 May the church members affirmed that the leadership could proceed with purchasing the building at 23-25 Intrepid Street, Berwick. Truly, to God be all the glory and thanks to the sacrificial giving of the members we were able to take over the building on the 21 August 2009.
But even as the church moved forwards in establishing itself, there were changes ahead with some of our initial core leaders sensing that it was time for them to move on in their own journeys with the Lord. Bob and Bell Sharon transited in December 2009, pastor Geoff and Ava Stafford relocated in January 2010 while Melvin and Audrey Leow returned to Malaysia in October 2010. These early pioneers who served sacrificially and faithfully in the early life of this church will never be forgotten.
This decade saw the official opening of our new CLIC Life Centre on the 1 May 2010, a formal change of name from Casey Life International Church to CLIC Church Inc on the 22 May 2011 – a decision supported by 100% of the membership, and then on the 2 September 2012 a decision by our founding pastor, Pastor Ken Teo, to hand over the lead pastor role to Pastor John Janman. Pastor Ken was to take on a new role within CLIC to concentrate on missions, church planting and the training of the next generation.
Pastor John would lead the church through Phase 2 of the extension to the existing building – something that was accomplished without taking on additional loans despite many challenges. The entire extension project was completed March 2014.
Unfortunately, due to family reasons, pastor John stepped away from leadership in June 2014 which led to pastor Ken Teo returning as the lead pastor in what was to prove a challenging time.
The church always belongs to the Lord. It is His church first and foremost. He will build His church regardless of what man might intend and so it proved for CLIC. The period of 2014 -2019 was a time for healing and reconciliation and it began with the leadership first. The leadership had to be healthy and whole and that is a gift to the church. The blessing always flows from the head down to the rest of the body and then outwards.
And so, as the LORD worked on His church, we began to see God moving us as a community, as a church, and it was then beginning in 2019 through a series of events that eventually saw pastor Kenny Koay being affirmed on the 17 November 2019 as Senior Pastor with the mandate to lead CLIC forwards.
Pastor Kenny’s appointment also enabled pastor Ken to return to his call to concentrate on missions and empowering Next-Gen leaders and church planters around the world through Re-Gen Ministries. He (and his precious family) remain as vital members of CLIC.
The new decade brought new opportunities but also new challenges as the LORD continued to stretch us. We had a renewed focus to be a God-loving, Christ-centred, Spirit-filled, Word-grounded, Disciple-making church community.
The first opportunity was when we launched by faith a service for the Mandarin speaking community in Casey on the 8th March 2020. This service emerged from early pioneering work among the Mandarin-speaking community some years earlier. The challenge was then when Victoria and the rest of the world entered unprecedented times when the COVID pandemic impacted every nation globally. Yet, once again, the opportunity was for us to pivot to online services for the duration.
When the pandemic ended, we resumed in-person services and saw a gradual growth in our numbers in both services – something we were extremely grateful to God for. This then led to the next opportunity which was a major step of faith for our English-speaking congregation.
Walking by faith is challenging and never more so when the challenge for the English congregation to leave its fully-paid church facility at Intrepid Street to rent a larger facility at Federation University Berwick campus appeared. It seemed counter-intuitive at the time and yet once again through a series of remarkable appointments and open doors and a strong sense that we needed to step out by faith and to “cross the Jordan”, the English congregation moved on the 5 June 2022.
Since then, both congregations have continued to grow in their separate locations – at Federation University and at 23-25 Intrepid Street. We have seen the Lord’s blessings with the steady growth of our Next-Gen Ministry which encompassed the Young Adults, Youth and Children’s (Kingdom Kids) ministries. The Kingdom Kids has seen such growth that on the 25 May 2025 will see the children’s ministry relocate to The Hope Centre, 400 Intrepid Street, Berwick.
Our story thus far tells us that CLIC was born of God. Yes, God spoke to men and challenged them to step out in faith but it is His Work and His church of which we are privileged to be part of. We believe that God will continue to lead us and that the church is always more than a one man ministry – it is meant to be an authentic and loving family – a family that is sharing life together through all its ups and downs, looking forwards to the imminent return of our Bridegroom who calls us to remain faithful and to preserve until He returns.
So, we extend our invitation to prayerfully “Come CLIC with us”. Each one has a unique and vital role to play in the local body of Christ and as lives are equipped, empowered and transformed, may we together be a influence on our community here at Casey and a blessing to the nations around.