Hills/Fleurieu Region Update
An interview with Matt Winter and Hendré Jansen van Vuuren
Church planting takes more than a plan. It takes people willing to invest in others, churches willing to send, and a shared commitment to seeing more people hear the good news of Jesus.
For Trinity Church Victor Harbor, that vision is taking shape as the church prepares to plant in Goolwa in 2027. After a period of pastoral transition, Hendré Jansen van Vuuren is beginning his ministry as Senior Pastor, while Matt Winter, who has been serving in the role on an interim basis, continues with his preparations to lead the new church plant.
We sat down with Matt and Hendré to hear about the people who have shaped their ministry, the generosity of churches willing to invest beyond their own congregations, and what this next stage means for Trinity Church Victor Harbor and the people of Goolwa.
Matt, what first led you to consider church planting, and how have those plans developed?
Matt: In the second half of 2024, my wife, Annika, and I started thinking a bit more deliberately about what might be next for us. We were aware that planting might be something that could excite us. We didn’t know where it might be, but it was something we wanted to consider. We know how much Adelaide and South Australia need more churches!
Towards the second half of 2024 and into 2025, we went through the Reach Australia Church Planting Assessment process. And in early 2025, we started talking with leadership around the Trinity Network about potential opportunities. We were encouraged to think about Goolwa. We weren’t sure at first, but the more we thought about it and the more we heard about it, the more excited we felt about the needs and opportunities in this region.
When we came down to Victor Harbor, we weren’t sure how quickly the plant would be possible, but we started getting to know the people who were keen to be part of the Goolwa plant and the thinking that was already in place, and I think that’s led us to accelerate a little bit. I think that starting in the first part of 2027 is now looking really achievable.
At the same time, we were sort of also wondering, what about Trinity Church Victor Harbor? Who’s going to be able to lead that in the long term? You’ve got to make the right decision and trust God’s timing with it all. Hendré and his family were keen to come down, and they seem to be just the right sort of provision from God for Trinity Church Victor Harbor, which gives the whole church great confidence that we can go ahead with these plans to start something new at Goolwa too.
Hendré, how have your experiences in ministry prepared you for this next step?
Hendré: I think there’s many ways in which you never feel fully prepared. It is a daunting step, and I feel the weight of the responsibility. But having said that, I am so thankful for all the steps along the way that, now in hindsight, I can see make this step less daunting.
Beyond the Trinity Network, I am very thankful for my initial training with AFES and doing a ministry apprenticeship at Adelaide University under Reuben Salagaras, who gave me permission to make mistakes and to fail. He was ultimately always there to jump in, but was very relaxed about little things going wrong. And I think that high level of trust allowed me to try things and get experience in a space where I knew ultimately there were people around to help shape and guide. In order to grow and raise new leaders, we have to actually let them try their hand at things.
But I am also really thankful also for the time I’ve had to spend in the Trinity Network. First under Karl Forsyth’s leadership at Trinity Church Unley, and then under Des Smith at Trinity Church Lockleys – to see two different people and how they make ministry work with their family context, with the personality traits and the gifting God has given them.
Des has been really deliberate throughout my time at Trinity Church Lockleys, continuing to explore what my ministry future might look like. And part of that was also him being deliberate in rotating me through different ministry areas, in part to give me a taste of each area, but also to prepare me to be Senior Pastor in the future having responsibility and oversight over each of these areas. And so, every year we shuffled who was responsible for what.
I didn’t really appreciate at the time the cost that would have been to him – having to change portfolios each year – but also just the generosity in letting go of a lot of different ministry areas for the sake of my learning and my development. But now, when I’m heading to a church to be the Senior Pastor, I’m so thankful that I’ve had a breadth of exposure to the different areas of church ministry. He was really generous and forward-thinking in his development of me.
With this transition taking place, what opportunities do you see ahead for Victor Harbor and the Goolwa church plant?
Matt: Really, I think what this transition makes possible is that Trinity Church Victor Harbor can now become two healthy churches.
There’s a group of people who live in the Goolwa area. There are more people who are considering coming as well. We need a few logistical things to be sorted, but someone like myself being freed up to be able to lead this plant is what we need to be able to now see it become reality.
A town where there’s great need for gospel ministry can have a new church that is looking to reach people with the gospel. We think a new church is going to create all sorts of opportunities.
Hendré: In sending, we are losing people who are loved and valuable parts of the church community. But without doing that there’s a whole pool of people in Goolwa who would never be reached with the gospel. A non-Christian is far less willing to drive half an hour to get to church, so it’s invaluable having a local ministry and a local place where they can come to explore who Jesus is.
That very next Sunday when we’re sitting in that room and those people are gone, those empty seats will be really noticeable and really felt. There’s a sadness to that, but it will also tangibly remind us of the mission at hand, of all the seats we long to be filled again.
Sending out the church plant helps remind us of the task at hand – that there is work to be done. It will also create an opportunity for lots of our people to grow practically in ministry skills and in their relationship with God and His people, as they step up to fill the roles and the places of those people that have been sent.
What difference does working together as a network make when it comes to raising up leaders and planting churches?
Hendré: If we want to see the gospel go out and grow, we will need to raise up more workers for the harvest. And actually, we want to do that regardless of whether that benefits our ministry or our local church.
The people that have invested in me, the pastors over me that have poured in time and allowed me to grow in ministry, aren’t going to be the ones that are now benefiting directly from my ministry in Victor Harbor. But they did it because they saw the bigger picture, the bigger gospel vision of us wanting to see more people coming into the kingdom.
We want to continue to be a church and a network that is on about investing in new leaders and training up new gospel workers, wherever they might end up – whether that is in the church where they’ve grown up, whether that’s in the Trinity Network, or even further afield. We want to see all of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia and the world reached with the good news of Jesus.
Matt: One church on its own is always going to have lots of limitations in terms of impact for the broader kingdom. But as we work together we’re so much more effective at being able to reach out, as Hendré said, both to start new churches in Adelaide and South Australia, but also to raise up people for gospel needs further afield.
As we work together, we can achieve so much more. I was nurtured as a young Christian at Trinity Church Adelaide. I went to Trinity Church Colonel Light Gardens where I did an apprenticeship. I went on to the Trinity Church Unley plant where I was a student minister. I spent my first six years as an Associate Pastor learning the ropes at Trinity Church Brighton.
These are four different Trinity churches that have invested in me, and now it’s the people who don’t yet know Jesus in Goolwa who are the ones that hopefully will be some of the fruit of all those different churches working together. There are all sorts of different stories like that.
Finally, how can we be praying for you and for what lies ahead?
Matt: Pray that God would provide all we need so we can become two healthy churches on the Fleurieu Peninsula. You can certainly pray for unity and gospel-heartedness for Trinity Church Victor Harbor during a time of transition as well.
Hendré: Pray that both those going to Goolwa and those staying at Victor Harbor would be excited about this next step, ready to embrace its costs and work hard for the sake of the gospel, but ultimately eager to see how God uses it to grow his kingdom and bring glory to his name.
Matt and Hendré’s stories show how years of investing in gospel workers, churches working together, and a willingness to send are coming together in this next step. As Trinity Church Victor Harbor welcomes a new Senior Pastor and prepares to plant in Goolwa, please pray that God will strengthen the congregation, raise up new people to serve, and use both churches to make Jesus known across the region.
Hendré’s commissioning as Senior Pastor of Trinity Church Victor Harbor will take place on Sunday 18 October at 10am, at Investigator College (Bacchus Road, Victor Harbor).
