Pastors Jan and Maxine Strohbeck
Jan's Story
Jan (‘Yarn’) was raised in the Mormon church until at 17 he began questioning whether what he’d always been taught was the truth, and at 21 he encountered the Jesus of the Bible and became a born again Christian. Discipled by Frank Clancy, he went on to plant a church with Ashley and Roslyne Field for Liberty Missions then pastored an indigenous church for them in Darwin. Jan also pastored at Fire Church Melbourne, attaining his Australian Christian Churches Provisional Minister’s Credential, and from 2016-2020 was the Fire Church Multi-Campus Oversight along with his wife Maxine. Jan has a passion for the lost and a heart of pastoral care, he loves to stop for ‘the one’.
Maxine's Story
Maxine grew up taking drugs and partying from the age of 13, and at 19 she was radically set free by the powerful God of the Bible and was born again. She committed to a passionate and authentic church plant in Melbourne and quickly became involved in leadership, worship ministry and preaching. After half a decade there she left the Lord for 2 years but returned with an even greater passion, discipled in a church planting ministry where she became a pastor and a pioneer. From 2016-2020 Maxine was on ministry staff at Fire Church in Melbourne, including overseeing the ministry’s 3 smaller campuses and occasionally the larger campus, leadership and church planting training, teaching at the church’s Bible school, and preaching Sunday services. She was awarded a scholarship at Stairway College and holds an Ordained Minister’s credential with Australian Christian Churches. She has mentored aspiring women in ministry and loves to empower others to fulfil their calling in Christ.
We have three values we feel define who God has called us to be as a church.
Everything we do should be...
Acts 1:8 But I promise you this—the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be filled with power [dunamis: miraculous power]. And you will be my messengers to Jerusalem, throughout Judea, the distant provinces—even to the remotest places on earth!”
God is a spirit and so are we! We are all supernatural, and we can all interact with the supernatural realm. We believe in a God who manifests Himself in miraculous ways. Our services, our evangelism, our lifestyles, should always be supernatural!
Gal 5:13 Beloved ones, God has called us to live a life of freedom in the Holy Spirit. But don’t view this wonderful freedom as an opportunity to set up a base of operations in the natural realm. Freedom means that we become so completely free of self-indulgence that we become servants of one another, expressing love in all we do.
We believe the greatest blessing and a powerful outworking of God's love is the selfless gift of serving each other; not only in ministry but in marriage, the workplace and society. This is our Christ-like nature, that we don't seek our own but the blessings of others. Without serving one another it's impossible to have a spiritual family that effectively reaches this world for Jesus.
Luke 6:48 He is like a man who chooses the right place to build a house and then lays a deep and secure foundation. When the storms and floods rage against that house, it continues to stand strong and unshaken through the tempest, for it has been wisely built on the right foundation.
We all go through difficult times, where the strength of our character will be called upon. Applying the Word of God is our foundation and rock through all of life's storms. We believe in having a strong personal relationship with God through daily time in the scriptures and prayer. God has called us to be disciples, and we are discipled to the Word of God by the Holy Spirit Himself.
