Hillsong Melbourne’s first public gathering last night was the first opportunity to “get a feel for what’s going in the city”, according to Hillsong pastor Joel A’Bell.

“It’s really hard to know how the event will go,” A’Bell said half an hour before the start of the service, held at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre. He’s tentative in talking about expectations, though a venue that seats 1,000 suggests the church already had an indication of a warm reception.

Hillsong announced its decision to launch a church in Melbourne in February this year, and according to A’Bell have taken six months to gauge interest, find campus pastors Tim and Nicola Douglass and start connect groups – small Bible studies which now have 200 people around Melbourne meeting together on a weekly basis.

Last night’s launch was a packed house, according to attendee John McQuillan.

“We were greeted with a banner saying ‘Welcome Home’, and people of all ages gathered in front of the theatre. Their vibe was excitement,” he said.

This first public meeting, says A’Bell, is an opportunity to gather people together, but a weekly service isn’t expected until around February 2013. A tentative venue for that weekly service has been floated as The Forum, a Melbourne music venue whose main auditorium can seat over 800 people.

“We’re planning on meeting like this once a month or so until the end of the year,” says A’Bell. “We’ll test out The Forum in October. It looks great, and we’ll know more about whether it’s a more permanent location for us then. It’s looking highly likely.”

According to A’Bell, the “vibe” of Hillsong Melbourne will depend on the people the church draws in over the coming months.

“It won’t look too different, but the people in Melbourne will help us contextualise the church. Melbourne feel is different to Sydney and different again to Brisbane. But we as a church are who we are. Hillsong Melbourne will have our praise and worship style, that contemporary worship experience. The messages are practical, life applicable messages.”

Hype around a new Hillsong mega-church inevitably raises questions about where new members will come from. But A’Bell says the church has been very concerned with working with existing Melbourne-city churches to prevent ‘church swapping’ among the Melbourne Christian community.

“Our heart is to champion the cause of the local church. So we’re telling people, if they belong to another church, to stay there. It doesn’t help to move around that much. You need to settle into a church community and be committed there – ‘those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish.”

McQuillan says this sentiment was reinforced during the first gathering, with Christians being told to “go back to your home church on Sunday”, and a prayer for the churches of Melbourne.

“The night was greatly encouraging,” said McQuillan. “Hillsong hasn’t arrived in this state to do a corporate takeover of the churches in Melbourne. They’re here to join God’s mission in reaching the unchurched.”

A’Bell also points to Christians in Melbourne not currently linked to a church, or those who have been connected with Hillsong in another city who have moved to Melbourne, as the core Christian group they’re expecting to see as part of their congregation.

“What we’ve seen, over the years and as we’ve planted churches in Brisbane and overseas, is a lot of people come to Christ at Hillsong and end up moving on to other churches. And that’s great. As long as the kingdom is built and all churches grow. That seems to be what happened when we moved into Brisbane – no other church suffered through us being there. There may have been some movement at the start, but the overarching response is that all churches have moved forward for Christ.”

Speaking of his experience of the Hillsong Melbourne first night, John McQuillan said he sat next to a 19-year-old student, recently moved to Melbourne from New York and attended the Hillsong campus there.

“For him, he was coming home. He was joining his family to worship God, to be introduced to his new pastors and to hear God’s Word preached,” said McQuillan.

On the tram heading home after the event, McQuillan said he saw a young man grasping one of the Bibles given out at the altar call during the night.

“The smile on his face and the excitement in his voice as he spoke on the phone was telling. This man had probably just made the best decision of his life.”