User:JRG/Dubbo Presbyterian Church

Dubbo Presbyterian Church, is a church with three congregations in Dubbo, New South Wales and a part of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.

For many years, Dubbo Presbyterian was your average country church. A dispute split the church some time in the 1970s or 80s, becoming Dubbo East Presbyterian and Dubbo West Presbyterian. Neither of these churches was able to bring in enough money to have a minister, so the elders took turns in running the services. Dubbo West met in the original church and Dubbo East met in an A-frame church owned by another denomination.

In the late 1980s, the two congregations together called a minister, David Tickle, who originally preached at both churches, and during his brief stay managed to reunite the two.

After he left, Dubbo Presbyterian was again without a minister for a period of years until Bryson Smith was inducted in 1990.

The church has split again, for the purpose of planting other congregations, rather than growing one large church. The three congregations meet at different times in the same building, but maintain independent activities.

Plainsong Music
In 1999 the Dubbo Presbyterian Church released the CD Consider Christ under the label Plainsong Music. It was composed of music and lyrics written by church musician Philip Percival, minister Bryson Smith, and others. Perspective described Consider Christ as "cutting edge" because it was the second CD released in Australia using CD-Extras, including sheet music and lyrics for every song. The congregational music was soon selected to be sung at the Katoomba Youth Convention, a major evangelical youth convention, and added to the catalogue of Matthias Media. The album One For Many followed soon after.

In 2004 CCLI listed the title track Consider Christ, with lyrics by Bryson Smith, in the top 10 songs sung in Anglican Churches.

Philip Percival approached Christian music writers Rob Smith and Nicky Chiswell to found a wider Christian music organization. The result was Emu Music.