Twelve weeks that rearrange your life.
The full Catalyst journey, lived on the Avondale campus in Cooranbong: the wilderness, a close community, real mission and deep teaching, all woven together so that the person who walks out is not the person who walked in.
Not a course you sit through. A season you live in.
Most learning happens in your head and stays there. Catalyst is built the opposite way. For twelve weeks you live on campus in Cooranbong, you go into the wilderness, you share life with a small community, and you step out into real ministry every week.
Jesus is at the centre of all of it - not as a subject on a timetable, but as the One you're learning to follow into the rest of your life. By the end you don't just know more about discipleship. You've done it.
A week with no signal and nothing to hide behind.
Catalyst opens in Bungonia National Park, south of Sydney. Out of range and out of comfort, you meet God the way Jesus did before His ministry began - in the wilderness, stripped of distraction.
You climb, you crawl through caves, you abseil down rock faces, you walk further than you thought you could. It builds real trust, real team, and a fresh encounter with the One you are learning to follow. Catalyst carries the gear, the meals, the tent, the hot showers and first aid; you bring yourself.
- Caving
- Canyoning
- Abseiling
- Rock climbing
- Hiking
- Camping
Four parts, woven into one life.
Catalyst isn't a stack of lectures. Four threads run through all twelve weeks at once, each one shaping a different part of you.
Immersive
Teaching that goes deep, not wide. You wrestle with who Jesus is, the bigger story you're part of, and why the Adventist message still matters today.
Experiential
Head to heart to hands. The wilderness week, spiritual habits and life in community turn what you learn into who you become.
Missional
Your gifts get put to work. You learn to share your story, run a Bible study, and step into real ministry in real neighbourhoods.
Communal
Life shared the way the early church did it. You live, eat, pray and serve alongside people chasing the same thing, and you grow because of it.
Know who you are. Grow into it. Go change your world.
Know
Meet Jesus honestly and discover who He made you to be - your story, your gifts, your purpose named out loud.
Grow
Be stretched in the wilderness and in community until the version of you that follows Jesus becomes the real one.
Go
Step into mission with real skills to disciple others and meet a need in your own community.
The rhythm that rebuilds you.
Each week follows a steady shape - worship, learning, community and mission - so growth stops being a hope and becomes a habit.
Cornerstone
The day opens with morning worship together - the spiritual heartbeat that anchors everything else.
Immersive teaching
Classes in the Catalyst Hub: Scripture, the Christian story, discipleship and mission, taught by people who've lived it.
Integration & community
Small groups, spiritual habits and shared life on campus - turning teaching into something you actually practise.
Field placement
Out with local churches: leading a missional small group, running Bible studies, serving real needs in the community.
Personal time
Space to rest, reflect, journal and let it all settle - because formation needs room to breathe.
A mini-Avondale season you'll miss when it ends.
You live on the Lake Macquarie campus in Cooranbong - shared dorms, meals at 7@Avondale, vespers on Friday, church on Sabbath, and a 300 acre property to breathe in. Twelve weeks of real life, together.
Faith with its sleeves rolled up.
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sabbaths you head out with a local church. This is where the learning lands: you lead a missional small group, run Bible studies, build real friendships and meet real needs.
You leave Catalyst with more than ideas - you've already done the work, in real neighbourhoods, with people whose lives are different because you showed up. These are the churches you'll partner with:
- The Avondale University Church
- The Bay Community Church
- The Wyee Community Hub
- The Wyee SDA Church
This could be the twelve weeks you look back on.
Find out what you're for, name your gifts, and learn to lead other people to Jesus. It starts with one honest conversation.