NewStart began as a conversation that reflected the dream of two men. Roland Hearn and Brad Mercer had become friends on an internet chat page called Naznet. They lived on opposite sides of the Pacific. Roland in Queensland, Australia and Brad in Texas, USA. In their talking together they realised they both believed the same thing about the church – it should be a place of love. That understanding had implications for every area of life and the more they talked the more comprehensive became the application of that principle. They began to talk together of starting a church. The opportunity came to be in 1998. Roland and his family, wife Emmy and children Kaylah, Jonathan, Braden and Tylah moved to Dallas, TX to join Brad and his family, wife Karen and children Wesley, Charlotte and Jacob, in discovering if they could make this hope a reality.

The product was a church called NewStart Frisco. It was launched at Easter in 1999. Very soon people were seeing their lives changed for the better and hope became the increasing reality of those who gathered together.

In 2004 Roland returned to Australia to begin to try and put the pieces together to see the same kind of church born here. Roland was raised in Brisbane and loves the RiverCity, so he called the future church NewStart RiverCity. In September 2006 Brad moved his family to Brisbane to help the new church get off the ground. A few months later heartbreak became their united reality. Brad was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer. He passed from this life to his eternal hope in December of 2007. The dream, while stalled, was not lost. Throughout 2008 a small group of people have gathered, first in a home and then in the auditorium of Albany Hills State School believing that soon would come the opportunity to extend to the broader community an invitation to discover healing, hope and love.

On 30th  November 2008 NewStart RiverCity began public services. Immediately there was a sense of expectation and hope about the future as the first people outside of the original group began to be a part of the dream. Our expectation still is for the future to be one of transformed and hope-filled lives.