Churches of Christ is proud to provide help, care and home to more than 25,000 Australians across 100 communities each year. With almost 4,000 employees across Queensland and Victoria, we're an experienced not-for-profit provider of 200 different retirement & aged care, foster & kinship care, family support, youth support, social housing and Christian faith services. Guided by the light of Christ, we've been there for thousands of Australians who've needed our compassion and care for more than 100 years. Churches of Christ was established in 1882 when a group of smaller Christian churches in the Brisbane area came together, not to establish another denomination but to unite around the mission of Jesus and His Church. Similar Christian church unifications in the US had shown Queenslanders C M Fischer and T Geraghty how the now larger churches had been able to provide more care to the community, and more support for the vulnerable. Fischer and Geraghty established a congregation at Zillman’s Watering Hole, and on 1 August 1882, the first Church of Christ in Queensland was born – now known as Zillmere Church of Christ, in Brisbane's north. News of the new Churches of Christ in Queensland quickly spread, and on 22 October, 1882, 18 people gathered at the Temperance Hall in Toowoomba for its first service. They met each Sunday and by 1886 there were 52 members, 70 Bible School pupils and six teachers. As the churches grew, leaders and congregations provided support and care to the community - particularly Queensland's vulnerable and disadvantaged. Over the years, these support services became more formalised, and we began partnering with government to provide care to those who need it most.