About Bargara Uniting Church
Bargara Uniting Church is committed to serving the Lord Jesus Christ with faithfulness and joy. We are a Bible‑grounded community that treasures the richness of traditional worship and seeks to share the enduring hope of the gospel with future generations.
Our Mission Statement: uniting in Christ, acting with love, living with hope, witnessing in faith, working for justice.
We focus on:
- preaching and teaching the Bible faithfully
- serving our community with love
- encouraging families in their walk with God
- supporting those in need
- promoting strong friendships
About our Pastor
Dr. DongWoo Oh
Dr. DongWoo Oh (Pastor DongWoo) serves our church with a deep love for the Lord and a commitment to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
DongWoo’s journey to faith began as a young boy when neighbors invited him to Sunday school. Although he was initially drawn in by the promise of cookies, he soon discovered a genuine love for learning the Bible. He became an active member of his local Presbyterian church, was baptized at age 17, and began his Bachelor of Theology at Kosin University in Busan, South Korea. Following his mandatory military service, he completed his degree in Busan before pursuing further theological study abroad.
In 2005, DongWoo earned his Master of Divinity at the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario. During his time in Canada, he served as a student pastor in various congregations, including a year spent ministering alongside Indigenous communities.
DongWoo moved to Australia in 2008 after meeting and marrying his wife, Joy. He served at a church plant in Hobart, Tasmania, before relocating to Western Australia to pursue his Master of Theology. While preaching and teaching across Perth, he completed his Ph.D. through the Australian College of Theology in 2019. His doctoral research focused on the divine name of the Lord at the temple and its connection to Christian baptism.
Joining the Uniting Church of Queensland in 2023, DongWoo served the Coolum Beach congregation for two and a half years before moving to Bargara in 2026. He and Joy are blessed with six children.
Pastor DongWoo approaches ministry with a passion for biblical teaching, grounded in the belief that God reveals Himself through His Word. His ministry is shaped by integrity, compassion, and a commitment to unity—always striving to keep the church rooted in truth and rich in grace.
What We Believe
Bargara Uniting Church is grounded in the Bible and shaped by the faith expressed in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. These foundations guide our worship, our teaching, and our life together as followers of Jesus Christ.
We confidently believe that through Jesus Christ, God freely extends His mercy and forgiveness to all those who believe in Him and call on His Name.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
In His mercy, God extends an invitation to each of us to:
- live a new life with Him – both now and in eternity
If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
- be a part of a Church community – worshipping, serving and growing together in faith as children of God
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.(1 John 3:16)
- receive the comfort and assurance of God’s presence with us every day
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)
The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell.
On the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.
Amen
More In Depth:
The Uniting Church heeds the Reformation Witness in the Scots Confession of Faith (1647), the Savoy Declaration (1658), and the preaching of John Wesley in his Forty Sermons (1793). ‘built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone’ (Eph 2:20).
Bargara Uniting Church is also a confessional church, affirming the ecumenical creeds such as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.
Bargara Uniting Church stands in the tradition of the great reformation in the 16th century, learning continually from the witness of the Reformers as expressed in various ways in the Scots Confession of Faith (1560), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), and the Savoy Declaration (1658).
Bargara Uniting Church also confirms the place of ongoing theological, literary, and historical study as crucial for the life of the church.
We pray that, through the gift of the Spirit, God will constantly correct that which is erroneous in our life and will use our worship, witness and service for the glory of God.
Baptism
We confess that:
- Christ incorporates people into the body of believers by baptism, enabling them to participate in his own baptism, which was accomplished on behalf of all in his death and burial.
- When we are baptised into the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, our Triune God promises to adopt us as His children, wash us from our sins, and dwell in our hearts, so that we may renewed in Him.
- The Bargara Uniting Church will baptize those who truly confess their faith in Jesus Christ and children of believers who are presented for baptism, and for whose instruction and nourishment in the faith the Church takes responsibility.
Holy Communion (The Lord's Supper)
We confess that:
- The Lord’s Supper is celebrated in remembrance of what Jesus Christ has done for those who believe in Him. We read about Jesus establishing this sacrament at the Last Supper:
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. (Luke 22:19-20)
- This sacrament encourages and strengthens our faith, and assures us of the great love Jesus has demonstrated.
- Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the people of God have communion with their Saviour, and are united as the people of God; growing together into Christ, and rejoicing in the foretaste of the Kingdom of God.
As a People Journeying Together:
We affirm our calling under God:
- to preach Christ and confess him as Lord
- to bear witness to the unity of faith and life in Christ
- to engage in ministry in the places where God has called His people to faithfully work
- to act with God alongside the oppressed, the hurt and the poor
- to be wise stewards of the resources that God has blessed us with
- to recognise, treasure and use the gifts of the Spirit given to all God’s people
- to rejoice in the salvation freely given us
- to faithfully live in obedience to the Word of God and the instruction of Jesus:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39)
