One example of a “better together” story is happening in the outer east of Melbourne with Kilsyth South, Wandin and Ferntree Gully Baptist churches. Pre- COVID-19, the pastors of each of these churches would meet regularly and on occasion, Kilsyth South provides preaching and musician support to Wandin.

When the social distancing measures came in so quickly late March, Kilsyth South was fortunate in being able to create an online platform soon after the restrictions were announced. The other two churches were not in the same position at that time, and so Peter Nielsen, Senior Pastor of Kilsyth South invited both churches to join them online.

In addition to these churches connecting with Kilsyth South, Peter is aware of others connecting to their online services from around the world. He shares this encouraging story:

“We had a Japanese young lady come to faith late last year after befriending one of our church regulars.  He brought her to church, she asked to see me and gave her life to Jesus.  Her fears about going back to Japan and to a Buddhist family were very real, so before she left in early February, she was baptized in a small service at the church where we were able to pray for her and commit her to Jesus.  She went back to Japan, and less than a month later we were live streaming – she has logged on each week to watch and worship with us and each week she sends a photo of her watching the service and letting us know how she is going in her faith!  God has blessed her immensely – and we are being blessed through her and her faith that has gone back to her homeland!” 

In the face of coronavirus meeting restrictions, Bacchus Marsh Baptist gave prayerful consideration as to how church should look for them. While they were grateful for the many online worship services being made available from other churches, in Pastor Jeremy Van Langenberg’s words, “we were concerned to maintain a sense of ‘us’ –   our local church community”.  

They began by placing all church attendees including children, youth and young adults into cluster groups. For the first time ever, everyone in the church is in a small group! So far this is working well with groups meeting digitally or by phone.

Sunday sermons are pre-recorded online in a fairly simple fashion and for those without digital access, sermon notes and orders of service are hand delivered (with careful thought to hygiene). A weekly prayer guide is also being provided for the church to pray at the same time each Wednesday.

While church finances were initially struggling in the absence of physically meeting on Sundays, in recent days more church members than ever before have signed on to direct debit giving. While these last few weeks have been challenging and stretching, Jeremy reports the church community are encouraged, thankful and in good spirits.

I have been thinking, over the last few weeks, about the term ‘essential’. It has become part of our vernacular in a previously unseen way. I used to say ‘essential’ when I was speaking about getting something important or urgent like “It is essential I get chocolate today”. Now, the word has become synonymous with restrictions. Am I an essential worker? Is this task essential so I can leave the house?  We have been forced to consider every area of our life, every action that we take to determine if they are within the requirements and restrictions of the current time. It has impacted every area of our life in a way that has not been known before.  

By its definition essential means “absolutely necessary, extremely important.”

It got me thinking about the ways in which church is essential, particularly in the lead up to Easter when our Prime Minister indicated that ministers of religion were essential workers for the purpose of Easter services.

Is church essential?

According to McCrindle research the percentage of the Australian population who identify Christianity as their religion has declined over the last decade from 68% to 61.1%[1]. It should be noted that the number of people identifying as Christian does not necessarily translate into people attending church or being an active part of a faith community with National Church Life Survey data from 2011 suggesting that about 7% of the Australian population attend church on a Sunday[2].  On numbers alone, the data does not seem positive.

However, what the COVID-19 restrictions have shown us is an interesting dynamic, with research suggesting that many churches are reporting higher numbers of people linking in through online services than those who previously have attended church services. We have seen many encouraging and inspiring examples of churches adapting to the changing environment with the current situation providing many different opportunities for mission.  Carey Nieuwhof gives some great thoughts about how to press into the digital space for growing our churches.[3]

It still, though, doesn't answer the question about whether church is essential?

To me it is! As a member of a church community I love belonging to a faith community. They encourage me, challenge me to grow, support me when I am feeling wobbly – generally they are the hands and feet of Jesus to me.  Now I recognise that while there is the deeper ontological question about the essential nature of church, there is also the way in which the church is functionally essential for us today.

The essential nature of church is not just about how many people come through our doors but more importantly is being a flourishing community of believers who love God, love each other and love the world (or just our neighbourhood) around us.

Here are some suggestions to help your church prove itself to be essential at this time:

Loving God:

• Develop a church spotify list with your church most sung worship songs to help people sing along at home.
• Explore spiritual disciplines that you don’t normally use.
• Encourage people to pray in smaller groups online during the week
• Point people to a bible reading program.
• Encourage people to recognise God’s presence with them throughout their day.

Loving each other:

• Encourage your members to pray for five other people in your church each day and text them a word of encouragement.
• Suggest people meet online for lunch or dinner (smaller groups work better in this environment) and just hangout.
• Use online games for some fun interaction. There are some great Pictionary/card/game apps and websites.
• For families with kids, share schooling resources or organise appropriate help for each other.
• Drop off a meal on someone’s doorstep.

Loving our neighbourhoods:

• Check in with our neighbour to see if they are ok.
• Drop off a meal if you can.
• Watch a movie at the same time and chat via text or messenger during the movie.
• If you live next door to each other, have a coffee in your driveway with each other.
• Say hello to people that we pass when we are out for walks.
• Check in with local neighbourhood houses/centres to see if they need emergency food.

Being an essential church includes finding ways to deepen our love of God, each other and our neighbour. My guess is, if we encourage every single person in our church to do something in each of the three areas, we will have flourishing churches whether we are meeting in person or not.

Sources:

Stepping inside Balwyn Baptist church (BBC), caressed by her bright and free-flowing space, you will be forgiven for not being able to tell that this is actually a mixed marriage of an ageing wooden hall built over a century ago, a beautiful high ceiling brick worship place built between the two world wars, and a concrete extension built in the eighties of last century when the interest rate reached a crazy 18%. That’s the image you might summon when you think of BBC facing the unprecedented COVID-19 challenge, where her diversity in age, race, culture and traditions turned into amazing and enriching unity by God’s grace. 

The current pandemic has had an effect on everyone, regardless of age, race or religion and everyone’s perceptions and responses have differed. There is no “correct” way to react to the COVID-19 outbreak. The community at Balwyn Baptist Church has always been diverse, with worshippers ranging from Anglo- Aussies, to China, Mauritius and the Middle East. Fellowships that frequent the BBC schedule have assisted in developing strong trust and understanding within the church. Facing the pandemic together has only further highlighted that despite the many differences, there is unity in diversity. 

During this time, it has become even more important to stay close to God and His word. However, with health and safety regulations, Sunday church services were put on hold. Turning to online services like many others, BBC worked hard to keep the congregation connected via Zoom. This drastic change inevitably leads to some challenges within the church; most notably, the use of technology. The BBC community has been blessed with a notable variation in age. Some members of the church less familiar with the usage of technology have struggled with the conversion to online services.

Specifically, we witnessed the love of Jesus reflected in the actions of a member from BBC. Upon hearing that a member of the congregation did not have a device to operate Zoom on, she bought an iPhone 5 online and a 12-gigabyte sim card. This action of love and generosity has been echoed throughout the church with other members lending laptops to those who need it and helping each other learn how to use the program. Although the use of technology is still a challenge, the help that the church has willingly offered to each other has been a direct reflection of how differences have brought us together. 

It is inevitable that the reactions towards COVID-19 will differ. There are members who respond with a greater level of caution, and others who are more relaxed. The church has overcome the many differing viewpoints, and through God has been given the ability to converse in love and understandingly. It has been moving to witness the immense support and empathetic responses during this time. The controversial issues surrounding the pandemic which frequent the media and the perceived cultural stigma’s have not impacted the dynamic within the church, but instead through prayer and praise, the church has united in unwavering faith to provide support to each other. 

Although it is often perceived that diversity and unity are at opposite ends of a spectrum, God has the ability to link our differences. Through Him, BBC has been able to unite in current circumstances and embrace the diversity. It is these differences that have been a blessing to the church.  

By Victoria Li 
Year 11 student, BBC church member

Last Sunday, almost 20 Baptist Churches in Victoria live-streamed their services. A month ago, there was very few. The last four weeks have brought with them progressively tighter government restrictions on gatherings all across Australia. These have presented a gargantuan challenge to the church, which intuitively recognises the deep need we all have to "not give up on meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25). With social gatherings now limited to two, and physical distancing in place, all traditional ways of thinking about community and communal worship need to be radically changed. In this challenge, leaders have been extended and have needed to work well outside their natural abilities in order to achieve the great feat of gathering online. 

And, as with all healthy families, the lessons are being shared, and support is being offered between churches. Essendon Baptist has graciously written a blog post of their journey from ‘zero to go’ with the lessons in their steep learning curve. Their hope is that it will provide practical information and encourage others who are hoping to launch online with little lead time. The family is in this together, and growing together. Several church leaders from around Victoria have offered us their reflections on this sudden swerve into digitalisation. 

Mark Nidenko, Associate Pastor of Heathmont Baptist Church, comments on the explosion of changes in the last two weeks: “We have been greatly encouraged by the grace our congregation has shown us as we have worked out our response. We are enjoying the challenge of integrating a mix of technologies into our services and exploring the way that they allow us to run programs we thought would need to close (eg. Playgroup). We have been streaming our services and youth groups over YouTube and using zoom for our lifegroups and as our welcome cafe.”

Many pastors in the last two weeks have expanded their everyday vernacular to include "Youtube Channel, Facebook Live, Teleprompter, live-stream, Google Meet, Vimeo, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Zoom …” They have learned the varying capacities and the pros and cons for each offering for their own setting, and are now seeing their faces on those platforms. Grace Munro can attest to the weight of this work for church leadership: "Pastor Jun Tan at Balwyn Baptist has been VERY busy making the adjustment to online services, and we are definitely getting there, and it is good to get together even while not being together.”

In some churches, this new challenge has brought with it surprises and latent abilities. Kathryn Vaughan, Co-ordinator of Pastoral Administration at Camberwell Baptist Church says, “At the beginning, when it was hard to imagine how we could possibly transition our service online in a week, a few people surfaced unexpectedly from within our congregation with the willingness and the gifts to enable this to happen.”

Pastor Aaron Wardle of Wangaratta Baptist is fortunate to learn quickly with software. Even so, he admits, “It has taken a bit of effort to get it all set up!” In Wangaratta Baptists’ first stream, they used both Facebook Live and Youtube, wanting to achieve maximum reach. The online.church platform was utilised where those gathering can chat, share a heart, and share a live prayer request with the service hosts. Camberwell Baptist has chosen to use Zoom, which helps the congregation to connect with one another via text and allows people see each other on screen. 

Each church is approaching the challenge differently, bringing their unique culture to their gathered worship, and choosing the technical options that will serve their church and its surrounding community. Pastor Adam Hince of Essendon Baptist summarises perfectly, "I don't think anyone at Essendon is pretending this is church as we'd really like it – but we are making it work, and doing our best to connect with each other and not just with the screen while we do so. We're also doing our best to keep it like our normal church services – so it's not as polished as others, but it is ours.”

Our Churches in the Union have responded with agility and creativity to the COVID-19 crisis as it has unfolded into a pandemic. We have brought the good news in the midst of the vulnerability of the human condition, and sought to bring us into contact with one another under extraordinary circumstances.

Let us continue to show unprecedented love through these unprecedented times.

If your church needs support in your work to meet online, please head to our COVID-19 Church Resources and COVID-19 Advice Page. Both are being updated regularly to help you understand how to navigate the new challenges and gather your church online. Crossover is also providing practical help to churches entering the online space. You can check out their resources here.

Thank you to the teams at Balwyn, Camberwell, Essendon, Heathmont and Wangaratta Baptist Churches for sharing their insights in moving church services online. 

This month, we are celebrating International Women's Day by featuring stories of courage and determination by ordinary women who are playing extraordinary roles within our Baptist community.

Leading in the middle – Robyn Song

Robyn is single, female, Asian, a migrant, a leader and a mother of four. But these titles don’t confine her. She is a woman who is cutting a path for others, as she stretches the perceptions and expectations of her peers. Change has not come through a desire for leadership, but through listening and learning along the way. In many aspects of her life she finds herself in the middle, acting as a bridge for others – a bridge for international students into community, for people of diverse background into theology, for women into leadership, for Western leaders in understanding a non-Western voice and perspective.

Robyn was born in South Korea, as one of five siblings. She’s in the middle. At the age of 19 her family moved to Sydney, following the calling of her father as a Baptist pastor. She moved to Melbourne in 2000, and life was full with volunteering within her church community, running her own business, and bringing up a family.

“It was a very busy period.” Robyn confesses as she reflects on her journey over the last decade.

And yet, even in the busyness of life, Robyn felt a strong desire to know God more, and decided to invest in this relationship through enrolment at Whitley College.

This step of faith was not supported by many in her life, partly due to women not being widely accepted in leadership at the time. As a forerunner for other women, she needed strength to persist in her on-going commitment of serving and learning. And it has been precisely in her place of her ministry that she has found a significant leadership opportunity, as she assisted in the coordination of the Whitley College TransFormation program, an innovative and accessible Diploma for culturally and linguistically diverse theology students.

While studying at Whitley, becoming a pastor was not in Robyn’s thoughts, however God slowly unfolded his plans for her life. Robyn took up an internship role with Auburn Baptist Church as community development coordinator of AuburnHub – a hospitality space and English classes for migrants and international students.

Rev Darren Cronshaw of Auburn Baptist Church affirms Robyn’s capacity to effectively bridge the cultural divide. “One of Robyn’s best contributions to the church is helping us understand what it takes to be a church that is hospitable and welcoming to people of different cultures. We want non-Westerners not just to be welcome as visitors but also to be included as equals.”

Robyn also served as part of the BUV multi-cultural ministry group for 12 years and has been also a part of the BUV Mission Grants Panel for the last six years.

“I was influenced by many good women leaders, especially at Whitley and BUV. It’s very inspiring to see them stand up and take up their calling. I also saw many examples of men and women working well together. These gave me confidence to play a role in the areas where I serve.”

In 2015, Robyn was offered the role as a pastor for the English service at Bentleigh and Korean Baptist church. She is one of the first female Korean pastors, especially in the Baptist world. Now looking back, Robyn can see a change in culture over the last 15 years, as more women are offered opportunities to lead. She encourages women of diverse background to embrace their culture.

“Don’t be somebody that you are not. Embrace both cultures as your being the middle person can bridge the difference across cultures.”

Robyn describes this position in the middle as a fortunate position, “I learn to be Korean as well as Aussie. I am both and I embrace both. The blessing is double!”

In her capacity as a member of the BUV Multicultural ministry group, Robyn reviewed the Soong Chan-Rah publication, “The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the church from Western Cultural Captivity.” One of the key insights she draws out is that:

“part of what is needed for non-Western leaders to have their voices invited and their leadership welcome … A dilemma for non-Western leaders is that they often have a passion for mission, deep experiences of faith and ideas for how the church can flourish, but they also hold values about respect for leaders especially in the church. Thus they may be hesitant to offer their contributions if they are not invited.”

Finding her own voice has been a long season of learning for Robyn, as she is naturally a very shy and introverted person.

“Over the years, I learnt to speak up. It took me almost twenty years of learning. I used to filter what I wanted to say, as very often, I understand the conversations from both Australian and a multicultural point of view. It can be challenging but also an opportunity to help others see the other side of the story.”

Her hope for the future is compelling. Having already experienced much cultural change in the last two decades, she longs for more.

“I would encourage women to take up their calling and challenge, get out of their comfort zone, make themselves available to see other cultures and be inspired for change.”

But she also issues a challenge to existing church leadership to be more open-minded and to give opportunities, training and encouragement for women to lead so that others can see and follow.

“This will encourage more women leaders and I believe that change can happen.”

Robyn Song is a Pastor at Bentleigh and Korean Baptist church and also a 2020 Ordinand.  

This month, we are celebrating International Women's Day by featuring stories of courage and determination by ordinary women who are playing extraordinary roles within our Baptist community.

Finding one’s voice – Charlene Delos Santos

Charlene’s upbringing was not a typical one. Arriving in Australia at the age of six with her parents and younger sister, her Filipino heritage has largely shaped her family’s decisions and hopes. Her early experience of church, in a predominantly white youth group, was one of being on the fringe.

“It was hard being the only Asian person in my close group of friends.”

Charlene’s good humour, and affable smile belie the struggle for identity and finding her own voice in leadership in a culture where she does not fit the status quo. A life shaped by expectations from cultural heritage along with power structures pervading Western society are shared by many who call themselves second-generation Australian. For some, this tension can be overwhelming and destructive.

However, Charlene’s love for Jesus and desire to make him known has opened up a place for ushering in peace through right relationship with God and across cultural distinctives. Towards the end of the high school, Charlene had a strong encounter with God.

“During that time, I felt so loved by my father in heaven. I felt so surrounded and embraced by his love.”

Charlene was compelled to do what she could to share God’s love with others. As a student and with the support of Scripture Union (SU), she started a prayer group in school, and ran lunch time programs. “It was hard work, and at times really disappointing, but I felt Jesus was close.”

This foray into ministry leadership brought Charlene to a point of tension with traditional expectations of her migrant family. “Even though they were Christians, there was a lot of resistance to me seeking to be in ministry. As a child of migrant parents, they were worried about me not being financially secure or having a stable job. To compromise, I ended up doing a youth work degree at RMIT, rather than studying at Bible College.”

Upon graduation, Charlene accepted a position with SU in schools ministry and ran an internship program for culturally diverse leaders. After 11 years with SU, Charlene stepped out in faith, seeking God for a workplace where culture was celebrated and affirmed.

Through God’s sovereign hand, SURRENDER Conference sought her out and Charlene is now in her fifth year on the team. Her work with SURRENDER built connections with the BUV, where she is currently coordinating IGNITE, the BUV’s annual multicultural youth conference.

Reflecting on the conference, Charlene speaks with deep understanding,

“Many of the second-generation youth at IGNITE live every day with pressure from both sides – from their parents’ or church’s cultures and from western society”.

“When they gather at the IGNITE conference, they can breathe. They feel like they can be themselves. Many are building bonds with other youths outside their church and community because they understood each other.”

Charlene describes it as not knowing where one fits in, yet also trying to integrate multiple cultural identities.

“Because of my personal journey, I am passionate to engage with and support this next generation of culturally diverse leaders.”

Charlene is working closely with the team to provide focus on international leadership development for the IGNITE leaders and for connections to be maintained beyond the conference.

Being one of the few Asian women in ministry leadership today, Charlene dream of a diverse church with more multicultural leaders – particularly female leaders.

“There are many good women leaders serving in their church communities, but there are also limitations to areas in which they can lead, many barriers and missed opportunities. Currently, there are also few role models for young second-generation leaders to follow.”

Charlene is in the continual process of deepening her relationship with Jesus and learning her own voice in leadership. But she freely admits that finding her voice in leadership has been fraught at times. The majority of leaders in meetings represent traditional Western society, and subtly hold the power of opinion. ‘When I am in a meeting, I listen to these voices in the room more than others to gauge whether I am on the right track, rather than ask, “What is my voice? What do I think?"

Charlene laments the times she has not listened to her gut and has shaped and filtered her ideas to suit what the powerbrokers may want to hear. “There are other times where I live out of that sense of what God has called me to do and be. And other times when I should have listened to my gut, but I decided to go with what I thought success looked like. And it has hurt.”

The journey to finding her voice has required self-reflection, courage and persistence. She freely admits, “It’s a challenge I’m learning to overcome!”

Charlene Delos Santos is the Co-Director of Surrender Australia and the BUV Multicultural 2nd Generation Coordinator. 

Molestation Insurance

Victorian Baptists are committed to providing safe programmes as an expression of loving our neighbours. As part of this, and in order to continue Molestation Cover with our insurer, churches should ensure that as a minimum they comply with the following policies and procedures:

1. A policy committing the organisation to providing a safe environment for children and vulnerable adults.

2. A Code of Practice covering pastors, employees and volunteers who may come into contact with children and vulnerable adults.

3. A process for screening applicants for ministry, employment and volunteering, including referee checks and working with children/criminal record checks.

4. A process for handling allegations of sexual abuse.

5. A process for complying with mandatory reporting obligations for suspected sexual abuse.

6. Training for pastors, employees and volunteers in the above policies/procedures.

The documents below provide resources to assist churches in these matters.

Declaration for churches to sign and return

Molestation insurance explanatory notes

Sample Flowchart Reporting Process

Sample Church Safety Policy

Sample Molestation Insurance Code of Conduct

Sample Reporting and Handling Allegations of Sexual Abuse

Sample Safe Church Concerns Form Template

Sample Staff and Volunteer Application Screening Form

Surrey Hills Baptist Children’s Centre (SHBCC) connects with over 120 families each year through its Kindergarten and Childcare programs. The Centre maintains a Christian presence in its community and describes itself as “A place of faith and early learning.” Over 250 of the children and families of the Centre attended the 2019 end of year Christmas celebration for community connection, celebration of the year and re-telling of the nativity story. The leadership of the Centre imagined a creative re-enactment of the story where parents would be spontaneously scripted into the story, given costumes and lines on the spot and engaged in the re-telling of Jesus birth, while others played musical instruments and sang well known carols throughout the reenactment. With much laughter and fun parents were given costumes and played the various roles as the story was narrated.

As the story concluded and the costumes were being packed away a mother who had played the role as the Inn Keeper approached the Centre’s Director and asked if they could speak further. The mother started, “I have been the Inn Keeper in a play that I don’t understand. Can you explain to me what I was just a part of?” The Director took one of the Children’s nativity books from the Reception display and opened it to re-tell the story of the birth of Jesus once more. As the story was read the Director spoke of her own experience of the good news of Jesus birth that the angels announced to the Shepherds. She spoke of how He had forgiven and changed her life and offered her hope. She went on to speak of how Jesus came to offer hope to all of humanity without exception and that all are welcome to join in and receive the forgiveness He offers. As the mother heard all of this she was prompted with more questions, “So it’s not a made-up story? It actually happened? Jesus really was born and lived for these reasons?” “Yes, it is a true story, an actual historical event” the Director replied. The mother asked again, “So this is what Christian faith is about? This is your faith?” “Yes” the Director replied. As the mother paused to reflect on all that she had re-enacted, heard and seen in the Children’s picture story book she had one more question, “Why has nobody ever told me this before?”  

The declaration of the good news of Jesus birth by the angels to the Shepherds in the field was good news to the ears of the Shepherds 2000 years ago and it is still good news to those who truly hear it today. Nothing has changed in the power, authority, freedom and hope of this good news message. Our culture may know of the story but we are called to be the people who carry it in ways that allow others to truly hear it and experience all of the good that this news brings.  

On a warm summer morning, we meet Pastor Glenn Koh at a ‘building site’. The café down the road is open, but we decide to chat amongst the clamour of hammers and screw drivers, overlooking unfinished surfaces and frequently needing to pause until the saw has done its job. It is the site of Pathway Baptist Church(PBC). It is the site of growth and the evidence of a church that is flourishing together as family. The noise doesn’t deter him. He is an enthusiastic man with kind and wise eyes.

Glenn speaks purposefully with excitement, “I always encourage people to be part of a building project in their church life because you can see God at work.” He is buoyed by the faith of the people around him who are hopeful for the ways that the new PBC extension building will minister to the Bulleen community. This is where Glenn has put down roots and has committed to cultivating the soil. A place completely unknown to Glenn in his formative years, and even unexpected in his adult years.

At the age of seven, Glenn was selling newspapers on the streets of Singapore. Every secondary school holiday, he sold biscuits door-to-door. One particular day he started with his usual line. “I am selling biscuits to help finance my own education.” However, the potential customer immediately responded with, “You wait! You wait!” Glenn stood at the door as the man fetched his own son from within the house. Using Glenn as an example and a moral lesson, he said, “Look at this boy! He has to work!” A packet of biscuits would sell for $3.20, which would earn Glenn 40 cents, but this man handed over ten dollars and said, “I don’t want your biscuits. You keep the ten dollars.” As Glenn recounts the story from his childhood, he laughs, “I will always remember this. I met so many customers, but I only remember him because he was so kind to me. Kindness always leaves a deep impression in people’s lives.” Kindness, as was shown to him is now a mark of his own life and ministry.

Glenn’s buoyant outlook belies a tough childhood. At just 10 months of age, Glenn’s father passed away, leaving his mother, without a welfare safety net, to care for him and his five older siblings. Tragically, his mother passed away when Glenn was nine years old. His older sisters, still teenagers themselves, raised him and his three brothers, while holding the family of six siblings together. In his young years, Glenn’s was exposed to the gospel through church people singing in his housing estate. But, it was through a friend’s invitation to a Scripture Union Camp that fifteen-year-old Glenn first experienced a Christian community. His curiosity at their kindness led him to explore faith more deeply and within six months he had decided to follow Jesus. “If my friend didn’t bring me to church, I might be a drug addict. I was surrounded with good people from a young age and that helped me understand how the Church was such a good environment for me and set me on the right path.”

Soon after his decision to follow Christ, Glenn attended a mission conference. More than 35 years on, Glenn recalls with clarity the challenge delivered to the conference delegates. “The God we worship is worthy to be made known.” This challenge moved Glenn onto the next step of obedience. By his mid-twenties, Glenn was serving through Operation Mobilisation in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan. Although not knowing it at the time, these two precious years were preparing Glenn for the challenges of cross-cultural ministry that would imbue him as a pastor in Melbourne.

With the support of his home church in Singapore, Glenn began studies at the Bible College of Victoria (now Melbourne School of Theology) in 1996. He then continued in post-graduate studies at Ridley College. His original plan was to return to Singapore, however, Glenn became a youth pastor at Evangelical Community Church in Blackburn South, a role he held for six years. Then, in 2007, Glenn established Sonlife Community Church, which amalgamated with Bulleen Baptist in 2016 to become Pathway Baptist Church – two culturally distinct congregations which have become one family.

Glenn reflects on his life of living in different cultures. While serving with OM, “food wise, there were no challenges. I could sleep anywhere, I could talk to anybody. My OM cross-cultural experience prepared me as a pastor.” However, being Singaporean in Australia, there are deeper and more challenging cultural distinctives. Australians have very firm personal boundaries. But, Asian culture doesn’t say, “It’s your day off, I won’t call you!” Glenn is well suited to this pastoral work, as he is imminently relaxed and prepared to give time to those who need it.

However, this begs the question, how does he find rest and rejuvenation when always on call? Glenn pulls out his watch to reveal his answer. That morning he walked for two hours. In fact, he walks for two hours every morning. On hot days he will head out early. The rain doesn’t deter him. There are no excuses. While walking he spends one-on-one time with God. He listens to sermons, listens to music, formulates sermons. His daily discipline helps him to remain vital in his work. He acknowledges that his leadership of twelve years in the church is at times a struggle, and commitment to the work can be tough. But, he is keen to rebuild an old adage. He says with conviction, “The grass is greener where you water it. Stay put, grow roots and cultivate.”

Glenn is passionate about sowing seeds of the gospel and kindness in people’s lives. But, there are also times Glenn has been able to reap. Recently he baptized an 86-year-old lady. “I cannot imagine getting credit just because I preached one right message. Can you imagine how many people ahead of me have sown seeds in her life?” In this own life, Glenn is keen to acknowledge the kindness that has been sown in his life – those who have gone beyond what is expected. The ones who have taken on the role of nurturer, extended an invitation, given generously and supported his learning.

The diverse family at Pathway is partly a reflection of its pastor. However, for all the training and varied experiences that have helped to shape Glenn, he is quick to acknowledge what draws together God’s people in Bulleen. “We have a 102-year-old and teenagers in our congregation. It is important to always go back to God’s word. Preach God’s word. It is timeless. We don’t have to contextualize until we lose the distinctive truth, as truth is always relevant.” Pastor Glenn is leading his congregation to sow the gospel – a timeless gospel transcending cultures and generations. As he sits amongst the unfinished walls and delights in the progress around him, he offers encouragement to all who are in the midst of this gospel work. “Sow seeds and God will do the work.”