by BUV Mission Catalyst Team

Victorian Baptists have declined by 0.5% over the five years 2011-2016 according to the national census. 77857 identified with Baptist as a denomination in 2011 compared to 77469 (388 less) in 2016. How does this compare to other states and denominations? 

Some groups of Baptist churches have grown slightly (Queensland and Western Australia), while others have declined more than Victoria. Overall Baptists nationally have declined by 2% (that is 7347 less Baptists).  
 

Table 1: State and Territory Baptist growth (2011-2016 Census)

At a denominational national level, Baptists compare favourably. Pentecostals are the only group that are growing, by a significant 10%. All other denominational groups are declining more than Baptists, some with significantly sharp decline.

Table 2: Australian Denominational Numbers (2016 Census)
What can we learn from the numbers of Victorians identifying as Baptists?

Two percent decline of Baptists nationally is not anywhere near keeping pace with population (which increased by 8.8% over 2011-2016, to 23,401,892).
[From http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/2071.0]

Neither is a half-percent decline of Victorian Baptists keeping pace with Victorian population (which increased 10.7% to 5,926,624 on census night; the highest increase of all States and Territories, partly because Melbourne is the third fastest growing region in the country).
[From http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/C508DD213FD43EA7CA258148000C6BBE?OpenDocument]

Victorian Baptists may find some comfort in not declining as much as some other State Baptist Unions or other denominations.

However, it is important to analyse the composition of the figures. A lot of the growth of Baptists over the last two decades has been from migration. For example, in 2001-2011 Baptists in Australia grew 43,244 to 352,499. But this included 42,400 Baptist immigrants (which was 98% of our growth). Without migration growth, we would have declined.
This reality was previously analysed in Darren Cronshaw and Philip Hughes, Baptists in Australia: A Church with a Heritage and a Future, Melbourne: Christian Research Association, 2013, 75.]

In Victoria, many Baptists are migrants, and the biggest single source of growth would be our Chin and Karen sisters and brothers from Myanmar (Burma). Without this influx of new Baptists and their vitality, Victorian Baptist decline would be much worse.  Moreover, migrants tend to be more committed. 29% of migrants attend church monthly or more, compared to only 15% of other Australians who attend monthly or more.

Our growth from migration in BUV mirrors Victoria’s increasing cultural diversity. Victoria has also grown larger from migration growth. In 2016, of Victoria's total population 28.4 per cent (1,680,275) were born overseas in over 200 countries (up from 26.2 per cent in 2011 and 23.8 per cent in 2006). Or 49.1 per cent (2,910,631) were born overseas or born in Australia with at least one parent born overseas (up from 46.6 per cent in 2011 and 43.6 per cent in 2006). [http://www.multicultural.vic.gov.au/population-and-migration/victorias-diversity/2016-census-a-snapshot-of-our-diversity]

Growth from migration in Victorian Baptist church life, and noticing the increasing cultural diversity in our society challenges us in two ways. Firstly, it is a challenge to be as hospitable as we can to people of other cultures and welcome not just their attendance but their active contribution to the life of our churches. Secondly, since migration growth masks our lack of effective evangelism, it is a challenge to reprioritise our commitment to reaching Australian-born people.

This is the first of a series of “Catalyst Church Life Snapshots” that will appear in Baptists on Mission over coming weeks. Look out for future snapshots focusing on what we can learn also from the National Church Life Survey 2016. Feedback/comments welcome by email to missioncatalyst@buv.com.au     

Source: BUV News

On Saturday 21 October, Kew Baptist Church ran the inaugural Highbury Common Creative Festival, featuring a makers’ market, art exhibition and live music performances, as well as barista coffee, food stalls and kids’ activities available throughout the day.

This event was initially born out of a desire to celebrate the incredible range of creativity within our community. After all, our God is a creative God! We are made in His image and when we use our creativity, we are reflecting His character. So this event would be a chance for us to celebrate creativity; to celebrate the creative gifts that God has blessed His people with, and to celebrate and support our local artists, makers and creatives.

We also hoped that this event would be a great opportunity to engage and connect with the local Kew community; as the BUV Innovate slogan says, to reach people that we’ve never reached before, we needed to do something that we’d never done before! And so we began to plan our Creative Festival in the hopes that such an event would be a fruitful opportunity to “let our light shine” in Kew (Mt 5:14-16).

As it happened, the Festival was a wonderful celebration of both creativity and community, with around 30 artists and creatives showcasing their works, and a couple of hundred people attending the Festival across the day – a fantastic turn-out and engagement from the local community! We were overwhelmed by the positive feedback from stall-holders and attendees; a lot of great conversations were had and connections made. The comment we kept hearing throughout the day was: “There is something different about the people here!” Through our welcome and hospitality, the love of God was truly shining through this event. Many people were asking when the next Festival would be, and it has also sparked increased interest and enquiries about the Highbury Common Project, Tea & Tots, and general facility hire. And so the community connections continue!

We were grateful to receive a Community Engagement Grant from the BUV for the Highbury Common Project – part of which was allocated to the Creative Festival, significantly helping in making the event such a success. And we are so thankful to God for how He allowed this event to come together, and for the many seeds that have been sown in growing our local community connections. We have decided to make this a biannual event, with the aim of running two Creative Festivals in 2018 (one in Autumn and one in Spring). Stay tuned!

Source: BUV News