At eight years old, I realised that—even if I started that very moment—I would never be able to reach every person in the whole world with the love and grace of Jesus. This was devastating to my young self because I earnestly desired that other people would know what I knew, experience what I had experienced, and love the Jesus I loved. What started as an urgent spark in an eight year-old’s heart grew into a passionate flame to see others encounter the transforming, life-altering power of Jesus.

Fast forward almost twenty years. I was studying theology, working at a church, and raising my young son. I’d long ago accepted my calling and was pursuing that spark from my childhood into pastoral ministry. With vigour and confidence, I began the formal process to become an ordained pastor. I knew myself. I knew what I was made for. I had purpose and passion—and naivety!  

Yes, I knew that, somewhere-out-there, there were people who didn’t affirm the ministry of women but I hadn’t yet encountered them. I grew up in the Church of Christ denomination and began going to youth group as a teenager at the Baptist church that I would later attend as an adult. There, I saw females leading in all aspects of church life. I saw women as pastors, ministry leaders, and denominational leaders.  

I'd been married for five or six years to a wonderful man. We were partners in all aspects of life, from parenting and home duties to ministry. I worked as a youth pastor in a small church in a socially and economically marginalized community in the northwest of Melbourne, Australia. My ministry colleague was a wonderful male senior pastor who encouraged me, empowered me, and affirmed my gifts for ministry. We ministered side by side. It was because of his encouragement and affirmation that I began to consider ordination. 

Until I began to pursue ordination, I knew what I thought about women in ministry, but I’d rarely had to defend it. As I got deeper into my ordination studies and more involved in the broader life of my denomination, my eyes were opened to subtle bias against women in ministry and sometimes overt objection to it. I was genuinely caught by surprise. It’s like I’d been walking around with blinkers on, until someone came along and removed them without warning. All of the sudden, I could see hostility that I couldn’t see before.   

I noticed how easily people made assumptions about me. Out at denominational events, I must be my colleague’s wife—simply because I was there and female. I must be a volunteer in the church because I was obviously too young and inexperienced to be a leader. I must be the children’s pastor because I’m a mother. I watched incredibly gifted and experienced female ministry colleagues at college be overlooked for sole or senior pastor roles in churches while young and inexperienced men were welcomed into dynamic pastoral roles.  

I was consistently stereotyped by my congregations even when I took a new position or changed churches. Statements like “Oh good, you’re here; you’ll know where the tea towels are” were the least of my troubles. My arrival at a new church meant that several men would decide to leave the church and some members only wanted to attend services when I wasn’t preaching.  

At first, I tried to ignore the issues. I didn’t want to seem bitter. I ignored because I didn’t want to be stereotyped as an angry woman—overly-sensitive and emotional. But with each question asked, each assumption made, and each expression of surprise on someone’s face when I explain that I’m a pastor, I was slowly being worn down. 

Sometimes, I wondered whether there was something wrong with me. People are so surprised by my existence that I began to wonder if was not doing it right. I know I don’t look like a pastor to them. I thought to myself: Perhaps if I yell more in my preaching or dress differently people will start to see me, or I will finally fit their image of what a pastor should be. Or maybe ministry is not for me, because I certainly don’t look like most other pastors at our denomination’s annual “pastor days.”  

And yet, I knew deep-down-inside—unequivocally and unreservedly—that I’m called by God to minister in Jesus’ name.   

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). 

Something shifted. Not a change in my circumstances or in others’ opinions of me but within me. I began to reach out—to mentors and ministry friends to ask them about their experiences, to gain insight into what inspired them and kept them going.  

One of my lecturers at college was the first female to be ordained in the Baptist Church in Australia. I asked her about her experiences: How did she keep going in the face of opposition over many years in ministry? 

I don’t think I’ll ever forget her response. It was both nothing and everything. She told me that having many older experienced women around her who encouraged her and affirmed her gifts made a huge difference.  

As I looked back on my own life, I could see the importance of such trailblazing women. I had grandmothers who broke the mould by working at a time when mums and married women didn’t work or pursue professional careers. In the churches and denomination in which I grew up, I regularly saw women pastor and minister in all areas of church life. I’d worked alongside fabulous women who affirmed, mentored, influenced, and modelled ministry for me.  

It was clear that, throughout my entire life, God had been nurturing me to enter the very place I was in! My ministry was possible because God was at work, sending women to support and empower me. The Jesus that I was passionate about was also passionate about me freely using my gifts! 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth (Psalm 139:14-15).  

A powerful book called Emboldened by pastor Tara Beth Leach also helped me own my pastoral calling. A prayerful, discerning friend recommended it to me and I devoured it eagerly.  

For the first time, I saw a woman preacher in the pages of a book who was just like me. She was my age. She was a mum like me, and a pastor in her own right. Leading and shepherding, preaching and teaching—she was truly doing it all.  
For the first time, I realised that I could be a pastor in my own right, just as I am. I didn’t need to be a little bit more masculine, or a little bit more feminine, or a bit less opinionated, or gentler, or louder, or more apostolic or less—or anything other than exactly who God created me to be.  

It was healing to read about a woman in a similar life stage to me and facing similar struggles, but who had owned her calling and giftings so uncompromisingly. It was a lightbulb moment: I didn’t need to choose between bitterness and ignoring the bias I encountered.  

I could just be me. I could embrace my gifts and talents, my voice, my failings and insecurities, my opinions, my humour, my personality. I wasn’t a lesser pastor because I didn’t look or sound like other pastors, who were usually men.  

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Heb.12:1). 

God doesn’t want me to hide my womanhood or be a second-class member of the church. God wants me to be the person I was born to become: a pastor using her gifts freely to bring people to Jesus. It seemed so obvious, but it was a truth that reached deep into my spirit for the first time.  

Now, instead of pretending that bias against female pastors isn’t there, I’m able to recognise it and progress despite those who oppose me. I’m refusing to hide my who I am. I’m declaring it boldly—not just for me, but for other women too.   

God gave me a heart for the disenfranchised and disempowered in our communities. Finding and using my own voice has helped me to become a better champion for other women. Now, each time I speak, I try to use the opportunity to break down stereotypes and speak up for others. 

My passion for Jesus, and for emboldening other women on their journey with Jesus, has only grown since my eight-year-old-self first sensed a call from God to minister. Sometimes being a woman pastor is hard and lonely, discouraging and tiring. Still, I’m comforted by the knowledge that God champions me and so do the women God has put alongside me. Now it’s my job to own my ministry call and urge the women around me to do the same.  

Written by Emily Simpson originally published on CBE International

Source: BUV News

Every Saturday, Anjuman-e-Saifee Melbourne, a Chapter of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community in Melbourne, run a school which is attended by local children to practice their religion, culture and language skills. One important part of the teachings that this community school is focussed on is social justice, and compassion to others who may be less fortunate – an important lesson in this day and age!

This teaching came into practice over a weekend in July, when members of our Sanctuary team visited the school and were presented with food and dry goods, by the school children. The children had held a fundraiser where they raised money to purchase rice, lentils and cooking oil.

Tuaha a member of the Anjuman-e-Saifee Chapter, who also worked within the Transformation team at Baptcare said “fundraisers like this bring our teachings into practice. To see the children, take ownership and even loading the donated goods into the van and listening to Peter talk about Sanctuary, was a delight”.

Presently Baptcare’s Sanctuary program presently has 134 residents, many with no income as they are not allowed to work or have not been able to find work, and who are not eligible for any government income support, so donations of food and food drives like the one the children ran are essential. Without this support, people go hungry and poor nutrition contributes to additional health challenges.

Donations, food and furniture are always needed as they go towards providing aid for Sanctuary's transitional accommodation and related support services. These services aid in empowering homeless people seeking asylum and enable them to move towards living an independent life within the Australian community. For more information on how you can assist, contact Cliff Barclay, Head of Housing and Homelessness via cbarclay@baptcare.org.au.

Source: BUV News

Revelation 14:2-3 NIV 
And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders.  

Can you imagine the sound from heaven? I often have the privilege of experiencing what I imagine heaven would sound like through serving our local community at Rise@Carlton. You see, what started as a vision many years ago became a commitment to the people in our neighbourhood. From a small initial gathering of only a few people, we have the privilege of seeing God’s faithfulness and His hand in growing a diverse community of different ethnicities, faith, genders and ages. 

Imagine living in a thirteen storey assisted housing building in close proximity with your neighbours. Imagine that your neighbours have a different nationality, family constitution, faith, culture and eating habits to you. The sound, sights and even the smells can create a robust environment and can indeed be a wonderful experience for some. In our aspirational lens of Kingdom of God (and multiculturalism), we would say this is a picture of heaven. But for others, the very nature of diversity, can create a sense of division and further isolation. So, Rise@Carlton exists to create “communality” – a sense that in this wonderful, diverse, often conflicted placing of people, there is the redeeming marks of the presence of Jesus.  Jesus, the one who embraces the most vulnerable and isolated in the community, inviting the most unexpected to his table, transforming them with his love and grace. 

At Rise@Carlton, we strive to follow in Jesus’ footsteps extending hospitality and grace to our community and we have been able to see a slow but incremental movement of hope and blessing. Through our afterschool program and family nights, we have been able to develop trusted relationships with many children and their parents of this precinct.  

 

Another Kingdom blessing is our partnership with Melbourne Bangjoo Church to further reach out to children in our community. I first met Pastor Min Huh, Pastor Byungsuk Lee and his wife Jung In, through my previous role as Director of Ordination at the BUV. These Melbourne Bangjoo Church leaders have a heart to use the musical talents and gifts of their church members for mission and started a Praise School in 2018. The Praise School is aimed at children who have no experience of faith, or those who have been brought up in Christian families but are not living in faith. The intent is to make it possible for the children who participate to meet God naturally through praise and music.  

Pastor Byungsuk Lee, who leads the Praise School, felt called to support Rise@Carlton in training up our children in music. Since the start of the year, they have been joining us once every two months to add support, worship and praise to our Sunday evening community of faith. With the aspiration of developing a “Praise School” in Carlton with our children, we are on a mission to share the sound of heaven to the rest of our community. Thank you Melbourne Bangjoo Church! 

Source: BUV News

If you drive down Flinders Avenue in Lara, 20 minutes north of Geelong, you’ll find something quite incredible happening during the day at a cafe called Little Teapot Café & Play. Parents are coming from near and far with their little ones to gather at this place that has beautifully made coffee,  good value delicious food and most importantly a very welcoming, inviting, friendly environment where parents can breathe while their children play in one of the three cute, fun, and most importantly, safe and contained play spaces. 

The team at Little Teapot cannot believe it’s been nearly 3 years since they opened their doors! The current approx. 50 staff and volunteers involved in running Little Teapot know that they are part of something special. Whether a Teapot Team member is washing aprons, washing dishes, preparing food, paying the bills or welcoming each person at the door with a smile, each person involved is creating a home away from home. So many women can feel isolated when they have young children. Little Teapot helps not only the parents of the 240 babies born a year in Lara, but many more as well.  A ‘Little Teapotter’, Verity, described Little Teapot as ‘a big beautiful envelope of love and loveliness’ and Kat called Little Teapot ‘our new home away from home’. 

Little Teapot started in 2014 as a dream for a cafe where God’s unconditional love for people is poured out in extravagant measure. Their motto is ‘Tip Us Over Pour Us Out’. The Community Leader & Director, Sarah Chaney, shares: ‘Every day we have the honour of seeing this happen through a comforting hug or listening ear we may give one of our many regulars, through the way we are able to connect mums with other mums in our ‘New to the Community’ groups, through the suspended coffees purchased by the community we can share with those doing it tough or who have had a new baby, through to praying for each and every family at the beginning of every day as well as the many opportunities we have to do life with our incredible team of staff and volunteers. It’s love in action everyday, and although challenging at times, we all feel we are so blessed to be part of this adventure that we believe God has started.’

“We are a passionate community of staff and volunteers that dream of seeing every person connected and loved for who they are. Little Teapot is a faith based charity that loves helping people find community, belonging and acceptance. We want to be so much more than a family friendly café, we hope to be a home away from home.” 

Little Teapot works in partnership with Lifeway Christian Church in Lara. The church community has been so excited to be supporting the Little Teapot charity as it cares for and gives back to the families of Lara. There are also many generous organisations, individuals and businesses that have partnered with Little Teapot to enable it to be what it is today including Baptcare that invested in the vision in the early days to help make sure the doors were opened. Here are some recent highlights:

• Thousands of people visit Little Teapot each year as well as hundreds of treasured weekly, if not daily regulars!
• Little Teapot has recently started a small movement called ‘Teapot Mums’ a gathering of the mums groups that Little Teapot has helped create and other groups that come weekly to Little Teapot.
• In year 2, Little Teapot gave away 322 suspended coffee and cake vouchers via the local Maternal & Child Health Nurses and playgroups
• Each volunteer continues to find an accepting and safe community at Little Teapot where they gain confidence, new friends and connections and most of all acceptance no matter what they believe or their life’s journey so far. A number of our volunteers have become a part of the faith community at Lifeway Christian Church through Little Teapot.  
• We’ve seen multiple Little Teapot families be referred to one of the playgroups run by Lifeway Christian church as well as the Mainly Music program being run by the local Uniting Church, we also have the joy of welcoming families to some of our special Easter and Christmas services. 
• A number of families have joined Lifeway Christian Church because of the community outreach they’ve seen through Little Teapot.
• Little Teapot has recently launched afternoon High Teas on select days of the weeks and continues to be busy most Saturdays with lots of excited families there for their birthday party celebrations!

Little Teapot has also been very blessed by the generous support from the Bendigo Bank and the Geelong Community Foundation this last year, it’s an honour for these organisations to recognise the vital community work of connection and love that is happening at a cute café called Little Teapot Café & Play in Lara.

For more information please visit Little Teapot’s website www.littleteapot.co or head to their facebook page ‘Little Teapot Café & Play’

Source: BUV News

Melbourne’s outer boundaries continue to push further out, and communities that once were small, quaint country villages, are slowly feeling the push of the urban sprawl. There is a greater need than ever to build communities of faith that are reaching out to people who experience loneliness, hopelessness and a life without a place to connect to God in meaningful ways. 

Rob and Sue Tanner came to Melbourne in 2015 following God’s leading to move from NSW to Melbourne and establish themselves to minister to local communities. Having many years of church planting and pastoral ministry experience, their heart beats to a deep desire to connect people to God, each other and to take the love and hope of Jesus to a hurting world. 

With a passion and love for the church, they have continued to ask what it means to be the body of Christ. Why do we as the church expect those outside the church to understand why we do what we do? What is at the core of the gospel, and what does it mean to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the local community?

Connect Mitchell Shire vision is to create a place of community, of connection, and a place to explore what spirituality is. All ages, no matter what background have something of value to offer each other. At the core of every being on this planet is the desire to belong, to feel connected, to have a safe place to explore why we are here.

After hosting several community events in 2018 an opportunity came about with the provision of a venue in Kilmore to gather, connect and explore what it is that God wants to do in the communities of the Mitchell Shire.  

Since February, these meetings have focused on gathering people together to build deep friendships, share meals together and provide opportunities to explore spirituality in creative and relaxed ways. Connect Mitchell Shire desire to bring the love of Jesus TO the local community and together this group is exploring ways to do this.

Still in its infancy, Connect Mitchell Shire hope to establish new groups all over the Mitchell Shire. Groups gathering to explore ways in which God’s vision for this area can become a reality; by connecting people with God, connecting people with each other and connecting people with a hurting world.

Jesus’ last instruction to us before he ascended to Heaven called us to… Go!  Go into ALL the world; make disciples (followers of Jesus) of all nations; baptise them and teach them. This is the Great Commission, a mission that can only be achieved by working together. 

This is what it looks like to ‘Go! … Build deep friendships; meet with people of peace in places they gather; make lasting connections; and together discover what it means to grow closer to God. 

ON MISSION TO THE MITCHELL SHIRE

Rob and Sue Tanner have planted three successful, thriving healthy churches in Sydney and have followed God’s direct calling to move to Melbourne with a focus of connecting people with God, with each other and with a hurting world. Their heart is to build thriving communities of faith that welcome all people from all walks of life. A place of true community and connection. A place to belong. A place that reflects Jesus to a hurting world. 

Connecting with God – with each other in true community – and connecting with a broader hurting world.

come and have a meal with us

Every Sunday afternoon we gather at the Kilmore Memorial Hall from 4.00pm where we hope to make many new deep friendships… nourishment for our souls.

We explore together what it means to be part of a community of faith through various creative expressions. We look at God’s desire for humankind to experience lives of meaning and purpose. We seek healing through laughter and tears… nourishment for our minds.

We gather as a community of faith sharing all these things finishing with a weekly meal together… nourishment for our physical bodies.

Acts 2:42-47 TPT
Every believer was faithfully devoted to following the teachings of the apostles. Their hearts were mutually linked to one another, sharing communion and coming together regularly for prayer. A deep sense of holy awe swept over everyone, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. All the believers were in fellowship as one body, and they shared with one another whatever they had. Out of generosity, they even sold their assets to distribute the proceeds to those who were in need among them. Daily they met together in the temple courts and in one another’s homes to celebrate communion. They shared meals together with joyful hearts and tender humility. They were continually filled with praises to God, enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were coming to life.

Proudly partnering with Jesus, North Church and the Baptist Union of Victoria

Source: BUV News

An incredible mural has been painted on the side wall of St Kilda- Elsternwick Baptist Church. This mural is the work of a community of Aboriginal artists drawn from the Indigenous prison recovery centres – Winja Ulupna and Galiamble – and is a collaboration between the church, the local community and the local Jewish community. The local MP's were present, the local council representative and Rev Andrew Woff, co-pastor at St Kilda -Elsternwick Baptist Church, all spoke very authentically about the journey that this mural has taken. It is a wonderful expression of collaboration, community and mission.

You can read Andrew Woff's speech below.

Good morning everyone. 

Everything we do today indicates our acknowledgement of Boon Wurrung country, our respect for their elders past present and future and our deep longing for justice and wellbeing for all our nation’s indigenous people.

You know how in life there are things that don’t live up to your dreams and you learn to live with adjusted expectations and disappointment. And now and then something comes along that is better than you dreamed. Well today we celebrate one of those.

This has been a partnership between Viv Parry’s Art and Therapy program, Galiamble and Winja Ulupna, the City of Port Phillip and the St Kilda Elsternwick Baptist Church.

We’ve all worked hard and put in big efforts to make this not just a reality but a celebration – and I think we’ve all got back more than we put in.

I’d like to give particular thanks to:

The City of Port Phillip which has funded this project – in fact with 3 different grants: for the paint and supplies, for a small film to be made of the process and for today’s celebratory lunch.

The artists whose names appear on the wall surrounding the plaque recognising the mural. This is a big artistic piece made up of hundreds of little pieces of art. You will all remember the bits where it was your brush that told your part of this story.

Auntie Bea, Mark, Marnie and Greg who have so graciously facilitated the project. In fact it was Auntie Bea who did much of the design, who painted Bunjil, the beautiful eagle -indigenous image of God – and the sunrise over the mural.

The church’s hospitality teams – Helen, Digby, Robyn, Christine, Barry, Leonie, Sally, Stacey, Bill – and the team who did a little surveillance work after some damage was done to the mural – Graeme, Di, Helen, Kerry and Alice.

Viv – the mural’s dreamer, inspirer, motivator and coordinator – and Pam for her diligence and filming.

I’d like to conclude with a Post Script: We seem to have arrived at a time when prominent political leaders lead by fear and division. The mural says, “We beg to differ.” Beauty is born of respect, cooperation and partnership in our common humanity. It is love not hate that enriches us. It’s my prayer that this mural would not only point us back to a time when the Boon Wurrung lived sustainably in this place, but also forward to a different way of being with one another.

Click here to see some more photos!

Source: BUV News