After almost fifteen years in formal ministry, one thing has become very clear to Kathryn: You don’t need to know the end to have a start. Who would have guessed that a short conversation on the school bus as a seventeen year old would have been the catalyst for the life poured out hence?

Kathryn Jensen, Associate Pastor at Mill Park Baptist, has enjoyed a heritage of faith through the women of her family, passed down from her grandmother to her mother to herself. Alike Timothy, her sincere faith coupled with her leadership gift, gave her opportunities at a young age. On a usual trip on the school bus, Kathryn declared her interest in “getting back to church” to her friend after she’d experienced teenager-drift from faith.

Two years later, she had started a Bible Study, begun a Young Adult Internship at Crossway and was studying Christian counselling. Life was busy with possibilities and steep learning curves. Kathryn relished the opportunities to grow, through taking risks and having a go. Her church community at Crossway likewise was prepared to fan into flame her leadership gift, appointing her to a staff position in her early twenties. Entrusted with this leadership from a young age has engendered in Kathryn a desire to grow leadership in others. 

Her role as Crossway’s Young Adult Small Group Coordinator reflected her passion to see people loved and finding a place to belong. This sense of belonging is more than a positional state. Being in a neighbourhood does not equate to belonging in that community, nor does being in a family necessarily forge a sense of belonging. Belonging is the result of being seen and known by one another. And it is this ministry of reconciliation that is the underpinning of Kathryn’s efforts and prayers.

While on a prayer retreat, God gave Kathryn a memorable vision that began her life in ministry. “I was sitting on a swing with Jesus pushing me from behind towards the Father.” The vision remains with Kathryn as a picture of God’s work of reconciliation. And in her reconciled state, she takes seriously the message being committed to us.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

So, from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

For Kathryn, the message of reconciliation is evident in every aspect of daily life. In her own family, she is an agent of reconciliation, bridging gaps of broken relationships. She reflects, “In a sense, I was born as a reconciler in my family.” And likewise, she is a reconciler in God’s family. Her role as Care and Connect Pastor sees people being connected meaningfully into the life of the church.

It was also with her heart for reconciliation that Kathryn helped establish Mill Park Community Care(MPCC) in 2013 in partnership with Mill Park Baptist Church. With a growing need for Christian Counselling in the Northern suburbs, Mill Park Community Care is now a thriving professional counselling service for the community. MPCC is entirely self-funded and, six years on, there are second and third generation clients (referred by previous clients) who encounter God’s love in the arena of faith-based, but not faith-biased counselling.

In addition, Kathryn has fanned into flame the vision of others in her church community to create spaces for belonging, empowering those with a dream to establish a weekly community meal for the lonely and hurting, or to establish a conversational English class for the marginalised migrants, or to envision and implement an International Expo to celebrate ethnic diversity. It is those on mission together who show up week after week and continue to serve in this way that is stirring Kathryn’s heart. She calls them ‘Missional Remainers.’ They are people who have discerned that following Jesus for them, means staying put, showing up and being deeply committed to a small geographic place. Missional Remainers are more needed now more than ever. They help create stability and welcome as Melbourne’s suburbs dramatically change, uprooting people, and marginalising many. 

From a recent study trip with the BUV Mission Catalyst team, Kathryn visited flourishing communities, where Missional Remainers were willing to take risks for the sake of the community they serve. These Missional Remainers don’t show up on their own terms or in their own timing, but find the shape of their ministry in their community. The future of mission needs Missional Remainers who are deeply connected to place and people. They don’t do this work alone, but are empowered and inspired by the God of creation who became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood in order to reconcile that creation to himself.

When asked what advice she would give to anyone thinking of stepping into ministry, Kathryn offers a great challenge: “The thing you can’t stand in the world is what God is calling you to change.” This should cause us to pause. And ponder.

For Kathryn, it is people who are disconnected. Kathryn is driven to walk alongside the lonely, the broken, the immigrant, those on the margins. This is a feeling that Kathryn has known, from the displacement of her childhood years (7 schools in 13 years!) to the challenges of ministry as a single woman in a world where marriage and family are often in the driving seat. She deeply loves this Jesus who entered the world as ‘other’, leaving behind divine privilege in order to become like those he sought to save. This is what fuels her passion for God’s commitment to reconciliation. This ministry demands of us a commitment to people and a commitment to place where everyone belongs. Everyone has a place. Everyone is loved.

Sometimes it is only in reflection we see God’s gifts other times we are so overwhelmed by them and are amazed at God knowing us so intimately and providing just what we need. God’s gift of Carey prayer group fits squarely in the second category. Since its inception in 2015 it has been God’s vehicle for creating community, personal growth, encouragement, friendship and answered prayer. 

God was behind this group from the start, using the grumblings of teenagers, “I think I am the only Christian at school” and the stirring of a mother’s heart to connect with other Christians for this group to start in a coffee shop in Camberwell. With the school chaplains support ten families quickly expressed interest in connecting with other Christian Carey Grammar families. The next event was a family dinner where a prayer walk around the school was organised.

The joy and blessing of the prayer walk led to a desire to meet regularly in the school chapel and with our three school chaplains. These times of prayer were mutually encouraging for the chaplains, school leadership and parents. Remembering our school founders and all those who have gone ahead of us praying for our school, students and teachers. It became clear through prayer that God was using our chaplains in a mighty way and we needed to be quite purposeful in our prayers for them.  This led to setting up a Carey Prayer WhatApp Group. The app gave us the opportunity to let the now thirty plus families know when our chaplains were running chapels or speaking at assembly so we could be lifting them in prayer.

We have been surprised at the blessing of being part of this prayer group, there are often messages from members saying they love starting the day with the reminder to pray for the school, or they have loved the community feel of being part of the group, or the blessing of being able to share prayer/praise points. Being such a large school every year there are families experiencing terminal illness and unexpected deaths which the chaplains walk closely with them through. Instead of feeling helpless in these circumstances we consider it a privilege to pray for the families and the chaplains through this time. The prayer group also gives us an opportunity to share our faith with others in the school community, sharing how it is an outworking of our faith to pray for the school and our desire to pray for them.

The blessings of encouragement, personal growth, friendship this prayer group has brought leave us in awe at God's faithfulness and love for our school community. We have appreciated the support of the Prayer Group for Schools, our school chaplains Gerry Riviere, Janine DePavia and Scott Bramley, the school leadership and Board. We would encourage others if you don’t have a school prayer group to pray about starting one. The joy and encouragement of having others to travel the Christian road at school with is a tremendous blessing. 

The Kilsyth South Baptist Church (KSBC) has a three-part mission, “To Share Jesus, Encourage Christian Growth, and Caring for People” which we work towards achieving through various methods, a major one being outreach which we do through reaching out to the broader local community.

On Saturday 7 September an event was held at the Church in the form of a 3-course dinner and entertainment, the dinner was held in the new Church building with over 160 people attending, entertainment from a group called “After Hours” and professional catering from Chefs2you.

By receiving an outreach grant from the BUV, we were able to do several things to try and achieve our Church Mission, we were able to price the evening at a level affordable to people, we provided a table to the Chaplain at the Basin Primary School, were KSBC is involved with Kid’s Hope to allow him to invite parents who may be struggling to have a night out. We also provided two tables to our Playgroup Leader to invite parents who they believe could benefit from a night out. All those attending from this source do not attend KSBC and many no Church at all.

Our Pastor Peter Nielsen had just completed a series of sermons with the title of “BLESS”: Begin with Prayer, Listen, Eat, Serve, Share a Story.

As a result, 7 people booked a table and invited neighbors and friends to the dinner again these people are not regular Church attendees and through the neighbors commence a relationship which may develop to a better relationship and friendship.

The evening certainly met in total or in part our mission and the “BLESS” message and should the evening generate a small surplus in funds this will go back into other outreach opportunities in our community. From the 160 people attending more than 100 were people not from KSBC but from the actions of outreach.

We give thanks to our wonderful God who through this has led us to reach out and through our actions we can show others that Church and Christians is not a bad place to be.

Green Collect Awarded Top Enterprise

Melbourne-based social enterprise Green Collect has picked up the prestigious Social Enterprise of the Year award for 2019. The award, an initiative of the Social Traders, recognises Green Collect’s strong business performance as it generates positive outcomes towards environmental and social impact. 

Green Collect has a strong history with the BUV. Founders Sally Quinn and Darren Andrews started the business under a feasibility study with Urban Seed, then based at Collins Street Baptist Church. The initiative grew, thanks to the passion of the founders and their pursuit to innovate in the evolving waste-recovery industry. Active partnerships with Ashburton, Essendon and Armadale Baptist continue to build connection through care for the environment and job creation. Green Collect and the BUV are working to support the development of social enterprises, both through the Social Enterprise Guild and mentoring and sharing of knowledge.

Today, Green Collect employs over 30 people and focuses on delivering environmental solutions for office waste. They collect the folders, stationery, small electronics and computers that are frequently discarded as offices update or relocate. Last year, the service collected and sorted 125 tonnes of items, saving them from landfill. Items are individually assessed for their best environmental outcome and then either resold in Green Collect’s retail stores, upcycled into new products, or responsibly recycled.  

Sally Quinn, CEO, comments: “At Green Collect, we know we do things differently. We show that there are positive solutions to the problem of waste, and that those solutions can also deliver positive outcomes for people. Our workplace is designed around an inclusive model, enabling us to provide work opportunities for people who have previously faced barriers to employment. Through a more caring workplace, we enable people to build the skills they need for long-term work. 

Over the years, we’ve become the experts in finding the best environmental outcome for even the most difficult to recycle items. Our passion for saving things from landfill means we put in a considerable amount of time and effort into researching opportunities for the next life, particularly for complex problems like e-waste. We’re always looking for new ways to reuse items, and creative ways to make something new from something old.”

Green Collect also run two retail stores – their own outlets that on-sell the items collected from offices, as well as second-hand clothing and sustainability products. In their Braybrook store you can find a treasure-trove of computers and accessories, old video games, CDs and DVDs, and a wide range of salvaged stationery including highlighters, textas and folders. All saved from landfill. The Yarraville store is a boutique experience, offering second-hand designer clothing and new, highly giftable, earth-kind products. 

The BUV extends a warm congratulations to Green Collect on a very well-deserved award!