Apart from talking through associated risk areas and ensuring that adequate risk management measures are in place (visit our website www.baptistinsurance.com.au or refer to our Risk Management Guide for Churches for more information on risk), we will ask a few questions:

• Is this ministry endorsed by the church leadership/council/board?
   
• Is this ministry directly accountable to the church? The ministry may involve people from the community or other churches, but leaders must be attendees of the church and accountable to the church.
   
• Does the leadership of this ministry/body/group constitute at least 51% from the church, ie the majority in terms of decision-making? Is it noted in the church’s constitution? This line of questioning will be applied to incorporated ministries.
   
• If the ministry receives a fee for service, does the money go back into the church? If the ministry has its own bank account and does not give its profit to the church, then the ministry could be seen as a separate body and may require their own insurance cover.
   
• Does the ministry involve qualified contractors/practitioners? If it does and they are paid direct for their services, eg counsellor or electrician, then they will need to operate under their own specific insurance covers. If money is donated back to the church, then cover can extend to them. We do ask that you contact your local BIS office for further clarification.
   

With regards to combined church events where a number of churches work together, cover will only extend to the church who is covered under our scheme. Other churches and third party organisations will be required to  have their own insurance.

If you are unsure about cover for an event or ministry, we encourage you to call us so that we can assist, not only around advice on risk management, but also advice on policy terms and conditions.

Baptist Insurance Services serves to protect the local Baptist church and its ministries. We do this by developing, educating and providing a comprehensive range of insurance and risk management programmes.

For further information on Baptist Insurance Services and what we provide, please visit our website www.baptistinsurance.com.au

By Baptist Insurance Services

Source: BUV News

An ongoing challenge for churches in Australia is how to engage and connect with today’s youth. This is an issue for Anglo churches and also churches from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds. 

Recently Darren Cronshaw and Beth Barnett led a training day for Karen children’s and youth ministry. It was hosted by Werribee Karen Baptist Church on 6th August. It is part of ongoing training to help Karen and Chin and other LOTE churches with their children’s and youth ministry. There are more training days coming up with one for the Karen at Croydon Hills Baptist Church, and for the Chin on September 17 at Sunshine and in February 2017 in the Eastern suburbs. 

On the day, there were 44 Karen teenagers and young adults, involved or open to being involved in Sunday school and youth ministry. The attendants were really engaged and interested to learning more about approaches to ministry. Darren Cronshaw noted, “I was really encouraged by the Karen young people’s eagerness to learn about their own faith and discipleship and how to encourage faith and discipleship in others. They are keen to adapt, to celebrate their own culture but to thrive in their adopted culture."

(Darren Cronshaw leading discussion)

The training is about meeting the needs of children and young people in the church. Darren and Beth taught leadership and modeling, as well as basic principles to help children learn and grow in faith. This included interactive teaching, classroom discipline and creative resources. Some of the youth leaders learnt about Sunday school and children’s ministry in refugee camps, which may not be completely applicable to the new socio-cultural context in Australia. The training helps them to transition their thinking and approach to children’s and youth ministry, in order to better engage with children growing up in an Australian setting.

(Discussion Groups)

The training series is part of a broader effort to engage with and learn from LOTE churches, including the Karen and Chin people groups. There is a lot that they can learn from us, but there is much that we from Anglo and other cultural groups can learn from them. As Darren noted, we need to engage with Christians of other cultural backgrounds "to learn lessons about community and communal living, and perseverance in faith, and how to relate to people of different religions, and how to learn new cultures.” The Karen and Chin people groups have come to Australia from Myanmar. Their experience before arriving in Australia is frequently one of hardship, facing conflict and persecution in their home country and facing difficulty coming to Australia. They can teach us a lot about standing true to faith and persevering in the midst of suffering, especially as the issues we face in Australia are generally less dire by comparison. 

As Chin Baptist Church Pastor Arohn Kung noted ”Unless we bring up our children well in faith, who will be the church of the future?” The Senior Pastor at Werribee Karen Baptist Church Rev. Gail Moe commented further that, “the future is all about the young people” and thus “when we’ve lost the children, we’ve lost everything.” 

This training aims to promote fruitful and positive children's and youth ministry. By doing so, it aims to help young people grow in their faith and mission and empower them to become the next generation leaders of the church. 

By Benjamin Cronshaw

Source: BUV News

Well known social justice activist and CEO of World Vision Australia, Tim Costello, faces this reality from the beginning of this memoir on faith:

“I often feel fed up with faith. So much said in the name of God I do not believe in or want anything to do with. The public religious discourse is narrow, bigoted and judgemental. I cringe when I hear these attitudes from my Christian colleagues who believe they are speaking for God. Often I wonder how much these purported followers of Jesus actually know about him.” (p.3)   

The remainder of the book explores and appeals for a lived faith that is practical and applied to the most urgent public issues of our world. Costello offers reflections and case studies of responding to domestic violence, addictions, human rights, slavery, refugees, secularism, nationalism, atheism, Islam, gender roles, homophobia, sports doping, funerals, friendship, corrupt international politics, tax avoidance, famines, global inequalities and climate change. With short chapters (2-9 pages each) it is easy to read; but with insightful social critique and transparent personal reflection it contains much to challenge people of Christian faith as well as people of other faiths or no faith. Costello celebrates the generosity of struggling Australians (citing World Vision’s experience that the greatest number and biggest generosity of donations come from the poorest postcodes), and bemoans the Australian government’s reduction in overseas aid. He upholds stories of forgiveness and grassroots community development, and questions why some believers get preoccupied with issues of sexuality and personal morality while ignoring pressing global issues that threaten Creation and world peace. The book appeals for a faith that works for shared interests, and that offers spiritual capital to our communities – in contrast to faith that is self-obsessed with self-realisation or personal prosperity.

A feature of the book is the insight into how Tim Costello’s faith developed as the basis for his widely respected advocacy for social justice, ethics and leadership for the greater good – including his Bible-believing father and his socially engaged mother (who embraced feminism and Freud), his University Evangelical Union days and theological studies in Switzerland, and his experiences as a pastor at St Kilda and especially his thirteen recent years with World Vision. I appreciated reading about why he decided not to take an offered Democrats Senate seat – he realised politics was his passion but not his calling. Yet Faith shows how he has shaped and lived out his calling by advocating for a more just world across a huge range of social and public issues.     

An inspiring and thought provoking book, Faith is an ideal gift or holiday companion to encourage anyone interested in public theology and faith-based activism, and equally those who are merely curious about how one well known Australian relates his personal and communally-focused values to public issues.       

Darren Cronshaw
AuburnLife, Baptist Union of Victoria, Hawthorn, Victoria 

Source: BUV News

In the middle of 2014, a man from our Karen congregation, named Hsa Pu Lu, told me “we need to do something for fathers in our community, so that we can minister to them and also help them out to be free from drinking”.

Almost every weekend Karen families have thanksgiving, where they provide food and have a service at their homes. If the fathers are able to help out in kitchen, they are contributing, and the family that is having the thanksgiving service at their home is able to partake in Mary’s ministry by listening to God’s words at the service, free from the busyness of hospitality.

Werribee’s Karen kitchen ministry began in early 2015 in a garage and sometimes at homes, to cater for family’s thanksgiving. This year, they have been able to acquire a shop front in the main street of Werribee where they now operate Martha Karen Kitchen.

Why name this Martha Karen Kitchen? Martha was always busy in the kitchen. This is a good thing she has done by hosting guests. We believe that God brought our Karen people here to Australia with a purpose.

While we were in refugee camps, we had no idea of resettlement in other countries, until the Australian government took us out of Thailand refugee camps and welcomed us here. We believe that God has called us to minister not only to our community but also to others. We believe that Martha ministry is the staring point of our ministry to wider communities and also shows our gratefulness to the Australian government for the opportunities we have here to work and to be a part of the community.

This restaurant is like a home to the Karen community in Werribee CBD. Currently we haven’t employed anyone, all are working as volunteers. We soon hope to employ four people but also we hope that people will continue to give their extra hours voluntarily. 

The key reasons Werribee Karen Baptist Church is engaging in their Martha Karen Kitchen ministry are:

• To create work and training opportunities for the congregation
• To use the profits generated for church ministries locally and internationally
• To be able to work with wider communities, welcoming strangers and sharing Christ love
• To create opportunities for evangelism
• To serve people with busy lives

Why not visit Martha Karen Kitchen for some great food and a warm welcome? You can find them at: 
30 Station Place, Werribee, and they’re open Mon- Sat 10am-9pm

By Rev Gail Moe Dwai

Source: BUV News

More than 3,500 UK churches have either switched their electricity from fossil fuels to renewables or registered to do so, according to figures released by UK charities today.

The announcement coincides with day named by Pope Francis as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, September 1. It is the beginning of the Season of Creation, a global Christian ecumenical time of prayer and work for the protection of the environment.

Around 2,000 of the churches switching come from sixteen Catholic dioceses which are running entirely on renewable energy, some of whom made the decision following Pope Francis’ encyclical for the environment, Laudato Si’. The number also includes the majority of the Salvation Army’s UK sites and a third of Britain’s Quaker Meeting Houses.

In addition, nearly 700 churches from across denominations have so far individually signed up through the bigchurchswitch.org.uk website promoted by the charities Christian Aid and Tearfund.

Professor Stephen Pickard, Anglican Bishop and Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Canberra, said it well: ‘The massive take-up of clean, renewable energy by churches in the UK is a great sign of hope. It would be inspiring if Australian churches could do the same. We have an abundance of sun and wind and we are well aware of the damage done by the burning of fossil fuels. What are we waiting for?’

There are no similar large scale shifts to clean energy planned by churches in Australia, but churches have taken the lead on environmental action in other ways. The take-up of rooftop solar has accelerated in the last few years. Dozens of Christian organisations have passed resolutions to divest their holdings in fossil fuel extraction, and a sizable proportion of the tens of thousands at the People’s Climate Marches in late 2015 were people from faith communities.

Bishop John Arnold of Salford, one of the sixteen dioceses to have switched, and chairman of Catholic aid agency CAFOD, said: “There are many ways in which we may respond to the threat and the reality of climate change and adopting renewable energy for our church buildings must be a priority. Pope Francis challenges us all to ‘care for our common home’, and by adopting renewable energy we will directly help people threatened, and already most severely affected, by climate change.”

Tearfund Advocacy Director Paul Cook, said: “The Christian community has come together to help lead the shift to clean energy – we're showing that we care for our neighbours, we care for creation, and we care that the government takes urgent action too. The longer we postpone, the worse it will be for our future and the future of people living in poverty around the world."

Christian Aid Chief Executive Loretta Minghella also welcomed the news. She said: “We need a big shift to renewable energy and a shared commitment to leave the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves in the ground. This action by thousands of churches shows a groundswell of public support for renewables to which governments must respond by doing all they can to shift to a clean energy future.”

Some 340 congregations in the UK have also signed up to a broader scheme ‘Eco-Church’, committing to a range of environmental improvements. Similarly, 21 Catholic parishes have received a ‘Live Simply’ award, in recognition of commitments to sustainability and solidarity with people in poverty.

Dr Ruth Valerio, founder of the Eco-Church programme, said: “I sense that a corner has been turned with churches engaging in caring for the earth. The Bible is so clear that God loves the whole creation, both human and non-human, and that we are to love similarly, and so it is really encouraging to see us getting to grips with what that means and taking practical action”.

For more information on the environment and justice and how your church can take action go to A Just Cause

Source: BUV News

Last year's Academy Award for Best Film went to Spotlight, a true story of the sexual abuse of children by clergy and an attempt to cover it up by the Catholic Church in Boston.
The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last month cast a spotlight on the Newcastle Anglican Diocese. The public hearing showed some of its senior clergy and lay people were part of an equally shameful paedophile network which wreaked havoc on the lives of vulnerable children and whistle-blowers. 
Paul Gray and Phillip D’Ammond horror stories exposed the silent victimisation in the Newcastle Diocese, not by 'stranger danger' or 'monster predators,' but by those they most admired, trusted and loved. We also heard evidence of victims overdosing on drugs and alcohol to deal with the undeserved shape and a pain no one cared to believe. 
The 'conspiracy of silence' by certain senior clergy helped it fester and propagate in the darkness for decades. Nobody seemed energised to follow up on any allegations and, for the most part, denying any disclosures occurred.
It took three insiders, Michael Elliot, current Director of Professional Standards, John Cleary, the Diocese Business Manager and, Bishop Greg Thomson, current Bishop of Newcastle, to bring child sexual abuse into the clear light of day even when people with structural authority stood against them and made it nearly impossible to find.
So how is it that men knew and did nothing? Part of the answer is that most do not want to stand out from the crowd; to break ranks and, many are bad at whistle-blowing. This can be a good thing. Men are stronger together. They have each other’s backs. The problem lies when they band together to conceal abuse; to look the other way; to keep the code of silence. 
If there is any good news to come out of the Commission it is that child sexual abuse is preventable. It starts by recognising the negative behaviours and attitudes that shaped this high risk environment, for example, a culture of intimidation and silence and, practices which were at best poor and at worst, dangerous.
One particular view that I hear often from people is this: 'I would step in if I thought a child was being abused.' Most are certain they’d recognise abusive behaviour if it were happening. What I say is, ‘No, not necessarily. I want to get you in touch with the ‘pressures’ that cause passive bystander behaviour, such as fear of losing friendships, fear of bad consequences, fear of getting too involved, or believing that nothing good will happen if you were to speak up. Then, when you feel those pressures, I want that to be a cue that you may be ignoring abuse when it's staring you right in the face.
This article is by Dr Ree Bodde from the Sep 2016 Think Prevent e-newsletter. Think Prevent is a violence prevention program developed and managed by Kempster Consultants with the assistance of a network of Multifaith and Denominational Advisors, Violence Prevention Policy Makers and Prevention Practitioners, all of whom are committed to advancing the violence prevention agenda. Think Prevent delivers active bystander training and other prevention presentations in a range of faith settings. The purpose of Think Prevent is to raise community awareness and engage bystanders around ending family violence and violence toward women. Their goal is to help men and women to effectively and safely call each other out; to confront abuses when they occur.  Active Bystander Workshops offer skill-building opportunities – helping people to a point of having many options for action with only one wrong answer – and that is ‘to do nothing. More information on Think Prevent here

Baptists face the same pressures which lead to passive bystander responses in our churches and communities. How is your church raising awareness and becoming active bystanders, preventing and confronting abuse of women and children in our communities?

Below are a list of referrals providing Australians with access to expert advice from trained counsellors and an opportunity to speak up about child abuse.

IF YOU SEE, HEAR, OR SUSPECT SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS IN IMMEDIATE DANGER, CALL 000

Child Wise National Child Abuse Hotline:  1800 99 10 99 – 24/7 
Email: helpline@childwise.org.au

Sexual Assault Crisis Line:  1800 806 292 – 24/7
Kids Helpline:  1800 55 1800 – 24/7
 

Source: BUV News