Update 23rd June 2020, 11am

The Premier has announced a number of changes to restrictions from 11.59pm on 21 June 2020. View the Statement from the Premier for more information.

• From 22 June the number of visitors that you can have to your home will reduce to five and outdoor gatherings will reduce to a maximum group of ten.

• Restaurants, pubs, auction halls, community halls, libraries, museums and places of worship will remain at a maximum of 20 people in any one area until 12 July.

Key points (Source:DHHS)
Current restrictions on gatherings at places of worship and ceremonies are:

• Private Worship / ceremonies – Places of worship can open for private worship or small religious ceremonies for up to 20 people in each separate area.
   
• Prayer Groups – Currently, up to 10 people can gather for a prayer group if the prayer group is held at a place of worship or another public place. A prayer group can meet if it is held in someone’s home as long as there are no more than five visitors
  in addition to the normal residents of the household.
   
• Weddings – Up to 20 people, in addition to the celebrant and couple getting married, can attend a wedding. If a wedding is held in a private residence, it will be limited to the members of the household, five attendees, plus the celebrant.

• Funerals – Up to 50 people can attend a funeral in addition to the person leading the funeral and other funeral staff. This applies to both indoor and outdoor funerals.  A funeral held in a private residence will be limited to the members of the household, five attendees, plus the person leading the funeral and other funeral staff.
   
• As always, we are urging Victorians to use common sense when carrying out activities. If you feel unwell, you should stay at home. If you have symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19), however mild, you should get tested. It’s up to all of us to make this work.
   
• Social distancing (1.5m and 4sqm rule), cleaning. sanitising and hygiene and contact tracing requirements all apply.  

We understand this is disappointing for those of you who have spent significant time recently working towards returning to church gatherings under the 50 people rule.  The Premier has made these changes with public health and safety in mind and based on medical advice due to the increase in cases.  Please bear in mind, the work and plans you have made for gatherings of 50, will be used at some stage in the future and some areas may be opened up before others based on location of Coronavirus cases.  Until then, please heed the advice of the Premier and the Chief Medical Officer and remain doing what you have been over the last month or so with no more than 20 people in separate areas.

Updated ABC's to COVIDSAFE

Update 17th June 2020 5:00pm

(Source: DHHS)  
The Victorian Government has announced the gradual easing of restrictions from 11:59pm on Sunday 21 June 2020. In line with the most up-to-date advice of the Chief Health Officer, we've updated the "ABCs to a COVIDsafe Australia" advice and latest FAQs below for your reference.

From 11:59pm on 21 June, places of worship can open for private worship or small religious ceremonies for up to 50 people in each separate space. Groups can be no larger than 20 people and be divided into separate areas.

The BUV has spoken to both DHHS and Business Victoria today to clarify this statement.  We have been advised that from Monday 22 June:

• if you have a building that has completely separate areas (see notes re separate areas below)  – you can have 50 in each area- BUT within those separate areas you have to split into groups no larger than 20. Over this, the social distancing (1.5m social distancing and 4sqm rule) apply. 
    
• So the area has to be big enough to accommodate 50 people with 4sqm rule – PLUS allow groups of 20 to be separated from each other – at this stage, DHHS cannot clarify how far apart each group of 20 needs to be from each other.  It is anticipated this information will be available by June 21 when the restrictions begin. 
   
• You also need to consider what you can control – social distancing, sanitising, hygiene requirements, cleaning afterwards, contact tracing etc

Calculating your Church Capacity (Post 11.59pm June 21)

1. Start with 4sqm rule  – calculate your space
2. If your building area/space is 100sqm – you can have 25 people, divided into groups of no more than 20 people, with 1.5m distancing between households.
3. If your building area/space is bigger than 200sqm – you can 50 people, divided into groups of no more than 20 with 1.5m distancing between households.
4. If you have 2 (or more) areas/spaces bigger than 200sqm with different entry / exit points that are separate enough that you 2 groups of people won’t be able to mix (even in corridors, carparks etc)  – you can have 100 in total *  50 in each area, divided into groups of no more than 20 with 1.5m distancing between households. 
   *(or 50 per separate area)

   Note: Hygiene & Cleaning Requirements and Contact Tracing all need to be adhered to

What constitutes a separate area?  

Each separate area must be separated by permanent structures or be a discrete area of the premises that is sufficiently separated from any other area of the premises. Walls separating areas should either reach from floor to ceiling or be at least 2.1 metres high for the space to be considered sufficiently separate. Temporary structures should not be installed to create separate areas. Entry and exit points also need to be separate for each area with no common spaces used by more than 50 people.  Each separate enclosed area must not have a density of patrons greater than one per four square metres, and any more than 20* patrons at any one time.
(*50, broken into groups no more than 20 as of the advice given today by Business Victoria)

Updated ABC's to COVIDSAFE

Ease of Restrictions – FAQ's 

Update 03 June 2020

BUV Bulletin – 03.06.20

The vision of the BUV is to be a Union of flourishing churches with Christlike followers that redeems society.  At last year's October Members' Dinner, I detailed the Flourishing Church Framework that our BUV Support Hub staff developed that was to be a major focus during 2020, in our effort to support churches to flourish. The framework looks at 3 focus areas of church life – congregational life, congregational character and congregational mission. Within each focus area we have identified 4 aspects that may contribute to a flourishing church – 12 in total. 

Over the next 3 months, members of the BUV Support Hub staff will provide a weekly devotion and study questions based on one of the 12 aspects of the Flourishing Church Framework.  

These devotions come to you with our hope that they will bless and enrich you. Can I also encourage you to share the series with your church leadership and community as we consider and reflect on how to flourish as the church of Jesus Christ.

Rev Daniel Bullock
Director of Mission and Ministries 

Congregational Life Part 1 – Discipleship 
Congregational Life Part 2 – Engagement
Congregational Life Part 3 – Hospitality
Congregational Life Part 4 – Diversity
Congregational Character Part 1 – Leadership
Congregational Character Part 2 – Identity
Congregational Character Part 3 – Structure and Process
Congregational Character Part 4 – Innovation
Congregational Mission Part 1 – Community Engagement
Congregational Mission Part 2 – Evangelism

 

 

BUV Flourishing Churches Devotions
Congregational Mission Part 3 – Justice

by Rev Paul Manning
 

 

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘justice’ or the phrase ‘social justice’? Within the Church there’s often differing definitions and ideas about justice.  It is also often seen as secondary, an optional extra to congregational mission or evangelism.

 

In our secular culture, there are four categories of justice theories :

– Libertarian – justice is basically about freedom;
– Liberal – justice is basically about fairness;
– Utilitarian – justice is basically about happiness;
– Postmodern – justice is basically about power.

 

All theories share two assumptions: there is no transcendent, moral absolutes on which to base justice and; they all see human nature as a blank slate that can be wholly reshaped by human means.[1]

 

Since none of these theories include God, using them to inform Congregational Mission is limited. And with God missing, the idea that justice is secondary, an optional extra to the Church’s mission, is only reinforced.

 

Fortunately, there’s an alternative, Biblical Justice, a theory of justice which includes God and can inform Congregational Mission.  Biblical Justice is grounded in several truths:

• We are created by God in His image [Genesis 1:26, 5:2; Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6].
   
• We are created by God for loving Him as well as our neighbour as we love ourselves. Jesus makes this clear in Matthew, Mark and Luke when He identifies the greatest command as “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” [Luke 10:27]
   
• God is just, therefore, the Scriptures condemns injustice because ‘with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.’ [2 Chronicles 19:7; refer also Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 103:6; Romans 9:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:6] In fact, justice, doing what is right and just is identified as a most acceptable act of worship [Proverbs 21:3; Amos 5:21-24].
   
• Biblical Justice is rooted in seeking the welfare of those who are unable to fend for themselves; because these are the people who frequently get abused and treated unjustly. We’re told to show concern and care to the poor, widows, orphans and foreigners; we’re to defend and seek the welfare of those who are most vulnerable to suffer from injustice [Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 22:3].

 

What implications are linked to Biblical Justice for the individual follower of Jesus as well as for the collective followers of Jesus and Congregational Mission?

 

First, made in the image of God, all people must be treated equally and with dignity. Second, Biblical Justice is all about loving God and loving others. It’s about our vertical relationship with God as well as our horizontal relationship with each other. Therefore, Biblical Justice demands a balanced approach, we must tell the gospel and confront sin, as we simultaneously stand against injustice.

 

In answer to the question: “And who is my neighbour?” Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10:25-37]. We’re told of a man who was travelling on his own, minding his own business, when he was attacked, stripped naked, and left to die. Clearly, this man had been a victim of injustice in that his basic rights were violated, via the unprovoked violent attack by others. The attack was unfair and undeserved; through no fault of his own, he was beaten, naked, half dead; the man was disempowered, degrade, humiliated, pushed aside, left to die.

 

Adding salt to the wound, two men, a priest and a Levite, who both held top roles within Jewish culture/society, (two men who should have known and done better), walked past him; their actions only reinforced – almost validated – the injustice already experienced by this man. Unable to help himself, the man became trapped within the circumstances into which he’d been pushed.

 

The 'good Samaritan' saw the injustice –  he did something, he acted, he gave the man a helping hand up and out of the unfair, undeserved circumstances.

 

Putting it in today’s language… he stopped his car, jumped out, ran over to the man, picked him up, put him in his car, drove him to the nearest private hospital, paid for his care, checked on him a day later, and paid the remaining amount owed. The ‘good Samaritan’, the one who stopped, got his hands dirty, he literally got blood on his hands and dirt on his clothes.

 

We need more people willing to get their hands dirty. More willing to show love and give hope; we need to be people loving God and loving our neighbour as ourselves!

 

Remember, Jesus told this story in answer to the Jewish lawyer’s question, “Who is my Neighbour?” [Luke 10:29]. In the end Jesus’ answer is simple – EVERYONE – everyone is your neighbour, there are no exceptions.

 

With this answer Jesus makes the point we need to treat ALL people equally, there’s no exceptions. Jesus does this by making the Samaritan the hero in the story and by doing this He reinforces that we are to act justly, show mercy, to love and give hope, even our ‘enemies’ are included in the ALL;  there’s no exceptions, ALL people are our neighbour and potentially need us to show them love and give them hope.  This includes people who are 'local' as well s people who are 'global'.  This means we do need to think beyond our borders, we do need to think global, we do need to respond to the injustice being experienced by people we probably will never meet.

 

Through the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus makes clear we are not to just talk about justice, we must do justice. He ends the parable with the instruction to “Go and do likewise.” [Luke 10:37]

 

This means we need a balanced approach to Congregational Mission; we need to include justice. We need to dispense compassion and love into our broken world; and give those trapped in unjust circumstances freedom and hope. We need to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. [Micah 6:8]

 

QUESTIONS:
 

1. How did Jesus demonstrate a balanced approach between sharing the gospel while responding to injustice?
 

2. How can you ‘do justice’ in your life? List 1 or 2 practical things you could do this week.
 

3. What are some practical ways you can ‘do justice’ in your congregational mission?

 

Blessings,
Paul 
Church Relationship Manager
Baptist World Aid

Team building with a Missional edge for the EMERGE 2020 Cohort

One of the foci for the BUV is Empowering Leaders for Mission. As an expression of this commitment, EMERGE was launched in February 2020. EMERGE describes 2 experimental pathways for Developing Missional Emerging Leaders. One is an apprenticeship pathway and the other is called ‘Next Steps’, a series of evenings helping local churches to encourage their emerging leaders to take a next step in the development of their character or a leadership skill.  

The apprenticeship pathway is a one-year commitment and the 2020 cohort of 13 participants commenced with an overnight retreat in February. Monthly gatherings for input, encouragement, accountability and peer mentoring explore aspects of leading self, leading others, leading initiatives and leading and living missionally. Each participant needs to be actively serving in a leadership role in church or community and engage monthly with a coach.

As part of a team building exercise on the February retreat for the EMERGE 2020 cohort, teams of 4 or 5 were required to assemble a bike from a flat pack. The bikes had been donated by a family from Syndal Baptist. The EMERGE cohort did a great job in the assembly and then tested them out down a steep driveway! Participants and bikes all survived the test and the bikes were then thoroughly checked by a cycle shop.

  

Next the 3 bikes, 3 pumps, 3 locks and 3 helmets were donated to make a difference to 3 children at the Mount Waverley North Primary School who do not have their own bikes. Because of the COVID restrictions it was not possible to give them directly to the children, but they were gratefully received on their behalf by the Principal team.

The exercise was a fun way to build team, be on mission together and further build relationships and good will as bridges across which the good news of Jesus can travel.

For more information about EMERGE, plans for a 2021 Cohort and the ‘Next Steps’ pathway (whose commencement has been delayed because of COVID) please contact Bill Brown bill.brown@buv.com.au or 0407821784

 

The Rev W G Gillings was a great Bible Scholar and preacher. He was the first minister of the church in St Kilda that became the Pakington St church. (Not the earlier Baptist church in Crimea St.) By the time he left in 1887 to take up missionary service in Bangalore his church had a congregation of 117 and a Sunday school of 250 scholars.

He was an interesting man for it is clear that he liked smart women.

Although the Rev Gillings lived in India from 1887 until his death in 1915 we know that his first wife was an outstanding woman because she was a Biblical scholar who had two articles published in the Victorian Baptist in 1892.

These were very well written and closely argued from the texts. She explored the topic of ‘Women’s Ministry: its Legitimacy and Power’ and in her articles reveals a high level of biblical scholarship.

The articles are too long to reproduce here but the following paragraph will illustrate the point.

‘Priscilla “expounded the way of God” more perfectly to Apollos, who was an ‘eloquent man’ and mighty in the scriptures”. Phebe was a ‘deaconess’ at Cenchrea and Paul’s helper. Trepehena and Tryphosa were ‘labourers in the Lord’, (Acts xviii and Romans xvi)’. Etc.

She concludes her first essay with:

‘The Corinthians seemed to value specially the ‘gift of tongues’. Perhaps it was outwardly most attractive; but they are taught that all the gifts are necessary, and to profit: for though the body is one, it has many members and all are necessary. The subject (being discussed in 1 Corinthians) is the body of Christ, and not meetings of the church, and the term everyman is the same as everyone, as shown in the above Scriptures’.

These articles were published after her death and in March 1892 The Victorian Baptist published an editorial in response, even though they had a plethora of articles dealing with the death of C H Spurgeon.

It reads as follows:

We published in our January and February editions two short articles from the pen of the late Mrs. Gillings, upon a woman’s position in the Church of God. Mrs. Gillings was a devout and diligent student of the Scriptures and her words will have a great weight for those that remember her. For our own part, we think she has made out a very good case for the right of her sex to minister the word orally and publically when called to do so. We confess that we have come very slowly to concede this point. We have been disposed to look upon such efforts as exceptionally warranted and always needing some apology. We think so no longer, and would be glad to see a general enfranchisement of woman (sic) within the church.

The Rev Gillings married again and his second wife had the sad task of writing a funeral notice for the Bangalore papers.

She was also a woman of letters for the notice is beautifully crafted.

It reads:

       ‘Mrs. G W Gillings respectfully informs her friends of the passing of her beloved and esteemed husband on July 16th 1915, in the 95th year of his natural life, the 75th year of his spiritual life and the 60th year of happy service for his Divine Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is not dead but sleeping ‘through Jesus’ ‘until the day break’.  

I would like to have met these women and wonder where they had been educated?

JS 

 

 

 

It all started with a friendship—with a Syrian woman I met in Shepparton in December 2017. When I asked her how I could help her and other Syrians recently arrived in Shepparton, she said they needed help practicing conversational English.

From that I began to teach classes, creating a program called Thrive Shepparton, with a plan for a creative expansion called Shepparton Story House. When students began to ask for writing and grammar alongside conversation, I knew it was time for Story House to begin.

Only it didn’t begin right away. Unable to secure a new working visa, I went home to the U.S. for nearly a year, during which time Rev Richard Horton at Shepparton Baptist Church contacted me. He’d read my plans for the Story House program and he wanted me to return to Shepparton to begin this program at his church.

In the year and a half since he contacted me, Shepparton Baptist Church has become home to two Congolese fellowships, an Indonesian fellowship, and continues to have an English service each Sunday and a Chinese service fortnightly. In mid-2018, Thrive Friendship Café launched at Shepparton Baptist Church, and friendships began to form between volunteers and close to a dozen Syrian families in our neighbourhood.

My working visa to begin Shepparton Story House at this already diverse church arrived the same week as COVID-19 restrictions. Not wanting to let down our expectant students, in term two we launched our three levels of English classes online, as well as our Bible Story & Chat program and Creative Writing Hub. With God’s grace, these programs have all continued through the past three months, growing despite launching online. Now we’ve also launched our program’s Story Platform with an online storytelling series: “Coming to Australia” which aims to show the diversity of migrants in our city and pave the way for our future story platform program at the church.

These programs aren’t just for our Syrian friends, but for those in our own church and all of those in the community around us who are learning English. So far our program participants have been from over a dozen countries.

It all started with a friendship— and as we hear and tell our own stories through our programs, we are blessed with many friendships across our beautifully diverse community.