Regional Ministries
Canberra Region
Nick Barber / Regional Minister - Canberra
Quick stats:
- Canberra Region Population = 500 000 Plus
- Canberra Region Baptist Congregations = 13
Portions of this report are adapted from the recent “Our Story” Article written by Annelise Schroder
The past 12 months have been productive for the Canberra Region. We have seen the formation of a regional leadership team, with Matt Glowacki (Leadership Development), Aidan Luke (Church Health), Phil Waugh (Multiplication), and Mandy Gray (Children and Youth) volunteering their time to work with Nick Barber (Regional Minister) to establish the Regional Ministry.
The Canberra Region has the second lowest proportion of Baptist churches to population (second only to Blacktown). Addressing this disparity, as part of our broader Association’s Gen1K goal, is a key priority for the region in the coming decades. The Canberra Region leadership team has worked and prayed together to begin to plot a pathway forward.
The new leadership team has identified the need to plant churches across the region. But the bottleneck is leadership – we do not currently have the leadership pipeline necessary to plant healthy churches. So, Leadership Development is our top priority. With many of the churches in the region being small, we hope to establish a regional approach to leadership development.
To assist in the development of leaders we hope to establish a new regional hub in a former community centre contributed by Mosaic Baptist Church. The regional hub will be fitted out as a centre for regional growth. Our hope is to use this space to offer equipping to young people through the Leadership 101 program, through to offering tertiary level study through Morling College – with lots in between.
To move forward towards these goals, our next step is to pursue formal Affiliated Ministry status with the Baptist Association. The preparation of a Regional Charter is in the works with the hopes of submitting this to Assembly Council soon
Central Coast Region
Phil Blair / Regional Minister - Coast Churches Network
Quick stats:
- 11 – number of current churches in region
- 34 – number of baptisms on the Central Coast on Baptism Sunday in October 2023
CCN Lead Team consists of:
Phil Blair (Green Point Baptist Church) – Regional Minister
David Gilchrist (Ettalong Baptist Church) – Church Health
Joel Small (Erina Community Baptist Church) – Leadership Development
Benj Gould (Greenhouse Church Long Jetty) – Multiplication
Louise Eccleston (Green Point Baptist Church) – Generations
Snapshot of 2023 according to the Four R’s:
- Relationship: We continue to gather together regularly as pastors and chaplains for prayer and connection. These have been times of great refreshment and solidarity, as we uplift each other, our churches, and our community to God.
- Resource Sharing: Inspired by the stories of other regions, the CCN Lead Team is exploring localised opportunities for income generation to support our objectives. Phil Blair enjoyed the invitation to preach at 4 other churches across the Coast in 2023 and share about the Gen1K goals with a building sense of awareness and excitement about what the future holds. The Central Coast has not traditionally had a culture of resource sharing amongst our churches and there are several challenges to overcome in this area, so we would appreciate prayer for wisdom and a spirit of collaboration to develop further.
- Raising Leaders: Work has been put into commencing an Emerging Leaders Network of young people who can connect, collaborate, learn from, and encourage one another as they explore ministry in their own context. The first cohort of around 12 young leaders will meet in early 2024. We hope this is just the start of a culture of raising up and releasing a new generation of men and women equipped to provide leadership in our churches for years to come.
- Reproduction: Multiple church planting opportunities are currently being explored in locations such as Avoca Beach, Mangrove Mountain, and East Gosford, while a lease was secured on a Uniting Church property in Ettalong which will house our newest church plant, Bloom Co, headed up by Steve and Bek Deal, launching in 2024. We would appreciate prayer for God’s provision and wisdom as these opportunities are explored.
National Baptism Week – Many of our churches participated in Baptism Sunday by either holding baptisms or by hearing testimonies of past conversions and baptisms. While there were 34 recorded baptisms on the day, many more have been instigated as a result!
Greater West for Christ Region
Mark Chapple / Regional Minister - Greater West for Christ (GWFC)
GWFC has had a year of transition with many things changing in our structure as we have seen our ministries grow and experience a closer connection to an expression of the GEN1K vision in the GWFC region. For so many years our operations have been strongly backed by a commercial team that has helped businesses connected to GWFC flourish alongside GWFC Ministries. Due to the growth of these companies, and new locations for some of them, things needed to change. The Baptist Association team has now taken a key role in working with our not-for-profit businesses and GWFC Ministry initiatives in a commercial sense, alongside a smaller GWFC commercial team on the ground. Though a challenging time, it has also been an opportunity for even greater investment into God’s plans for GWFC for many people. Our companies still invest financially and relationally into the future of GWFC and are always willing to be just a phone call away for their expertise.
An example of the changes this has brought is the major blessing last year of our first fundraising dinner for the operations of GWFC Chaplaincy. We sought to raise funds for operations so that any other local chaplain donations, school grants or gifts from GWFinance to specific churches and their chaplains, would go directly to the chaplain and not towards administrative costs. To date there has been $70,000 raised for operations. We are just so thankful to God. https://www.gwfcchaplaincy.au/
Another example of this big change has been the Lord really taking care of GWChildcare as it raised its own commercial team and has had a significant year of strengthened operations and mission at our two sites of St Clair Baptist Church and Camden Baptist Church. https://www.gwchildcare.com.au/
These two initiatives continue to connect the local church with the next generation through our community engagement arm. You can explore more on this at our new website. https://gwfc.com.au/
Finally, we just want to celebrate something that has caught us by surprise. Our church health team has been working with churches since the COVID pandemic to fill vacated pastoral roles in the GWFC movement. What surprised us was that there were many spaces which needed to be filled since the pandemic and just recently we discovered that every church looking for pastors has seen God answer our prayers and set people apart for those roles. Again, we praise God because many have surprised us and come out of left field.
If you were inclined to pray for GWFC, then we would ask you to pray for our churches to grow teams that reach the next generation. The next generation is present and we need the leaders to lead them. We also would love prayer for new expressions of church in our region that are culturally and generationally diverse. We dream for more than 100 healthy churches in the GWFC movement growing 25000 set apart disciples. Join us in prayer and even come join us on the ground.
Our name (Greater West for Christ) is our PURPOSE, is our PASSION, is our PROPHETIC DECLARATION and our PRAYER.
Hunter Region
Matt Brown / Regional Minister - Hunter
Our Hunter Baptist Churches continue to seek God’s leading for our vision of 100 healthy Churches in the Hunter. This will of course mean planting new congregations, developing new leaders, and supporting pastors and leaders of existing Churches. Our executive team meets fortnightly for prayer and discussion around planned ministry toward our H100 vision.
Some key highlights for this year:
- Network development
As the Hunter is a large region, we have a goal to develop smaller networks within the region. While there is much more work to do, this has begun with six networks identified based primarily around council areas. There are key leaders from our H100 executive team in each network to develop relationships over the next year.
- Church planting seed nights
We have begun holding meetings throughout the year to pray and discuss our church planting vision. Although we encourage everyone to attend, these meetings are especially focused on those churches or individuals considering church planting. Those churches and individuals who just want to know more about our H100 church planting vision are encouraged to attend too.
- A good ending
After a long and fruitful ministry for many years, the current members of West Wallsend Baptist made a decision to conclude their ministry. This was handled with grace by those members. The building has been handed over to be overseen by the H100 ministry. We have established our H100 Hub in the building, where we have meetings and events. We are in the process of completing some renovations to plant a new congregation in the building. With many new homes going in the area, there is a great opportunity ahead. This has been a good process of one ministry concluding, while praying for the new opportunity. Thanks again to Pastor Jim Forbes and the congregation.
- Newest Church Plants
Our three youngest Church plants, River of Life (Maitland Network), Table Church and Christ Church Summerland Point (Both East Lake Macquarie Network), have faced the struggles of church planting as well as the joys. New believers, first baptisms and new ministries beginning are some of the highlights.
What is the biggest barrier to our vision?
There are of course many challenges to our vision. These include spiritual challenges, so our constant pattern of prayer must continue and grow. Practically though, developing the next generation of leaders is a key barrier to the vision. To see 100 healthy churches we need a lot of healthy leaders to emerge. We have a team working with our emerging leaders in H100 to inspire, encourage and challenge them in their ministry journey. One key prayer need would be that this ministry with emerging leaders continues to grow as we still need many more leaders for our vision to become a reality.
Thanks especially to the H100 executive team.
Mid North & North Coast Region
Pete Davies / Regional Minister - Mid North & North Coast
The Mid North Coast region extends form Tea Gardens just north of Newcastle up to Port Macquarie and Wauchope. It consists of 11 churches, configured mostly as a long thin strip running up the coast. The North Coast Region, consisting of 5 churches, is immediately above the Mid North Coast Region. This region runs from Kempsey in the South to Sandy Beach (Woolgoolga) in the North.
I would describe both regions as being fairly stable areas. The Mid North Coast region has seen a number of pastoral conclusions of capable Pastors over the past 12 months or so. Steve Harris (Stroud), Andrew Darnell (Wingham) and Chris Thornhill (Taree). Stroud has appointed an interim and Wingham have appointed a new Pastor. Taree is well on the way in the pastoral search process.
The North Coast is more settled in pastoral movements since the appointment of Steve Cole at Coffs Harbour Baptist, about 18 months ago.
There are a few churches that are seeing some steady slow growth (Port Macquarie, Sandy Beach, Coffs Harbour). And there are a few churches struggling with financial challenges, but this is not unusual.
Despite the examples of growth, the “stable” nature of our churches probably speaks of “slow decline” as despite stable numbers many congregations are aging and struggling to attract young families.
There are quite low levels regarding conflict which is nice. This makes my job easier and I’m able to be more proactive helping with Pastoral searches and Pastoral or Church reviews.
The churches are fairly happy and settled in regard to the Association. The churches have had a fairly low level of engagement with Assemblies and the debates over Affliation, Baptist values and Marriage. I read this as a sign of trust in the Association to act appropriately.
The regions operate reasonably well at a pastoral level in regard to support and gathering together, but this rarely extends to actual connections between churches. However, there are the beginnings of signs of greater connection in joint projects with a few of the Churches in the North Coast region.
Northern Rivers Region
John Wilson / Regional Minister - Northern Rivers
Our Northern Rivers Region consists of 10 existing churches (and three new church plants) in the far north of our state (Grafton in the south and Tweed Heads to the north).
In keeping with the Association Vision of Gen1K, our vision is:
NR30:
30 healthy Baptist churches in the Northern Rivers
30 dynamic leaders trained for service.
By the year 2030
In keeping with our vision, highlights of the last twelve months include:
- A number of our pastors and churches have benefited from the two year Multiply journey: a local cluster in our region joining together twice a year with other clusters around NSW and ACT, for the purpose of networking, visioning, training and strategizing. This has helped build purpose and encouragement for these pastors and churches. We are looking at opportunities to create new clusters in the near future.
- We have planted three church plants in our region in the last twelve months:
- ‘Follow’, a simple church network in the Byron Shire led by Steve and Erica Hales, and Delhove and Rhonda Blennerhasset.
- ‘Explore’, a neighbourhood church in Lennox Head led by Paul and Janet Whiting.
- A church plant in Wardell, led by a team from Ballina Baptist.
It is exciting to see some church planting ‘fruit’ after many years of enquiries and prayer. Please pray for these ministries, especially for their vulnerability in these early days.
Our region is continuing to recover and rebuild following the floods of 2022. Steve Hales has continued in his role of Flood Relief Coordinator, assisting with chaplaincy work and financial assistance. We are also launching a book of flood stories, called “Strong Together: Stories of Courage and Community from the 2022 Northern Rivers Floods”. This is an opportunity to connect with our community and tell stories of hope and resilience. Thanks to the many people from our Association who have helped practically or financially with this project. Please pray that people would find hope through this project.
As the churches of the Northern Rivers, we look forward to the next year, trusting God for the fulfilling of our vision and the building of community and Gospel fruit.
Riverina Region
David Strong / Regional Minister - Riverina
The needs for the message and life of Christ Jesus in the Riverina are very great. Very few people love the Lord Jesus here. We continue to try to submit ourselves to God in his harvest field. The Riverina Baptist Network (RBN) has 4 employees: David Strong (Regional Minister); Martin Staker (Pastor for Encouragement); Teresa Baker (Business and Administration Manager); Clara Bergmeier (Project Assistant – Gospel Paddocks).
The following are some areas for which we are thankful to the Lord:
Cooperation
We have seen a growing sense of cooperation and care for brothers and sisters across the Riverina. The Young Adults Retreat in February welcomed believers from Hilston, Tumut and Young. There are also an increasing number of preachers travelling to smaller regional churches to bring the word of Christ and they are bringing great joy to smaller congregations.
Women
Griffith has been hosting a women’s gathering. Women in ministry have regular informal but intentional gatherings to strengthen each other in Christ. Several Riverina churches have been acting as hubs for ‘Equip Women’.
Men’s Farm Shed event
Fifty men came to Farm Shed at Corowa and ate burnt sausages. They heard testimonies from other men and a simple story from a day in Jesus’ life (see photo).
Evangelism
Ron and Pam Schravemade have served the schools and churches in Hilston, Gundagai and Cootamundra. Martin and Miriam Staker have been participating in and facilitating evangelism events at Deniliquin, Griffith and Hilston.
Preaching Seminars
Martin has been running seminars in local churches to help train lay preachers and encourage pastors in preaching (see photo).
Leaders Gatherings
Refresh Pastor’s Conference and Family Camp. Pastors and their families from all over the Riverina and the Western Districts gathered at Ridgecrest family camp for a weekend. Steve Bartlett strengthened us in the Psalms, and we had a terrific children’s program.
Burning Brightly. Elders, deacons and pastors from every church in the Riverina were invited to an event called ‘Bruning Brightly’. We shared together with what the Lord is doing in our various churches, and we had equipping workshops from several including Grae McWhirter and Craig Corkhill.
Campfire. Pastor’s from across the Riverina gathered for a retreat where we shared our joys and sorrows and prayed for each other.
Pastors Zoom Gatherings fortnightly.
Church strengthening
Martin has been conducting “Sounding Board” session with different churches. The church leadership gathers (with no preparation) and Martin asks two main questions: (1) what is healthy with your church at the moment (2) what is one thing that with a small amount of effort could make a big difference.
Church Plant
Dale Skewes has been leading a team in a church plant at Ashmont and we are thankful for small evidences of the Lord’s grace.
Gospel Paddocks
It has taken nearly eighteen months, but we are now rolling out a program called ‘Gospel Paddocks’ which seeks to cooperate with believing farmers to raise money to be able to continue to employ RBN staff.
South Coast Region
Michael Bate / Regional Minister - South Coast
Quick stats:
- Region’s population – 325,000
- Baptist churches in the region – 14
This year the South Coast has continued its rhythm of gathering, supporting one another and working together through it’s two leaders’ networks – The Illawarra Leaders Network in the north and the Shoalhaven Leaders Network in the south and combining these together as the South Coast Region. These combined meetings have continued to be opportunities to hear directly from the Baptist Association Leadership and we are grateful to Grae McWhirter, Craig Corkill and Joel Noonan for their support in this way and for investing in us and in our region.
Our region like others has undergone some change with pastoral transition within churches, pastors leaving the region and new pastors taking up positions. These changes cause us to mourn the loss of great pastors and friends, celebrate years of service and to welcome new faces into the region. We recognise God’s support in these endeavours. Regionally there is the need to try to maintain momentum, develop new relationships, and bring people on board with the regional vision and activities. We are intentionally taking time and making effort around these transitions.
There were three highlights for the region in 2023:
- The first was to formally align the South Coast Region to the Baptist Association through the creation and adoption of a Regional Affiliated Ministry Charter which outlines the purpose, activities and governance of the region and formalises our connection to the wider Baptist Association of NSW and ACT as an Affiliated Ministry.
- The second was to refocus our attention and effort on prayer. As a region we recognised that we had been formed with a heavy reliance on prayer and that with time we may have drifted somewhat from these roots. In 2023 we sought to acknowledge that and create opportunities to return. We have refocused our gatherings to centre on prayer and created the Regional Hi 5. We gather key prayer points to inject into the regular prayer rhythms of our churches throughout the region.
- The third has been our combined focus for a church plant from Wollongong Baptist into the rapidly expanding Tullimbar area which is expected to launch in the first half of 2024.
We continue to focus our attention on the Lord and what he has in store in 2024 in the areas of Church Health, Leadership Development and Multiplication and how those things will come together to progress the Gen 1K vision further in the South Coast Region.
Transform Southern Sydney Region
Jamie Wendt / Regional Minister - Transform Southern Sydney
Quick stats:
- 3 new church plants
- more than 100 hours of one-on-one ministry coaching
2023 was a year where we continued to pursue our vision to see “100 healthy churches transforming the southern suburbs of Sydney”. Transform Southern Sydney currently ministers to the 45 Baptist churches in our region. This is an increase in number due to Crest Baptist Church beginning to plant 3 new churches! What an amazing effort!
Our TSS team in 2023:
- Jamie Wendt (Regional Minister)
- Jo Cheung (Admin and Operations Coordinator)
- Leeanne Smith (Leadership Development)
- Andrei Mocanu (Church Health)
- Milard Sleiman (Church Multiplication and Networks)
Milard finished up in the TSS team in January 2024 to work full-time as Senior Pastor at East Hills Baptist church. He will be greatly missed as part of our team.
- Leadership Partners: Steve Welsh (Coaching), Neil Dawson (Mentoring), Melinda Medvedsky (Coaching)
What does Transform Southern Sydney do?
We Journey – by walking alongside churches and leaders into a better future.
We Equip – by empowering churches and leaders to take their next steps.
We Multiply – by co-labouring to create a culture of discipleship and multiplication.
Throughout 2023 we have seen a lot of great ministry within our family of churches and this is all covered in prayer! Please join us in prayer for our region.
Coaching
We have been sourcing, supporting and developing more TSS coaches in order to increase our capacity. At the end of 2023 we have 5 fully accredited ministry coaches as part of our extended team. Throughout 2023 TSS has coached 17 Leaders with more than 100 hours of one-on-one ministry coaching.
Mentoring
More than 30 mentoring sessions with pastors across the region throughout the year.
Arrow Emerging Leaders Program
We have been developing a pipeline of key leaders to send to Arrow Leadership. We have seen this program take leaders out of their comfort zones and grow high level leadership capacity. Some of those that have completed this program have gone on to senior leadership roles within their churches.
Church Health
Consultancies – 2 proactive consultancies and more than 30 other church health engagements
2 pastors taken through the Multiply Program
Work with Association CALD leaders (Culturally And Linguistically Diverse) to help connect CALD churches to TSS. We have connections now with 14+ CALD pastors.
TSS Events
Leadership Conference – Raising and Developing Teams of Volunteers.
Development of Resources – planning and liaising in conjunction with team.
Kylie Butler Volunteer Training and Development (recordings from May Conference)
Marc Rader – Preaching Masterclasses videos.
Church Multiplication and Networks.
We have 7 pastor’s networks within our region where pastors can come together for support and prayer, where we can be real and authentic with each other.
We look to work with churches to help them structure for growth, or to help create a culture of multiplying disciples or even to guide and support a new church plant.
It has been a joy to do the journey of ministry with such a gifted and enthusiastic team. While we all have different areas as our primary focus, the whole team has contributed into all of the ministry across TSS.
Western Baptist Churches Region
Wayne Spencer / Regional Minister - Western Baptist Churches
Last report I mentioned our inaugural Pastors Family Camp which was a wonderful time for all involved. Now 12 months on, we have had our second Pastors Family Camp, again a wonderful time had by all involved. This looks now to be a regular rhythm in our pastors and their families’ calendars. Around 70 of us met from the West and Riverina regions, with Steve Bartlett coming to share God’s Word with us.
Our pastors meet regularly every term to catch up, to encourage, support and spur one another on. We have a great connection between our pastors out here, and it is a pleasure to be their Regional Minister.
Another highlight would be our little town of Narromine and their Baptist Church. They have not had a pastor now for many years. In a conversation with the elder there he told me that they were going to do their own preaching. Three people there have all agreed to preach once a month each, leaving the 4th Sunday free for a mission spot. When I mentioned this to another pastor in our region, he was excited too and was willing to go out there with me to run a preaching workshop. I love how our churches are starting to know what is going on and are able to respond to other churches.
A real need out here is a lack of pastors, with a number of churches searching, and a few who just cannot afford to appoint someone. We would really appreciate your prayers here, for pastors to be raised up or called to the west, and as we talk about and look for real solutions to help our churches who cannot afford pastors.
This is a beautiful part of our country, and I am thankful to God that I get to pastor out here, alongside other great pastors. Can I encourage you, to remember our pastors, not just the ones out here in the west, but all of them, and uphold them in prayer, and encouragement, and to borrow some word from Hebrews – to make their ministry a joy and not a burden.
