Annual Survey
2022 Annual Statistical Return &
2023 Church Partnership Support Budget Contribution
Thank you for the ongoing service you give in ministry leadership at your church, in particular over the last 18 months.
As you are aware, each year the Association asks churches to submit some summary information about your church attendance, income and contact information for key roles within your church. In order to streamline this survey process and ensure the best possible data accuracy, we have established a secure online form for you to complete by 31 March 2023
As a family of churches, we see great value in the collection of some simple data so that:
- our Association team can plan how we can best support and resource your church and all churches into the future,
- we can articulate a clear picture of our movement, as we move towards our Goal of 1000 Healthy Churches in a Generation (GEN1K),
- we can more adequately fulfil our reporting requirements as part of the national Australian statistics of the Baptist World Alliance; and
- we can ensure we are communicating with the right people in your church.
The information we have requested in the 3 survey links below:
- Current contact information for people who have roles within your church.
- Examples of roles to include are Pastoral roles, Secretary, Treasurer, Leadership Team, Youth Leader, Children and Family contacts, Missions contacts, etc
- Your annual offerings and other income
- Select your latest reporting period and provide summary details
- As part of this we will suggest a quarterly Church Partnership Support Budget (CPSB) contribution. This can be manually adjusted as required on the form.
- General membership, average weekly attendance and baptisms in the last 12 months ending 31 December 2022
- Church Service information.
Please note that individual churches’ attendance and income information will be kept secure by the Baptist Churches of NSW and ACT and will not be shared with any other churches, affiliated organisations or third parties.
Both forms should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and you will be able to ‘Save and Continue’ later if required.
If you have any queries, please contact the Baptist Ministry Centre on hello@nswactbaptists.org.au.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
2023 Church Partnership Support Budget Contribution
Thank you for supporting your Association over the last 12 months. It has been a period of great uncertainty and challenge with many people in our churches facing significant upheaval, insecurity, and stress. It has also been a time where the best has been brought out in our churches as we continue to equip, encourage, and connect with our faith communities in often quite different ways. My prayer is that the Association has been able to support you well during this time.
As an Association we continue to pursue our GEN1K goal as we together seek to become a movement of 1000 Healthy Churches in a Generation. Over the last 12 months we have:
- Overseen relief funds and supported communities impacted by flood, bushfire, and drought
- Supported the planning and planting of new churches
- Equipped over 3000 people with Creating Safe Spaces certification
- Assisted numerous churches in investigating and working towards a Safe Church Health Check certification
- Increased investment in regional networks of leaders for collaboration in mission
- Further developed our Public Engagement initiatives including First Nations people
- Extensive work in the areas of online gatherings, remote access, and digital training.
- launched our Godspace SRE resources to bring best practice resources to our SRE teachers.
These particular initiatives are just a summary of what has been achieved and sit alongside the considerable ongoing work in all the various areas of ministry the Association does to support churches and the wider movement.
To continue this story, we ask for your support as we work together. Prayer and getting involved are key aspects of this however we also face the ongoing need to finance our collective ministry.
Some time ago our Assembly agreed to ask churches to set aside 5% of their general income to support the work of the Association. If your church is yet to move to that level of contribution, can I ask you to prayerfully seek to increase your support to move further towards this in 2023. For those churches who already give beyond this amount, can I invite you also to increase your financial partnership, building on an already strong contribution level.
The attached Annual Statistical Return information provides space for you to nominate the contribution amount your church has agreed to for 2023.
Thank you for your partnership as we Advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ together!
