It was a packed house at Karralyka Centre in Ringwood, for the BUV Members Dinner in May, beginning with resounding worship led by Victorian Chin Baptist Church that seemed to lift the roof as Baptists from around Victoria joined in song together.

BUV Director of Mission and Ministry, Rev Daniel Bullock, welcomed in three new Constituent Churches (Australian Christian Baptist Church, Ebenezer Karen Baptist Church and Shepherd Centre Church) and three new Faith Communities (Cross Vision Church, Zo Baptist Church and Melton Bethel Baptist Church) and as is custom, provided updates on mergers and new campuses. Daniel also fondly farwelled several small congregations who have left the BUV for various reasons. Daniel also acknowledged the 12 people who are completing their ordination journey this year and will be ordained at a special service at Crossway Baptist Church on October 26th.

During the Assembly Meeting led by BUV Union Council Chair, Mick Turnbull, BUV members voted in favour of Rev Michael Riddell (Syndal Baptist Church) and Karen Naylor joining the Whitley College Council. Whitley College Council Chair, Rev Katrina Lambert provided an update on the search for a new principal for the College, and explained she hoped to bring a candidate to the October Members’ Dinner. Debbie Uy provided an update of the audited financial results for 2023 and an overview of the budget for 2024.

Daniel outlined the 2023 Flourishing Churches Survey results which showed a 25% increase in the number of churches that participated. All churches increased in their “flourishing” rating over the past year, possibly due to a greater level of activity and enthusiasm following pandemic years plus improvements made to the survey. The highest-scoring elements were spirituality, congregational engagement and structure and processes. Evangelism has been a focus for the last 2 years and it was good to see that, despite it still being a fairly small number of churches, more churches than the previous year rated themselves as flourishing in this area. Work continues and we hope to see this improve over future surveys. Daniel encouraged churches to participate in the 2024 Flourishing Church Survey in order to gauge their own church’s health and share helpful insights.

Continuing on the theme of Evangelism and being and sharing the good news, a video about the Renew Wellbeing program that is running now in at least 3 churches around Victoria was shown. Two of the BUV’s wonderful female pastors, Sally Agostino and Jenn Garavito, explained how they have gone about setting up Renew spaces and how much the community has appreciated it. Daniel then facilitated a panel discussion on some different forms of evangelism that churches are engaged in across the union.

Simon Fee of New Peninsula Community Caring talked about the Rosebud Empowered Faith Community which welcomes disadvantaged people, fosters belonging by encouraging them to participate, and nurtures their belief in Christ. Simon Young of Werribee Baptist Church spoke about a sudden growth in the number of children attending the church, plus numerous baptisms and decisions to follow Christ, resulting in the need to add an extra service. Steven Tangbau of Victorian Christian Church has reached out to people of other faiths through sharing his testimony, with his church now mostly from former Hindu and Buddhist backgrounds. Dave Gillett of Epsom Community Church shared about noticing a growth in membership and deciding to plant a new church in the next suburb of Huntley last year, with 25 members moving across. Dave organises collaborative events with the two campuses each month and has seen growth by taking the step of faith to launch a new campus.

Later in the evening, discussion centered on the topics of loneliness in society, and supporting intercultural relationships as discussed in the consultation forums earlier in the year. Churches are encouraged to continue to work on addressing these two issues with their congregations and communities.

As usual it was a great night of fellowship and connection, updates and input from members of assembly. We look forward to our next Members’ Dinner which will be held on Friday 18th October at Hyatt Place in Essendon Fields. Rev Dr Elijah Brown, General Secretary and CEO of Baptist World Alliance will join us as special guest and keynote speaker.