Our Stories

With the ease of restrictions in Victoria, celebrations were at hand with the induction of new senior pastors Rob Tanner from New Life Baptist Church, Ross Barnes from Koondrook/Barham Baptist Church and Paul Pallot at Warrnambool Baptist Church.

The BUV took part in the Surrender Melbourne Mini Festival, which was an occasion of much joy and deep pondering as the Surrender community gathered together for their first in-person event on Saturday, 13 March 2021 at Mitcham Baptist Church.

A great day out with Ordinands for our third week with Mission Catalyst. Interviews and prayers were held at Mill Park for the three new church plants as well as our newest member Danny, presenting on Grassroots Placemakers at Olivine.

The Mission Catalyst Team held a Refresh Retreat Day and a Missional Imagination Workshop to both spend time with each other being refreshed by God’s Word as well as engaging with pastors about unpacking what missional imagination would look like if the church community was activated for local and neighbourhood mission.

An encouraging day for the COACH and BUV teams, as we launched our first Empowered Faith Community learning and training experience where representatives of churches from Geelong, Bendigo, Sale and places across the metropolitan Melbourne area came together to be trained in reaching people and helping them flourish.

Pastors and leaders at the BUV’s Edge 10:10 program gathered together to discuss the topic of ‘Facing Conflict Well’. The successful day included shared experiences among pastors when facing conflict as well as identifying the many gifts available to them when facing conflict within their own churches and communities.

It was a privilege to share in the commissioning of the Houses of Hope at St Kilda Baptist on Sunday, 21 March. Two apartments owned by the church are now housing asylum seekers in a joint partnership between Baptcare, an unsolicited gift provided through the benevolent arm of the House of the Gentle Bunyip, and St Kilda Baptist Benevolent Society (SKBBS), a registered charity associated with the church.

A history-making day for the BUV Ordination with Kathryn Jensen from Mill Park Baptist Church, Robyn Song from Bentleigh and Korean Baptist Church, and Christine Wanstall from the BUV Church Health and Capacity Building Team bringing together inspiring words of commitment and vision, as they shared their stories of obedience to God’s call to service as pastoral leaders.

Despite strict restrictions during lockdown last year in July, celebrations were at hand when Sally Agostino was appointed Senior Pastor at Southern Cross Community Church.

On Sunday, 7 March 2021, hundreds of people from the Melbourne Burmese community gathered together in unity to pray and raise funds for the pro-democracy cause in Myanmar. Setting aside their religious and ethnic differences, this gathering showed the kind of inspiring strength and solidarity of the Burmese people in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.