Our Stories

Daylesford Church is continuing to undertake community engagement in this time of Coronavirus despite having to shut down their Pop-Up Café which was frequented primarily by locals. With the adherence to social isolation, Daylesford have adapted to this situation by running a Pop-Up Kitchen each week serving free hot takeaway soup. The congregation are very excited to be offering this community support in times when people are experiencing financial hardship and tourism is diminished.

At the time of publishing, Australia has had 6,000 cases of coronavirus. Whilst there are many potential trajectories our nation could take, now is a good time to learn from church leaders who have been experiencing even greater social isolation and feeling more acutely the societal, emotional and health impacts of the virus. These leaders reside in Spain, Italy and the USA; countries that have well surpassed the cases reported by China – which was once seen as the most unthinkable benchmark of the disease’s spread.

Stepping inside Balwyn Baptist church (BBC), caressed by her bright and free-flowing space, you will be forgiven for not being able to tell that this is actually a mixed marriage of an ageing wooden hall built over a century ago, a beautiful high ceiling brick worship place built between the two world wars, and a concrete extension built in the eighties of last century when the interest rate reached a crazy 18%. That’s the image you might summon when you think of BBC facing the unprecedented COVID-19 challenge, where her diversity in age, race, culture and traditions turned into amazing and enriching unity by God’s grace.

Unprecedented Love is a 5 week devotion series from the BUV
Part 1 by Rev Jonathan Stark – #unprecedentedlove for unprecedented times
Part 2 by Rev Graeme Semple – How can we express Jesus’ unprecedented love?
Part 3 by Kimberly Smith – Unprecedented Power to Act in Unprecedented Ways
Part 4 by Rev Robert Hayman – Unprecedented Love – Good Friday
Part 5 by Rev Dr Bill Brown – Unprecedented Love – Resurrection

A call to be praying together for one another, our churches, our neighbourhood, our families, our world.

Free song and video for use at Easter by Andrew Naylor

Often after a major trauma or incident we find ourselves having strong emotional, spiritual or physical reactions. I think COVID-19 would count as a major trauma! If you are in leadership in a church, over the last few weeks you have been forced to lead your church through a massive change process that has happened at very short notice. You have totally transformed your mode of church; had to learn how to stream services, provide pastoral care remotely, run meetings online and deliver sermons to camera rather than a present congregation. Some or all of this has been outside of your experience.

It is important for Victorian Baptist Pastors to remember that while visitation is now severely limited, there are still so many ways to provide pastoral care.

Rev Jonathan Stark, BUV’s Head of Pastoral Leadership, Support and Development, details the most effective ways to care for God’s people through this COVID-19 crisis, encouraging Pastors to: Go old school, Go new school and Go all out.

At the beginning of this year if someone had said that all church gatherings would be banned we would have thought our society had been overturned and the world was going mad. In the space of a month however, we have moved from concerns about the Covid-19 illness to being asked to remain at home with all gatherings of two or more people banned. This has thrown all of us into quick action to try and work out how to be church when we cannot gather.

Luke Williams, the lead pastor at Follow Baptist Church in Officer, went live on Facebook in his neighbourhood park on the 20th March. His house is neatly situated adjacent to the park and playground – a great common area where neighbours gather. He confesses that as a family, they are connected to their immediate neighbours, but not so much with the wider neighbourhood.