About Us

The Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV) is a movement of over 250 churches, communities of faith, agencies and affiliates committed to being in association together on mission, throughout the state of Victoria.

We are grass-roots people, with a particular emphasis on the local church. Our churches range in size from a small number of members to several thousand and are located through all corners of our state. Although each Baptist church is a governed autonomously, Baptists have always believed in associating with one another – and so, we come together as an association or union of churches joined by our Baptist agencies and affiliates who work in our local communities and support our churches, to be together on mission. 

It is clear from scripture that creating a culture of unity within diversity; a culture of inclusion and of collaboration is an important value in the Gospels, building on a deep sense of community at the heart of the life of the people of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. We work together because God calls us to do so; we work together because we are enriched in the process by different gifts, personalities, cultures and approaches; we work together because together we can better serve our communities and live out the nature of the Kingdom of God together.

We are an egalitarian association that has been ordaining women to pastoral positions since 1978. Today, one in four of our pastoral leaders (including associate pastors) are women. The BUV’s position is that we want to affirm and encourage women leaders in their gifts and calling and empower them in their leadership capacity. We have together affirmed, as a union of churches, and believe the bible teaches us that both women and men are gifted and called to be pastoral leaders and, therefore, both should be considered for any leadership position in our churches and union.

As the church becomes more marginalised in society, and the task of reaching our secularised nation becomes bigger, we are working intentionally together in the mission God calls us to, to advance Gods kingdom in Victoria by reaching our growing population. We aim to do this through discipleship, being and sharing the good news with our communities and through a focus on church planting.

We are .. Together on Mission