The 23rd Baptist World Congress ‘Living the Good News’, was held in Brisbane from 7-12 July.
With over 3,000 people from 135 nations, it felt like a glimpse of heaven, people from every culture and language worshipping God, making connections and learning together.
Being a Congress on our home soil, over 21 Victorian Baptist Churches were represented in person with others participating online. A number of our Victorian Baptist leaders, including Rev Dale Stephenson, Pastor Brooke Rutherford and Rev Jun Tan, along with some of our BUV Support Hub team, were keynote speakers, bible study speakers or facilitators. Kachin Baptist Church of Melbourne was also honored to be asked to dance a traditional dance during the Congress.
Several share their reflections here, along with some Baptist emerging leaders. Without exception, each one felt it was a deeply enriching, moving, inspiring and faith strengthening experience, truly a taste of the global Body of Christ in action.
“The Baptist Church exists to make disciples of Jesus and to extend God’s Kingdom through acts of loving service and justice. It was an honour to join with the global Baptist family to advance God’s Kingdom.” Rev Dale Stephenson – Senior Pastor Crossway Baptist Church
Rev Beth Jackson – Baptist Mission Australia Board Chair, BUV Head of Mission Catalyst Team
How does one adequately put into words just how special the recent Baptist World Alliance Congress was in Brisbane? As someone who has called the Baptist family ‘home’ in so many different parts of the world, to have everyone together in one place felt like a wonderful family reunion. However, equally significant was the experience of the unity of purpose in loving and serving Jesus wholeheartedly in a complex and conflicted world with integrity and humility.My head and heart came away overflowing with gratitude and renewed purpose, so thankful for such an incredible week of connection, learning, and shared purpose with Baptists from across the globe.
The richness of learning from brothers and sisters from every culture and corner of the globe – hearing their stories, understanding their contexts, and discovering how God is at work in such diverse ways – added profound depth to an already transformative gathering. We share in a global movement of people who are seeking to be faithful disciples and living witnesses to the good news of Jesus often in very challenging environments. What a gift to hear Scripture exegeted from differing cultural perspectives, what a privilege to hear from pastors courageously leading churches amid war and conflict, what a gracious invitation to be reminded of our calling to pursue justice alongside those who face active oppression.
Rev Junho Cho – Pastor, The Living Church and BUV Church Planter
Attending the Baptist World Congress in Brisbane with my whole family was a truly wonderful experience. Of course, with our younger daughter still quite little, it wasn’t always easy to navigate the Congress. Nevertheless, through powerful moments of worship with thousands of believers, our children had a chance to see and experience what the Kingdom of God looks like. Our eldest daughter especially loved joining the kid’s program each morning and afternoon, where she told us she had fun playing and worshipping, and she even memorised three Bible verses!
It was also great to join several valuable elective sessions and take part in the morning language-based Bible study. It was a joy to connect with pastors visiting from Korea as well as Korean pastors serving here in Australia. These conversations and times of prayer reminded me again of the beautiful diversity of God’s church.
We returned home refreshed, inspired, and grateful, carrying with us not just great memories but a stronger sense of belonging to God’s global family.
Charlene Delos Santos, BUV Intercultural Generations Consultant
What a privilege it was to attend my first global Baptist event, acknowledging that many people from countries such as Myanmar, had their visas denied. I travelled with a group of emerging leaders from our culturally and linguistically diverse churches and journeyed with them throughout the week.
We attended the NextGen summit, a 2-day pre-congress event (Monday & Tuesday) with 250 emerging leaders. It was one of the highlights for our group, as we made friends from around the world, sitting in table groups. We were challenged by diverse speakers on leading and living the good news personally and in community. We discussed the topics further around our tables, hearing each other’s stories from various contexts and communities.
Eh Su Cha Kee, youth leader from Werribee Karen Baptist Church, was particularly inspired by speaker Wissam Nasrallah (COO of Thamir, non-profit organisation based in Lebanon), “My hope has grown as I heard from Wissam, and I was encouraged knowing that everywhere in the world, Christ is still there, in control, and still King.”
In the main summit, I was particularly challenged as I heard from amazing women, Jennifer Lau (Executive Director of Canadian Baptist Ministries), Amanda Mukwashi (UN Resident Coordinator, Lesotho), and Marsha Scipio (Director of Baptist World Aid). As I re-read my notes, I was convicted once again to pursue freedom of all when I heard quotes such as;
“We are not free, until we are all free” ,
“Don’t be silent when we need you to speak”, and
“Truth telling can get you into trouble…but it can also lead to transformation and justice”
We were invited to sign the Religious Freedom Covenant to uphold the right for individuals and communities to live according to their faith and conscience. (See https://acts2movement.org/covenant)
Chloe Hwang
Through song, dance, storytelling, and meals, we were enriched from our time together, as we celebrated being part of the global Baptist family. I came away with a grateful heart, encouraged, knowing that we are part of a larger body of passionate, servant-hearted, and courageous Jesus-followers.
Rev Associate Professor Darrell Jackson, Whitley College Principal.
For me, Congress show-cased the global Baptist family at its best! The program was a feast of inspiring plenaries, informative breakout sessions, in-depth Bible studies, and countless networking opportunities.
Whitley College was present firstly because the theme of ‘Living the Good News’ is central to who we are as Baptists. For a College like Whitley, we have a key role in helping people to ‘Understand the Good News’, the theme for our Congress Exhibition stand. Unpacking that further, we see our call to understand the Good News ‘faithfully, contextually, and globally’.
Former students from around the world visited our stand and reminded our staff team of seven, wearing distinctive royal blue shirts with the college logo, that we are a world-class Victorian college with a global reach!
Very personally, the highlight for me was hosting 80 guests at the College’s reception dinner. We were joined by students, faculty, BUV staff, friends of the College, and international guests, including Seminary or College Presidents from Romania, Amsterdam, Fuller, Thailand, Texas, and Sydney.
The fact that 80 friends of the College took time during a busy program to celebrate the life of the College and witness the signing of a partnership with the Karen theological College in northern Thailand, was humbling and a genuine privilege.
But we were not only present as exhibitors, we were also present as Congress participants and presenters.
Every one of our team came home thrilled and inspired with their time in Brisbane. Our horizons were broadened and we all left with a deep sense that the Baptist family of which we are a part, was at its best in this World Congress.
Rev Paul Llewellyn, Pastor, Knox Community Baptist Church
Kerrie and I found the congress an encouraging and thought-provoking experience. With all the diversity of circumstance and perspective that such a global gathering brings, I was struck by the consistent thread that came through many of the speakers of our common foundational purpose to love God & neighbour, and as churches, to be about making disciples of Jesus.
Being part of a 3,500 person gathering was certainly different from our usual Australian experience The most significant difference for me was the breadth of conversation. It was both challenging and refreshing to be sharing with Baptist brothers & sisters who at times had dramatically different concerns and challenges in their respective settings.
As we heard the stories of God working in marvellous ways around our global Baptist family (e.g. 150% growth in Africa in the last decade and 10,000 baptisms in Ukraine), it set the scene for CEO of Baptist World Alliance, Elijah Brown’s challenge for us to believe that the God who grew the church so dramatically in its first years is still as active in redeeming & transforming our world. We had a foretaste at Nourish last October of Elijah’s Acts 2 Initiative call to action for every part of the Baptist family to “pursue an unprecedented Holy Spirit filled collaborative global mission”. As much as it is a call for cooperation between Baptist organisations, the heart of the Initiative is for every person in our churches to commit to practical and realistically doable tasks that together will have dramatic impact in our local communities and around the world.
Rev Robyn Song, BUV Intercultural Church Health Consultant
Attending the 2025 Global Baptist Women’s Summit held prior to the Congress, was a deeply moving and faith strengthening experience. From the very beginning, I was surrounded by women from all over the world, worshipping together, praying together, and sharing stories of courage, pain, and hope. The times of worship were powerful and Spirit-filled, and the speakers brought wisdom and challenge that stirred something deep in me.
The summit renewed my commitment to living out the Good News not only in words, but through justice, healing, and love. I’m thankful for the connections made, the prayers shared, and the deep sense that God is at work through Baptist women everywhere.
One of the most confronting moments was learning that 2 in 3 women globally will experience some form of violence in their lifetime whether physical, emotional, sexual, or financial. This wasn’t just a statistic; it felt painfully real. I was reminded that gender-based violence is not just a global issue, but a deeply human one impacting women in every culture, including our own communities.
It was a powerful reminder that advocacy is not only about speaking out but also walking alongside others with compassion and action.
Please keep praying for women around the world who face injustice and for all of us, that we may respond with courage, faith, and Christ’s love.
Rev Kimberly Smith BUV Generations & Emerging Leaders Pastor
Over 250 leaders, between the ages of 18 & 35, from Baptist churches and associations from over 35 different countries were in the one room for 2 days of worshipping together, learning together, and connecting with one another. That’s what the NXT Gen Summit looked like! Held prior to the World Congress, we explored topics around the Congress theme of “Living the Good News” as it applied to leadership by and for emerging generations.
Keynote sessions, panel discussions, and break out workshops brought a wide range of perspective and encouragement from speakers from around the globe as these young leaders explored Christian leadership, advocacy, and discipleship.
I couldn’t help but think that in that room were the upcoming leaders of local Baptist churches, state and national associations and organisations, and quite possibly the movemental leaders for the Baptist World Alliance into the future.
I came away inspired and even more committed to the investment of resource, energy and equipping into emerging leaders. Not only are they essential to future church growth and Kingdom mission, they carry the vision of just what that church and mission will look like in a changing world.
MiKai Lagwi – Kachin Baptist Church Melbourne.
We as the Kachin Baptist Church Melbourne had an opportunity to organise and lead our Australia & New Zealand Kachin Baptist Association members to perform on the Global Stage at the 23rd Baptist World Congress in Brisbane this year. We were told that it was the first ever and a historic performance participation at the BWA for the entire Kachin Baptist Convention in the 150 years since it founded in Myanmar. Doing so was like representing over 400,000 Kachin Baptist Members world wide. We praise God for our unique and beautiful Kachin heritage. We experienced unforgettable memories at the Congress. Thank you BUV for your love and support.
Jessen Yeoh, BUV Intercultural Church Consultant
Throughout the Congress, I had the opportunity to engage in powerful worship expressed in multiple languages and cultures. Each session reminded me of the richness and diversity of God’s people, and how the Gospel speaks powerfully into different contexts around the world. Hearing stories of faith, perseverance, mission, and renewal from brothers and sisters across continents reignited my passion for God’s global mission.
Beyond the learning, the Congress offered countless moments for connection — over meals, prayer, and shared conversations. I met fellow leaders, pastors, missionaries, and lay believers whose journeys are both unique and deeply resonant. These interactions reminded me that while we come from vastly different cultures and traditions, we are united by one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
Being part of the global Baptist movement in this way was both humbling and energising. It challenged me to think beyond local and national borders and to consider how we can support, encourage, and learn from one another across the world.
The Congress not only broadened my understanding of the global church, but it also deepened my commitment to serving God’s Kingdom with a renewed sense of purpose and partnership.
Truly, this experience has strengthened my hope in the Church’s future — a Church that is diverse, united, and committed to sharing the love of Christ with the world.