Hope was renewed and passions reignited for a group of seven Victorian Baptist pastoral leaders who accompanied the BUV’s Director of Mission and Ministries, Rev Daniel Bullock, on an exposure trip to the UK in July. The purpose of the trip was to:
- take a diverse group of Pastors from Victoria out of their own context and expose them to a variety of expressions of mission, ministry, charities, and churches, with a specific emphasis on pioneering and innovation;
stimulate conversation and innovative thinking that will serve the BUV over the next 5-10 years; - see and experience more widespread forward thinking and experimentation around mission, given both countries are experiencing decline in mainstream church.
Diversity of age, theology and expression of church and culture was represented across the Pastors who were invited to attend the trip. All Pastors were also required to be in a current leadership position, have the capacity to contribute and influence the wider BUV over the next 10 years, able to engage in conversation respectfully when exposed to theology and missional practice that they may not agree with, have the capacity to reflect, and have the capacity to get along with other pastors who may be very different to themselves.
The team visited twenty different expressions of church as part of the trip, from a more formal style of church at St Paul’s Cathedral, right through a mixed ecology, to small community missional initiatives, each with its own individuality. Each experience provided its own opportunity to reflect on its relevance and potential for the Australian context.
Different experiences inspired each of the team members in unique ways, but the overarching theme was a reignited passion for connecting with church congregations and local communities, with a more authentic and tailored approach.
Pastor Jenn Garavito Alarcon and Pastor Mark Payne from Brunswick Baptist Church said “Each community we visited was unique and faithful to its own context. It would be unfair to say that one was better than the other. Each team leadership was faithful to its conviction to carry on what they believed God was inviting them to respond and to become.”
Rev Nathan Steer from Camberwell Baptist Church reflected “We need to move beyond the church, to engage deeply, to be a people who live with compassion and kindness, as a way of rewriting ourselves into the story of our community.”
The sense of hospitality and warmth from the staff, the inclusivity of the moment, and the joy of the children reminded me that the gospel is so much about sharing space, inviting people in, and displaying love through hospitality. I realised that it’s time to fling open the doors of our churches and homes and take some risks again.
Rev Sally Agostino reflected on their time in Birmingham with Anj and Ash Barker. “The sense of hospitality and warmth from the staff, the inclusivity of the moment, and the joy of the children reminded me that the gospel is so much about sharing space, inviting people in, and displaying love through hospitality. I realised that it’s time to fling open the doors of our churches and homes and take some risks again.”
Rev Brad Hayman shares that as a result of the trip, he has a “a renewed passion for helping people find their God-given passions and gifts and working ways to release them into whatever it might look like and understand that what helps one person is not a one-size fits-all.”
Key takeaways from Daniel Bullock’s experience were that hospitality is vital, there is much to gain from investing (non-monetary) in your local community, that community wellbeing needs to be a focus, that we must try new things and have a go – small or large, it doesn’t matter, and that we need to establish leadership pipelines for church planting and existing churches. Incarnation and relationships need to be prioritised and evangelism needs explanation / definition – how are we, the church, good news in the neighborhoods? As a disciple of Jesus, how am I good news to the people in my life?
Pastoral exposure trips are a worthwhile investment in our current and future BUV church leaders. The hopes and dreams that have been reignited from getting out of the comfort zone of our own towns, state and country are priceless. Please join us in praying for great fruit to come from the trip.
Each team leadership was faithful to its conviction to carry on what they believed God was inviting them to respond and to become.
