Church Health & Capacity Building
The goal of the Church Health and Capacity Building team is to maximise the number of flourishing churches within our Baptist Union by helping churches to have healthy and thriving church leaders, effective and empowering governance and structures and processes, and a culture of safety and integrity
Church Health Consultation
Church Health Consultants provide consulting services to churches to enhance health, vision, and strategic planning. This includes facilitating church reviews, appreciative inquiries, and congregational forums, and offering guidance on mergers, partnerships, and church viability.
Governance support is a key focus, with assistance provided to church leadership teams on matters such as constitutions, MoUs, board roles, and meeting structures. The role also involves conflict resolution, coaching church boards, and training teams on empowering governance and strategic leadership.
Analysing and interpreting Flourishing Church Framework (FCF) data to generate insights and recommendations is a critical responsibility, alongside developing resources to improve the FCF methodology. Pastoral mentoring and leadership development, especially for emerging leaders, are also integral to strengthening capacity of church leadership.
The team represents the BUV on the ABM Revitalization Project Group, contributing to the development of resources and approaches to church revitalization. Preaching is often incorporated as part of church consultation projects to encourage and inspire congregations
Safe and Ethical Church
The Safe Church Consultant focuses on supporting safe church practices within congregations. This involves delivering Creating Safe Spaces training and maintaining and developing safe church policies, procedures, and resources (including translated documents) for church ministry leaders. The Safe Church Consultant also presents at Church Admin Workshops, liaises with BeSafe regarding safe church topics, and updates the BUV on legislative changes.
The Professional Standards Consultant manages all complaints against pastors and leaders, providing guidance during abuse matters, and overseeing critical processes such as the Person of Concern and National Redress Scheme. Support is also provided for civil actions regarding historic abuse cases).
The Professional Standards Consultant manages all misconduct complaints against pastors, providing guidance to churches about abuse and other ethical conduct matters, and overseeing processes such as the Person of Concern and National Redress Scheme. Training and workshops are delivered for pastoral leaders, including Professional Standards Workshops.
Intercultural Church Support
Support for LOTE (Languages Other Than English) and CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) churches is a significant focus. Responsibilities include organizing major events such as the Multicultural Pastors Retreat, Ignite Conference and related leadership retreats, and the Discipling Youth Symposium. Additional support is provided through preaching in LOTE churches and delivering training for youth, young adults, and leaders.
The role assists LOTE congregations in formalizing their structures and governance to meet compliance standards, register with organizations like the ACNC, and secure ABNs. It also involves helping churches progress toward becoming constituent BUV churches and facilitating conflict resolution in culturally diverse contexts.
Leadership and governance training, as well as support for strategic planning, mergers, and identity development, are provided. The role promotes connection through the TransFormation course, representation on the Australian Baptist Ministries Multicultural Leaders Network and the BUV Support Hub’s Intercultural Collaboration Group.
Other key initiatives include fundraising and support for the Refugee Airfare and Car Loans Scheme (RAALS), and advocating for justice issues like Myanmar.