Jesus the relentless ‘outsider’

Given our history and practice as a mission organisation, I can assume we all accept a diversity of practices and even beliefs when we come to the thorny topic of Christian orthodoxy. Context matters very much. Worldviews are diverse and fluid. We learn and listen and adapt our witness in respectful dialogue within our contexts […]

Learning about learning

Spending time in Penang with 40 young Asian leaders was one of those experiences that has stayed with me. They were not all theology students in the traditional sense. They were entrepreneurs, nurses, teachers, and NGO workers. A majority of the students arrived from India (Nagaland, Punjab, Telangana) with others coming from Malaysia and the […]

What is mission?

For many Christians, the word ‘mission’ immediately brings to mind images of missionaries travelling to distant lands to preach the gospel. While this is certainly part of mission, it barely scratches the surface of what the Bible teaches. Mission is far bigger. It is the very heart of God’s purposes for the world: reaching every […]

Why supporting religious freedom is actually mission

“Can you explain how your work contributes to evangelism?” This is a question I often hear when I share about our work supporting international religious freedom. It reveals an assumption—that advocacy and evangelism are separate disciplines, and that the latter is the calling of the church. This is far from accurate. I believe defending religious […]

Integral mission

We live in a beautiful, broken world. As followers of Jesus, we are called to respond to the injustice of our world, guided by the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel, a story of God’s love and redemption, encompasses far more than personal morality and individual salvation – it is also a blueprint for societal restoration. […]

All Peoples in God’s Kitchen

Esau McCaulley’s book Reading While Black reminded me that what I have been doing all these years when reading the Bible was ‘Reading While White’. You’d have to look long and hard to find a book in any theological library with that title. In fact, if such a book were to exist, it would likely […]

Shared Kingdom vision

It was a rich and joyful experience to join with Baptist leaders from more than 65 countries at last month’s Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering in Toronto, Canada. The theme of the gathering was ‘The Table of Christ – One Gospel, Many People’.  Toronto, now recognised as the most multicultural city in the world, was a […]

Back to the Bible

Last night I was sitting at my kitchen table reading the Bible in the local language with a young South East Asian man. On one hand this felt so normal – I have sat at tables and read the Bible hundreds (maybe thousands?) of times before. But on the other hand, this moment was thrillingly […]

Leaders for a growing church

Since 2016 we have served full-time as intercultural team members in Malawi. We teach a number of subjects at the Baptist College of Lilongwe, a partner of Baptist Mission Australia, and also serve in the College library. Training pastors and offering leadership development is so important because only 5% of pastors and church leaders worldwide […]

Faith on the Frontlines

Inside the Kawthoolei Hope Theological Seminary (KHTS) students study Scripture. Kilometres away bombs are falling and the students can feel the ground trembling. The Kawthoolei Hope Theological Seminary is situated along the Thailand-Myanmar border. It is one of the organisations that Baptist Mission Australia partners with, joining Global South colleges in equipping a new generation […]