Letting go of gifts
Nick and I are preparing to serve in Thailand. In July, as a part of this preparation, I sold my business, Jotterbook Flowers. Even though I’d spent months longing for this day, I felt a deep sense of loss when it happened. I’d started this business in our spare room, with zero experience or certainty […]
The end of a season
The Scriptures speak of seasons – physical seasons and seasons of life and ministry. In serving Jesus we also experience God’s gracious gift of seasons, as we celebrate the opportunity to work alongside others for Kingdom purpose. It has been my privilege to serve alongside our Associate Executive Director Susan Campbell for the past 6.5 […]
God brings us together
It all started at the end of a long hot day while searching for a Coke-Zero. Having searched the usual shops near our home, I decided to take my chances in another direction. Coming to a small shop which I’d never seen, I asked the young man sitting inside if he happened to have a […]
Advocacy in Canberra
“As a follower of Jesus, I think about advocacy as a responsibility that I have to offer care to those who need it, because they are dignified people created by God.” – Victor Owuor, Baptist Churches Western Australia Last week, around 30 leaders from across the Australian Baptist movement gathered in Canberra for Converge, an […]
Gathering Together
Leaders from across our mission community and valued global south ministry partners will come together next week for our first Baptist Mission Australia Global Gathering in Hua Hin in Thailand. This new-look gathering builds on the strong platform of previous Team Leaders’ and Global Roundtable conferences. Team leaders from across the world, ministry specialist, an emerging leader […]
Towards understanding
A few weeks ago, we were running a Discovery Bible Study at the Salvation Army in Auburn when a curious young Chinese guy came over and asked what we were doing. He was very interested that we were reading the Bible and joined us for the last bit of the study. ‘Ron’ had been in […]
Meet the ILN Director!
Hello. My name is Geoff Maddock and I serve as a missiologist with Baptist Mission Australia and Director of the Intercultural Learning Network. It is a role I hold with a great deal of gratitude. Before coming to this work my wife, Sherry, and I spent nearly two decades in a historic African American neighbourhood in […]
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 […]