Discover your voice
As Baptists we want to see churches flourishing, society flourishing and God glorified as together we bear witness to the grace of Jesus in our society. The role of The Public Engagement Group is to enable, mobilise and coordinate the Association’s engagement with local communities and broader state and national issues. We serve the Association (including churches, affiliated bodies and the ministry centre team) by ensuring that our engagement in communities and broader public issues serves our purpose of advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word, deed and sign, through interdependent partnerships.
Baptists have a fundamental commitment to standing alongside those who are poor and marginalised in our communities. This commitment has been formed by both the Biblical story and the history of the Baptist Movement. We seek to equip churches to act in ways that simultaneously empower the weak, build up the body of Christ, and help people encounter Jesus.
Find out more about the group or get in contact with us by emailing peg@nswactbaptists.org.au.
We encourage you to engage with the campaigns and resources on this site and join us in taking action in the name of Jesus.
Kelly Crawford
Public Engagement Coordinator
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Love your Neighbour Locally and Globally
Click here to hear more about opportunities to pray and advocate for your neighbour around the corner and around the world.
Workshops & Training
Community Organising Training: Offered through the Sydney Alliance. You can read more about this free training here.
Workshops: We can deliver workshops on community engagement and Christians navigating a Pluralist Society.
Campaigns & Opportunities
Converge: A group of Baptist Leaders from around the country spent time in Canberra in September advocating for children in poverty. They focused specifically on raising income support and on social and affordable housing. They spoke to a report written by Baptist Care Australia called Australia’s Kids – The State of the Nation. You can view the report here.
Consumed: What makes for a good life? In an culture consumed by consumption, the Consumed campaign provides a space for Christians to connect and create solutions that help align our consumption choices with God’s story. This campaign is delivered by Seed in partnership with Baptist Financial Services, Baptist World Aid, Baptist Care NSW & ACT, Christian Super, City InField, and the Baptist Association NSW & ACT. Visit the campaign here and join the conversation!
A Good Death: Have you ever wondered what a good death looks like? Are you concerned about assisted dying and are wondering how we can support people at the end-of-life? Visit our website for the Association’s position paper on euthanasia and a host of resources around end-of-life care.
No Place for Violence Here: A national domestic and family violence campaign with awareness raising, educational and advocacy activities. You can access the campaign website and free resources for your church here.
Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week: For resources for your church, visit the Common Grace website here.
Ethical Fashion: Visit Baptist World Aid’s website and download your copy of the 2019 Ethical Fashion Guide for free. Alternatively, you can access the Guide via the 60/40 End Poverty App. If you want to do something at your church, you can register your church to launch the Fashion Guide during a service or to run a community event. There are resources for a clothing swap, factory simulation game, and to run a screening of the documentary “True Cost”.
Desire for Simplicity
By Kelly Crawford “There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.” -G.K. Chesterton, quoted in Richard Foster’s “Freedom of Simplicity” I’m not sure exactly when I started looking into the...
Help! I’ve been asked to write a reference letter for someone seeking asylum.
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Living Speech
It’s election time. The polices and promises are rolling out as are the memes, sound bites, and social media rants. We are encouraged to have an opinion and to shout it loudly. We have a chance to engage with news articles, to throw out our opinions via Facebook...