January 2014
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Welcome to the January 2014 edition of BFSNews As another year comes to a close we take the time to reflect on the events of the past year. In 2013 we released two new services; iGive and BFS Visa Prepaid PayCard. We farewelled David Evans and Anina Findling our Board Directors and welcomed on board Trevor Spicer. We farewelled Michael Carter as WA Relationship Manager and welcomed Wolfgang Ziegelmeir and Anina into their new roles of NSW/ ACT and WA Relationship Managers respectively. We upgraded our database and prepared for our new BFSOnline upgrade. We also changed the format of BFSNews, gaining much positive feedback on this. Thank you for your ongoing support, we look forward to another year of ministry and growth. Joy to the world, a king has been born! May you and your family have a blessed Christmas and a joyful New Year! From all of us at BFS
GoodNews story
Trinity Baptist Church, SA In a word – transformative!
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rinity Baptist Church commenced as Colonel Light Gardens Baptist Church in approximately 1926 and is located in what was an experimental Model Garden Suburb with its maze of laneways, curved streets, wide footpaths and underground services. The suburb is now declared as a State Heritage Area. In the mid 1970’s Colonel Light Gardens, Goodwood and Westbourne Park Baptist Churches merged to form Trinity Baptist Church located at the site of the existing Colonel Light Gardens Baptist Church. Despite its amazing history and amalgamations, the Church was suffering from an aging and declining membership. The suburb of Colonel Light Gardens was in renewal with many young families moving into the area however, the Church was unable to connect with this demographic with its tired and outdated facilities. The Church leadership identified a series of urgent priorities which included the appointment of a ‘Families and Children’s Pastor’ and the need to renovate the Church’s internal facilities. The Church appointed a Families and Children’s Pastor and undertook a major renovation with
the assistance of a BFS Loan. The resultant benefits and impact upon the community has greatly exceeded their expectations. SA/NT Relationship Manager, Greg Thomas asked their Senior Pastor, Kevin Hull to provide a resume of their journey from conception to final completion of their project.
One of the goals was to be in a fresh location with the church positioned both physically and spiritually to fulfil our call to our community. The aim was to refurbish a hall built in the 1920s that had become drab and exuded the musty smell that speaks of age and decay. One third of the hall was taken up by a stage that was little used except as a repository of junk. The hall had a tired polished wood floor and all the wear and tear of decades of youth activity. The aim was to open up the hall to make it lighter, more welcoming and to
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Online Scams
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.
Luke 2:14
Internet online account scams The last couple of decades have seen huge changes in how we process our financial transactions. Unfortunately, scammers do take advantage of new technology to generate a number of potentially very costly scams. Fortunately the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce provides good advice. Scammers aim to steal your account information and your money. Many of these scams can look and sound like the real thing, but there are ways of picking up on the warning signs e.g.:
Requests for your account information (‘phishing’ scams) Phishing emails are fake emails usually pretending to be from banks or other financial institutions. They make up some reason for you to give your account details and then use these details to steal your money.
Phoney fraud alerts
create a ‘wow’ factor. The plan extended to transforming a derelict part of the property into a child-safe playground. The project took about 12 months to complete. When the most frequent first impression from people as they enter the refurbished hall is ‘Wow!’ we knew we had achieved our aim. But Trinity has gained much more. The church has grown from a small elderly congregation to a dozen families and thirty children. This growth has been encouraged by the establishment of a playgroup, which appreciates the carpeted hall and the playground.
Scammers send emails pretending to be from your bank or financial institution and tell you that there is a problem with your account. They ask for your account details to protect your money, but then use these details to steal your money.
‘Nigerian 419’ scams You are promised huge rewards if you help someone transfer money out of their country by paying fees or giving them your bank account details.
Work from home scams Employment opportunities that promise huge incomes with little work – usually by asking you to transfer money for someone else or recruit new victims. CHURCHES BEWARE: Publishing your Church BSB and Account number through the Church Bulletin or website may be dangerous for the reasons mentioned above.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
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The refurbishments included removing walls to allow visual access to the playground and to an atrium of greenery. Automatic glass sliding doors have replaced heavy solid wooden doors, allowing easy access to those with walking frames and wheel chairs. All offices that are annexes to the hall were fitted with glass doors entering into the hall to allow a richer visual experience of the facility as a place of activity. What was an exterior entrance alcove became a welcoming reception area, with the warmth of the welcome being enhanced by a servery to the main secretarial office. The history of the church is revealed via a story board that covers one wall of the reception area. Widening doors and raising serveries to the kitchen allowed easier access for a growing and taller church community. More storage space was required which was solved by more shelving and shed extensions. De-cluttering went through several stages – garage sales, selling by advertisement and trips to the dump. We even found a buyer for the three 16mm movie projectors that had been in storage for years. A team of volunteers completed the re-
painting of the hall (it wasn’t too hard to decide on a colour). The benefits of this refurbishment have continued to flow and have exceeded our expectations. As well as the playgroup, Breakfast Church in the hall continues to build a strong following. On the third Sunday of each month families gather at 8:00am for breakfast. Along with pancakes and maple syrup, fruit, cereal and barista coffee, families enjoy singing, prayer, children’s ministry and a discussion of some aspect of the nexus between life and faith. It has proved a great time for people not used to regular worship to experience a less formal version of our gathering as a church. Located in the middle of a suburb, being on a square and bounded by four streets makes the Trinity Baptist Centre a very visible facility. The fact that Colonel Light Gardens has state heritage listing meant that our plans had to fit within many constraints. Negotiations with the local council and various heritage bodies, although arduous and time consuming, did allow us to achieve the visual impacts for which we had hoped. Our aim to be a church for the community has been extended – with accesses by the community to our playground going hand-in-hand with the free availability of our two basketball courts (deemed to be the best in Adelaide, which are open to the public, by the many young men and women from a wide area who frequent them). All this was made possible through a loan of $14,000 through Baptist Financial Services. The advice of Greg Thomas (SA BFS Relationship Manager) was helpful, reassuring and timely. The result was so pleasing that a member of the church donated a commercial coffee machine and another donated the money to refurbish the smaller meeting room so that it should not look drab in comparison to the refurbished hall. The refurbished and renewed facilities (including gardens) have contributed much to the renewed optimism that now exudes from the growing church community. In a suburb that is undergoing renewal (the large local primary school had its biggest intake in reception ever last year) it is timely that Trinity has a brighter welcoming face to enhance our witness for Christ to our community.
The Journey: Governance Structure for Community Ministry at 1church
In 2002 The Mandurah Baptist Church (MBC) (located near the Mandurah City center), appointed Hans Van Asselt as senior pastor and embarked on a journey that has radically shifted the direction and mission at MBC. Hans advises that, “the congregation consisted of some younger families and many retirees who held traditional Baptist governance convictions. At the end of 2003, with the church growing, we needed more space for church ministries and additional offices for church administration. The decision to embark on a building program was a testing time; the motion to build was passed by one vote. The building program took two years, we constructed a second level, and renovated the existing buildings, which nearly doubled our space and added one million dollars to the value of our buildings.
Indigenous Community Health, Home and Community Care and a number of community support groups. In keeping with our vision we established Bridge Builders Ministries Inc. an entity to create a foothold and voice in the community service sector space. BBM Inc. has established a Migrant Centre supporting migrants with food, housing and employment. Other ministries under this entity include Food Ministry providing daily food parcels to people
referred to us by other service agencies in the region, children’s programs such as Toddler Jam and TeenMops. BBM has 50 volunteers and employs 5 people part time. The church continued to grow; a larger auditorium could not be built at the church site. We were running two morning services and we were outgrowing the car park. The search began for land to relocate and a 1-hectare block became available
My vision was for a church that would partner with community groups to address the obvious needs of human brokenness and the serious lack of community infrastructure across the Peel region. The building project not only created extra space for church needs but also extra office space available for rent by community NFP. Seven offices were rented to community groups such as BaptistCare,
New Projects supported by you through BFS
BFS Online Upgrade BFSOnline will be upgraded this new year. We will post a news item on www.bfs. org.au to give plenty of advanced notice. This post will also include instructions and screen shots to prepare clients for the changes. We believe you will find this upgrade to be more user friendly as the screen layout can be adapted flexibly to better suit your own viewing preferences.
Pakenham Baptist Church
Vic
Building renovations
Baptist Business College Ltd
NSW
Purchase property for new campus
Green Point Baptist Church
NSW
Building renovations
Port Pirie Baptist Church Inc
SA
Building renovations
Samoan Baptist Church
Vic
Purchase Property
Epsom Community Church
Vic
Purchase former Uniting Church
Kangaroo Flat Baptist Church
Vic
Building Renovations
Waverley Baptist Church
Vic
Redevelop Church site
Aberfeldie Baptist Church
Vic
Refinance loan with ANZ Bank
Berry Community Church
NSW
Converting buildings into place of worship/offices
Belmont Christian College Ltd
NSW
School building extensions
South Perth Baptist Church
WA
Building renovations
Northwest Community Baptist Church
NSW
Purchase Land
January 2014
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Wolfgang changes pace! in Lakelands, north Mandurah. Strategically, Lakelands is a fast growing suburb with many young families with little community infrastructure. The original idea in 2007 was to buy land, sell the old premises and build a large church auditorium and other community offices. It was also at this time that I moved to change the church’s constitution to an accountability model. In 2009, the Mandurah Baptist College in Lakelands built a 1200 seat Theatre Arts Centre and in 2010 we planted
a congregation there, renting the auditorium for weekly services. The Church leadership decided to retain our premises and continue services there and also establish another church plant east of Mandurah in 2012. In 2009 Mandurah Baptist Church Inc. also changed its name to 1church Inc. a process that took 18 months. To address the concern that we would lose our Baptist identity we decided to identify each congregation in relation to its locality. The central site retained the name Mandurah Baptist Church, northern site became Lakelands Community Church and the church plant to the east became Austin Cove Community Church. The 1-hectare of land remained part of our vision. With renting the Theatre Arts Centre it was felt that to build another auditorium in the area would be unwise. The focus shifted from church buildings to a community centre, addressing the community infrastructure needs and expanding the community ministries operating at MBC through BBM Inc. With the aid of corporate taxation lawyers a governance structure was
developed. It consists of the Peel Community Resource Pty Ltd, the Peel Community Resource Trust and the Peel Community Resource Foundation. The PCR Pty Ltd is a separate entity which is a subsidiary of 1church, consisting of two shares held by the church. This company was established for the sole purpose of acting as both the trustee for the PCR Foundation, a Public Ancillary Fund and the PCR Trust, a Public Benevolent Institution. Both the Foundation and the Trust have been granted Deductible Gift Recipient status, which was one of our goals in setting up the governance structure. The leadership of 1church strongly sense that this governance structure provides safety of control over the project and still is far enough removed to address community concerns and funding agency reluctance about entering into partnership with a church group. The 1.1 hectares of land has been purchased in Lakelands and our vision is for the multi-story, 4,000 square metre, 15 million dollar building, incorporating 30 offices for NFPs, 400 seat multipurpose hall, 60 seat café, medical centre, before and after school care, counselling rooms, commercial kitchen. In our experience, the intentional focus on building community connections has created many evangelistic opportunities. My belief is that good works create goodwill and provides opportunities for the Good news. I have discovered that Christ followers want to be part a church that is engaging with the community and people in the community need to see the church active in the marketplace. The journey continues and I believe that the best is yet to come.” Anina Findling, BFS Relationship Manager Western Australia, was significantly involved in discussions and visiting 1church; and BFS appreciates the opportunity with the church in providing the finance for the new block of land purchased at Lakelands.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served; he came to serve and to give his life to redeem many people. Mark 10:45
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January 2014
Baptist Financial Services (BFS) welcomes Wolfgang Ziegelmeir’s change of role within the BFS team. In July 2013 Wolfgang was appointed to the Part time position of Relationship Manager NSW/ACT. Wolfgang previously started with BFS in October of 2011 as a Client Services Officer. Over the past year Wolfgang has successfully managed BFS client contact for two new services: iGive and the BFS Visa Prepaid PayCard. He is now enjoying the challenge of bringing this expertise to his relationships with Baptist churches. Wolfgang came to Australia 19 years ago from Germany. With his daughter, Emma, he worships at Epping Baptist Church. Wolfgang reminisces: “Most of my work life I have spent as a self-employed cabinetmaker. However, when BFS advertised for a Client Services team member in 2011, I successfully applied for the job. And thanks to Graeme I am now the Relationship Manager for NSW and ACT. I enjoy immensely working for BFS, especially in my new role.”
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