January 2017
IN THIS ISSUE
Good News story
Morley Baptist Church, WA
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Welcome to the January 2017 edition of BFS News On behalf of our Directors and Staff, may I take this opportunity to thank all our clients for your support over the last year to help us finance churches and ministries across the country. It makes a very tangible difference to the work of the Kingdom, with more than $80 million of loans approved in the last 12 months. Our good news story this edition focuses on Morley Baptist Church, WA which is an example of just one of the many churches we have been able to help. Wishing you all the very best for the Christmas Season and for 2017 as we celebrate the wonderful gift of our Lord Jesus and Saviour. Yours in Christ,
David Slinn Chief Executive Officer
Article by Terry Hicks, Chair of the Morley Baptist Church Governance Team
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ver the past fifty-two years the Morley Baptist Church had been going about its ministry in an aging church building located in Vera Street Morley, Perth WA, shifting from a small hall into a medium size building while securing three adjacent houses. In mid-2000 God brought interim Pastor Arthur Payne who preached a brave sermon ‘I have a Dream’. The emphasis was that Morley Church needed to relocate its facility and consider becoming a regional church to impact the wider community for Christ. This word was refreshing while very challenging to everyone, as the church was settled in its suburban location with limited ministry opportunities. The leadership seriously considered what God was saying resulting in Pastor John Crosby being called as their new Senior Pastor. John was definitely the right person to walk the church through the journey of expansion and to renew God’s call to be intentionally interactive with the wider community by displaying a genuine missional heart in practical ways. Following much thought and a lot of prayer the church decided to take a huge step of faith and 87% of the congregation voted in favour of relocation. An amazing work of the Holy Spirit.
Following much thought and a lot of prayer the church decided to take a huge step of faith Terry recalls the start of their search, “Though there were a few properties to consider we eventually settled on a facility located at 33 Hanwell Way, Bassendean. Interestingly, it is within approximately two kilometres of the original area our interim pastor felt God wanted us to be.” continued page 2
Baptist Financial Services Australia Limited offers a range of financial services for Churches, Congregations and Christian Organisations • Savings and cheque accounts • Online savings accounts • Internet account access and BPAY • Term investments • BFS Visa Prepaid Cards • iGive online secure offerings April 2015 A delegated body of Australian Baptist Ministries. ABN 56 002 861 789 | AFSL 311062
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continued from page 1 The church then had to purchase the new facility while still selling the old property and making sure that the church’s ministries continued to function. There were further complications with zoning on the old church property. In faith, the church decided to relocate before the properties were sold and immediately the church’s ministries began to experience significant increase with new families attending. The main growth has been in the Sunday worship service, children’s, youth and young adults’ ministries and a huge increase in Boys and Girls Brigades. The church commenced training in the specialised area of trauma counselling of ‘Moral Injury’ and ‘Suicide Awareness’. A number of missional faith communities have developed across various interests reaching over 800 people. On the difficult side, over 15% of the original church attendees did not want to move and left as it was too costly and too far away. The dream of a Christ centred community focused multipurpose facility is truly coming into being and with it incredible opportunities for new and different approaches to ministry. Terry states “It is an affirmation that the building is just a facility to be used for interaction with people and a vehicle for God in a changing world culture. This continues to be a great encouragement and confirmation that the pain of transitional growth is needed and required by God to reach a post-church generation for Christ.” Morley Baptist Church is now on a journey of transition from a small/medium church to a medium/large church built on a philosophy of missional faith communities. This December they had a Christmas Festival and Carols night and were heartened to see around 450 people participate, many not connected with the church. The new facility is a great fit for the church being a multi-functional centre with commercial and standard kitchens, a large multi-use auditorium that can be divided into sections for various user groups, beautiful alfresco portico, bar cafe, large stage, children and teaching rooms, office wing and meeting rooms.
We have learnt and are still learning that if we make a step of faith, after much consultation with God then ‘nothing is impossible’ hard going, stressful and not for the faint hearted. The willingness of the CEO and other BFS staff to help explore alternative options and talk through issues can’t be emphasised enough. The advice and assistance from the WA Baptist Ministry Centre also helped. So with the above and beyond assistance of BFS, advice from others e.g. BCWA, lawyers and the team at the church we are praising God for the tremendous opportunity we have been given to reach out into our diverse community with the Gospel.
We have learnt and are still learning that if we make a step of faith, after much consultation with God then ‘nothing is impossible’. So in conclusion we have learnt that no matter what size your fellowship is, when you embark on the journey God has for you, He brings alongside those you need to enable the circumstances to fall into line. So don’t hesitate to talk to BFS about money matters, they are great to work with. Our dream is becoming a reality and we are only in the early stages of fulfilment.” Praise God!
Terry and the leadership team appreciates the assistance they received from many different sources, “We approached Mrs Anina Findling, BFS WA Relationship Manager about financing the new venture. Anina and the BFS team were terrific, in not only assisting with the finance side but also where an ‘external ear’ was needed. Anina was a great resource and encourager and walked with us in a real way, continually helping, presenting options and assisting in preparing applications. Above all she was praying for us because the opposition was
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” Lamentations 3:22-24
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January 2017
iGive With the iGive platform firmly established on our new GiveWay payment portal, BFS is now releasing new promotional material which has been developed to integrate with the broader GiveWay service including revised designs. This includes iGive tokens, new brochures and a Fact Sheet. A mailout, sent to all our iGive churches the week before Christmas included tokens and brochures to assist them when promoting iGive within their church communities. It was good to see growth of more than 30% over the last 6 months since the introduction of the GiveWay platform. To set up more campaigns on GiveWay go to www.giveway.org.au then FAQs, then download the application form, complete, sign it and return it to BFS. This will open up access to the full facilities of GiveWay, including: • Access to merchant card facilities for other campaigns at competitive rates (0.8%); • Nomination of up to 5 different payment “campaign” direct URL payment links for your Church website; • Providing tax receipts to donors for each financial year for tax deductible funds; and • Detailed reporting of payments. If you need more tokens, brochures or other assistance please contact our Client Services team at iGive@bfs. org.au or call us on 1300 650 542, alternatively please call your State Relationship Manager. Thank you again for your support of BFS as we seek to assist local churches.
“Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10.8
This token is a symbol of my electronic giving
BFS welcomes Brendan Lynch!
New Client Services Team members!
BFS welcomes Brendan Lynch to the Epping team as the Finance & Investment Officer.
The BFS Client Services team welcomes Melissa Truman and Alice Lee.
Brendan brings a wealth of experience from his years in global markets across Europe and the USA. Most recently working as Chief Investment Officer for a not for profit (RGCRT) in Australia. Brendan worships at St Catherine’s and lives in Gymea Bay with his wife and 2 children aged 10 and 8½ and his 12 year old Labrador. His hobbies include Surf Lifesaving at North Cronulla SLC, Running Marathons and Rugby Union.
Melissa brings to BFS a cheerful smile and 7 years of experience in like customer services roles. Her tertiary education includes a BA International Studies, majoring in Mandarin. Melissa attends Fellowship Baptist Church and lives in Plumpton with her family. Her hobbies include playing the violin and learning new languages (Mandarin is her favourite). Alice hails from an IT programming and financial reporting background. Her last role was customer service related and she enjoys working with numbers. She attends Macquarie Baptist and is taking a parttime course at Morling College. Alice’s interests include reading or listening to audio books of an amateur sleuth nature, playing scrabble, mah-jong, Sudoku and crosswords.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Psalm 34:8
New Projects enabled by your support of BFS William Carey Christian School
NSW
Finance
Love of Jesus Christian Ministry Inc
NSW
Finance
Ganggalah Church Inc
NSW
Purchase Property
Grainery Christian Network Inc
NSW
Purchase Property
Liverpool Baptist Church
NSW
Finance
Australind Baptist Church Inc
WA
Purchase Property
Christian Radio Inc T/as Life FM
SA
Purchase Property
Ethiopian Full Gospel Church Inc
WA
Purchase Property
Living Hope Church Inc
NSW
Purchase Property
Mayfield Baptist Church
NSW
Purchase Property
Christian Family Church Inc
WA
Church Building Development
Murwillumbah Baptist Church
NSW
Church Building Development
City on a Hill Church Rockingham
WA
Purchase Property
Baptist Camping Victoria
VIC
Campsite Development
Crossway Baptist Church
VIC
Church Building Development
Rowville Baptist Church
VIC
Church Property Development
Lifepoint Church Inc
SA
Church Building Development
Main colour #4EB7E8 with supporting colours #F16872 and #CB3F6B
January 2017
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Small Improvement! Following feedback from clients we have made the following change to our Online Statements. The list of Online Statements now shows both Account Number and Client Number/Account Type. This will assist in recognising which account the statement is for, whichever
number you are familiar with: the client number or the account number. We hope this change is of benefit to you. We are always aiming to improve our products and services. Please contact us if you have any feedback or suggestions.
Term Redemption Policy All clients who hold a BFS term investment account will have received by post a copy of our new policy regarding early redemption and financial hardship. If you have not received this policy or have any questions please call us on 1300 650 542. This policy has been implemented from the 1st January 2017 as a result of
A VERY BLESSED
regulatory changes recently made by APRA and ASIC. During the coming year we will be rolling out further changes as required by these government bodies. Rest assured of our focus of maintaining our level of customer service and desire to provide the best products to resource Christian ministry.
THE STAFF AT BFS!
Did you know?
But those who wait on the Lord, Shall renew their strength;
Did you know…that you can transfer funds from another financial institution account to your BFS account using BFSOnline?
Isaiah 40:31
They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
This is a convenient feature of BFSOnline which is relatively unique. To register for this service just go to our website www.bfs.org.au and open the Form Access Drop Down Menu. Scroll down to Lodgements & Withdrawals and select the Direct Debit Request. The form should be completed with your BFS and other financial institution account details. You should also tick the box “if you require the account to be used as a predefined external account for BFSOnline Internet account access purposes”. TRANSFER
Send the form in to our friendly Client Services Team who will set up the account for you. Once this has been done it’s a simple matter to select the account in BFSOnline and transfer funds as needed.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
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January 2017
Contact Us
P 1300 650 542 F 1300 784 699 E
[email protected] W www.bfs.org.au State Offices NSW/ACT PO Box 122 Epping NSW 1710 VIC/TAS PO Box 377 Hawthorn VIC 3122 SA/NT PO Box 432 Unley SA 5061 WA PO Box 57 Burswood WA 6100
