Mark your calendars, our second Gathering of the year is coming on Saturday, 7 November 2026! Bringing together churches and leaders from across our movement, The Gathering will be an opportunity to connect, celebrate, and collaborate as we reflect on what God has been doing and will do in the future.
At the heart of this Gathering is an invitation to be “Ready to Pray Faithfully”. As a movement, we’ll have the opportunity to pause, listen and pray for our churches, our communities and the vision God has given us. We hope this Gathering will encourage us all to become people who are ready to pray faithfully — not only when we meet together, but in every season of ministry.
Our time together will be shaped by a keynote from Jamie and Kirsten Long (pastors of Epping Baptist Church), 4 prayer rooms each dedicated to one of our vision pictures and larger prayer spots where we’ll pause and pray together as a greater movement.
Ordinary Assembly
The Gathering will also include our 2026 Ordinary Assembly. Business matters to be discussed include:
- The affiliation of the Arabic Christian Church of Grace, Canley Heights
- An in-principle recommendation from Assembly Council regarding the number of Assemblies per year.
A detailed program and supporting documents related to the business matters will be circulated in due course.
Venues
Main Venue
Georges River Life Church
23 Stanley Street, Peakhurst NSW 2210
Regional Venues
A minimum of 10 voting members need to be registered to attend at any Additional Venue by Saturday, 31 October to ensure that venue remains operational. See below for our list of venues in the different regions across our movement.
Northern Rivers Region
Alstonville Baptist Church
108 Wardell Road, Alstonville NSW 2477
New England Region
Tamworth Baptist Church
Cnr Hillvue/Werris Creek Rd, South Tamworth NSW 2340
Hunter Region
Belair Baptist Church
130 Garden Grove Pde, Adamstown NSW 2289
Riverina Region
Wagga Wagga Baptist Church
154-156 Tarcutta Street, Wagga Wagga NSW 2650
Canberra Region
Hughes Baptist Church
34 Groom Street, Hughes ACT 2605
Western Districts Region
Wellington Baptist Church
77 Swift Street, Wellington NSW 2820
SATURDAY ONLY
South Coast Region
Woonona Baptist Church
477 Princes Highway, Woonona NSW 2517
Program
Keynote Recordings
At The Gathering we were blessed with a keynotes from Tim Dyer about being ready for leading ministry in a complex world on Friday and Emmah Makuthi on being ready to live faithfully in a broken world on Saturday. To relive those sessions watch the recordings down below.
Meet our Speakers
Tim Dyer
Ready for Leading Ministry in a Complex World
Emmah Makuthi
Ready to Live Faithfully in a Broken World
158th Annual Assembly
The Assembly dealt with a number of AGM matters including receiving the Annual Report, the Financial Statements and approving the Church Partnership Support Budget of $1.55 million.
Seven individuals were approved to proceed to Accreditation, and two further pastors had their accreditation transferred into the Association.
Encouragingly, two churches were approved to proceed to Affiliation, with the Assembly voting that Calderwood Valley Baptist Church and Greenhouse Church Long Jetty officially join the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT.
The Association’s Strategic Plan (2026-2028) was also approved, in an exciting time for our Movement.
In respect of the ballots for various positions, the following people were elected at the Assembly:
Assembly Council
- Rev Andrew Kerr (Gundagai Baptist Church) – Elected
- Dr Catherine Casey (Parramatta Baptist Church) – Re-Elected
Morling College Council
- Dominic Valastro – Elected
- Helen Blanch – Re-Elected
- Dr William Pierson – Re-Elected
Baptist Churches of NSW Property Trust
- Judith Carpenter – Re-Elected
- Geoffrey Moore – Re-Elected
- Michael Williams – Re-Elected
Director of Ministries
- Rev Dr Steve Bartlett – Re-Appointed
We thank each of these people for being willing to serve and pray God’s blessing on them in their roles.
