May 13, 2002

Aussie looks to States for bivocational ministry model
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___ARLINGTON--Back in 1829, David Jones' grandfather--seven times removed--was sent to Australia for what Jones jokingly calls "importing and exporting." Now Jones wants to follow the family tradition, but he wants to import an idea from the United States.
___His Irish ancestor was convicted of smuggling and sent to Australia. "Today, we might say he was in the import and export business. In the United States, you have your pilgrim ancestors, but in Australia, we have our convicts," Jones explained.
___The affable, bearded Aussie is serious

DAVID JONES (right) visits with Texas Baptist bivocational pastor David Keith.

about wanting to import the concept of bivocational ministry to his country and, especially, to the rural area he serves as director of a faith ministry named Baptist Rural Support Services.
___With the help of a variety of groups, he came to the United States to attend the annual meeting of the National Bivocational Ministers Association in Arlington and to study the practice of bivocational ministry in Oklahoma and Texas.
___"There is no bivocational ministry in Australia of which I am aware," he said. The notion of "tent making," a minister supporting himself by secular work, is not practiced in the Baptist Union of New South Wales, to which he relates, or the Baptist Union of Australia.
___For the most part, Australian Baptists follow the tradition of British Baptists in that churches must have an educated, professional minister in fully funded churches.
___As a result, no new congregation has been started in more than 10 years in the rural area in New South Wales where he lives and works.
___In fact, many churches in smaller towns are being closed. "We have many towns with a population of 7,000 and less that do not have a Baptist work," he said, adding that other denominations also are closing churches in the rural areas because of lack of ability to support a full-time minister.
___"We have got to change that model," he said. "I know of at least 12 towns where I could plant a church if I had the resources to do it."
___Bivocational ministry could be one such resource, he suggested.
___Jones was surfing the Internet, seeking alternate models for church starting, when he ran across the Texas Baptist bivocational ministry website (www.bivocational.com), which advertised the 2002 conference.
___Soon, he had funding and an invitation to attend the conference.
___Jones, who has spent 25 years in the pastoral ministry, works in the rural area of his state, seeking to serve churches with few resources and to start congregations in the bush.
___Because he functions independently of the denominational structure--although voluntarily accountable to it--he can start churches with pastors who do not have the education credentials required for ordination in the Baptist unions of the country.
___So he wants to import the new notion of bivocational ministries.
___"I plan to go back to Australia and do an audit of what personnel we might have," he said. "Then, we will begin to look for ways in which they can make a living while planting a church. That might be hard because the rural areas also have high unemployment.
___"Australians are very innovative and creative people, and we need to take the time to develop this model," he said. "We can make this work."
___

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