Baptists in Australia
© David Parker Oct 1999
Baptist churches first appeared in Australia in the 1830’s, some forty years after the original settlement of Sydney as a penal colony in 1788. In the1996 national census 295,178 people identified themselves as Baptist, about 1.65% of the population. (In 1901 there were 90,000 Baptists, 2.37% of the population, the highest proportion ever.) Thus Baptists are the 6th denomination in order of size (after Roman Catholic, Anglican, Uniting, Presbyterian, Orthodox
According to denominational figures, there were 63,553 members in 826 churches affiliated with the Baptist Union of Australia through its member unions in each state and territory. These churches provide for a wide range of people through a variety of church styles and locations. They also include ministries for Australia’s indigenous population through ministries through with local suburban, provincial and rural churches as well as churches that have been formed in remote and urban areas as a result of specialised missionary outreach to the aboriginal communities. There are also new settler churches which provide special services and ministries for many of the nationalities that make up multicultural Australia.
In addition, there are some churches with relatively very small numbers of members outside the BUA, including Seventh Day Baptists, Calvinistic, independent and non-aligned churches. Calvinistic churches include a few Strict and Particular Churches dating from the very early days and some that in recent times that have adopted the Reformed Baptist position. Independent churches date from the 1960’s when missionaries from USA began establishing fundamentalist causes and number less than 200 with an attendance about 7,000.
One unique group of churches now firmly part of the main Baptist body but once virtually a separate denomination are the German Baptist Churches in Queensland, dating from the 1860s.
General Baptists were not strongly represented in Australia by name, but many of the values have been the norm for mainline Baptist churches.
The variation between
census and official church figures is due to several factors – e.g.. children
are counted in the census, some people would be nominal rather than active
Baptists. On the other hand, many people attend Baptist churches who are not
formal members and may not even identify themselves as such for the census. The
practicing Baptist community may be 2 or 3 times the formal membership;
attendance in 1996 averaged 103,800. [The
demographics of Baptist churches are fully set out by Philip J. Hughes in The
Baptists in Australia (Religious Community Profiles, published by
Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra in 1996); see also statistics
of the Christian Research
Assoc.)]
Most Baptists in Australia are associated with autonomous, self-governing churches which are members of State Baptist Unions. Churches range in size from a twenty or so members with a part time or honorary minister to several hundred led by a large paid staff under a Senior Minister with a range of Sunday services and other weekly activities. Ancillary services such as schools, day-care, and other community oriented ministries are common. A wide spectrum of worship and church styles may be found, ranging from traditional conservative and formal liturgical through seeker-friendly, community and renewal to charismatic. Informal and innovative church practices are common. In 1996 there were 1346 ministers in Australia, of an average age of 44 years, 1224 male and 122 female, making one pastor for every 220 census Baptists or one for every 74 attenders.
The State Unions support various cooperative activities such as church extension, counselling, aged and other care ministries, youth and Christian Education, Women’s ministries. There are theological colleges for the training of ministers, lay leaders and private students offering certificates through to higher degrees in Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Cross cultural ministry overseas and within Australia work is handled by the Australian Baptist Missionary Society under the auspices of the Baptist Union of Australia with committees in each state. Evangelism is a vital part of Baptist church life - as one slogan used to say, ‘the heart of all we do.’ Thus much effort and many resources have been devoted to this activity. Today, a national evangelistic thrust is coordinated by the Baptist Union of Australia under the ‘Crossover Australia’ project.
The Baptist Union of Australia has observer status with the National Council of Churches in Australia, but attitudes towards the ecumenical movement vary considerably from the sympathetic to the hostile. Yet Baptists are actively involved in inter-church and para-denominational activities at local, state, national and global levels.
The Baptist Union of Australia and the Australasian
Conference of Seventh Day Baptists are members of the Baptist World Alliance.
Through this link and in many other ways, Baptists in Australia enjoy the
advantages of fellowship with the church worldwide.
Australian Baptists have been deeply involved with the life and service of the
Baptist World Alliance – here are a few details
Australian Baptists are also involved in many other interdenominational
activities, and have made a great contribution to the faith missions movement,
evangelistic organizations, Bible colleges, Bible, prophetic and “Deeper Life”
convention movements, support agencies (such as MAF, The Bible Society), welfare
work (e.g., city missions) the Evangelical Alliance Movement etc. etc.
Return to Baptists in Australia