The church fellowship is interacting well with a stable balance between those who prefer traditional and contemporary worship styles.

Tamworth Baptist Church is a church of just over 90 members. We have approximately 160 people who come through the doors on a Sunday and our total attendance base is about 190 people.

The church took a step of faith and built the new church 18 years ago. The church has a low impact within the community at present but this will increase when the Long Day care facility is completed in early 2010. The church focus is on outreach and connecting with the community. The church is involved with the major ecumenical church activities in town including: Life Fest, Real Hope, Radio Rhema.

Short term challenges:

Ten:13 Youth Group is going well and is facing shortage of space for all the children. In the short term we see succession issues as the children grow older and require a variation in ministry program.

Long Day Care Pre School is expected to begin building in late 2009 finishing construction in March 2010. This will require some foundation ministry input as the staff and business get established.

Needs and opportunities for ministry:

Church ministry is propelled forward by a group of highly committed people from within the fellowship with a substantial group of willing helpers. There is a small number of church drifters that are involved with the church from time to time.

The church has an even mix of socio-economic stereotypes and is not dominated by medical, professional or blue collar workers.

The Sunday School is a ministry that is predominantly populated by church children; Ten:13 Youth Group is a major outreach ministry connecting with children from outside the church. The Senior Youth ministry suffers from the classic situation where post-high school young people leave town to pursue tertiary education. This has been moderated to a certain extent in recent years with the increased tendency for a ‘gap year’ spent at home.

Over the last few years we have seen growth in young adults (20+ age) within the church, however ministry to the young families (30/40) needs attention, they are modest in numbers within the fellowship. The 50/60 age group is under represented but active in the fellowship. The over 60’s group are active and well organised.

The church has an active overseas mission interest with recent working party trip to Zambia. This involved 10 members of the fellowship that were well supported in prayer and the ministry was financially well supported by the fellowship. One of the church members recently spent a term on the Africa Mercy hospital ship in Benin. The church’s recent separation of the Missionary Budget from the general church budget has seen both the church budget stabilise and the missionary budget expand dramatically.

While most of us tend to shy away from change we recognise that some change is inevitable but it must be addressed in a way that accommodates both ends of the change acceptance continuum.

Theological emphasis

The church is of traditional evangelical theology and affirms the “Baptist Union of NSW Statement of Beliefs” approved by the 1979 Assembly and affirmed at the 2000 Assembly.

Worship style

The Sunday morning worship service could be classed as relatively conservative while the evening service is more contemporary, with high congregation participation. This balance is appreciated by the bulk of the congregation. Both the services are supported by a different band of musicians with new musician participation encouraged. It is important to understand that the corporate worship must be sensitive to the needs of the whole congregation and be able to engage and involve the fellowship in active service.

Church facilities and history:

The Church has a brick veneer and tile manse several house blocks from the church. It has 4 bedrooms and a study, a family lounge room off the kitchen, a formal dining and formal lounge room and a double garage. The manse will be available for the Pastor.