Tag: Andrew Turner

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The Scandal and the Wonder

Ready for Baptism? - Crossover reflection from Andrew Turner

Baptism Week

Who’s Ready for Baptism?

Andrew Turner of Crossover reflects in his Sacred Agents blog.

When is a person ready fro Baptism? Sacred Agents #121 Photo by Amonwat Dumkrut on Unsplash

I’ve been working on baptism resources lately, and it’s mainly straightforward. But there are curly issues too, like the question, “When is a person ready to be baptised?”

There are extreme answers to this. Some denominations say ‘At birth!’ Others, concerned about post-baptism sin, have concluded ‘Just before death!’ You’ve likely narrowed it down somewhat from those extremes, but the question remains.

If we baptise people on their first interest in Jesus, how do we know it isn’t merely a crush? Six weeks later they might be into Buddha or basket-weaving. It’s not a new phenomenon – the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) speaks of flash-in-the-pan believers as one of four main types of people who hear the gospel.

But if we delay, how long? For there’s another type (thorny ground) who hang around much longer but in the end are similarly unproductive. And Jesus’ next Parable (The Wheat and Weeds) speaks to the difficulty of discerning which is which anyway.

Baptism, historically

In the 3rd to 5th Centuries, churches enrolled new believers into several years of instruction in faith and morals. Their way of life was closely observed. The final hurdle was to learn the creed and be able to recite it by heart. Then baptism. There’s something admirable about the commitment to intentional discipleship, but there’s something troubling too.

The scandal and wonder of the gospel is that people can be reconciled to God instantaneously. The returning prodigal isn’t required to spend a few years in the workers’ quarters, proving his reformation. He gets the ring of family-belonging only five minutes after turning up in rags.

The scandal and wonder of the gospel is that people can be reconciled to God instantaneously.

Andrew Turner, Crossover

Learning vs Earning

Discipleship is a process, certainly. But it’s at our peril that we shape it (or allow it to be perceived) as a staircase up to acceptance with God and inclusion with his people.

So what’s the choice? Shall we be casual, or die-hard? Lax, or strict?

It needn’t be so binary. Why not have a rigorous system for strengthening new believers, but place baptism at the start rather than the end?

There’s a new life to learn, but it’s not something we earn. Dallas Willard aptly put it, ‘Grace is not opposed to effort, it’s opposed to earning.’

How do you know if someone is ready for Baptism? Dallas Willard said: ‘Grace is not opposed to effort, it’s opposed to earning.’

When the Ethiopian eunuch says ‘There’s a pool of water – what’s to stop me being baptised?’ we don’t see Philip answering, ‘Well you’ve only passed the Isaiah exam.’ But neither does the New Testament see disciple-making as dipped-and-done. Baptism has always been an initiation – a start line.

Some will start and then stumble. But the danger of baptising someone who may fall away is vastly outweighed by the danger of withholding baptism because they might. It is best, I think, to baptise all who are willing to follow Jesus . . . straight into a supportive and disciplined community.

Andrew Turner, Director of Crossover.

Andrew Turner is the Director of Crossover.
Crossover exists to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus.

Check out the Baptism Hub on crossover.org.au/baptism

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We are a Royal Priesthood

A Royal Priesthood - Tas Baptists - Sacred Agents

Sacred Agents

Six Simple Questions

Crossover Director Andrew Turner considers the work of ‘a royal priesthood’ in his latest blog.

Sacred agents have a priestly duty – in fact sacred agent is just a fun way of saying priest. All of Jesus’ people are called into one version or another of this ministry, and together we are being formed as “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2), which will never not be amazing.

A royal priesthood
Tasmanian Baptists in action

Priests always face two ways – towards God and towards people. To be effective as sacred agents, let’s not only think about how we talk to people, but also how we talk to God. So whether you’re going brilliantly or feeling far from effective, here are some great questions/requests you could bring to him.

1.     “Would you please fill me with your Spirit?”

Jesus is the vine and we’re the branches. We can only give to others what we ourselves have received, so all effective sacred agents have found ways to ask and to receive much from God. The good news is that God eager to give! Jesus couldn’t have been more emphatic about this: We’re not only allowed to ask for God’s Spirit, we’re urged to. (Luke 11)  Amazing things happen when God pours his love into our hearts. And apart from this, not much really happens at all.

2.     “Please show me where I’m blocking your flow.”

Jesus was equally emphatic in teaching that God’s blessings are not just for us but are to be through us. “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink … streams of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7) But there can be objects, attitudes, habits, fears or doubts that choke the ministry God wants us to have and reduce it down to a trickle. Asking God to bring such things to light is highly strategic and good us as well as others.

If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink … streams of living water will flow from within them.

John 7:37-38 Berean Study Bible
3.     “To whom are you sending me to today?”

It’s easy for us to look at our day and just see tasks, appointments and duties. God sees people. And if we’re available to Him, there will be people he wants us to not just brush past, or even for us to go out of our way to meaningfully connect with on his behalf.

4.     “Please give me a real sense of how much you love them.”

We’re usually called to be more than messengers, who simply say ‘God wants you to know XYZ’. Even if all we have for someone is a brief word, we’ll be much more likely to share it (and share it well) if we have a sense of how deeply and powerfully God longs for them.

5.     “Who should I partner with in blessing them?”

This question moves us from seeing ourselves as solo superheroes. We may have individual assignments from God for sure, but often we’re called to work as a body, which is wonderful and powerful and a witness in itself. If someone has a need and the solution is not in my hand, my hand may still have a role to play – pointing, connecting, or passing along.

6.     “Please give me wisdom and courage to know and play my part today.”

Along with God’s Spirit, wisdom is the other thing that the Bible makes clear we’re allowed to ask for with guaranteed results. A sacred agent is not called to do everything, nor to do nothing. We just need to know our part and be ready to play it.

Be transformed

It’s possible that the simplicity of these questions could have disappointed you. They’re not exactly rocket science, are they? But for those who dare to actually ask them, there’s transforming power that leaves rocketry looking pretty boring by comparison.

Andrew Turner is the director of Crossover, and author of the Sacred Agents blog

Andrew Turner is Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries.

Crossover exists to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus.
Browse all our resources on crossover.org.au

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Sacred Agents

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Possible Steps to Positive Shifts

Dive into Diversity, Photo by Matthew de Livera on Unsplash

Sacred Agents

Diving Into Diversity

In this Sacred Agents blog, Crossover Director Andrew Turner explores how we can shift demographics by diving Into diversity.

My father always enjoys belting out Amazing Grace in church, not least because he likes to tweak the second line to “…that saved a wretch like TREVOR SMITH” (or some other friend within earshot). God’s grace for people like you and me (and Dad) is truly amazing. Amazing too is his grace for people who are unlike you and me.

As such, God’s Spirit is often prompting and challenging us to see a greater diversity in our churches and groups. How often have you said or heard, ‘It would be great to have more [insert demographic] people here’, referring to a missing segment that might be generational, racial, economic, intellectual, or something else in nature.

It just doesn’t seem right for God’s family to be segregated, so we want to listen to those nudges of the Spirit. But what to do about them?

Possible Steps

There’s a whole range of possible steps, and let’s put them along an imaginary spectrum:

Down one end would be practical and immediate actions, such as going straight to the people you’d love to have with you and simply inviting them. Thoughtful arrangements to make space for them would be down that end too.

At the other end of the spectrum are deep, underlying heart issues and systemic norms that may need to be addressed. These might include raising awareness, prayers of repentance, symbolic steps towards reconciliation, and contemplating your way through a heap of books and conferences.

The trouble is, where to start? If you start at the first end, you hope to solve the issue within a fortnight. But your efforts may quickly be stymied by the systemic and underlying stuff. “We saw that we were missing young people, so we invited them, they didn’t come, so I guess we can say we tried.”

But if you start at the other end, you can feel that any real progress will take 100 years. And you can take 100 years of talking and praying and thinking about the people you’re missing, and wondering whether your group is even a thing that would be good for them, and even whether your group should exist at all.

It means well at first, but it can become busy work that is essentially procrastination which perpetuates the status quo. You are always inching closer to, but conveniently never achieving the aim. “We can always say that we’re taking steps.”

So what do we do?

How can we make real progress to see the body of Christ actually come together more fully? I suggest starting at both ends at the same time. Each will serve the other. The practical end will bring to light what underlying work is (and what isn’t) necessary, and the underlying work will shape the practical actions to be less and less clumsy and more and more wholehearted.

May the Spirit give us all the wisdom, humility and love we need – and also all the shrewdness, daring and energy of faith – to be effective agents of reconciliation as the body of Christ builds itself up in love.

Andrew Turner is the director of Crossover, and author of the Sacred Agents blog

Andrew Turner is Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries.

Crossover exists to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus.
Browse all our resources on crossover.org.au

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Diving Into Diversity

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An Easter Exercise

Sacred Agents Easter 2023 by Abdrew Turner, Crossover; Photo by lilartsy on Unsplash

An Easter Exercise

*Exscribo Divina

SACRED AGENTS is a blog by Andrew Turner, Director of Crossover

Ten or twelve years ago, while chatting socially with a woman who worked as a psychologist, I mentioned rather sheepishly that I had a fear of flying. “You should come and see me,” she said, “I can help with that.” Before I could deflect, she added, “You know, often it’s associated with a childhood trauma. Were you in an accident when you were young?”

Indeed I was. Intrigued, I asked what could be done, and to her financial detriment she just said, “Well, come and see me if you like. But you might find that just having had this conversation will have helped.” What? A passing conversation of all of two minutes?

But then the strangest thing happened. When I next flew – some weeks later – the fear was just gone. I am still absolutely amazed by this, that just a few words can have such power, power beyond argument or persuasion or logic. It’s like she had spoken directly to my nervous system.

It’s time to get your pen and notebook!

If you’ve been following Jesus for a while, Easter can be a little strange. We celebrate the heart of the good news, but it doesn’t seem like news anymore. We know how it goes. God bless all the preachers stretching their heads to come up with a fresh angle on this old story! But Easter can just come and go, if we let it.

So here’s a little exercise I’ve found helpful to keep the heart from dozing: Copy out Mark 14-16 and Isaiah 53. Copying Scripture* is slow.

Slow enough that sure, I notice little things I hadn’t considered so much before. But it’s not about that – it’s about letting the words hit me in a different way. I’ve just been immersing myself in the wonder of it all. Opening myself up to “just having had this conversation” with God.

Making a difference

My intention here isn’t to know more. Perhaps it’s to know better or deeper. My fear of flying wasn’t logical, and it wasn’t fixed by following logical steps. I did get information, but strangely sideways, so that it got deep enough in me to make a genuine difference.

This is not just something we can do for ourselves, but with others too.

Perhaps there’s someone in your life who’d be willing just to read through it with you? Not for analysis or explanation or even persuasion – you might find there’s other powerful ways that God works his healing magic both in and through you.

Andrew Turner, Crossover

Andrew Turner is Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries.Crossover exists to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus.


Please support the Crossover Easter Offering in 2023.
FIND OUT HOW by checking our March News, OR visit Crossover Easter

*You can call it Exscribo Divina if the people you’re trying to impress only speak Latin.

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Census Overview from Crossover

Census Overview from Crossover

Sacred Agents #101

Census and Sensibility

By Andrew Turner, Director of Crossover, helping Australian Baptists share Jesus

I know most of you don’t love statistics as much as I do, probably 98.841% of you with a margin of error of … WAIT! Don’t switch off. The recent Australian Census data is important. Let me try to translate the number columns into a meaningful story.

Census Overview from Crossover

Some results were not that surprising. Turns out we’re all five years older than we were at the last census five years ago. Over that time the Australian population grew 8.6% (1.5% per year) to 25.4 million. Half of that growth came from migration. Ask your parents where the other half came from. Speaking of which, did you know nearly 50% of us have a parent born overseas? Oh, and that Millennials have totally taken over as largest age demographic? LOL. Eye-roll emoji.

But it was the Religious Affiliation data that surprised many. The proportion of Aussies who claim to be Christian dropped sharply, from 52% to 44% (in 2011 it was 61%).  At the same time, those who ticked ‘No Religion’ rose from 30% to 39%. This represents two million nominal Christians no longer claiming to be what they don’t practice.

Most of us would see this as a rise in honesty – don’t claim to be a musician if you don’t play an instrument. But if it’s a shift from ‘I’m a lazy musician who hardly ever practices’ to ‘I’m no musician and selling my trumpet’, it is a loss and a grief.

Uneven Spread

The drop-off from those claiming Christianity was not spread evenly across denominations. Anglicans especially, but Catholics, Uniting, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Salvos had very significant reductions. Pentecostals and Churches of Christ fell a little. And Baptists actually grew – by 2,192 – small falls in most states were more than offset by a jump of 4,500 in Victoria. Go BUV!

The generation that is least ‘Christian’ (31%) and most ‘No Religion’ (47%) are those millennials, now aged 26-40. But this may be more about life-stage than generation; young adults often do a prodigal walkabout before returning to faith. Let’s be sure to welcome them.

So what’s the story? What might God be saying to us and what might we do with all this?

Firstly, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  

CONTINUE READING Andrew Turner’s blog, Sacred Agents: Census and Sensibility >

Andrwe Turner

Andrew Turner is the Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries and author of Fruitful Church and Taking the Plunge: Baptism and Belonging to Jesus.
Andrew recently completed a Leadership Review of Tasmanian Baptists, with results soon to be tabled.

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Census Overview from Crossover