Global Interaction - Australian Baptist Churches
in Mission, formerly ABMS.

Bengal, PNG, West Irian, (Papua), Thailand, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Malawi, China, CIS, - countries that, with one exception, don't feature much on the tourist map and yet these countries have millions of people who know nothing of the message of the gospel.

For 120 years, Baptists have been working within these nations giving their inhabitants their first hearing of the gospel, and in some cases, their first sighting of a white person. South Australia was the first state to send missionaries overseas - to serve in Bengal (1882). 

It took some time before state societies joined to come under one banner - The Australian Baptist Foreign Mission (1913). Australian Baptists have supported their missionaries well and in the 60s and 70s, other missionaries in Bangladesh used to say the ‘F’ must stand for food, because only Australians sent food parcels! A number of our missionaries credited their good health to the supplements these parcels provided. 

In 1959, ‘Foreign’ sounded unfriendly and so ABFM became ‘The Australian Baptist Missionary Society’.

To this time, missionaries went out as evangelists. They used whatever skills they had to reach out to people to form Christian fellowships, often providing much needed medical and educational services as well. 

Scott and Kathryn  are church planters. As our knowledge of the world grew, travel was easier and access to countries changed, a number of people saw the benefit of people working in a country sharing their skills first, but developing relationships along the way. Some were fulfilling short-term assignments, others planned careers. These people formed a new branch of ABMS - Service Fellowship International. 
Allan and Fiona, Barry and Fiona belong to this group. 

During the 90s, missionary societies, world wide, joined together to research their effectiveness and to plan better ways to reach out to those who still had had no opportunity to hear the gospel. Many of the countries previously targeted now had Christians with sufficient maturity to organise their own churches. People were encouraged to develop their own style of work and worship and ABMS accepted invitations only where their expertise was limited. Mission became a partnership. Research revealed that there were 2,000 people groups spread across the world who have had no contact with the Christian gospel. 

ABMS took stock of its resources, including requests from people who felt called to a specific country or group and decided to concentrate on seven groups. 

In August, the new name and logo were launched. The magazine, "Vision" will remain unchanged, as will the mission, the vision and the core values of the mission. 

Their mission - our mission – remains;

“Following the unchanging Christ in a changing world, 
making disciples, building and empowering the church worldwide in holistic mission.”

Eunice Martin

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