South Yarra Community Baptist Church
address
12 Surrey Road
South Yarra
Victoria 3141
(Melways ref. 2M A9)

phone
(03) 9827 7900

email
church @laughingbird.net

The South Yarra Community Baptist Church would be honoured to share our worship with you at any time you are able to visit us. We are a small congregation with deep roots in the ancient traditions of Christian spirituality. Our worship weaves the wisdom of our forebears with the vitality of our own contemporary Australian experience to create a powerful and intimate experience of worship.

Our main weekly worship service is held at 5:00 pm each Sunday, and goes for about two hours. We serve a light meal afterwards and we would be honoured to share it with you.

For our Latest Sunday Sermon, click here

For our latest Notice Sheet (PDF) click here


Our church is governed by the members meeting together to discern the will of God.
We are a member church of the Baptist Union of Victoria and we welcome communion with all Christian churches everywhere.


What are we on about?

We are a small group of people who are banding together to journey deeper into the life of God. In silent expectation we seek to yield ourselves to God's design, allowing God's Spirit to heal our brokenness, purge our delusions, restore our integrity, and lead us on into the fullness of life and love.

In a society that worships youth, beauty and wealth, we are rebelliously searching for treasure that cannot be eroded, lost or stolen - treasure of the Spirit. We are searching for spiritual pathways that neither hide from the horror of a world insanely bent on self-destruction, nor lead only into dead ends of fruitless activism.

We are drawing on the rich heritage of wisdom and insight developed in communities of prayerful people over the centuries - people who discovered joy and peace in simplicity, creativity and fidelity.

Our worship is shaped by structures that have stood the test of time. It weaves the wisdom of our forebears with the vitality of our own experience to create liturgies that have the power to awaken within us the memory of our ancient destiny, and lead us into communion with the one who restores within us the dignity and integrity with which we were created.

The Weekly Eucharist

Each Sunday at 5:00 pm

Central to our journey together is the Eucharist, for from the shared table we are drawn with all creation into communion with God. We find ourselves welcomed to the banquet table of heaven to be fed with the bread of life and the wine of the new age which sustain us and nourish our growth into the fullness of life in Christ.

Sensory aids such as icons, incense, candles and music help us to worship as whole beings. A cycle of scripture readings ensures that we are kept in contact with the earliest foundations of our faith. A "sermon of silence" gives us the quiet space to allow God to reach us. Prepared prayers help imprint the rhythms of prayer into our hearts, thus equipping us to live throughout each week in the thankful spirit of the Eucharist.

Daily Prayer

Our lives have been deeply scarred by the pain and bitterness around us and within us, and we are now convinced that it is only the healing Spirit of Jesus Christ that can restore our wholeness and holiness.

Such renewal requires the discipline of regular times for silence and prayer, for we need shelter from noise and insanity to hear the whisperings in our hearts. Only as we listen regularly, with our minds attuned by the hearing of scripture and participation in the liturgy, can we learn to discern which of those whisperings are healing words of counsel from the Spirit of God.

Times of structured prayer and contemplation take place in our chapel most days, but most of us, being unable to be there, participate in this rhythm of shared prayer while elsewhere. If you wish to pray with others in the chapel, contact us first to find out the current times of prayer.

Are we right for you?

There's only one way to find out! We would gladly welcome you to join with us any time in the Eucharist or in Daily Prayers.

A word of warning though: our approach is quite different from what many people are used to and most of us felt quite uncomfortable during our first few experiences of such prayer. Those from church backgrounds found that the experience unsettled many of our previous ideas about prayer, worship and the activity of the Spirit. Those without church backgrounds found the experience very foreign to the hypnotic, high-tech entertainment culture all around us. You will need to come long enough to get past the initial discomfort before you will know if it's right for you.

Another word of warning: Some of us found it even more uncomfortable after we thought we'd gotten used to it. As many had discovered before us, once the rhythm of prayer began to work it's way into our hearts, our defenses and illusions began falling apart. We saw ourselves and our surrounds through newly opened eyes and were often deeply disturbed by what we saw. For some it took great courage to go on.

No one has ever found a road to resurrection that does not first lead to the cross. But we have begun to taste the first fruits of the fullness of resurrection life and we have no intention of going back!

Our Pastors

Our pastors are people whom the church believes to have been called and gifted by the Lord of the Church to exercise a ministry of spiritual leadership and pastoral oversight of the congregation and its life, prayer and ministry. They exercise this ministry in consultation and cooperation with one another, and each place themselves in relationships of professional supervision and voluntary accountability outside the congregation. They are Covenanting Members of the Church and participate fully in the common life and disciplines which are described in the church's annual Covenant. Together they carry the primary responsibility for the preaching and teaching ministries of the church, for the ordering of it's worship and prayer, and for the provision of pastoral care and counsel to people who are regular participants in the life of the church or who contact the church in search of care and counsel.

Our Pastors are Nathan Nettleton, Jill Friebel and Jennifer Gillan.

To find out more about who they are, click on their names or just scroll down.

Nathan Nettleton


Photography by the Revd Kim Cain

Nathan Nettleton grew up in the suburbs and attended one of Melbourne's most prestigious private schools and a nice local church. This naturally led on to dropping out of University, being kicked out of Bible College, becoming a truck driver, and having a failed marriage. After such an idyllic preparation for Christian ministry, he began working in a mission among the street people of St Kilda in 1990, and took a second shot at a theological education. He continued his work at the "House of Hope" for nearly five years before becoming pastor of this church in May 1994.

He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1994 and completed an honours degree in theology at Whitley College in 1995. He later undertook a Master of Theology degree in Liturgical Studies from the Melbourne College of Divinity , completing it in 2001.

Nathan is only employed part time here (0.7EFT) and also does some sessional work at Whitley College, teaching the study of worship and tutoring various other subjects. He writes for and manages the Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources website.

Nathan is married to Margaret Welsford, and they have a 9.y.o daughter named Acacia and two dogs, Jaz & Dusty. His other interests include dog training, cross-country skiing, baking and brewing.

Jill Friebel

Jill Friebel's childhood in the 50's was in a loving and caring home where the Scriptures were honoured and Christ's love was demonstrated. Her faith journey began very young with no memory of a "conversion" in the traditional sense. Her experience is more like that described by Jacques Pasquier: "At the centre of the conversion process is the destruction of our own image of God in order to allow God to be God for us: or God who not only is other than what we are, but is also other than what we want God to Be". Jill is committed to continuing this never-ending journey of conversion experiences, which come through integrating life, studying the Scriptures, committed prayer and the Presence of God revealed in creation.

Jill spent 10 years in rural Kerang, supporting her husband David as he took on the demanding role of a country doctor, and working full time as a mother to their five young children. From there they served 4 years in Niger West Africa with SIM International in an isolated extremely busy bush hospital on the edge of the Sahara.

The family moved to East Doncaster in 1986, and the following year Jill and David established a medical centre. Jill's role as receptionist and practice manager developed into one of training others as the centre grew to 4 doctors and 3 receptionists. Her work exposed her to the pain others' experiences and she desired to offer deeper healing to the many broken people that came through their doors. The GP has become the priest for many who now have no links with church.

In order to equip herself for this ministry she began studying at the Bible College of Victoria in 1994 while continuing to mother, work and minister in a variety of ways at Templestowe Baptist Church. She has now completed both undergraduate and postgraduate studies and has established a ministry of pastoral care to patients and staff: a new initiative with no models to follow. In 2002 she completed a year of formation as a spiritual director at "The Heart of Life Spirituality Centre". In 2006 she completed an MA in Theology at Whitley College to support her ministries at South Yarra and the Medical Centre, and her "on-going conversion".

Jennifer Gillan

Photo of Jenny Gillan

 Jenny accepted a call to serve among us as a music pastor commencing in February 2008.
She was first inspired to a life of music teaching when she joined the Young Voices of Melbourne at twelve years of age.  Since then she completed her Bachelor of Music and Diploma of Education in Melbourne, the Kodály Australia Certificate, a Master of Music Studies at the University of Queensland and Diploma of Advanced Conducting and Kodály Methods at the Kodály Institute, Kecskemet, Hungary.  Jennifer has taught at all levels of education from Prep to Primary school, Secondary, Tertiary and teacher education. She is particularly passionate about choral music and believes in the importance of music literacy.  Jennifer has presented at conferences in Australia and America and has taught in East London.  She currently works at Melba Conservatorium and the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, teaching musicianship and conducting choirs and small vocal ensembles. Jennifer has always been involved in the life of the church and has experienced several different denominations and forms of worship. She has lead music for different styles for worship and is particularly fond of the Taize tradition. Jennifer is married to Tony, whom she loves very much.  She has a big, loud family and her parents own two dogs that she is particularly fond of. She named them Gina and Norgie. Her father has never forgiven her for that.