The President of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand is formally an Officer of the Baptist Union and takes on the voluntary role for a year after spending a year as the Vice-President.

The President presides over all business sessions of the annual Assembly, and takes on various roles during the year according to the skills and experience they bring to the role. Submission of possible candidates for the office of Vice-President are made by local churches to Assembly Council who make the formal nominations to Assembly for election. On this page you will find articles and other content created by the President.

Our current president

I’m a Baptist with a capital B and have belonged to a Baptist church since I joined Gisborne Central Baptist Church in 1966.

I trained for 3 years at our Baptist Theological College doing a social worker’s course then a missionary course.  I served overseas with Arotahi (NZBMS) for 40 years, in Bangladesh and Kolkata doing women’s work, supervising TEE classes, serving on the executive of the College of Christian Theology for several years, co-team leader establishing the team in Kolkata and travelling around Asia with my husband John as MPIL managing Director.  I studied by distance from Carey Baptist College and graduated with a BAppTheol in 2006, then received a Post Graduate Diploma in Theology from Laidlaw College in 2016.

I’ve also written 3 books of Christian leaders in Bangladesh. I spent 4 years volunteering as the NZBMS archivist.

Susan is a member of Trinity Baptist Church, Titahi Bay.

Latest reflections from Susan

From the President: remove the calluses from my heart Image
Articles
February 29, 2024 | Susan Osborne Channel: 2144749

From the President: remove the calluses from my heart

A February update from our President: Susan Osborne...

From the President: The new thing Image
Articles
January 30, 2024 | Susan Osborne Channel: 2144749

From the President: The new thing

In her new column, Susan Osborne tells us about her start to 2024 as Baptist President and the theme emerging for her this year.

New Years message from the President Image
Articles
January 1, 2024 | Susan Osborne Channel: 2144749

New Years message from the President

May we hold on to the faithfulness of God, stepping out in confidence that “He who has called us is faithful, and He will do…