What’s the point of Baptist Women’s Board?

An update from former Co-Chair of Baptist Women, Heather Ameye-Bevers, for 2023.

When we gather for National Hui 2023, Monique Lee and I will be standing down as co-chairs of the Baptist Women’s Board. If you look at the women currently on the board and being nominated, you will see a group of incredibly diverse women in ages and cultures from around the country. They love Jesus and deeply desire to see Baptist women thrive in the body of Christ and in their calling. So much so that they are willing to give their commitment and their time to the aims of the Baptist Women’s Board, “Connecting – Strengthening – Advocating”.

Over the years I have been on the Baptist Women’s Board, we have seen many significant events that have affected many Baptist Women across churches in New Zealand. The point of all this work is so that Baptist women can be free to minister in whatever gifting God has given them.

Here are some of the things that Baptist Women have done over the last few years:

1. “The NZ Baptist, Equity for Women Statement” that was agreed on at Hui 2018.
2. Four years of Baptist Women’s Summits. The first summit was in person and looked at systematic problems for women in Baptist churches. Then, we set up working groups to bring solutions.
3. Online Summits over COVID-19 to bring women together from all across New Zealand.
4. Continuing to advocate with the Assembly Council so that a national statement of apology to Baptist women leaders for the years of bias and pain will be shared.
5. The Annual week-long Call to Prayer, this year 18-25 June with daily online prayers.
6. Resources on our Baptist Women website (women.baptist.nz) with theological frameworks supporting women in all areas of Leadership.
7. Resources on our Baptist Women website for running women’s ministry as well as the histories of heroic women leaders in the Baptist church of New Zealand.
8. A framework for Baptist Women’s Leader’s Peer Support Groups (on the Baptist Women website).
9. Creating the resource Tuakana / Teina Mentoring for identifying and developing women leaders in the church (on the Baptist Women website).
10. National Hui Women’s Breakfasts for networking and resourcing across New Zealand.
11. Advocacy for women in churches where the complementarian view of the church had caused harm.
12. The Hidden Gender Bias Workshops at Carey Baptist College to help those students in year two of the Pastoral Leadership track understand the bumpy road ahead.
13. Networking with the Baptist World Alliance Women to create resources to stand against violence in the home.
14. Yearly prayer with our international Baptist sisters, particularly to support women in the Pacific.
15. As our time on the board comes to an end, we pray for God’s wisdom for this next group of women to discern and respond to the current needs of Women in our Baptist movement and the strategies to implement them. We also pray that the wider Baptist body supports and stands with them as they give themselves to this worthy cause.

This update is from the 2023 Annual Report of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand, which you can view here.

Photo from women.baptist.nz