
UNEXPECTED LEADERS
for UNEXPECTED TIMES
Kings Baptist
93 Wynn Vale Drive,
Wynn Vale
14 May
9am – 3:30pm
Coffee and check in from 8:30am
RSVP
$55 before 14 April
$65 after 14 April
$45 online only
We all find ourselves in unexpected times that have asked us to adjust and readjust to a different world.
At the same time, many of us find ourselves wondering how we ended up as leaders at all. Perhaps you think of yourself as an unexpected leader.
What does it take to lead in these, dare we say it, unprecedented times? What is required of us as leaders?
And what opportunities are there for unexpected leaders in our church and culture?

Dr Brian Harris
KEYNOTE SPEAKER, TEACHER, LEADER and WRITER
In our keynote sessions, we will hear from Rev Dr Brian Harris, a renowned thought leader from Perth.
Brian has written several books, led churches and schools, and continues to speak thoughtfully into the world of leadership in a church context.
Program
Electives
Leading from the 1st, 2nd or 10th chair
Rev Dr Brian Harris
Unexpected Evangelists
Good News About Sharing the Good News
Andrew Turner
Discipleship
How genuine discipleship transforms lives Churches and the world
Mark Sanders
Governance in unchartered times
Mike Mills
Intro to Governance 101
Glenn Dixon
Welcome to digital
Converting your online presence
Ruth Grace
The Kids Min Guide to Planning
(For the Unexpected)
Tash Pillay
Youth
from KNOWING to PRACTICING the way of Jesus with young people
Riley Smith
Unexpected leadership and unjust systems
Will Mezner
GODx Talks
Back by popular demand, our GODx Talks will feature local leaders from within our Baptist family, sharing fresh and fast takes on a variety of leadership topics.
FAQs
Invisible
What is your refund policy?
ONLY Credit card payments will be accepted.
Refunds will be given up to the closing date for registrations (14th May 2022). All registrations that are cancelled before the registration closing date will incur a $20 administration fee.
No general refunds will be issued for any cancellation past 8th May 2021. However, it is important if you’re not feeling well that you do not come to the conference. If you need to cancel due to illness, a refund will be made available on presentation of a doctor’s certificate.
If, due to COVID restrictions, we need to cancel the conference, we will endeavour to return all funds possible.
If you have any questions please call the office on (08) 8357 1755 or email events@sabaptist.asn.au.
When do registrations open?
$55 early bird registrations are available before the 14th April
$65 standard registrations will be available between the 14th April and the 14th May
$45 online only
Can I get an invoice instead of paying by Credit Card?
Baptist Churches are able to register and opt for an invoice, simply contact us before registering at events@sabaptist.asn.au.
I've signed up to online access for this year's 4D Conference, now what?
If you have registered for digital access to this year’s 4D Conference, we’re excited to have you joining us. You will receive an email before the conference guiding your online experience, with links to every session and ways to stay connected, even if not in person!


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Dr Brian Harris
KEYNOTE SPEAKER, TEACHER, LEADER and WRITER
A widely respected theologian, after 17 years as principal of Vose Seminary, Dr Brian Harris recently became the founding director of the AVENIR Leadership Institute, an initiative of the Carey Group committed to fostering leaders who will make a positive impact on the world. While leading the Institute, Brian continues to do some part time teaching at the Vose Campus of Morling College, is a Director of the Australian College of Theology and a Distinguished International Visiting Scholar of Spurgeon’s College, London. His book, The Tortoise Usually Wins: Biblical Reflections on Quiet Leadership (Paternoster, 2013) continues to empower people who don’t naturally see themselves as leaders, whilst his most recent book, Why Christianity is Probably True (Paternoster, 2020) is helping to shift the tone of the discussion about faith.

Leading from the 1st, 2nd or 10th chair
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Brian Harris
WHAT WE’LL COVER
Leaders in the first chair are expected to lead – it is what you do in that position. But what if you are in the second, third, or even tenth chair? Can we be an associate or junior team member and yet play a meaningful leadership role? This seminar explores ways to lead up (where we find a way to guide and influence those who are more senior than us), sideways (when we lead our peers), and down (leading those who report to us). It’s an important topic, especially in the unexpected season in which we find ourselves.
BRIAN HARRIS
Brian was the principal of Vose Seminary for 17 years and continues to lecture part time at what is now the Vose Campus of Morling College while he directs the AVENIR Leadership Institute, which he helped to found. A noted theologian and a popular speaker, Brian is also the author of several books including The Tortoise Usually Wins: Biblical Reflections on Quiet Leadership for Reluctant Leaders, and Why Christianity is Probably True, which is his latest book and is noted for its winsome approach to apologetics.

Unexpected Evangelists
Good News About Sharing the Good News
Andrew Turner
WHAT WE’LL COVER
If the good news about Jesus is truly good news, why does it seem so hard to share it? And why aren’t more people interested in it? In this elective, Andrew will expose some myths, lies, and prejudices that entangle our efforts to share the news, and offer practical, powerful, and unexpected ways forward in the outstandingly exciting ministry of sharing Jesus.
ANDREW TURNER
Andrew Turner is the Director of Crossover – a ministry focused on helping Australian Baptists share Jesus. Author of Fruitful Church, Taking the Plunge and the Sacred Agents blog, Andrew is passionate about helping others to know, serve and represent Jesus well. He also loves sports, games, jokes, puzzles, parkrun, history and oh yes his family, whom he lives with in the western suburbs of Adelaide.

GOVERNANCE IN UNCHARTERED TIMES
Mike Mills
WHAT WE’LL COVER
The past 2 years have been, to use an overused term, highly disruptive. A natural human longing is that things would return to what we are familiar with, our ‘normal’. But perhaps there is more to these years than meet the casual observer, could it be they have actually been more ‘normal’ than we realise? What this time has done is highlight that our world has changed and is changing, there have been massive significant shifts in cultural mindsets – everything has changed! How has it changed and how can we begin to pay attention to the new context as we seek to govern well the ministries and congregations God has entrusted to us? We will begin to explore this together, but don’t come expecting the answers, perhaps the first step is learning to ask questions!
MIKE MILLS
Married to Sue, Mike has 2 young-adult children and is currently the Executive Pastor at Rostrevor Baptist Church. After a career of some 8 years as a consulting engineer, Mike trained for the ministry serving at Rostrevor and Alice Springs before taking up roles at Baptist Churches of SA. After 12 years as state leader, he has recently returned to local church ministry. Mike has been involved in governance in local church and Christian ministry contexts for over 20 years.

Discipleship
How genuine discipleship transforms lives, churches, and the world
Mark Sanders
WHAT WE’LL COVER
The mission of the church is not primarily to run services, oversee programs, or even to build community, it is to make disciples. It is the very mission Jesus gave as his final word to his first disciples. In an era in which the church has moved from the centre of society to the margins, and those who attend Church are doing so less regularly, there has never been a greater need to refocus our energy and attention on our core business; discipleship as the foundation for transforming lives, churches and the world.
MARK SANDERS
Mark is the Church Development Facilitator for Baptist Churches SA and the former Senior Pastor of Hills Baptist Church. Despite being a sporting tragic and long suffering Crows fan, Mark is passionate about following Jesus and helping churches to be healthy, growing, and fruitful.

Intro to Governance 101
Glenn Dixon
WHAT WE’LL COVER
Are you new to the church leadership team? Elected at the last AGM, and now wondering what on earth church governance is all about? Looked at a P&L and asked yourself, “What does a cruise liner have to do with our budget”? (Oh, that’s P&O isn’t it!!) Been vaguely aware that Baptist Churches SA exists but not sure what they do?
In this whirlwind tour, we will work through all these things. Quite possibly you may come out of this session with more questions than answers. But that’s okay, because now you will have the resources to find those answers.
GLENN DIXON
Glenn has been working at Baptist Churches SA for over 10 years supporting the local church with their administrative, policy, compliance, governance, and bookkeeping needs. He has been Treasurer at two Baptist churches and is currently a member of the Unley Park Baptist Deacons Team and Church Council.
Married to Miranda and with three kids, life is full.

Welcome to digital: Converting your online presence
Ruth Grace
WHAT WE’LL COVER
9 out of 10 people will try to visit your website before they visit your church. Whether you have an online presence or not, outsiders see your digital footprints as an extension of your church. So how can we use your website, social media, and email to welcome people in? And how can we do it in a way that won’t stress you out, or overwhelm your church budget?
In this class, I’m excited to share with you a really practical take on churches and digital media. You’ll come away with clarity and inspiration, plus I’ll reveal some of my favourite free tools and tricks to help kickstart your online presence.
If your church has been plodding along, wishing things were different, now’s your chance.
RUTH GRACE
Ruth is the Media and Communications Officer at Baptist Churches SA. After studying marketing at university and adopting the philosophy of ‘using her powers for good’, Ruth has worked in the not-for-profit space for five years and has a particular soft spot for small churches that need a leg-up.
As a mum of two cheeky girls, Ruth can often be found at the zoo watching meerkats, or scoring bargains on Facebook Marketplace.

the kids min guide to planning
(For the Unexpected)
Tash Pillay
WHAT WE’LL COVER
One of the biggest tools in our toolkit in Kids Ministry is planning, planning, planning. The past two years have been such a challenging time in kids ministry that despite our best efforts, the planning has gone out the window. It’s almost like crossing the road. You know that the goal is to get to the other side, so you map a route, look right, left, and then right again. All is clear, you start to cross, and almost instantly, get run over.
Come along to hear from Tash and other Kids Min leaders in our movement as they take you through some insights from their experiences of planning for the unexpected.
TASH PILLAY
Tash didn’t know that when she started as the Early Years Kids Min Coordinator at Rostrevor Baptist in 2017, she would be thrown into running kids programs online through a pandemic as their newly appointed Children and Families Pastor. Tash currently works as the Kids Ministry Facilitator at Baptist Churches SA.

YOUTH
from KNOWING to PRACTICING the way of Jesus with young people
Riley Smith
WHAT WE’LL COVER
You’ve probably heard the saying, “When it comes to Christian ministry, we need to keep the main thing the main thing.” Good advice. But what exactly is the main thing? For Dallas Willard at least, (and Jesus for that matter), “…making disciples is the main task of the church…” (The Great Omission). In other words, for youth ministry, the main thing is seeing Christ take his form in young people, that they would be people who orient their lives around being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing what Jesus did. But, how do we do it? Come join the conversation.
RILEY SMITH
Riley is married to Naomi and joined the Victor Harbor Baptist Church staff team in 2016 as the Family Ministries Pastor. His role is to oversee the family ministries in the life of the church to see young people and families grow in faith, share life together as a community, and live as authentic followers of Jesus in our context. He loves long-distance running, playing and listening to music and, of course….coffee!

Unexpected leadership amid unjust systems
Will Mezner
WHAT WE’LL COVER
What would Jesus do about climate change, humanitarian crises, and modern slavery? When so much of the world delights in exercising power over others, Jesus’ radical example of servant leadership can be our roadmap to disrupt the unjust systems and power structures alongside the vulnerable. Join an interactive workshop exploring how the Baptist movement can engage in a Christ-like response to injustice.
WILL MEZNER
Will is an organiser, campaigner, and Crows supporter, who gets great joy from two of those three things. He reckons the Lord of Lords is above all earthly kingdoms, and the Church should be prophetic salt and light in their systems that so often overlook the vulnerable made in God’s image. Will’s main work at Baptist World Aid is leading Catalyst, a national discipleship and advocacy network for the Baptist movement in Australia.