Bundoora: Making spaces to serve

(photo: Helen Bell leading a Sunday service.)

At Bundoora Presbyterian Church, you will see complementarity expressed in the Sunday service. Suitably gifted and godly men preach, and suitably gifted and godly women and men share in all other aspects of the service.

Such complementarity is biblical: men teach with authority (1 Tim 2.12); men and women serve together in Gospel ministry, just like Paul’s team of co-workers (Romans 16).

The church, in suburban Melbourne, has three Sunday services, attended by several hundred worshippers, served by seven staff, five of them full time. One of the five full-time positions, director of training, is held by a woman.

Women serve in multiple ways on Sundays. Women publicly read God’s word and lead prayers (consistent with 1Corinthians 11:5). Women also lead the service, welcome people, make the announcements, introduce and lead songs. At the close of the service, service leaders may also help the congregation reflect on the word of God preached earlier.

Church member Helen Bell leads Sunday services, a privilege she describes as “helping”.

“There is something wonderful and humbling about helping God’s people hear and respond to God’s word,” Helen says. “Leading a Sunday worship service, God’s people encounter our God afresh though songs, prayers, testimonies, and the preaching of God’s Word,” she says.

This has enriched congregational life. It has given people opportunities to test and use their gifts and has given women and men opportunities to serve the Lord Jesus and learn from God’s word together.

Click here to read more from our Ministering Together magazine.