Together for Communities – New South Wales

11th September 2025
Alan Walker Village
Carlingford, NSW
9am - 3pm

Workshop Sessions including:

Name: Together for Communities – New South Wales
Start: 2025-09-11
End: 2025-09-11
Location: Alan Walker Village

Community Work with a Cultural Lens

Partnership & Collaboration Development in Local Context

Empowering Local Churches with Discipleship Paradigm

Churches Working in Unity for Regions

Reflective Practice (help coaches/potential coaches understand how to reflect on their interactions with people and incrementally improve over time)

Stories of Neighbourhood Presence

Keynote Speaker

Rev Stuart Cameron
Wesley Mission Rev Stuart Cameron

Stu is CEO and Superintendent Minister of Wesley Mission, an ordained Uniting Church Minister and qualified accountant. He is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and collaborative leader who loves to weave business principles into his biblically informed leadership. He is passionate about advocacy and stewardship.

Contributors Including

Sandy has been an infants primary teacher all over NSW and Norfolk Island.  As well as a missionary in SE Asia, member care coordinator and Kids advisor for OMF.

As a Care Support worker for people living with disability and a Lifestyle Coordinator in a nursing home, she is now an Anglicare Community Chaplain and manager of The Hope Centre where we help people doing life tough. 

Sandy Wade-Ferrell
Anglicare
The Hope Centre Sandy Wade-Ferrell

Erica is currently setting up and leading Mission Australia’s Community Chaplaincy Program which is now in nine communities. She also has long experience implementing March for Jesus and Global March for Jesus in the UK. Erica has qualifications in Communication, Society and Culture and Theology.

Erica Butler
Mission Australia Erica Butler

Jon has been Pastor and CEO of Wayside Chapel since 2018. He has spent his life creating a community with no ‘us and them’. Jon is a qualified social worker and is dedicated to supporting those experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental health issues. Previously he was Australian and Pacific Director of Urban Neighbourhoods of Hope.

Rev Jon Owen
Wayside Chapel Rev Jon Owen

Robyn is an ordained minister with 30+ years of Ministry experience. 16 years working as a local pastor, and then for the past 18 years, working in the role of Chaplain with Mission Australia. Robyn is now the Senior Chaplain for NSW, managing a team of six chaplains and covering a large geographical area in her chaplaincy support for the staff and clients of Mission Australia.

Rev Robyn Richardson
Mission Australia Rev Robyn Richardson

Andrew has thirty plus years’ experience in Christian Ministry: youth, intercultural, pastoral and higher education with a specific passion for working alongside and learning from those on the margins of society. He is currently the Team Leader for the Missional Communities Team at Wesley Mission - community and faith development in complex social spaces.

Andrew Palmer
Wesley Mission Andrew Palmer

Greig is the Director of Movement at City to City Australia. Greig has served and explored his faith journey within the context of The Salvation Army as part of a multigenerational Salvo family. He planted with others the Ryde Salvation Army 28 years ago and now assists his wife Amanda as team leaders. Greig has been involved in the Together for Ryde pastors network that is now several years into the journey of growing trust, friendship, oneness and exploring serving the city together.

Gregory Whittaker
City to City Australia Gregory Whittaker

Prior to joining COACH Network Sam served as National Director of SURRENDER Australia for 5 years – an organisation that creates partnerships and hosts events across Australia to engage Christians in local and global mission and justice activity. Before this he served for 4 years as a Mission and Ministry Coordinator with New Peninsula Baptist Church. He has also worked as a lecturer and consultant around organisational vision and strategy development.

He is one of the leaders of Jigsaw, a missional community shaped church that is based in his neighbourhood of Tanti Park. He is also the Chair of Tanti Park Social Enterprises, an organisation he co-founded to operate the HomeGround café and provide vocational training and placemaking alongside disadvantaged youth. Sam served his local community on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria as a Councillor and then as Mayor.

Sam Hearn
National Director
COACH Network Sam Hearn

Rev. Dr Karina Kreminski has worked in English teaching and journalism. She has been a Senior Minister in the Church and was Missiology Lecturer at Morling College in Sydney. Karina has a doctorate in missional formation. She writes and blogs about life, spirituality, mission and theology and is the author of Urban Spirituality: Embodying God’s Mission in the Neighbourhood (2018). She has also been on various denominational boards and vision committees. Karina loves forming people for leadership and speaks regularly at churches and conferences on neighbourhood mission. She has facilitated The Happiness Lab at the Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre where she is a board member, and is involved in a storytelling project called Surry Hills & Valleys in Surry Hills, an inner city village in Sydney. She is on the leadership team at Newtown Mission in Sydney’s inner west, and a consultant for Uniting Mission and Education and for the Uniting Church’s Sydney Presbytery.

Rev Dr Karina Kreminski
Uniting Mission & Education Rev. Dr Karina Kreminski

Aboriginal leader with over 40 years' experience across community services, justice, and cultural advocacy. Proven track record in developing and leading Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs), mentoring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, and strengthening organisational cultural capability. Recognised for fostering authentic relationships with Aboriginal communities and embedding cultural safety across policy, service delivery, and organisational leadership.

Aunty Kathy Donnelly
Wesley Mission Aunty Kathy Donnelly

Zoe Stewart
Breakthrough Community Services Zoe Stewart

Prior to joining us at COACH Network, TJ helped lead Tearfund’s (previously TEAR) work with Australian Christians including heading up their national church partnerships team – supporting volunteers and Churches from around the country to take action in response to issues of poverty and injustice. He has spent time consulting and supporting grassroots organisations to become more effective, deepen their impact and sustain their work. He’s also spent significant seasons serving in pastoral leadership roles at New Peninsula Baptist Church and Beaumaris Baptist Church.

TJ is passionate about people and social change and believes firmly in the transformative power of relationships and the inherent strengths that God has placed within local communities. TJ holds degrees in theology and international development and alongside his paid roles has spent the last decade living and working in some of Victoria’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods.

Tim Johnson
COACH Network Tim Johnson

Mark has worked in the social welfare sector of Melbourne for 30 years. He holds Diplomas in Social Science and Business and is trained in providing professional supervision and counselling and is experienced in community development.

Since 2007, Mark has been responsible for the ongoing development of the COACH Community Mentoring program, most recently the Indigenous COACH Program that was developed in partnership with The Salvation Army Townsville. Mark has developed the frameworks of Empowered Faith Communities (EFC), he founded and continues to lead the original EFC in Rosebud (Victoria) that is offered to people who don’t feel they could easily fit within a mainstream church, empowering them to become agents of influence and change in their own social space.

Mark Matthews
Empowered Faith Communities
& COACH Mentoring Mark Matthews

Todd Darvas is the Lead Pastor of H3O Church on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, and a family and domestic violence lawyer with Horizons Family Law Centre, running a free legal clinic from his church for people experiencing Domestic Violence and family breakdown. His passion is local neighbourhood mission, and equipping disciples of Jesus to see people and communities holistically transformed by the Gospel. Todd has also been a COACH Community Mentoring coordinator and trainer since 2017.

Todd Darvas
H3O Church Todd Darvas

Marbz has over 25 years of church ministry experience and organising community, in the most multicultural contexts of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as missions and international development. From church groups, theological colleges, and the not-for-profit sector, he has dedicated his life to seeing people's capacities built through discipleship, mentoring and community-building. His passion for biblical justice deeply continues to shape his work and his family's practices. This passion is what led him to his current role as the team leader in two areas for the Baptist Association of NSW & ACT: Church Witness and Intercultural Lead.

Marbuen Diaz
Baptist Association of NSW & ACT Marbuen Diaz

Mehdi Nasiri
Breakthrough Community Services

Jamie Freeman is an ordained Baptist Minister, church planter and regularly sought out for his strategic thinking, systems leadership and innovation. In his role as an Associate Director with NSW/ACT Baptists, Jamie's leadership in key in bringing the churches and leaders alongside the vision to see '1000 healthy churches in a generation'.Jamie is connected broadly with organisations, networks and thought-leaders in areas of church planting, leadership, movement thinking, mission and evangelism. His previous church roles include being the lead Pastor and Planter of H3O Church, Dee Why and a Worship Pastor at Gymea Baptist Church and Soul Survivor. Alongside this, Jamie has started and led a number of small businesses that serve the needs of the community and business owners.

Jamie Freeman
Baptist Churches NSW & ACT

Glen Powell is married to Ruth and has two sons at university (USyd and UTS). He works with Wesley Mission on community development, and is involved in their work on affordable housing, gambling reform and mental health advocacy. Glen was one of the founding organisers for the Sydney Alliance – a grassroots advocacy network of unions, faith-based, and community groups. He was once a professional musician, sings in the Glebe Community Choir and holds a PhD in leadership development as a social inclusion strategy.  

Glen Powell
Wesley Mission

Dr Coz Crosscombe
The Well Training

Rev. Wayne Pickford (Senior Pastor) has headed up Berkeley Life Centre since 2007. Wayne, a former prison guard and professional wrestler (really!) says he wouldn’t pick anywhere other than Berkeley to lead a church, despite the daily barriers that come with being a ‘parentless’ church plant in a welfare class area.

Wayne Pickford
Berkeley Life Centre

Date

Sep 11 2025

Expired!

Time

9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Location

Alan Walker Village

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