Mount Isa Baptist Church

The Pastoral Search Team met on Wednesday 9^th October 2024.

As we have shared already, the PST has been contacted by a pastoral candidate. The candidate’s name is Roydon Burns – his wife’s name is Debbie and they have two teen/tween children. Roydon has provided a lot of background information about his faith journey, his ministry and his training/experience. We recently also conducted a preliminary interview with Roydon and Debbie in which we were all very pleased with their responses – the PST is unanimous in our agreement to continue the process with Roydon.

Roydon is a Baptist trained and registered pastor. He is currently pastoring a Presbyterian Church as that is where God called him at the time. Roydon is looking for a new role as he is currently bi-vocational, and would like to be in ministry full-time. Roydon is currently working as a manual arts teacher in a special school – drawing on his experience as a panel beater, which was his career before he entered ministry. His wife Debbie has recently completed her teaching degree.

Roydon is in his early 50s – and has been in formal ministry since 2006 when he completed his Bachelor of Theology.

The pastoral search team feel very positive about this candidate, he seems to be a good fit for our church and our community.

The hurdle that we are working to overcome in this process, and one we are counting on your support for, is that Roydon and his family are not residents of Australia. The Burns family are South African. In order for us to call Roydon as a pastor we would have to be willing to support him and his family as sponsors for a work visa.

We have been in contact with QB about this. QB have experience in this area and are willing and able to support us through the process. We estimate at this stage, that the additional costs (over and above what it would cost to call an Australian resident pastor) are about $15,000 upfront and $500 per month ongoing.

Please see below a link to Roydon’s current church YouTube channel. We invite you to watch some services.

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Westonaria - YouTube

The pastoral search team as always welcomes your questions and your openness to this new idea. Please continue to pray for the PST, for Roydon and his family and for our church.

Yours in Christ,

Gary, Danielle, Hugo, Christine and Christie