OVERFLOW

JOINING IN WITH GOD IN THE SHALOMIFICATION OF ALL THINGS…

‘The Overflow’ is the life of God within us breaching its banks and flowing into the world around us. It’s inevitable — we can’t possibly hold it in!

As we learn all of life from Jesus, we are deeply shaped by grace and it changes everything: how we view ourselves, how we live, and how we engage with our world.

Our task is to begin to notice how God is already at work in the context in which we’ve been placed — our homes, neighbourhoods, communities, places of work or study — and then (through the Spirit’s empowerment) to simply join in.

CROWS NEST SAFE VILLAGE PROJECT

The Crows Nest Safe Village Project was born out of a desire to see a suburb-wide response to Domestic & Family Violence (DFV) in our community.

Using a strengths-based, collaborative approach, a group of local people and organisations came together for the purpose of helping to connect individuals, the local business community, and faith groups with local services and support in order to identify, respond to, and ultimately reduce all forms of DFV in our community.

The Safe Village Project runs events (focused on issues like identifying coercive control or healthy relationships) through the Crows Nest Centre, training for local businesses (starting with hairdressers) to help them identify domestic abuse and coercive control and to link their customers to local services, and workshops for local churches (to be better equipped to respond well to DFV in our churches).

The steering committee includes representatives from the Lower North Shore Domestic Violence Network, the Lower North Shore Child & Family Interagency, The Lower North Shore Multicultural Interagency, Crows Nest Centre, North Sydney Council, Willoughby City Council, Relationships Australia, Mary’s House Services, and Northside Baptist Church.

PARTNERS IN MISSION

BAPTIST WORLD AID

Our partnership with BWAA focuses on advocacy, particularly by means of BWAA’s annual Ethical Fashion Report. The invitation is to consider our consumer choices, seeking to reduce labour exploitation and harmful environmental practices in the supply chains of the brands we buy.

COMMON GRACE

Our partnership with Common Grace focuses on healing justice for First Nations peoples, as well as creation care. The invitation is to receive the generous hand of friendship from our Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander sisters and brothers, and to learn what it looks like to walk gently in these lands now called Australia.

BAPTIST MISSION AUSTRALIA

Our partnership with Baptist Mission Australia focuses on the wellbeing of BMA workers around the world. The invitation is to join in with the holistic care of those who are working in many communities around the world to embody God’s love in Jesus.

OVERFLOW PARTNER

MARY’S HOUSE

Mary’s House Services is a community driven and funded initiative on Sydney’s Lower North Shore which exists to support women & children escaping domestic & family violence. Through Mary’s House Refuge, as well as the Daisy Centre (non-residential domestic violence services), Mary’s House Services aims to provide victim-survivors with the tools of empowerment to rebuild their lives.

We partner with Mary’s House Services as a step towards wholeness and wellbeing (shalom) in our local community.

COMMUNITY HERB GARDEN

Northside hosts a small yet bountiful community herb garden (including multiple worm farms, compost bins, and a native bee and insect hotel), which is maintained by local people and businesses.

The garden is open to anyone who would like to make use of it, as a no strings attached gift to the local community.