Humans of the Uniting Church
Jethro Buxton
November 27, 2023
This year, we’re excited to be featuring some of the inspirational people who make up the Uniting Church. Check out the growing hub of stories here. If you know of someone with a great story to tell, contact us and nominate them to be featured.
This week we’re catching up with Jethro Buxton. Jethro is the Youth and Young Adults pastor at CoroUniting, in the Coromandel Valley to Adelaide’s south-east.
Image: Jethro Buxton.
"When the church is united under the gospel of Jesus, his death and resurrection it provides such an incredible witness to a world that is increasingly hopeless."
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What’s your Uniting Church story?
I grew up in a Uniting Church in rural SA before leaving the church in my teen years. I've since attended Baptist and Anglican churches but in God's sense of humour ended up back where I started. After I finished my Masters of Divinity I ended up employed in the Uniting Church as a Youth and Young Adults Pastor.
What enlivens your faith in Jesus?
Regular dedication to the spiritual practices: prayer, bible reading, Sabbath and fasting. Each of these adds something unique to my continued walk with Jesus.
What’s one thing happening in your community that’s really exciting for you?
Our young adult community has doubled in the past year with a large number of young adults from a de-churched background. That's been really exciting to see God breaking down barriers and walls and doing real healing for people who have had some serious historical church-based trauma. It's now a beautiful growing community where people can be known and loved.
What’s one thing you love telling people about the Uniting Church?
That God's not finished with it. I've loved getting to know the other pastors and ministers in my broader presbytery (Generate) and have been so encouraged by their commitment to Jesus, evangelism and church planting.
What's one thing you'd like to change, or something you hope for?
I hope for a truly "Uniting" Church. I think one of the greatest sins of Protestantism is our divisiveness. When the church is united under the gospel of Jesus, his death and resurrection it provides such an incredible witness to a world that is increasingly hopeless.
What's one thing you would like the rest of the Uniting Church to pray for?
That we would be believers who worship in the Spirit and in Truth. For growth, revival, and renewal. For a raising up of a new generation of leaders who look towards the church's future rather than its past and are open to the Spirit's guiding in all things.