Trusting God’s provision on an ‘unconventional’ ministry journey

Naomi de Vries is quick to acknowledge that her family doesn’t look like the ‘typical’ ministry family in Sydney Anglican circles.

Naomi’s husband Russell is a stay- at-home dad, currently dedicating himself to raising their four children Ewan, Lewis, Wesley and Gwen. In their marriage, it’s Naomi who works in full-time, paid ministry – she’s the Assistant Pastor for Children and Families at The Bridge Church (formerly known as Church by the Bridge).

Naomi’s journey into ministry also didn’t follow the ‘typical three or four years at college, then ministry job’ pathway.                                    

Amidst university and her early years of work, she started out as a ministry volunteer at Crossroads Church in Canberra, then undertook a short-term mission in children’s ministry in Bolivia. Naomi recalls, “I came back from that going,  ‘Yes, I want to go into children’s ministry’.” But she remembers thinking, “If I’m going to do children’s ministry, I need training and I need experience.”  

So on her return to Australia, Naomi moved to Sydney and then did a one-year Advanced Diploma of Ministry and Mission at Moore College. Soon, she and Russell married and joined Church by the Bridge in its early days as a church plant.

But while her passion for children’s ministry remained, and she still really wanted to do more theological study, Naomi went back to working as an occupational therapist, which was what she had trained in at university. Naomi and Russell were committed to seeing Church by the Bridge thrive as a plant, but in order to live in the wealthy inner Sydney suburbs where the church operated, they needed her to be earning an income.

Furthermore, because it was a new church, there weren’t actually any children there yet for her to minister to! Plus, Naomi recalls that at the time, “The census said there were 50 kids in Kirribilli.” So Naomi pressed ‘Pause’ on her study and vocational ministry goals for a time. But she prayed that as the church grew, families would emerge from the woodwork to join them, and she would get to do ministry among them in a greater, and hopefully paid, capacity.

The de Vries babies began arriving shortly after, and families did begin to join the church as Naomi had hoped and prayed. So ten years ago, Church by the Bridge decided to employ her to lead their ministries to children.

In 2016, Naomi finally returned to theological study, this time at Sydney Missionary & Bible College (SMBC), and finished her Bachelor of Theology part-time over the next few years, all while working at Church by the Bridge and having and raising her children. “It took me fifteen years to finish my degree!” she laughs.

Her role at church grew to full-time as the church expanded into new services and sites, which is what eventually led to Naomi and Russell deciding that he would lay down his career to care for their children and enable Naomi to commit herself full-time to ministry.

Today, The Bridge Church has three sites in Kirribilli, Neutral Bay and Macquarie Park, with ministries to children operating out of all sites. That makes Naomi’s job very busy, but she loves it, and is deeply committed to her ministry. 

So it made sense when last year, Naomi’s senior minister encouraged her to consider being ordained as a deacon in the Sydney Anglican Diocese.

“He thought this would be a good idea for a few different reasons,” Naomi explains. “Firstly, it would recognise the role that I have in full-time ministry. The process of ordination is also helpful in terms of making commitments and promises as I am set aside for ministry. And he also wanted to make sure I had other avenues and ways of serving in the diocese if I wanted to in the future.”

To do this, Naomi would need to undertake a specific subject in Anglican liturgy in intensive mode at Moore College, to qualify her for ordination, but it was going to cost several thousand dollars for her to complete.

Thankfully, Naomi was forwarded some information about the ADM Women in Ministry Support Scheme (WIMSS) funding at the perfect time. She realised she could apply for a grant to cover the cost of the intensive, which would enable her to complete her ordination requirements in a much more timely and convenient manner.

In February this year, Naomi did her intensive subject in Anglican liturgy, paid for with the WIMSS funding from ADM. And she’s now an ordained deacon, continuing to serve at The Bridge Church.

Over the years, through her ‘unconventional’ journey into ministry, and her family’s ‘unconventional’ approach to work and child-raising commitments, Naomi has been aware that while women’s contributions in churches are extremely valuable and needed, it’s definitely not always easy for women to find the pathways and space that they need to enable them to serve God to their fullest potential.

Naomi remembers times sitting in staff meetings where she was the only woman, and really having to push herself to speak up and make sure her voice – with her unique female perspective – was heard.

But she’s also deeply grateful that the men on the ministry team at The Bridge Church have made it possible for her to continue in ministry through all the ups and downs of motherhood.

She remembers a time when the church team was going away on a staff retreat, and she was still breastfeeding one of her babies. But the senior minister encouraged her to bring the baby, set up the portable cot for her, gave her a private comfortable space for feeding, and made sure that Russell could come along too, to care for the baby when Naomi was busy with work.

This support made all the difference as Naomi returned to work from maternity leave – a season that in itself was a bit of a challenge as the church had needed to write a maternity leave policy for her, the first female staff member to have a baby!

She’s thankful, too, for ADM’s support of her in ministry. Of her WIMSS grant, Naomi says, “This scheme and funding recognises the financial constraints that can impact or prevent women from participating, investing as freely or initiating new ministries. This funding recognises the immense value, opportunities and gifts that God has given women to serve him and those around them.”

Above all, Naomi is grateful to God for the doors he has opened for her and the journey he has brought her family on – as unconventional as it may have been. 

“We’ve just been surprised so many times by God. Sometimes we can only see a little bit, but we just have to be faithful and do what God’s given us to do now, and we just keep seeing God provide for us in really significant ways.”

It’s her confidence in God’s goodness and his plan – and the proof she’s seen of this in her life, from finally getting to complete her theological degree, to the blessing of her children, to even this recent WIMSS grant from ADM – that keeps Naomi going in ministry even when things are challenging.