History of Kew Baptist Church now known as Earthen Vessels Church.

This church was established in the early 80s with a ministry for the settlement and support of newcomers to Australia after escaping the Vietnam war. This ministry was led by Amy Moore and Reverend Lyndsay Smith at Kew.

In about 1981, KBC (Kew Baptist Church) invited Reverend Tin Nguyen, who recently arrived in Queensland to lead this ministry as an assistant pastor for the group of new people from the refugee camps.

In the following decade, the number of Vietnamese members in the congregation grew rapidly. Except for a few joined services with the English congregation, the Vietnamese congregation practically operated as a separate church with a separate deaconate. However, the congregation still depended on KBC financially.

Under the leadership of Reverend Tin Nguyen, the congregation expanded its ministry beyond Kew, organising the first National Vietnamese Christian Conference in Australia, and is the founding members of the Vietnamese Baptist Association in Australia (VBAA). God used the congregation during this time to support many other churches in Melbourne, such as VBC (Vietnamese Baptist Church) in Sunshine, VBC in Blackburn North, Church of Christ in Richmond, and the church planting in Southern Australia.

Towards the late 80s, a number of members of the congregation proposed to become financially independent from KBC. However, this proposal was not accepted and in consequence a large number of Vietnamese members left to other churches around Melbourne. After this period, Reverend Tin Nguyen ended his ministry and left Kew.

In the year 1997, the Vietnamese congregation became financially independent and operated as a separate church, however, it shared a legal entity with KBC, and began to contribute financially towards the use of the facility.

It is worthy to recall, over the course of these 20 years, that many members from the congregation had become pastoral leaders across Australia. The list below will name some of them, so we can give thanks to God for their current and past ministry:

1.​Rev. Tin Pham and wife: previously the first youth and young adults’ leader of the congregation, now serving as a Senior Pastor of the Vietnamese CMA church in Melton.

2.​Rev. Luan Le and wife: previously a youth and young adults coordinator, now the Senior Pastor of the Vietnamese CMA church in Springvale.

3.​Rev. Hoa Trinh: a member of the congregation who is now a Senior Pastor of Vietnamese Grace Baptist Church in Brisbane.

4.​Rev. Son Dao and wife: previously a secretary and youth and young adults’ leader of the congregation, now a Senior Pastor of the Vietnamese CMA church in Adelaide.

5.​Pastor Xuyen Tran and wife: both previously were members, now serving as a senior pastor of a Vietnamese church in Queensland.

6.​Rev. Duong Ly, Sunday school teacher with the congregation and before retiring, has been the Senior Pastor of the Vietnamese CMA church in Footscray.

7.​Pastor Thuan Trinh: member of the church for a period of time, now leading a Vietnamese group at Syndal Baptist Church.

8.​Pastor Luan Walker and wife: previously a youth leader and was a Senior Pastor of the Vietnamese Church of Christ in Richmond.

9.​Pastor Minh Bui and wife: a part of the congregation as a leader for a period of time, now the Senior Pastor of the Channel of Peace Church.

10.​Pastor Tam Vo: previously a youth leader, now a Senior Pastor of the Vietnamese Baptist Church in Reservoir

11.​Tinh Luu: a member of the congregation, later becoming a missionary on the ship, Doulos.

It would be too many to list here the many previous members of the congregation who are still serving in leadership roles across many churches in Melbourne and Australia.

After Rev. Tin left the congregation, the church went through a challenging period. At the lowest point, church services only had 10-12 people attending. In the next 7 years, the congregation had no pastoral leadership and deacon Khoi Doan became the Church Secretary during most of this period. There were also two other deacons who helped the role of Church Secretary during that time, Mr Phuoc Lam and Mr (now Rev.) Son Dao.

In 2004, Pastor Tuan Huynh was called to become the Senior Pastor of the church. During this time, Pastor Luan Walker, Pastor Minh Bui and Pastor Khoi Doan supported him in his role.

Five years later, in 2009, Pastor Tuan Huynh concluded his ministry, Pastor Luan Walker was called to Richmond Church of Christ and Pastor Minh Bui was called to Footscray Uniting Church. From that point, from the role of church secretary, Pastor Khoi Doan was inducted as a Lay Pastor for the congregation.

4 years later in 2013, Pastor Khoi Doan was formally inducted as a Senior Pastor of the church. In the same year, Pastor Tai Huynh was inducted as the Assistant Pastor. This is the period where many international students from Vietnam came to know Christ within the church and became members of the church.

In the same year, the With A Mission ministry was established and flourished, especially with the support for housing in Vietnam. Pastor Tai Huynh concluded his ministry one year later.

In 2016, in order to organise the National Interdenominational Conference in Australia, Pastor Khoi Doan took a year of leave and Reverend Tin Pham was called to Interim during his leave.

God blessed the congregation in many ways, and in 2019, many factors led to the proposal for the Vietnamese congregation at Kew Baptist Church to become fully independent, with its own legal entity. After a period of prayers, discussions and discernment, the proposal was put to vote at a church meeting and received 97% to support the process of becoming fully independent.

The following year, in 2020, amidst the pandemic, the new independent church needed a facility to conduct its livestreamed services. Recommendation was made to consider Box Hill Baptist Church. In September 2020, the church began its livestream services here.

Many unexpected and positive developments emerged since the church started its livestream services here. When the church began its face-to-face worship, in December 2020, there was a mutual understanding and agreement between Box Hill Baptist Church and the church, now with the new name EVC (Earthen Vessels Church), towards a long-term partnership.

God has opened opportunities at this new location for engagements and missions. God led EVC to consider the relocation of the church from Kew to Box Hill. On the 10th of January this year, at a church meeting, the decision had been made to relocate the church, after 40 years since its beginning, with 100% of the vote in support of the motion.

A few weeks after that, EVC was formally established, and today, we give thanks to God for the journey that he has led us through, from 40 years ago, to where we are today, and for the many years to come.