Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT is made up of many different wonderful church/ministry pastors and leaders. In this series (‘Meet the Leader’), we introduce you to some of these people – to encourage you with how God is using men and women across the state, and to help us better connect as a denomination/movement!
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Badil is the pastor of Graceway Church – a new church plant which launched in October 2019 and became affiliated with our movement in October 2020. Badil is the son of Rev. Said Oweis who planted the first Arabic Baptist Church in Australia in 1971. This is the same church that Badil attended for 48 years, and that later merged with Crest Community Baptist Church.
Coming to Christ at a young age, Badil always felt a call to serve the Lord. From the age of 14 he was teaching Sunday School, preaching at 17 and spent over 25 years in Youth ministry – mainly to second-generation youth and young adults from an Arabic background.
Badil spent most of his working life ministering alongside his full-time job as a pharmacist. Although he enjoyed his profession, he sensed that God was increasingly calling him to make a more eternal impact with his life. In 2018, as the English ministry of Crest expanded, he became the associate pastor, before being sent out in 2019 to plant a church in the nearby suburb of Yagoona.
Becoming a lead pastor was not on the radar for Badil until 6 months before the church plant. He thought, “I wasn’t going anywhere – I was going to die in that church!” But with the encouragement of his pastor, Frank Farag (who recently finished up his role as the Multicultural Consultant on our Church Health team), and clear guidance from the Lord, Badil knew that God’s hand was on this move. Despite extensive lay ministry experience and his studies at Morling College, this was still a major leap of faith with a huge learning curve. Badil appreciated and benefited greatly from the support of Transform Southern Sydney, the Gen1K and New Start teams, who helped and encouraged him through the process of this exciting new stage of ministry.
Badil and his wife Sukoon request prayer for wisdom, strength and the guidance of the Holy Spirit as they continue to follow God’s calling to see lives transformed for His glory and the expansion of His kingdom.
