Preacher: Simon Holt
At Open Icon Baptist Church, we value great preaching — preaching that engages deeply, humbly and honestly with Jesus, the Bible, and the pain and joy of living in the real world. And since going permanently online, we have been able to welcome great preachers from all over the world without having to wait for them to visit our shores. Click here to meet the inspirational preachers depicted in the gallery above, none of whom have preached for us!
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Simon Holt
The Rev Dr Simon Carey Holt is an prominent Australian Baptist minister, academic, theologian, and author. He is best known for his 16-year tenure as the pastor of the historic Collins Street Baptist Church in the heart of Melbourne, a role he concluded in late 2025 before relocating to Canberra. Simon has been a very public figure, publicly advocating for same-sex marriage within the Australian Christian community during the 2017 national plebiscite, and for urban public health initiatives, famously petitioning the Victorian government for a permanent safe injecting room in the Melbourne CBD to combat overdose fatalities. Simon spent 15 years teaching spirituality, ethics, and pastoral theology, first at the Macquarie Christian Studies Institute in Sydney and then at Whitley College (the Baptist theological college of Victoria) in Melbourne. His research specialises in everyday ethics, local neighbourhood missiology, and "table spirituality" (the theology of food and hospitality). He has authored several widely read books exploring practical theology and urban spirituality.
Sermons by Simon Holt
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14 March, 2021
When theology and discipleship follow the path of God, they take us beyond an obsession with borders to a new engagement with the kingdom of God, present and tangible in all the earth.

