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baptist church
baptist church
Topic: Identity
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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4 April, 2026
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Communion, Community, Icons, Identity, Resurrection
Scripture: 1 Corinthians, Genesis, Matthew
The resurrection doesn’t restore what we lost — it reveals what we were always becoming: living icons through whom the world might glimpse the life of God.
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22 March, 2026
Preacher: Andrew Dodd
When Jesus says “I am,” he’s not just making a claim — he’s pulling a thread that runs from a burning bush through a valley of dry bones to a man walking out of a tomb.
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1 March, 2026
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Blessing, Discernment, Faithfulness, Identity, Love, Pilgrimage, Vocation
A church discerns its new name while remembering that identity is not possession, but a journey of love shaped by God’s call to be a blessing.
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6 July, 2025
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Culture, Demons, Healing, Identity, Liberation, Oppresion, Salvation, Sin, Spiritual Warfare
We all get trapped in demonic and dehumanising social structures, but Jesus unmasks the truth so that we can be set free.
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26 January, 2025
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Church, Grace, Identity, Leadership, Mission, Politics, Reconciliation
Scripture: 1 Corinthians, Luke
Jesus’s agenda, which we are called to follow, is about healing, liberating and gathering in the excluded, not purifying the community by excluding anyone.
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29 December, 2024
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Children, Christmas, Fullness of Life, Identity, Spirituality
Scripture: Luke
The childhood picture of Jesus’ development calls us to ensure that our relationship with God is our primary allegiance, our first responsibility and the foundation of our identity.
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21 July, 2024
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Compassion, Conflict, Grace, Identity, peace, Reconciliation, Salvation
Scripture: Ephesians
Healing the world’s tribalism and uniting us as one human family is the central goal of the gospel, the mission of salvation, the realisation of the kingdom of God.
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25 February, 2024
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Commitment, Conflict, Discipleship, Identity, Love, Scandal, Suffering
In an increasingly polarised world, championing the radical love and mercy shown by Jesus is likely to bring hostility from all sides.
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17 December, 2023
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discernment, Discipleship, Formation, Hope, Identity, Service, Vocation
Discovering who we are called to be is an ever-evolving journey as we follow Jesus in changing circumstances.
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12 November, 2023
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Apocalypse, Bible, Empire, Identity, Oppresion, peace, Politics, Power, Suffering, Terror, Violence, War
Scripture: Joshua
Many parts of the Bible can be and often are weaponised as tools of oppression, but when we read it critically, with and through the teachings and example of Jesus, it calls us to liberation and life.
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3 September, 2023
Our true identity is only found when we discover that it is not about us, but that we are only truly anyone in relation to the God who is everything, and who is not the opposite of anything.
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24 December, 2022
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Christmas, Identity, Incarnation, Reconciliation, Scandal
The particularity of Jesus’s identity scandalises our tribal sensibilities, but our attempts to erase such details in favour of a more “universal” truth inevitably fail to convey the good news of God with us.
