Brendan Nottle is one of the most humble and dedicated people I know. I’ve seen him at work with the City’s most vulnerable. I’ve heard him talk passionately about ‘doing life’ with people who feel that nobody else cares. I’ve watched him relate lovingly and caringly to his own family. I’ve sat with him through Board meetings where the frustrations of red tape would cause a sense of despair to anyone else. I’ve observed him lead his team in an empowering and gentle way, and I’ve had the privilege of walking with him through all of this as a friend. I can only conclude one thing: the City of Melbourne, in naming him as Melburnian of the year, got it right!

Here’s what the City’s website has to say about him:

His deeds for the Salvation Army are legendary in this city. He has become the face of our beloved Salvos, given them a higher profile and selflessly committed his life to help the downtrodden, especially Melbourne’s homeless people.

The dedication shown to others by Major Brendan Nottle is inspiring.

Brendan oversees the daily operations of the Salvation Army in the central city, which sees him at work seven days a week helping diverse people with many challenges.
You will also find Brendan on the 614 Youth Bus in Melbourne most evenings and his patience, humour and dedication have won him universal respect. His ability to build bridges between people and his passion for improving services has seen him continually find new ways to help the cities most needy.

A father of three, he also manages to find time to serve as Collingwood football club’s volunteer chaplain.

He is a past Melbourne award winner, taking out the contribution to community by an individual award in 2011. He was also a Moomba monarch in 2012.

He is a passionate Melburnian, a champion in our community and an inspiration for us all. 

High praise and great recognition for someone doing some of God’s caring work in the City.

The Age ran a story on him in their Sunday edition. Associate Editor Shane Green reports:

Typically and predictably, Brendan Nottle is feeling a little embarrassed. The Salvation Army stalwart has been named Melburnian of the Year, and admits to feeling uncomfortable with the personal attention.

”Oh yeah, I do,” he says. ”I think it’s a reflection of the commitment of the team, not just what I do. It’s broader than me.”

The team is the 23 workers and 1000 volunteers who operate out of the Salvation Army’s city base at the Parliament end of Bourke Street – essentially a mission to the many disadvantaged and troubled, the often forgotten citizens of the world’s most liveable city.

At the helm is Major Nottle, working closely with his wife, Sandra, providing unseen but vital help to those in need. For the homeless, it is a safe and secure place to stay, or a hot meal. Or in the early hours of Saturday or Sunday, help for a young person whose night has gone wrong and is suddenly vulnerable.

He is, of course, much more than the person in charge. The 49-year-old father of three is invariably on streets himself, or staffing the Outreach Van providing meals. He often does this on only a few hours’ sleep.

When I rang Brendan to congratulate him on this recognition he was his normal humble self, not a false humility but genuinely wanting to pass praise on to the dedicated team he works with. And he’s right, they are an amazing group of people who include General (Retired) Eva Burrows as Chair of the Advisory Committee, Sandra, his wife, his own children, and a staff of employees and volunteers who work lovingly and compassionately in the City. They all deserve awards for commitment and self-sacrifice as far as I’m concerned. And, they have a great leader who works among them and with them on behalf of people so often lost in the murky side of the city.

Brendan also told me that he thought this award said something powerful about the city; that they would give it to someone who worked for the City’s most vulnerable shows a caring side of the city and speaks well of its values at the top. I saw that side when I was a Councillor in the City of Melbourne and this award expresses that value loud and clear. It’s the Melbourne Way that many of us have been working so hard and so long to establish and here’s a glimpse of recognition.

Food for thought columns always ask what the Bible says about this. How long do you have? The Poverty and Justice Bible produced by Bible Society and World Vision highlights over 2000 verses that deal with issues of poverty and justice. Brendan and his team are working to address those issues as they apply to a contemporary urban setting. But let me focus on one passage, especially relevant to today’s column as it is the theme verse for the work that the Salvos carry out in the City of Melbourne. They call their mission ‘Project 614’ as it is based on Isaiah 61:4:

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

The work through Project 614 that Brendan Nottle heads up in Melbourne is about rebuilding, restoring, and renewing. The people they walk with have lives that are broken, and often in ruins, due to substance abuse, mental health issues, and homelessness. They need someone who cares to walk with them, to ‘do life with them’ as Brendan describes it. In this way they, in partnership with many others, help people to rebuild their lives, to restore their sense of dignity and self-respect, and to be renewed holistically. It’s inspiring to sit and listen to Brendan tell story after story of people’s lives who have been changed through this involvement. Heaven is rejoicing!

But this is not just a column of recognition of one of Melbourne’s local heroes. It’s also a column that challenges all of us to get involved and that sends out congratulations to all people who are involved in making the world a better place for people on the margins. The challenge is a big one. It asks the question of each of us: are there opportunities that I am missing to walk with people who are doing life tough? We’re not all called to the work that Brendan and the 614 team are doing but we are all called to ‘do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly’ (Micah 6:8).

Food for Thought.