Timothy Ewen Costello, (born 4 March 1955) is an Australian Baptist minister who was the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Advocate of World Vision Australia. Costello worked as a lawyer and served as mayor of St Kilda. He has authored a number of books on faith and life. A National Trust poll in 2014 elected him one of Australia's 100 national living treasures. Early life Costello was born in Melbourne, Victoria, where he grew up in the suburb of Blackburn and was educated at Carey Baptist Grammar School. He is a descendant of Irish immigrant Patrick Costello, who was expelled from the Parliament of Victoria in the 1860s for electoral fraud. Costello studied at Monash University, graduating with a Bachelor of Jurisprudence degree in 1976, a Bachelor of Laws in 1978 and a Diploma of Education in 1979. Costello is the brother of Peter Costello, the former treasurer of Australia and Federal Member for Higgins. Career Legal Costello practised as a solicitor in family and criminal law, both in established firms and in his own practice. Ministry In 1981, Costello travelled to Switzerland with his wife, Merridie, where they both studied theology at the International Baptist Seminary Rueschlikon near Zurich, before graduating with a Bachelor of Divinity and returning to Australia to become the minister of St Kilda Baptist Church. He also received a Master of Theology from Whitley College, a theological college of the Melbourne College of Divinity. Ordained as a Baptist minister in 1987, Costello, along with his wife Merridie and a team of others, rebuilt the congregation at the St Kilda Baptist Church and opened a drop-in centre. As part of the church's outreach program, he started a legal office at the church where he practised as a part-time solicitor. He also taught urban ministry at Whitley College, a college of the University of Melbourne. From 1995 to 2003, Costello was a minister of the Collins Street Baptist Church and the executive director of Urban Seed, a Christian not-for-profit organisation created in response to concern about homelessness, drug abuse and the marginalisation of the city's street people. Costello served as the president of the Baptist Union of Australia from 1999 to 2002. He has also been patron of Baptist World Aid Australia, a member of the Australian Earth Charter Committee, a council member of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, a spokesperson for the Interchurch Gambling