Thought for the Week - 29th January 2023

 

Dear Friends, 

A new resource has recently been produced by Baptists Together (The Baptist Union of Great Britain) entitled Belonging to Baptists Together – Our Identity. It focuses on who we are as Baptists in the UK with the shared vision, ‘Growing heathy churches in relationship for God’s mission’, and highlights the commitment to developing a culture where we:

·    Seek to be a movement of Spirit-led communities, those who have encountered the living Christ (Galatians 5:22-25)

·    Feel like one team, valuing, respecting and trusting each other as we work together in partnership (1 Corinthians 12:24b-27)

·      Embrace adventure, being serious about discipleship and willing to take risks moving out of the comfort zones of the familiar (Matthew 28:18-20)

·    Inspire others with a generosity of spirit, energising and motivating people to be all that God created them to be (Ephesians 5:1-2)

·    Share a hunger for God’s coming Kingdom, giving practical expression to our vision of God’s purpose for creation (Matthew 6:9-10)

It is good to be able to say that we belong to something more than our own local church, district, or association and that as Baptists Together we can find encouragement, support and fellowship because of our shared vision to be a grass roots movement making Jesus Christ known to all. 

If you would like to view the resource for yourself you can find it by going to the Baptists Together website at https://www.baptist.org.uk/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=323265&view=browser 

Grace and peace,

Neil

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Week - 28th January 2024

Dear Friends, In 1985 the Congregational minister and hymn writer Fred Kaan reflected on ‘For the healing of the nations’ saying, ‘Of all the hymns that I have written, this is the text that has been more widely reprinted and incorporated in major hymnbooks than any other’. It was first used in 1965 and it expresses something of the deep longing and desire for peace and reconciliation, for God’s justice to be known, and for an end to all conflict and violence. Fred Kaan was a committed pacifist and, in an obituary, following his death in 2009 at the age of 80, it read, ‘His theology reflected a God committed to and immersed in a world crying out to be set free from every form of injustice. Fred’s poetry centred on a Jesus who embraced the whole of creation and excluded no one and nothing from his love. In Fred, the Christian peace movement found its voice.’                      ...
Read more

Thought for the Week - 29th October 2023

Dear Friends,  Today we are celebrating two things, firstly it is the Bible Society’s Bible Sunday, a day when we can give thanks to God for the scriptures and echo the apostle Paul’s words, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (2 Timohty 3:16-17). And secondly, as a church we are celebrating the 140 th Church Anniversary of Beckenham Baptist Church, founded in 1883 as Elm Road Chapel, the opening services took place on Wednesday 31st October – 9.30am Prayer Meeting, 2.45pm Public Service, 4.45pm a Meeting in the Chapel, and at 6.30pm another Public Service – with various Baptist luminaries of the day in attendance. The public reading of the Scriptures has always been at the heart of all we do as a Christian community, for it is there that we can hear the stories of the Bible and reflect upon our own place in God’s never-ending story ...
Read more

Thought for the Week - 4th December 2022

Dear Friends,  ‘Census 2021 will probably be remembered as the one in which Christianity became a minority religion in England and Wales’, so read the article in a leading UK newspaper. It went onto say that ‘the number of people identifying as Christian dropped 5.5 million in the past decade’ ( The Guardian , 29/11/2022). Responding to the findings the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said that the country has ‘left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian’, and that the Christian church would continue its work in the face of both ‘revival and decline’ ( Sky News , 29/11/2022). He went on to say in an interview for BBC News, ‘ It's not a great surprise that the census shows fewer people in this country identifying as Christian than in the past, but it still throws down a challenge to us not only to trust that God will build his kingdom on Earth but also to play our part in making Christ known’. The Bible Society says that the findings of...
Read more