Beckenham Baptist Church

Dear Friends,  I’m currently reading the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2023 by Emma Ineson entitled Failure – What Jesus said about Sin, Mistakes, and Messing Stuff Up . It begins by defining failure as ‘when something doesn’t go to plan’ but goes onto ask, ‘Whose plan?’ the world’s plan or God’s plan? It is helping me to think about how ‘success’ and ‘failure’ are measured. I wonder what constitutes success and failure in your mind, and what do you base your reasoning on? When Thomas Edison was asked about the failure he had experienced on the way to inventing the electric lightbulb he is said to have said, ‘I have not failed 10,000 times – I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work’. Perhaps we all need a little bit of Edison illumination as we contemplate failure and success. The Bible reminds us that so called failure might look very different from God’s perspective. Writing to the believers in Corinth, the apostle Paul says, ‘For the message of the c...

  Dear Friends, This week sees the beginning of the season of Lent in the Christian calendar for another year. Lent is a time of fasting and prayer that lasts for the six weeks, 40 days (not including Sundays) leading up to the great celebration of Easter Sunday which this year falls on April 9 th . Lent always begins with Ash Wednesday, sometimes called the ‘Day of Ashes’, which, coming from our Baptist tradition, we may know little about. It finds its roots in the Jewish tradition of penance and fasting, including the wearing of ashes on the forehead. You may have seen people with a dark smudge of ash coming out of a church on Ash Wednesday, and the ashes symbolise the dust from which God made humankind as detailed in the story of creation in Genesis 2. As a priest applies the ashes to the forehead of a person the words, ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return’ are spoken, which are found in Genesis 3 after the Fall (Genesis 3:19). Whilst this practice may be u...

Dear Friends,  Last week I spent a few days away at the annual London Baptists Ministers’ Conference at the High Leigh Christian Conference Centre in Hertfordshire. It was as ever good to catch up with friends and make new ones, be led in worship, prayer and communion, and also indulge in far too much food which was nevertheless very yummy indeed. The main speaker for the conference this year was the Anglican Bishop Graham Tomlin who was formerly the Bishop of Kensington and is now the Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness based at Lambeth Palace. To capture a few hours’ worth of teaching in just a few lines is impossible, but one thing that resonated and caught my attention was Bishop Graham’s assertion that the church grows in times of crisis, giving the example of the 1940s after World War II. Basing his talks around 1 Peter 2:9, ‘But you are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you...

Dear Friends,  Each year at the beginning of February we join with sisters and brothers in Christ in our Baptist family in praying for the work of our sister organisation BMS World Mission (formerly the Baptist Missionary Society). Founded in 1792 by William Carey who famously said in a sermon ‘Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God’, BMS works in some of the most fragile places on earth amongst some of the most least evangelised people. Missionaries engaged in this work seek to make Jesus known and make his abundant life that only he can provide a reality amongst the poor and marginalised – that is BMS World Mission’s highest goal. Working in and partnering with over 30 countries around the world, BMS shares the good news of Jesus Christ where it’s never been known with thousands of people hearing the gospel through its work; BMS seeks to bring hope to those in desperate circumstances through practical help with education, health care, and tackling injustice ...