BUGB Council meets again. 400 years after the first Baptist church in England we are starkly reminded that our faith should not be placed in institutions, our treasure should not be in investments and our confidence should not be in numbers. As we recall Jesus walking purposefully to Jerusalem we are reminded that he invited... Continue Reading →
Futures proposal for #BUGB
Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about how we might move the conversation forward; particularly since BUGB Council meets again next week. So I have produced two things. The first is a video giving an overview of the steps we need to take. The second is a longer paper giving more detail (here).... Continue Reading →
Praying for BUGB futures
A number of folk are trying to encourage prayer for the BUGB futures process and are inviting people to pray at 8:50 every Tuesday morning. In amongst all the opinions, words and pictures shared about the future it is vital we hold the process before God. As we go along this journey we want to... Continue Reading →
Quick thought
I spotted this quote in an Associated Baptist Press opinion piece and wondered what it may say to us in BUGB about our own futures process. "I think it is important to resist allowing the framing of the issues to be set by people acting independently of their local congregations. Denominational meetings are often hijacked... Continue Reading →
BUGB: Listening and futures process
As the Beyond400 conversation and others continue, I’ve been wondering about listening to ‘voices’ and how we might process what we hear. Then in the last 48 hours two friends have blogged thoughts on the process that are at odds with each other; which perhaps illustrates the challenge. In various ways people are being heard,... Continue Reading →
Audacious courage: lessons from a larger church 3
My final musing on lessons from leading a smaller and larger church is one that I’ve still not really grasped. The need for audacious courage. The first principle that leadership is about courage rather than control is straightforward enough. In a small church if you work hard you can do it all yourself, from cleaning... Continue Reading →
It takes courage
My turn this weekend to be one of the voices at Beyond 400 Since I blog about Baptist life all the time I thought I would do my voice as a video. Never having used video creation or editing software before it has been an interesting learning curve. No doubt, like sermons, I'll look back... Continue Reading →
Handling diversity: lessons from a larger church 1
I was thinking over the weekend whether there was anything I’ve learned from leading both a smaller church and a larger one (at least by BUGB standards) which might help the current BUGB debate. So here is the first of a couple of posts designed to share some ideas, you will have to judge whether... Continue Reading →
Beyond 400 – thoughts so far
Now the 6th voice has been published I thought some reflections might be in order; though for the full effect you need to read each entry and the comments yourself. Three things have struck me so far: 1. We need to acknowledge how broken the current denomination is. Peter Dominey spoke of grieving what is... Continue Reading →
Baptist Futures survey
As part of the conversation BUGB is having about the future their website has a survey that anyone involved in Baptist life is invited to complete. SurveyMonkey questionnaires are of course only part of the solution, the danger sometimes is that they make a monkey out of survey results; by forcing you to make choices... Continue Reading →
Distinct Reflections 