Mission – Ministry – Life
My normal Easter routine has gone a bit awry this year. Spending two weeks in Iquitos, Peru and then returning for Holy Week has meant that most of the week I’ve been suffering jet lag. Nevertheless, the usual run of services has come to a great conclusion with an Easter Sunday baptism. Yet half the... Continue Reading →
Now back from my trip to Iquitos I've put some of my photo's onto a video. The pictures will be the basis of my sharing with the church here which makes the video fairly lenghty.The visit was different to last time; my previous visit was more of a fact finding visit whereas my return was... Continue Reading →
Yesterday saw C of E Archbishop Rowan Williams announce his retirement. I believe the church in the UK owes him our thanks. We may not all agree with him but he has made a good fist of an impossible job; and is a model of how to lead a denomination through difficult issues. The Church... Continue Reading →
So March Council is now over; but what to say? Hopefully there will be a brief on line account of the material the ‘Futures Group’ shared in the next 24 hours (if not I’ll have a go at summarising). [Futures update gives the background here but not the suggested ways forward] Good: Overall it feels... Continue Reading →
I had deliberately refrained from blogging about Council's concerns over the use of social media but having mentioned it on twitter I seem to have started some debate. So for those who want to know: 1. Concern has been expressed by people using social media whilst at Council. The original Council documentation described this as... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Last week saw some interesting blogs (including Krish Kandiah's blog here) and twitter conversations about the statistics that suggest the church is haemorrhaging young people; despite significant investment into youth work. Having read some of the conversation it seemed to me that it didn’t resonate with my own experience. So I spent half an hour... Continue Reading →
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 →
Distinct Reflections 