Core Leadership Team - June 2023

Core Leadership Team (CLT) met at the Woodbrook Centre, 6-8 June. Welcomed for the first time was Tim Presswood, just days before his induction as our President the following week at the Baptist Assembly.

We valued the opportunity to be together for 48 hours. We were blessed with the spiritual accompaniment of Tim who brought his thoughts together beautifully and poetically at our close.



Whenever we meet, I like to symbolise the fact that Christ is at the centre of all we do.  This time, I brought the catalogue from the National Gallery’s exhibition in 2000, “Seeing Salvation – The Image of Christ.”  CLT members were invited to choose an image and leave the book open in the middle of the room. 



The overarching theme for our time together on this occasion was collaboration.  Because we want to participate in God’s mission as best we can, we gave time to thinking and praying about how our relationships and stewardship multiply our impact. 

In our first session we reviewed our document outlining the role and responsibilities of CLT members and reflected together on examples of when we have been at our best and also those times when we have been less than our best as a team.  Arising from this we agreed that we would draft a document that would express our commitment to one another as Core Leaders and for those who exercise trans-local leadership across our movement. 

One of the big projects that we are progressing across Baptist Together at the moment is the Financial Model Review.  This project aims to help us clarify how we work together most effectively, how we steward and share the resources that we currently have and how we encourage new income streams to release more missional initiative and support.  Over 4 sessions we discussed collaboration in mission and ministries and our Treasurer also provided an initial update to the financial data for our current sharing model.

Following the death of George Floyd in 2020, one of the concrete steps taken by CLT was to intentionally address its lack of racial diversity by adding Co-opted members so that CLT would reflect the diversity aspirations agreed by Council with regard to ethnicity.  These Co-opted members would serve 2 years terms; with the hope stated from the outset that we would soon come to the place where Co-options were not needed because CLT itself was a richly diverse team. Ken Benjamin, Yinka Oyekan, Judith Miller, Amie Buhari and Gale Richards were the first cohort and joined CLT during 2021 and we are hugely grateful to them for all the ways in which they have been part of the team and enriched our work.  Given that their terms come to an end in 2023 we took the opportunity to sit down together and review their experience and capture learning points to take forward for the next cohort.  Much helpful feedback was shared, and this will be reflected with the second cohort. 

As the Marriage and Ministry Consultation is now live, we also took the opportunity as a team to use the lens of Appreciative Inquiry to reflect together on the different approaches that we are hearing.  Using this method, the question was asked, “what is each approach seeking to convey about the nature of God and humanity?” 

Our prayers and worship were led by Anthony Clarke, Regent’s Park College (Luke 15), Philip McCormack, Spurgeon’s College (Ephesians 1) and me (I Corinthians 13) and we were blessed by our musicians, Phil Barnard, Sandra Crawford and Lee Johnson.  We also shared communion and this was led by Anthony Clark too.



This provided an opportunity for us to say farewell and pray for those who were present at a residential CLT for the last time and so we prayed for John Levick as he retires as our Treasurer in August, for Steve Finamore who retires as Principal of Bristol Baptist College in August and to Ken Benjamin and Yinka Oyekan who have both completed their 2-year term as Co-opted members.   



When we meet for an extended period, we allow lots of informal space just to be together and deepen our relationships.  This time, the Wednesday evening saw entertainment in the form of Rounders! A close game – 4:3 with Gary Woodall from Webnet getting several rounders! 
 


Lynn Green
June 2023
The Revd Lynn Green is General Secretary of our Baptist Union

The Core Leadership Team (CLT) is an expression of covenant and interdependence for us as Baptists.  It draws together many of those offering leadership across our Movement (Regional Team Leaders, College Principals, Specialist Team Leaders, our President, Treasurer, General Secretary, the Moderators of Council and the Trustee Board, together with a leader from each of our current priority areas) and its purpose is to perceive what God is doing, to encourage flourishing across Baptists Together and to model together what it means to be a Kingdom Movement. 

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