Core Leadership Team - September 2024
Our Core Leadership Team enjoyed being together last week. It was a positive, encouraging and hopeful gathering where we were constantly reminded of the reality of the Kingdom of God in our midst.
One of the key roles of the Core Leadership Team is to come together to pray and share so that we can perceive what God is doing. This then helps shape our wider Baptist discernment through Council.
We were encouraged right from the start with Regional Associations sharing
stories of fruitful mission from our churches. We heard from lots of different places that people are showing up at church wanting to know more about Jesus and that people are being baptised. In some places where the baptistry hasn’t been open for a long time too – praise the Lord! As we shared together it was so encouraging to hear that God is at work and that faithful prayer and witness, sometimes over many years, is bearing fruit. Also, while we appreciate that our churches have been enriched by believers from all around the globe for many years, we are seeing that this is happening more and more, and we celebrate the life and light that this is bringing across our movement. Added to this there were stories of seeing God at work in unexpected and unpromising places and we were reminded both of the power of the “mighty tiny things” of the Kingdom – like seeds and yeast – and also that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)
It was good to hear the latest developments from our
Baptist Together Mission Forum and the plans for national strategic mission gatherings focused on equipping churches and individuals to make disciples and plant churches.
The prayer day focussing on mission on Thursday 26 September hosted in partnerships by Fresh Streams and Regional Associations was also highlighted.
Like many across our Movement, CLT finished their consideration of their
Project Violet requests for change in preparation for providing our responses by the end of September and urged each other and our teams to make sure we have registered our own personal responses to R12 and/or R33. We gave further thought to how Council might call for and facilitate a season of lament and hope in response to the research that has been offered to us at their meeting in October.
David Pile (minister at Basford Road Baptist Church in Nottingham) was our Accompanier
Recognising the need for sustained and unified prayer for the God’s mission in all its wonderful forms we agreed to pursue
national prayer gatherings during 2025 – more details to follow. It was good that we had more time and space to pray together and meditate on Scripture at this gathering and the passages that we reflected on were taken from Ephesians 1, John 1, Romans 15:13.
Following all the hard work and engagement of us all in the Consultation around Mariage and Ministry we took time to
review the
Consultation process. This was a very constructive session that identified our learning points for the future and also offered questions for individual reflection on the personal impact this has had for us.
CLT was delighted to hear that
Assembly 2024 received very positive feedback and also broke even financially! It was exciting to hear more about the plans for a connected mission focus alongside out next 3 Assemblies. Look out for more details in the coming days!
We were sorry to be saying farewell to
Andrew Ginn (Cemetery Road BC) who is stepping down from leading the Young Adults Round Table so will no longer be the one bringing those voices and perspectives into CLT. Andrew has been brilliant and contributed to CLT in so many ways. We will miss his wisdom, innovation, thoughtfulness, prayerful heart and sense of humour!
Lynn Green
September 2024
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.
Please share these messages with your church