Catching up with our New Churches Initiative focus

 The WEBA New Churches Initiative is about a dream to plant 10 new churches in 10 years. Our focus in 2011 was Painswick, where the LEP had closed, and Roger Leigh of Cutting Edge Ministries was beginning to work with local people with the intention of forming a new missional group.
This update comes from the CEM blog . Thank you to all those churches who have faithfully given to our New Churches Initiative over the past year, enabling Roger to do this work, patiently planting, watching, and tending the seeds of kingdom growth in this part of Gloucestershire.

As you may know Roger has been working on behalf of the West of England Baptist Association during the past nine months. This required actioning a visitation programme in the well-to-do area of Painswick, Gloucester.If you receive the CEM magazine you would have read that its proved to be a difficult area to make any substantial progress in planting a Church. However, Roger has persevered and decided it would be appropriate to have a house Christmas Party to encourage awareness that the intention is to develop a "Fresh Expressions" or "Emerging Church" community group.

The response to the selective invites was very positive with some twenty people attending. Roger engaged with Brian, his able team member, the people assembled in both single and group discussion. All this amongst the beautifully decorated venue, with excellent Christmas music and sumptuous food which made for a very worthwhile and entertaining evening.

We look forward with a great measure of optimism that new people from this event will swell our numbers in the new year. Giving us lift off to a new community group which will allow people to explore their lives and understand more fully the message of Jesus Christ and his impact on our world.

Down to the River

WEBA's autumn newsletter has just gone to the printers, and many thanks to Sue Humphreys who helped me with an article about the canoe club she runs with her husband Ed and others from 3C Community Church in Gloucestershire.

I run out of words quickly when trying to describe the way someone like Sue and the others are serving God. I want to avoid overusing new jargon like 'missional' and 'incarnational', but also old jargon like 'sharing the gospel.'

What they are doing shouldn't need jargon - it's too straighforward and natural. They're running a canoe club. Most of the members aren't Christians, but the leaders see it as their life ministry to have fun with these people and help them acquire skills. They are being faithful to God by continuing to be their friends. What happens next is up to him. I wonder why this seems so easy to understand, and so tricky, in a church context, to describe.

Two copies of WEBA news will be sent to your church secretary next week. Please make sure you see it!

Nigel takes on big challenge of tiny church

Nigel Price is a member at Cirencester Baptist Church. He's a writer, consultant, science fiction critic, rugby supporter and amateur musician. Now he has taken on the challenge of leading Gloucestershire's oldest Baptist church. Today the WEBA office received this press release which we thought we'd share with you:

King's Stanley Baptist Church was founded in 1640 and flourished for over 350 years. But in recent times, the congregation became smaller and smaller until, last year, the remaining members were planning to close down the church. But the West of England Baptist Association, acting on behalf of the trustees, weren't ready to throw in the towel just yet. Having agreed a five-year stay of closure, they put together a steering group to investigate ways of reviving the church as a place of worship and a centre of service to its community.

As part of the steering group, Nigel Price, a long-standing member of Cirencester Baptist Church, volunteered to act as interim leader for the struggling church, taking weekly services and helping to organise activities once more.

“Once I started working here, I fell in love with the people, the place and the potential of this lovely church,” says Nigel, 54. “I became convinced that God was calling me to serve here and to see what we could do to build up this fellowship once more.”

With the agreement of the steering committee and the full support of his home church in Cirencester, Nigel has now taken on the formal post of pastor at King’s Stanley Baptist Church. He was commissioned in his new role last Sunday, 5 June, in a service led by the Revd Gordon Hindmarch, regional minister for the West of England Baptist Association. The normally small congregation was swelled to nearly 100 for the occasion by family, friends and well-wishers from Cirencester, Chalford, Stonehouse and Stroud Baptist Churches and from Malmesbury Abbey.

The guest preacher was Matt Frost, senior pastor at Cirencester Baptist Church. Using the story of the Bible’s King David and referring to Sir Winston Churchill’s wartime premiership, he spoke about the responsibility of a leader to bring inspiration and vision to those being led.

Nigel, who continues to support himself financially through his work as a writer and consultant, is under no illusions about the size of the task he has taken on.

“It’s a big challenge, but I remain optimistic and excited about what God is going to do at King’s Stanley Baptist Church.”

King’s Stanley Baptist Church is in the village of Middleyard, between Stroud and Stonehouse. Weekly Sunday services are at 10.30 am.