God Moving in Small Churches

Today I can't resist pulling together three little things that have come through the WEBA office. Grace Tucker at Ruardean Hill (membership: 7) sent me photos of their first baptism in twelve years yesterday. Then I had a request for any churches who might be able to lend Lawrence Weston (membership:11) a water heater for a baptism there. Then there was a request from the new Gospel Community Choir at Shirehampton, who have been borrowing Lawrence Weston's chairs for their rehearsals but now there aren't enough, and they wondered whether  any churches might have stackable plastic chairs they don't need.
Gordon Hindmarch (one of our Regional Ministers) remarked yesterday that exciting things are happening in our smallest churches. That's certainly how it feels today.
Please pray for the leaders and deacons of our Forest of Dean churches who are coming together for a quiet day tomorrow (Saturday 18th June). This is another new and exciting development for a number of our small churches.
And if you can help with the heater or the chairs, do call the WEBA office on 0117 965 8828. Thank you!

Home Mission Giving News

On Tuesday this week WEBA tried to hold its AGM.

Unfortunately there weren't enough church representatives present to vote, and so we're going to stage a re-run at the final 3 in 1 Event at Clarence Park Baptist Church on Sunday 19th June.

I felt a little sorry for those who had given up their evening for a meeting which will have to happen again, but we went through the substance of the agenda anyway, and one really useful bit was Gordon Hindmarch's summary of where WEBA is in regard to Home Mission.


All Baptist Union churches are encouraged to give at least 5% of income to this fund so that mission can be enabled across the country.

Recently, WEBA has been one of the highest giving Regional Associations. This May WEBA churches gave £22,228, which we think is brilliant considering the financial climate and the uncertainty faced by so many. There's really only one explanation: you, our churches, trust God, and you really believe in the growth of his kingdom.

What's really interesting, which Gordon pointed out on Tuesday, is that the 2010 total for Home Mission Giving in WEBA (£258,742) was so very close to the total we received that year ( £ 257,431 ) in terms of grants for ministry, projects, special grants to church planters and chaplains, and to the Association itself. So, as your church gives to Home Mission, mission in this region moves forward. A big thank you is due to all of you who make and approve the decisions to give. If you want to find out more about giving to Home Mission, please contact Gordon Hindmarch via the WEBA office.

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.

Home Mission Giving News

By now your church should have received a certificate to say thank you for giving to Home Mission during 2010. Please make sure it's on display somewhere! As we've now said many times, giving during 2010 was fantastic and we are extremely grateful for the faithfulness of our churches in difficult times.

Figures for giving in February 2011 have now been published. The good news is, we're still the highest giving association, with gifts for the month totalling £16,010. This is, however, short of the average of £20,000 per month we need in order to provide the support we have planned for. It's extremely helpful for us if churches give regularly by standing order throughout the year so that we can plan realistically - perhaps this is something your church could consider.

Home Mission Giving: Gordon puts up the flagpole

Regional Minister Gordon Hindmarch is very excited about our final total for giving to Home Mission in 2010. I can't resist copying his email to the office here:

Even without the one-off of £10,000 from Emmanuel Trowbridge WEBA churches would have achieved the Association's highest ever total at £258,738 (now confirmed by BUGB), which is £19950 (8.3%) more than the 2009 total figure.
This means December's giving was just over £31,000, which was our highest monthly figure in 2010..
Also our 2010 HM Giving/member was £37.85 (£32.47 in 2009) which makes us the highest givers among the 13 Associations in BUGB.
If we were feeling a bit triumphalistic, it might be worth investing in a flagpole for The Old Forge so we can hoist the Premiership Flag, which was previously held by the South West Baptist Association.

Take care
Gordon

Thank you again, WEBA churches. We can't get over your generous giving and hope we will be able to let you know more about what your money is doing in this region over the next year. A certificate thanking your church for its gifts will be on its way to your church secretary in February - make sure it goes up on the wall!