Our Young Leaders’ Development Coordinator Isabella Senior began her role in March 2022. She gave the following update for the Baptists Together website. It has been a fruitful year in this position, and I wanted to share some of the encouraging stories. God is at work among young adults in our Baptist movement and it is exciting to be part of this!  

There are about 50 interns starting in Baptist churches across the country from September onwards, and the number is still growing as I connect with more churches. London Baptists, Yorkshire Baptist Association, South West Baptist Association, South Wales Baptist Association and North Western Baptist Association are running their own internship programmes in a variety of ways and contexts. Southern Counties Baptist Association and Central Baptist Association together with Regent’s Park College (EQUIP) and London Baptists (Formation) are offering free online workshops for young leaders throughout the academic year.   

It’s been a privilege to support local churches in finding and hosting interns. Since I’ve been in post, more than 30 churches from across our Associations have contacted me expressing an interest in hosting an intern, and I am delighted to share that the Internship Best Practice Handbook - Tips for a successful internship programme is now available.

Our aim in producing this handbook is to encourage, promote and facilitate internships right across Baptists Together. It provides guidance on how best to host interns in churches, from the discernment process through to the practicalities. It also contains templates for an internship role profile, volunteer agreement and code of conduct, among other resources.  

We had our first Interns’ Gathering in January, and it was great to connect with interns across our Union, share experiences and be encouraged. I interviewed three former interns and we heard about how their internship year helped them grow as disciples of Jesus and leaders. Intern Shelby commented on the gathering ‘I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know other interns all over the UK. Being able to hear different experiences of interns in different churches was such a good insight of what’s to come.’ I’m looking forward to the next Interns’ Gathering in April.  

I’ve been so inspired by our Baptist interns and can’t wait to see what God has in store for them. I met 19-year-old Anna at Baptist Assembly 2022 and after a conversation she decided to do an internship year, and this is what she shares now ‘I officially had my Moses and the burning bush moment. I’m falling in love with the fact that everyone here is encouraging my passions and giving me opportunities to pursue them. Just when I was questioning why God brought me here, he came through and showed it to my face. I feel like I know what direction I’m meant to be going in and who’s coming with me. I have not been this happy in a long time. Honestly, letting go of the control I had over my life was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. It was scary but was so worth it!’  

I also had the privilege of attending two summer festivals for a day each: Satellites for young people aged 12-18 years old, and Sixty-One for young adults aged 18-30 years old. At Satellites, over 50 per cent of the young people there were from Baptist churches. A Baptist youth leader shared this on the stage on the day I was there, and it was so encouraging to hear so many young people shouting across the room in excitement that they are part of a Baptist church.

It was great to hear stories of young people finding Jesus in lockdown. Some of them connected through detached youthwork and others through the youth groups running online. I met youth groups that grew during lockdown, welcomed young Ukrainian refugees, and really benefited from interns and young leaders in their churches. I connected with two young women who had been interns in two different Baptist churches and they shared with me how much they enjoyed their internships and grew in faith and in leadership in the past year.  

At Sixty-One a Baptist church was leading a prophetic workshop which focussed on how to connect with God in prayer and live a naturally supernatural lifestyle. It was very moving to be in a place with so many other young adults passionate about Jesus and his kingdom – it felt in many ways like we are a faithful remnant!  

Other developments over the last 12 months include the launch of the @baptistyoungleaders Instagram account, which has more than 400 followers and connects with the young adults in our Baptist movement.  

Isabella Senior and Andrew Ginn, a core member of the Young Adults Round Table, gave a presentation at the October Baptist Union Council, which they subsequently recorded and is now hosted on the Young Adults area of the Baptists Together website. The presentation outlined challenges and opportunities to help the denomination grapple with the urgent need to serve this missing generation through our ministry and mission. Since then, Baptist associations and colleges have continued the conversation by hosting sessions on this missional need, starting new initiatives and being more intentional.