In what will be a first for the Assembly, BMS World Mission and the Incarnate Network are teaming up to present a seminar about church planting.
The three-hour interactive afternoon seminar will be in two halves, both drawing upon the experience of those participating and giving space to those wanting to learn more about how church planting and pioneering churches on the margins of society can be done.

The participants include Benjamin Francis, BMS' associate team leader who leads Big Life Ministries in India. Benjamin has experience of bringing the gospel into cultures that have never heard of Jesus. He and his team have successfully planted more than 6,000 cell groups in remote villages in India in the last six years.

He will be joined by the Revd Barney Barron who has brought a pioneering approach to church planting on an estate in Portsmouth. Barney has developed a style of worship appropriate to the community he is trying to reach.

The Revd Peter Dominey will also help to lead the seminar - Peter started Church from Scratch in Southend in 2002 and helps steer the Incarnate Network, the church planting arm of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

He is currently working alongside other churches and BMS World Mission to establish a new church among the 20-30 age group.

Peter said, 'It is exciting to be able to bring together experience from overseas and our experience from at home. There is lots to be learned from both, and I am sure this seminar will help.'

The Revd Peter Dunn, director of the mission department at BMS World Mission was enthusiastic about this partnership between BMS and the Incarnate Network. 'There is a lot to be learned from hearing the stories of cross-cultural mission both in the UK and elsewhere. This is the first time we have worked together like this and I am sure it will be of enormous benefit to those who take part.'

The seminar highlights the increased involvement of BMS in UK mission. In 2010 it announced a new partnership with UK inner-city mission agency Urban Expression, a partnership that seeks to develop an integrated cross-cultural package, with the agencies sharing good practice from their respective contexts.

In March the Revd Graham Doel will become the first BMS UK Field Leader, a role that will build partnerships between different organisations to enable cross-cultural mission with the UK.

The Baptist Assembly takes place in Blackpool 3 - 6 May.