Firestarters is a community of churches eager to grow together, learning from other churches in our Baptist Family that are experiencing significant, accelerated growth. It is a community of churches committed to seeing people saved by Jesus and honest and open enough to learn together when that is not happening. How? Firestarters hold conversations hosted by some of the fastest growing Baptist churches in the UK. Our conversations are not conferences with a perceived expert keynoting, as useful as that is. Nor are they retreats with guided self-reflection, as vital as that is. They are conversations hosted by churches experiencing surprising growth. Numbers are always kept small so we can build relationships and work together going forward, with very targeted applications and the ability for honest and open discussion. We share lessons learnt, understand challenges and seek solutions, encourage and learn together. Numbers are intentionally kept very low, and a number of growing churches are present at each conversation. We also provide online and face to face support, mentoring and advice to help churches explore necessary change that flows out of these conversations. This is about a community, relationally connected and eager to learn and grow together. Check out all this and more at firestartersuk.com
Do you have new housing in an area near you? New housing developments are springing up all over the country – our challenge as Christians is to work out how God is calling us to respond. If you are working out how to plan strategically for the future, thinking about engaging with new residents, pioneering (or planning to), or have moved in to a new build area, come along to the New Housing Hub stand and seminar to help discern your next step. During the seminar we will explore planners, planning and partnering and some underlying principles for engaging in and serving new communities including how we might birth new churches/ Christian communities that are appropriate to the new context. Rev Alison Boulton and Rev Penny Marsh have founded the nation New Housing Hub to encourage and equip Christians of all traditions to share God’s love in every new community.
We know God is doing some great things in Baptist communities up and down the country. Carmel Murphy, on behalf of the Mission Forum, has created some materials for an interactive workshop essentially asking the question “what’s God doing where you are?” This session tells you more and shows you how to host a workshop.
There are so many missional opportunities within our Baptist family and the new #missionaladventure web portal seeks to bring them all together in one place. Come and discover more about what’s available to help you and your church embark on its own expedition of faith. We’ll also be launching the godsend app!
