Growing hubs, ambassadors, transitional ministry and more
Notes from a recent Baptist Union Smaller Church online gathering (18 September 2025), which featured updates from the Small Church Connexion Team and representatives from several Associations
Hilary Taylor, Small Church Connexion Team Leader, opened the meeting in scripture and prayer. She highlighted both Psalm 115 and Luke 12:32 'Do not be afraid, little flock, for the Father delights to give you the Kingdom!'
‘All our smaller churches are valued,’ she said. ‘It’s all about Him and the Kingdom – in every strategic place, our smaller churches are there.’
Small Church Connexion national team
Hilary and other members of the national Small Church Connexion team shared a brief presentation to introduce their work.
Hilary highlighted hubs, which enable smaller Baptist churches to meet for training, resourcing and general encouragement. They continue to grow: since the last meeting, 280 people have attended 18 small church hub events from 62 churches and three new hubs have been planted.
Two more hubs will be planted before the end of the year – 19 have been planted, with 14 still active (some are on their sixth event). There have been a further three enquires for 2026. One minister said, ‘The work SCC does is consequential and significant. It changes the churches thinking from independent to together.’
The SCC has a growing team of ambassadors under Tim Lovejoy’s leadership (see below); it has attended, several national and association events this year, and has been working alongside other organisations such as Baptist Insurance, E4:12, K180 and Big Life, all of whom encourage the small churches to reach out with the gospel.
The SCC has several plans, including to recruit more team members, ambassadors, and younger leaders; working with K180 to place trained evangelists into one or a group of small churches (which is an experiment within London Baptists), and the establishing of a expertise/resource database in each Association where anyone from any church can volunteer to help and any church can ask for help. (Work is underway to set up such a database in London).
Jonathan Martin - transitional ministry
Jonathan Martin is a member of Buckland Road Baptist Church in Poole and engages interim or transitional ministry alongside smaller churches.
He highlighted six categories of small church. The list needs refining, he said, but helps him assess and support small churches during his visits.
These are:
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Small and newly planted
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Small but significant in context (either in number (30 member church in an 800 people village) or in community action
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Small and actively growing
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Small and content – ticking over
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Small and struggling
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Small and wanting to just die a good death (to end well)
He shared a story of a struggling church, which he journeyed alongside for a short period. The church was ready to die, but he took them through a process of meeting several other churches and introducing new Christian possibilities. By God’s grace, solutions were found.
The church had an empty property and found a resolution through a local YMCA, which has secured its finances. (The property is now occupied by a homeless young man.) The church now has vibrant worship, and he shared a letter of thanks from its leadership.
This process, Jonathan, emphasised, highlighted the importance of community and collaboration among Christian churches and organisations.
Tim Lovejoy - SCC Ambassadors
Tim Lovejoy explained how the SCC has established ambassadors as one way it can support small churches.
There are currently three SCC ambassadors, including Tim, who leads Fulmerston Christian Fellowship in Thetford, Sam Ackerman (see below), and Steve Wyatt. Together they have contacted 25 small churches through visits, chats, and training sessions.
The ambassador role involves building relationships of support and trust with the churches, a listening ear to discuss their needs.
Tim uses two simple questions to understand a church’s circumstances:
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What enables you to keep going as a church?
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What are your churches’ greatest needs right now?
This opens productive conversations with leaders and ministers, said Tim, and highlights possible areas where the SCC could help. (The SCC has 10 ways in which it could help a small church.) Examples of recent support include helping a church write a profile, and delivering a training session on healthy foundations of a small church.
Tim would love for more ambassadors to expand their reach. The ambassadors identify a manageable number of churches (about 10) to keep in contact with - so having 10 ambassadors could support 100 churches, Tim said. More ambassadors would also help to better understand the needs of small churches more generally.
Sam Ackerman - part-time ministry
Sam Ackerman is another SCC ambassador, and he spoke about the possibility of part-time ministry in small churches. Sam is the part-time minister of Horndean Baptist Church in Waterlooville, Hampshire, and has a particular calling to part-time ministry. (Sam’s ideas are explored in this article.)
Part-time ministry could be an option for churches with limited finances, but there are few resources to churches transition to part-time ministry.
His own church has long used a part-time ministry model, and this works well. However, others who have reached out to him on the back of his articles have spoken of 'terrible times' as part- time ministers, 'where churches still expect them to do all the duties of a full-time minister but pay them less.'
Sam is therefore available if any church would like to discuss part-time ministry.
News from around the Associations
Representatives spoke about the small church landscape in their Associations, and several themes emerged which highlighted both the joys and challenges of small church life:
Associations are attempting to support small churches in different ways, through geographical hubs, training days (including leadership training at different levels, and on delivering all age services to accommodate different learning styles and ages) and networking. The possibility of sharing leadership training that has already taken place in particular Associations was mentioned.
Due to the thriving nature of the communities, several small churches wouldn’t identify themselves as such, even if they technically fit the description (below 40 members).
Many small churches are finding creative ways to survive, thrive and bless their communities.
There have been many baptism stories at small churches, including those that hadn’t seen a baptism in many years.
Many small churches struggle with the demands of governance and property. This leaves churches expending their available energy on administration, rather than mission. It is difficult for many churches to find trustees, secretaries and treasurers, further draining the energy of remaining members. In some cases this has led to a church closing.
Children’s, youth and family ministry is also challenge, particularly when new families arrive and there is no prior provision.
Image | A photo from a recent Small Church Hub, which met at Union Church, Heathfield in July 2025
Baptist Times, 29/09/2025