Core Leadership Team - January 2026

Our time together began in prayer and worship rooted in John 1 and later encompassed the sweep of the book of Acts, the journey through the wilderness (Exodus) and concluded with the prayer that Jesus taught us: “Your Kingdom come” (Matthew 6).  It was so good to share stories of where we are seeing God’s Kingdom come, giving thanks and praying for more, Lord!  

We were grateful to David Pile from Basford BC, Nottingham for serving as our Accompanier.  His prayerful wisdom and insight were a real gift to our time together.

Investing in Godly Leadership is one of our key areas of work across Baptists Together.  The CLT recognises the need to increase the number of recognised and accredited ministers available to serve our churches and communities and is taking action collaboratively to address this.  Progress from four sub-groups of the Ministry Numbers Working Group was shared, including work to:

• better support those in the early stages of exploring a calling to ministry, and
• improving our welcome to those who come with prior qualifications and ministry experience.

In particular, we explored how a designated legacy might be used strategically to strengthen local leader training  across Baptists Together, there is growing anecdotal evidence that  good quality local leader training is a significant pathway into accredited ministry, and we are keen to invest wisely in this area.

We welcomed our new 18-35s Development Co-Ordinator, Matt Ceaser.  



As part of his induction, he was able to meet with the CLT, and we reflected together about the benefits of the role so far and hopes for future development of this important work.

Much of our time together was devoted to progressing our work on the Financial Model Review (FMR).  Together, we are at a critical point.  Home Mission giving has not kept pace with the growing needs and opportunities of our movement. Without increased income, we will soon face hard choices, including reducing some of the provision that underpins healthy churches and enables mission.  

The FMR has two key objectives:

• to increase income, and
• to agree how best to share the Common Purse across Baptist Together. 

At this gathering we worked on developing income generation plans with David Saint from Action Planning.  We benefitted from his extensive fundraising experience and engaged with his robust challenge as he pushed us to name and address barriers to development and implementation.  

We also emphasised the importance of continued, transparent communication with churches – helping them understand our current context, the collaborative work already underway, and the “Plus 1%” call to increase Home Mission giving.

Various staff changes were shared, including:

• Amy Barker, Director of Vocations & Ministerial Formation (EBA)
• Denise Dobie, Regional Minister (HEBA)
• Matt Ceaser, 18-35s Development Co-Ordinator (BUGB)
• Brian Smith, CYF Lead (LB)
• Nick Harrison Property & Trust Officer (WebNet)
• Sarah Bird, Operations Administrator (SWBA) 
• Jez Brown, Finance Office (SWBA).  

Following the news that Diane Watts will be concluding her role as Faith & Society Specialist Team Leader at the end of February, plans were shared about the future work of this team.  Whilst we are very sorry that Diane is leaving, her decision has provided an opportunity to think creatively about how the Specialist Teams can be realigning their teams, people and other resources to best support our churches.    

As a result, we will not be appointing a new Team Leader but developing the work of the team through the General Secretary Team, the Ministries Team and the Support Services Team.

Please continue to pray for our Core Leadership Team as we seek to work collaboratively to grow healthy churches in relationship for God’s mission.

Lynn Green
January 2026
The Revd Lynn Green is General Secretary of our Baptist Union

The Core Leadership Team (CLT) is an expression of covenant and interdependence for us as Baptists.  It draws together many of those offering leadership across our Movement (Regional Team Leaders, College Principals, Specialist Team Leaders, our President, Treasurer, General Secretary, the Moderators of Council and the Trustee Board, together with a leader from each of our current priority areas) and its purpose is to perceive what God is doing, to encourage flourishing across Baptists Together and to model together what it means to be a Kingdom Movement. 

Please share these messages with your church