BoH2017

Where is your faith?

“Where is your faith?” This is the searching question that Jesus asked His disciples after He had calmed the storm (Luke 8:25) and this is the question that I have been meditating on recently. As I shared in my Advent Message, 2016 was a year in which we have witnessed some significant shifts in our global, political and economic landscape. This, in turn, creates challenges for us as Baptists Together for 2017 and beyond.

“Where is your faith?” And so, as we stand at the beginning of another year, the first and most important thing for all of us to do is to keep our focus on Jesus in worship and mission! Above all we need to make sure that "the main thing", remains "the main thing"! In faith, we must not let our challenges deflect us from who God is and His call to us.

“Where is your faith?” In 2015 I offered a call to prayer, Beacons of Prayer, and I have been amazed and encouraged to see how God has been moving churches to pray, seeking God and making space for Him to do what He wants to do. Now 18 months later, we are seeing God at work amongst us and across the U.K. in incredible ways and Beacons of Prayer is developing into a call for our churches to be Beacons of Hope, sharing the good news of Jesus in the places He has put us! There are so many in our communities who are longing for hope and we are called to be witnesses to the love, light and life of Jesus. I am praying that the Lord would increase our faith in Him in this coming year so that our witness becomes the overflow of our vibrant and authentic relationship with Him. Will you pray with me?

“Where is your faith?” We are called not only to be Beacons of Hope in the places God has put us but ALSO in the places where He is and we are not! In times where the gap between rich and poor in our own country is widening we need to be following our Lord who came to preach good news to the poor. In times when many people under the age of 40 know very little, if anything, about Jesus, we need to be connecting and communicating the good news of Jesus to unreached generations. Our vision is growing healthy churches in relationship for God’s mission and that doesn’t mean simply strengthening our existing churches or even replicating them; we also need to be creating new Beacons of Hope in places, and with people, where hope is most needed. Will you nurture the faith that believes that where God calls, He equips?

“Where is your faith?” As we head into 2017, will you follow Jesus with me, hard on His heels, and will you be willing to go where ever He takes us? Will your church be a Beacon of Hope in the place where God has put you? Will you be open to seek a vision from the Lord for creating new Beacons of Hope? I am praying that the Lord would increase our faith in 2017 and I am praying that as we are on fire for Jesus, He will be seen ever more clearly in us and through us.

Lynn Green
General Secretary, Baptist Union of Great Britain