In his role as the general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Jonathan spends many of his weekends visiting and preaching at churches around the country.

Most recently it was the turn of East London. In the morning Jonathan visited the new café church, Kahaila, in Brick Lane. In this imaginative project, supported by Home Mission, the café is the church: Baptist minister the Revd Paul Unsworth realised that a traditional Baptist church would not work in a road which come Sundays is full of markets, restaurants and visitors.

The café runs as a charity, hosts community events and aims to plough profit back into local community projects and other charitable causes, as well as serving delicious and ethically-sourced food. In short, it gives an opportunity to have a real presence on Brick Lane.
It launched earlier this year (exactly 400 years after the first Baptist church in England in nearby Spitalfields) and after only a month in operation it is thriving with takings more than double what was expected.

'We are a church, but not church as you might understand it,' writes Paul on the website. 'We do not see ourselves as religious, we see our selves as being relational. We live in relationship with God and with each other, therefore we see ourselves as a family rather than as an institution.'

Paul Unsworth playing CarromDuring his visit there Jonathan was taken on a stroll around Brick Lane. Amid people playing chess they were invited to take part in a game of Carrom, a cross between tiddly winks and snooker. Within minutes a couple of people joined in, and a crowd had gathered.

'It was hilarious fun,' said Jonathan. 'We introduced ourselves and were soon engaged in a highly contested game. It was a wonderful way of making contact with people, and is a parable of the way in which the new café church is seeking to reach out to the crowds on this vibrant street in the East End.'

Mid-afternoon Jonathan travelled a further three miles, to Poplar, and another exciting but very different Baptist church. There he preached at Calvary Charismatic Baptist Church, a large and predominantly Ghanaian fellowship (more than 2,000 members) that for the past four years has been based in a former post-war Methodist church.

Its senior pastor Francis Sarpong leads a group of more than 40 pastors, six of whom are full-time, and the church has spawned a number of other congregations in the area.

Jonathan preached at the opening of the week-long Charismatic Fire Convention - and received an enthusiastic response.

'The last few sentences of my sermon could not be heard amid the clapping and stamping of the congregation as they all rose to their feet,' he said.
 

'I was inspired by their vitality and faith and give thanks to God for their amazing confidence in the Gospel. 'Their joy is infectious and their enthusiastic listening to my sermon was humbling.'