Crucible – on the move 

After 13 years at IMC in Selly Oak, Birmingham, during which time about 650 people have trained for mission on the margins of a changing culture, the Crucible Course is on the move. From the autumn it will run over six Saturdays each year in London (at Spurgeon’s College) and Exeter (at South Street Baptist Church).

Run by Urban Expression in partnership with the Incarnate Network, Rural Ministries and others, the course also provides half of the modules that make up the ‘Equipped to Pioneer’, a part time training course for those involved in church planting or pioneer ministry in Baptist Churches.

It is hoped that the course will be launched in other places in 2019, including Belfast, Southampton and Bradford, enabling people in different parts of the country to engage more locally with this pioneering training initiative.

Carl Smethurst, regional minister with the South West Baptist Association, said, ‘For some time we have been considering how we can resource those with a pioneering spirit to fulfil their calling in more rural contexts in the South West.

'We are delighted that the excellent Crucible course will now be available in Exeter to those in our family of churches and from other streams. I look forward to commending this course to all those who are exploring God’s call to communities beyond the reach of our established churches, particularly in the rural and coastal towns and villages of the South West.’

Simon Jones, a tutor at Spurgeon’s College, said, ‘The Crucible course is an essential programme for the training of pioneer missional people for today’s world and church. At Spurgeon’s we are happy to partner with the Crucible programme in two ways. The first is that a number of our undergraduate students have participated in Crucible and emerged equipped and energised in ways that have benefitted the college.

'The second is that in partnership with Urban Expression we are offering an Equipped to Pioneer programme of which Crucible is a major component.’