Baptist Union Presidency for Yinka 

The Revd Yinka Oyekan has been elected President of our Baptist Union for 2020-21 

Yinka is the senior pastor of The Gate, a Baptist church in Reading, and was one of two nominations for the post, the other being the Revd Dawn Cole-Savidge, Communities Minister at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church. Voting closed at the end of March, and both candidates were informed of the result by General Secretary Lynn Green this week.

During his ministry at The Gate, Yinka has spearheaded The Turning, the evangelistic street mission which began in 2016 and has now taken place in dozens of UK towns and cities, as well as further afield. In his profile Yinka explained he has a long history in equipping and training individuals in evangelism and mission, and a particular interest in the third part of our Union's Declaration of Principle ('That it is the duty of every disciple to bear personal witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to take part in the evangelisation of the world.')

Responding to his Presidential election, Yinka said, 'I am grateful for the trust you have placed in me to encourage greater Gospel proclamation across our family.

‘There has never been a revival in the history of the church without two key elements being present - prayer and a deeper hunger for the Holy Scriptures. I believe a great renewal is coming to our Baptist family because I sense a hunger for both is increasing.

‘I am so excited to serve at this time because I believe the waters of renewal are stirring, and because of the Beacons of Prayer initiative.

'I look forward to serving Lynn Green, and Ken Benjamin (current Vice President) in his presidential year.'

Yinka will now serve as Vice President 2019-20, before assuming the presidency at next year’s Baptist Assembly.

Our current President is the Revd Dr Dave Gregory, whose theme has been Divine Windows: Glimpses of God in life, the universe… and everything.
 
The Revd Ken Benjamin, senior minister at Chichester Baptist Church, will succeed Dave at this year’s Baptist Assembly on 18-19 May in Telford. Ken's theme for his presidential year is 'Where do we grow from here?'. 

Yinka hopes to build on this theme. 'It is with interest that I am following the very excellent question posed by our current Vice-President,' he wrote in his profile. 'If elected, I would love to contribute to the conversation with a follow-up question: How do we grow from here?'

The President’s main role is as a communicator/facilitator of our Union’s vision and mission. The President travels around our Union, engaging with local churches, regional Associations and Colleges.  
 
A key part of the role is leading the Baptist Steering Group (BSG) Accompanying Group, which provides prayer support and shares in spiritual and missional reflection with BSG