Small Baptist churches – a growing Connexion team, regional stories 

Notes from a recent Baptist Union Smaller Church online gathering (19 September), which featured representatives from several Associations

A growing Small Church Connexion Team

Small Church enabler Hilary Taylor shared how the Small Church Connexion Team she heads has grown: she is now supported by Tim Lovejoy, Sue Hensby and Jonathan Martin, all volunteers who want to use their different skills and gifts to support small churches across our Union.
 
Tim has led a small church in Thetford, Norfolk for almost 25 years. He explained he wants to develop a team of networkers - people who can keep in touch with a group of small churches in their area. 'It's just a simple way of remembering small churches and saying to them from time to time, 'how are you getting on?''
 
Tim has also run regional events for small churches (in the Eastern Baptist Association), and has material to offer this more widely.
 
The final way he can serve the Small Church Connexion is in terms of 'big picture thinking' - he can sit with Associations and help them develop their strategy for how they want to support their small churches.
 
Jonathan’s particular niche is interim or transitional ministry. He is exploring the possibility of a small churches ecumenical hub in the Bournemouth and Poole area.
 
He is also involved with 'Age With a Mission' - this is drawing older, retiring or retired people who are on the edge of church life. They offer mutual support, and are engaged in activities: for instance, a small church invited the group to spend time with them and think through what rejuvenation might look like. Both Age with a Mission and the partner church have felt 'energised' by this: the former have felt their skills have been well used, and the church has felt encouraged, affirmed and supported.
 
Sue Hensby is based in the East Midlands. She specialises in giving grant advice, and also has a heart for tiny churches. Tiny churches have 10 members or fewer, and there are 230 of them in our Union, according to the latest Annual Returns.
 
Hilary explained her own role with the Connexion now is looking at the picture of small churches across our Union, and making sure their concerns and needs are kept on the national agenda. She is networking around the country, and has helped to create 16 hubs, involving 79 churches and 370 people, with three more due to be set up in the coming months. 
 
She would like to see a database of skills created in each Association, which would encourage links and the sharing of skills. There used to be one in London Baptists. 
 
Hilary said that while the numbers of small churches have grown, there are also many good stories. 'Lots more churches are saying people are just walking in off the street - we're doing nothing different, and people are just walking in.' There have been many baptisms, as well as 'a lot' of community engagement.
 
There are also 'heartbreaking' stories, Hilary continued. She'd recently been to one church which hadn't conducted a baptism since the 1970s.
 
She said the Small Connexion Team 'needs to be focusing the churches on the Great Commandment and the Great Commission', and help them understand: 'This is who we are. How can we work that out where we are, and with who we've got?'
 
The team wants to plant more hubs, hold more regional events, including retreats for small churches, and walk alongside them.
 
It is seeking young leaders with a passion for small churches to join team.
 
It is also launching Mission@home, which has previously worked in London. This involves having a skill you could offer to teach someone else. It's an opportunity for partnership and provide bespoke training, without the need for going away to a training course.
 
'The best way to actually train someone is have someone in your situation alongside you, doing it with you where you are,’ explained Hilary. ‘Having somebody come alongside you to help you and train you is a really good way of learning.'
 
Crucially, there is a beginning and end point, meaning people would commit for a finite period. 
 
'I'm just going to push it out there across the country and say, could this work where you are?' said Hilary.
 
The team has recently been awarded a grant by the Baptist Union Mission Forum to expand its work across the country.
 
 

News from the Associations

Representatives who were present gave an update on small churches in their Associations
  

Eastern Baptist Association (EBA)

A new Association team meant there hadn't yet been a focus on small churches, noted regional minister Claire Blanchard, but a once-a-term online call is being initiated to build relationships.
 
Claire understands the EBA currently has the most churches on the Pastoral Vacancy List, and more than half of these (11 out of 19) are small churches. It's indicative of a family crisis - more churches in settlement than available ministers. 'But we are people of hope, and we look to the future and we see what God might be doing in the midst of this,' said Claire.
 
The Association has recently appointed three new part-time roles (co-ordinators for Children,Young People and Families; Eco Church, and Pioneering) and these will all support local churches.
 
 
London Baptists

Fran Bellingham is stepping down from leading the Small Church Connexion in London to head up a joint ministry with her husband. The Association is therefore looking for a new person to head up its network.
 
An event called Growing Healthy Churches takes place for small churches at Bromley Common Baptist Church on 19 October. 
 
 
Central Baptist Association

Regional minister Mary Moody highlighted how the Association has changed its Home Mission grant allocation process - and one impact of the change is that those in receipt of Home Mission are now able to give back by 'mission enabling' in another church setting, bringing a fresh pair of eyes into that context.
 
The changes have also resulted in ‘a broadening of the types of settings where a grant might be obtained’, and grants are now set for three years.
 
Mary said one of the main issues small churches are currently experiencing is a struggle to find trustees.
 
 
South Eastern Baptist Association (SEBA)

Regional minister Team Leader Joth Hunt said the Association had employed a third regional minister with a focus on mission. Andy Twilley is a Baptist minister who had been employed in a similar role in the United Reformed Church for the last seven years. This is support for all churches, and around 48 per cent of SEBA's churches are small.
 
The Association launches an initiative called "Partners in Mission" next year. Joth explained the emphasis is on ‘what is God calling your church to do in terms of mission? And how do you do that?’
 
Each church that becomes a partner in mission will explore what tools they need to enable that mission, and how the Association can support it. They'll be able to apply for a grant for up to three years.
 
 
South West Baptist Association

Carl Smethurst, regional minister, wasn't present at the meeting but had sent a report. One church in Devon had decided to solve its financial issues by releasing its minister.
 
Another church in rural mid Devon seven years ago was close to closure - but is welcoming new believers and has used its baptistery for the first time in years. Younger families have become part of the life of the church, a congregation member has been inducted as its pastor, and the church is full most Sundays.
 
Their secret is 'perseverance, accompanied by a generous, hospitable, inclusive welcome to all from all kinds of backgrounds, and a deep commitment to love one another,' Carl noted.
 
 
South Wales Baptist Association

Many of the Association's churches fit into the small category, said regional minister Rob May. The biggest area in growth in terms of mission is the Renew Wellbeing spaces - around 16 churches now host them. The Association has employed Naomi Dickerson as its Renew co-ordinator, and 'it's opened up all kinds of possibilities for churches that otherwise might have struggled to wonder how they're going to engage with their community,' said Rob.
 
South Wales now has an above average number of South Koreans - early missionaries to Korea were Welsh, and now the favour is being returned. One has already helped turn around a church in central Cardiff. Some churches have experienced growth in numbers, and others are looking to plant.
 
On the other hand, several congregation are struggling with the legal and governance issues around their building. He noted that due to Wales' history, there is an above average density of Baptist chapels in a small area.
 
 
Southern Counties Baptist Association (SCBA)

Jim Thomas, regional minister, said the Association was ‘encouraged’. It now has a small churches team, which includes the aforementioned Jonathan Martin. The Association organises online gatherings for small churches three times a year for prayer and mutual encouragement.
 
Next year SCBA has arranged two onsite events for small churches, the first being a leaders' retreat. Many leaders 'aren't paid ministers, but they're the ones who just feel like they're holding their small church together by the tip of their fingers,' said Jim.
 
The second event is for the whole congregation, and will be the equivalent of a church weekend away. Future ideas include exploring the possibility of a youth leader across several churches, and sharing a treasurer.
 
 
Webnet

The key offer from the Association continues to be Reimagine, noted regional minister Alisdair Longwill. Reimagine is an 18 month missional learning community for church leadership teams, which explores the culture we're living and how we might respond. This is for all churches, and several small churches have benefitted from participating.
 
Like other Associations, Webnet too had seen churches struggle with buildings, but in some cases this had led to a positive outcome: Alisdair mentioned one church which sold its building, bought a house to rent, the income of which in turn supported a minister part time. 'And actually that's beginning to turn that church around,' he said. 'Had that not happened, it would have been unlikely for that church to continue anything beyond another five years.'
 
The Association has also offered mission community days for Home Mission churches, and has just begun an online preaching course.
 
 
Heart of England Baptist Association     
   
Regional minister Dave Ellis highlighted how Chelmsley Wood Baptist Church had recently come off Home Mission funding after 21 years. This was due to opening a fish and chip shop in 2018, an innovative initiative supported by a grant from the Association. When it opened Baptist minister Neil Roberts described it as 'an ethical business which has the community’s interests at heart'. Dave said how several years on, the impact on the community 'has been immense'.
 
Dave spoke of another lively small church that keeps seeing people saved at various missions. Several people in the Association are undertaking training via Spurgeon's College's Equipped to Minister course, while a further group are in the process of becoming Recognised Local Ministers, the relatively recent category offered to those for whom training to be an accredited Baptist minister is either not their calling or not possible in their circumstances. Many are from smaller churches.
 
'It's quite something that so many are interested in going along that route,' said Dave.
 
 
East Midlands Baptist Association
 
Regional minister Nick Ashton shared how some smaller churches are 'doing ok', but others are struggling. A couple are set to close in the next six to twelve months. Amalgamation is 'a sensible possibility' for some, but there is hesitancy.
 
'Congregations are getting older and smaller, there's a lack of vision of what could be, and a lack of missional imagination seems to be common,' Nick continued. Some leadership teams are 'simply worn out' maintaining the church.
 
The Association is trying to be proactive in engaging with leadership teams, and the two hubs that have taken place in the last 12 months (in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire) have been generally well received. Another hub will happen in Lincolnshire, while the Association team is due to meet Sue Hensby.