Programme Overview
Throughout our 400-year history, mission has been at the heart of who we are. With evangelism and discipleship, it is clearly what still drives our leaders and churches as they seek to reflect the heart of God in their own particular communities. For 2025, we are really looking forward to partnering more closely with BMS, and learning from the insights they and their partners can share to resource the mission of local Baptist churches and pioneers.
Please see below for an idea of what to expect at
United in Mission: global insight, local impact.
There will be a
Children and Youth Programme available on the Saturday, which needs to be booked with Adult tickets in advance.
Friday 16 May
Time |
Details |
12:00 |
Registration Opens |
14:00 |
Welcome and opening worship |
14:30 |
Flourishing discipleship: from Kolkata to Toxteth and back again
Come join us as we explore together how to make disciples within our very own contexts and congregations. BMS World Mission’s Indian evangelist Ben Francis has given life to over 50,000 house churches in his homeland over the last 20 years. Over that time, he has shaped a ‘Look back – Look up – Look forward’ mission framework that is now being adopted and adapted by UK Baptist churches. A meeting in Kolkata between Ben and Toxteth Tabernacle’s Jack Sykes saw this missional movement flow from northeast India to northwest England. Jack and Ben will be on hand to share all that has been learned from the experience and what this looks like in a UK context. They will be joined by Kwame Adzam, Head of BMS’ Heart for the Gospel ministry, to share how disciple-making movements are bearing fruit within the cracked soil of Bangladesh, Thailand and North Africa and how we can be inspired by them. |
16:00 |
Refreshment Break |
16:30 |
Unity in diversity: when intercultural mission goes local
BMS World Misson partner Quest Academy works on the faultline where refugees meet local communities. Come and join Quest’s Peter Samir and BMS’s Head of the Help for the Journey ministry Sam Chaise as they share their experiences of training those from Arabic and Farsi backgrounds to bring the gospel to this group of people who have been displaced from their homes and now live in the UK. As the world tilts drastically on its geopolitical axis, Peter and Sam will be joined by Sharon Shek and Londy Chan from the Baptists Together Hong Kong Response Project as they share stories of helping Baptists discern how God is at work amid migrants in your communities. And in the spirit of bringing as much experience as possible to see how we all can benefit, we will be joined by the Revd Amutha Deveraj, the first non-male, non-white minister at Ashurst Drive Baptist Church in northeast London to share about intercultural church leadership serving and reaching a multicultural community. |
18:30 |
Dinner |
20:00 |
Feedback from the afternoon sessions |
20:30 |
Reflective Evening Prayer |
21:00 |
Close |
Saturday 17 May
Time |
Details |
08:30 |
Registration Opens |
09:00 |
Welcome, worship and prayer |
09:30 |
Multivoiced Bible Studies based on Luke 15: 1-7 'The Parable of the Lost Sheep' – with Kwame Adzam, Savannah Bell, Annet Ttendo Miller, Saba Riazi
|
10:30 |
What is God saying to your local church? - with Aniu Kethoser |
11:00 |
Refreshment Break |
11:30 |
All Together Communion and Prayer |
12:00 |
Lunch |
14:15 |
Welcome to Baptist Assembly |
14:30 |
Looking back - reflecting on the past year |
15:15 |
BUGB Meeting of the Assembly - in which the topics required under our constitution will be presented, including the affirmation of the appointment of the Treasurer and the Moderator of the Trustee Board. |
15:35 |
Discernment Time - What is Mission? |
16:00 |
Worship and prayers of intercession |
16:15 |
Refreshment Break |
17:00 |
Celebrating the Present and Commiting to the Future
Including In Memoriam; the commissioning of ministers and mission personnel; a keynote address by our General Secretary, Lynn Green; closing worship |
19:00 |
Close of Assembly |