Grief and growth in Basildon
Jim Sayers
With news of how God brings blessing and
new life out of the darkest of situations in
His church, Jim Sayers of the Association of
Grace Baptist Churches writes:
What happens when your church building
gets destroyed in an air raid? That happened
to the church in Chatham Road, Wandsworth
Common on 15 October 1940. After World
War 2, large numbers of Londoners moved
out to the new towns. A number of Grace
Baptist churches were planted in these new
towns in the 50s and 60s, a time of real
social change. So Fryerns Baptist Church was
planted in Basildon, Essex in 1954 to replace
the church in Wandsworth.
Grace Baptists think out of the box and into the car park
Jim Sayers
What did you do for your Christmas carol service, with the public seeing church buildings as a Covid danger zone? The pandemic has made us think outside our buildings, and many churches have responded creatively.
For their carol service in 2020, Highbury Baptist Church in North London went outside into Highbury Fields, Islington’s largest green space. With a makeshift PA, two violins and a guitar, a small group of people and a table of giveaway books, it wasn’t a big gathering. Phil Heaps, co-pastor at Highbury Baptist, said: ‘There were many people out and about, and a good number stopped to listen.’ They repeated this in 2021. ‘Certainly, there remains a general goodwill towards carol singing in our increasingly hostile society, and we intend to do it again next year.’
150 years of Grace
Jim Sayers
Jim Sayers writes: How important to my spiritual life is my local church? Is it just one more thing to help me, alongside Bible study notes, journaling, conferences, books and the blogger-sphere? On the contrary, Biblical church life is at the heart of a healthy Christian life.
That was the essence of Mark Dever’s message, speaking at a landmark day for Grace Baptist Churches in London recently. The AGBC(SE) celebrated its 150th anniversary at Homerton Baptist Church with Dever (who pastors Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC) as guest speaker. In his keynote session, Dever looked at why ecclesiology matters, tracing out many fads that have eroded the centrality of the local church. Touching on a wide range of current trends, he noted that while nominalism in churches rises the age of baptism decreases, ‘so that we baptise pagans and call them saints’. How children relate to a church is important to its long-term health.