A group of churches which has planted one new church every year for the last 35 years has something, under God, about which to be genuinely both joyful and thankful.
That is the case with the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland. The Association includes congregations both in the Province and the Republic.
Celebration
The Irish Baptist College, based in Moira, County Down, provides training for leaders and workers among the Association, and celebrated its commencement of the academic year on 22 September with a service packed with students, staff and well-wishers at Dromore Baptist Church, south of Belfast. Led by Pastor John Kimber, 14 new students were introduced as well as seven new postgraduate students. Two of the freshers were interviewed. Sharon Hoy spoke about her involvement in sharing the gospel with Muslim women, and is studying at the college in order to sharpen and strengthen this outreach. Paul McAdam, a young family man converted from a Catholic background, told of his desire to bring Christ to his home community. Dr John Benton, of Chertsey Street Baptist Church, Guildford, gave the sermon based on Paul’s description of Epaphras in Colossians, aimed at both encouraging and challenging those on the threshold of a life in ministry.
The Association has a thriving work among women and youth and a missionary presence in France, Spain and Peru. It marks the 120th anniversary of its foundation this year and now embraces 118 different congregations scattered across the island of Ireland.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church …