These days, the annual get-together of supporters of Grace Baptist Mission alternates between venues in London and the Midlands. On Saturday 24 October it was the turn of the Renewal Centre in Solihull.
Around 650 people gathered and the theme highlighted the needs of Europe under the banner ‘A Light in Every City.’ Graham Field, chairman of the Mission’s Council, began the day emphasising that our mission is determined by our master, the Lord Jesus Christ. Daryl Jones, mission coordinator, used a cricket analogy to emphasise the need for partnership in mission, especially between the churches and GBM.
Urban renewal
There were a number of intriguing and stimulating seminars, with reports back from the field focusing on work in Poland, Serbia, Burkina Faso, the Philippines and more.
Two reports from France were both encouraging and challenging. Bordeaux is a growing and vibrant city which is undergoing urban renewal, aiming to expand its population to a million by 2030. Here, led by Alan Davey and James Hammond, ‘The Bordeaux Church’ has taken off. It is very international, with a student/young professional flavour and meets in a restaurant – something which evokes a splendid and useful curiosity among the locals only used to formal Catholicism. The church aims to give solid Reformed teaching and at the same time have an open hand of welcome for all people, wherever they are at in their life’s experience.
Paris
Later, Hannah Prior, who has been working on the northern side of Paris, explained that, though there have been great steps forward in France in recent years, if our aim was that there should be one church in Paris for every 10,000 people then another 150 churches are still required in France’s capital.
Central Asia
There were also new missionaries to be introduced. Paul and Solveig Guttridge, whose home church is Eden Chapel, Cambridge, are going out to the gigantic country of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
There Paul will be heading up the IFES work among students. They have three groups at work already, in three different cities. But to give some idea of some of the challenges, if one city was London, the next one would be at a distance the equivalent of Prague. Also the climate there varies from –30° in the winter to 40° in the summer.
Keeping it together
Andy Paterson, FIEC Director of Mission, rounded off the day very well by speaking briefly about the need for the churches to keep four sets of things together in their minds and never let them be separated. These are: conversion and sanctification; church and mission; overseas and home outreach; battling and confidence in prayer.
A very exciting day!
