In Depth:  Jim Sayers

The Cambridgeshire Fens rarely make the headlines, despite being close to Cambridge. The Fenland towns are home to a cluster of Grace Baptist churches with a long history and close bonds of fellowship. For many years they have been grouped in their own local association, but this year they made a big decision.

The Association of Grace Baptist Churches (West Anglia), a group of 12 churches, agreed to disband, to transfer management of their trust company to Grace Baptist Charities Ltd, and each church would then consider joining the larger AGBC (South East). This came after a long dialogue with Andrew King, South East Association Secretary, and the Cambridgeshire churches praying together.

‘We preach what we smartingly feel.’ So said John Bunyan, over three centuries ago, but it is still true today. Preachers need to be convicted by the power of the word of God in order to preach it, and to see their calling as coming both from Christ and His church. Preachers are sent (Rom.10:15), not self-appointed.

These were the key ideas explored by Paul Smith, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Broadstairs, speaking at an ‘Overnighter’ gathering at High Leigh for Grace Baptist church leaders. Paul’s helpful overview of preaching led into a lively discussion about whether we have diminished our view of preaching by labelling it as merely a ‘Bible talk’ or ‘word ministry’. The theme of the gathering was ‘Preaching that Connects’, and over 80 leaders came for the two days.

‘Brighton most godless city in England, Census 2021 reveals.’ That headline in the Brighton Argus in December 2022 grabbed people’s attention. 55.2% of the city’s population ticked the ‘no religion’ box, the highest in England. Yet several churches in Brighton continue to thrive, and new churches are being planted.

In 2021 we reported on the beginnings of ‘Grace Plant Brighton.’ David and Naomi Skull moved from Guildford to gather a new church plant. They merged with New Life Church Moulsecoomb (FIEC) to form Grace Church Brighton, Julian Rebera and David becoming elders. They formed a membership in January 2022, and to date that has grown to 23.

How do you handle the Old Testament? In particular, how are we to use Old Testament people, events and institutions as types of the work of Christ and His church?

Is typology a dangerous game, where we over-spiritualise any detail we want to fasten on and try and draw a line to Christ? How should we control that? These were the issues addressed at a recent half-day organised by the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (AGBC) at London Seminary.

Abbey Baptist Church in Abingdon has a new pastor – from Zambia! Chris and Helen Hawthorne enjoyed many years of ministry in St John’s Wood in London, and have spent three and a half years serving with Grace Baptist Mission at Proclamation Institute Zambia (PIZ). Chris was inducted as pastor in Abingdon on 18 February, with Richard Underwood from FIEC preaching.

Chris said Zambia has been a great gospel opportunity. People want to speak about Christ, supermarkets play Matt Redman songs, and Christians are welcomed at many doors. ‘One day at PIZ, we were doing some text work and the passage clearly convicted everybody in the classroom. The whole class went quiet. The following day we were talking about preaching, and the way God worked the previous day made it clear that the power is not in the presentation (like the big show often seen in Zambia), but in being clear with the gospel. Our time in Zambia further convinced me that the heart of church ministry is teaching the Bible really clearly and prayerfully, and making sure people understand what it means for their lives. There are some great Zambian churches doing just that, and seeing significant fruit.’

What do you do if you are a small church in a large building that is falling apart?

This challenge faced West Ham Baptist Tabernacle (part of the Association of Grace Baptist Churches SE) in Newham, East London. Their building was about a century old and was badly damaged during the Blitz. They had recovered in the 1950s and 60s, then reached a low ebb in the 90s. Reuben Danladi came as pastor in 1999, stepping out in faith to revitalise the church, and while the church grew again, the building rotted and was often vandalised.

Lewisham is a densely populated, multicultural melting pot in SE London.

The middle of town has been heavily redeveloped with high-rise apartments, looking down onto the rolling streets of suburbia. In one of those older streets is College Park Baptist Church, a church with a long history that is entering a new chapter.

Grace Baptist leaders have held an ‘intensive’ 24-hour fellowship getaway as in-person conferences continued to resume after the lockdowns of the last two years.

Jim Sayers writes: ‘Recently 72 leaders from 54 churches gathered for an ‘overnighter’ at High Leigh for an intensive 24 hours of fellowship. Representing nearly all the member churches of the AGBC(SE), they enjoyed ministry from Wale Akinrogunde (see photo below), John Benton and David Skull. Several others had contributed papers beforehand for discussion in small groups, on themes as diverse as Flourishing as multi-tasking pastors, How our polity can help us, and how we handle the current issues around sexuality and gender. These produced some lively discussions that continued over the dinner table.’

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.

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.’

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.

Changes to the Government’s quarantine policy that came into effect in early August mean that Mark Dever from Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC is able to fly into London to speak at a special gathering of Grace Baptist churches at the end of September.

The Association of Grace Baptist Churches (SE) is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a day conference on Saturday 25 September at Homerton Baptist Church in East London, near the Olympic Park.