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.
Dever for Grace Baptist 150th
Jim Sayers
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.