A decade ago my mate Darrell Jackson wrote a paper with the provocative title ‘Does the future have a denomination?’ I thought it pretty prescient and nicked it for the conclusion to my book Building a Better Body, where I asked it of the church.

I was working for BMS World Mission at the time and we were revamping our entire communications strategy to take account of the growing non-denominationalism of an increasing number of our supporting churches. They supported us because of what we were doing overseas, not because we or they were Baptist. Our focus was shifting from associations to individual churches and even individuals within those churches, who were being signed up as supporters. The centralising and slimming down of the co-ordinator team (of which I had been a part) seems a logical development of this.

Darrell’s paper and the BMS’ action were the result of trends within our churches where denominational awareness was decaying. People chose to attend Baptist churches because they were local, evangelical, charismatic, socially engaged, where my mum and dad worshipped (or any combination of those factors). Few confessed to being Baptists.

Even fewer had any awareness of the association of which their Baptist church was part or what the Union was. What mattered was that their church provided what they were looking for; if it came with a Baptist label that was ok, but inconsequential.

In eight years back in local church ministry, I’ve not seen anything that suggests this trend is being reversed. One member out of 300 lamented the passing of the Baptist Times, before commenting that he hadn’t read it for years; few go to association gatherings and only a couple show any interest in the Assembly – despite the fact that I was involved in putting together one strand of it for the first five years of my time here. They’re not alone: attendance at the annual jamboree has all-but halved in the last decade.

In this Olympic year it seems appropriate to draw inspiration from Hebrews 12 in which the journey of faith is likened to a long distance race. Perhaps Team BUGB can be inspired by the athletes in Team GB as they prepare to win gold at the London Olympics…

Begin with the End in Mind

No one just turns up on race day without having imagined crossing the finish line for months and years beforehand. In the same way we need to be clear about our purpose and use this to inspire us. I’m a big fan of BU motto “Encouraging Missionary Disciples” – it seems to me to fully encompass our purpose as churches, and as a Union. This is the vision that needs to guide all that we do, and the goal against which we need to honestly evaluate our progress.

Have a Strategy

Ever since London was awarded the 2012 Olympics we’ve been aware of Team GB’s strategy to win as many gold medals as possible. There has been targeted funding and interim goals along the way for athletes to aim towards and be accountable for. Sometimes difficult choices have been made to ensure the team as a whole made the desired progress. BUGB needs to be similarly strategic in the way that it uses the limited financial resources at its disposal. For example, why not use Home Mission funding to support those innovative individuals and churches that are willing to go to strategically identified groups of un-churched or under-churched people within the UK population?

So there she was, a small woman, a lawyer, sitting behind an enormous desk piled high with manila folders. Each one charting the whereabouts of husbands, brothers, sons who had disappeared off the streets of El Salvador during its years of tyranny. With eyes that sparkled when she spoke she told us of the problems getting justice for people in a system where the army behaved with impunity. We had already passed the long queue of people waiting to see her, bringing yet more names, more stories, more despair. And there she was, running the Archdiocese of San Salvador’s Human Rights office, day in day out, terrier like in her conviction. Facing death threats herself, we asked the question ‘Tell us, do you have the support of the church in what you’re doing?’ A moment passed and through a steely gaze she replied, ‘I am the church.’

That’s my church.

Living in a neighbourhood wracked with tension and violence at the mercy of rival gangs, a mother looked on as two groups began to square up to each other outside her house. Asking God and herself what she could do right here, right now, the bell went on her oven. The cakes were ready. Piling them on to a cooling rack she opened the door and walked into the middle of the young people gathered. ‘You know, I’ve just made these. Do you think they’re any good?’ Confused looks, half smiles and an empty cooling rack later, the young men and women stopped to chat and then melted away.

That’s my church.

Gathered with a group from church who wanted to read a book together, we looked at Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven Church.’ A gathering of people, not over confident nor theologically trained, took the book apart.  A community of theologians was born.

That’s my church.

‘Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world’. (Albert Einstein).

‘Beyond 400’ - backwards! (6. Digging deeper into the past to find the future)

…. after the prayer George of the House of Jakob arose and entreated Conrad Grebel for God’s sake to baptise him with the right Christian baptism upon the confession of his faith. And as he kneeled down with his request and desire, Conrad baptised him, since at that time there was no ordained minister to perform such work.’

The event, in 1525, has been described as the ‘most revolutionary act of the Reformation’ Conrad Grebel, founder of the Swiss Brethren, ignited a fresh wave of Anabaptist movement. The genius of our own movement is in its design:

It wasn’t!

No one ‘planned’ BUGB 400 years ago.

The ‘movement’ began by catching a virus, released 2000 years ago. Let us draw from the rich ‘nutrients’ (2. Driving to the Heart of Distinctiveness)  

Back to Jesus.....  let's make no mistake, whilst we all recognise the need, we now also have the opportunity (some call it crisis) for UK (yes) Baptists, to re-calibrate their lives and life together, around Jesus. (3. Motives) Let us ‘fix our eyes upon Jesus’.

I have a confession. Even though I have been married for 19 years, I’m in love with another’s bride. She’s beautiful, powerful, inspiring, she makes my heart leap, the very idea of what she might become thrills me. I might want to shape her, guide her, want her to fall in love with me too, but alas she is betrothed to another. I may want to provide for her, comfort and protect her, but I know the one who has her heart is infinitely more wise, strong, capable and loving than I am, even on a good day (and I can have some really good days, honest).

I want to share my wisdom with her, but I know that when she pauses to think, when she listens hard, when she gives attention to her own thoughts, and those of her lover, she comes to a place of more wisdom that I could ever imagine.

Sometimes she confuses me though. Sometimes, she seems to want to stop listening, or appears to have forgotten that she is so good at it, and sometimes she wants others to do this thinking and listening for her.