When the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the church at Philippi, he thanks God for their partnership in the gospel. Partnership in the gospel is very much how we view the mission and ministries that Home Mission encourages and enables . In other words the purpose of Home Mission grants is to encourage and enable individual Christians and churches to engage in the mission of God. We in WEBA now have greater flexibility in our use of Home Mission funds, through the mechanism of shared accountability with our partner associations. In WEBA we have chosen to award two Special Ministry Grants for the resourcing and enabling of members of our churches. These grants have been awarded to Re:imagine and INVEST which are two exciting recently established WEBA initiatives.
Re:imagine is our missional learning community for church Leadership Teams. It involves an 18 month journey consisting of four Hub gatherings which allow Leadership Teams to explore and consider Culture (and the significance of culture change for our churches); Christian Leadership (what it looks like to be becoming a more Jesus-shaped leader); Discipleship (how we might begin to disciple our people more effectively); and Mission (how we might encourage our people to love and reach out to their neighbour). This begins with a weekend residential gathering (Saturday morning through until a Sunday afternoon) and 3 other gatherings (currently on a Saturday morning and afternoon). This resource has the potential to stimulate discipleship, mission and greater effectiveness in the life of a church and we are delighted to award a small grant which modestly subsides the costs for churches engaging in Re:imagine. You can find out more about Re:imagine at https://www.webnetwork.org.uk/mission/re-imagine/ .
INVEST is an exciting new initiative in WEBA. We have seven people whom church leaders have identified they want to Invest in, from three Churches across our network of Baptist churches. These people have committed a day a week and they are already showing incredible growth in their confidence and commitment to following Jesus and growing in Him. The year has a simple aim and that is to intentionally help grow existing leaders through a tailored approach to their situation through training, mentorship and support. Everyone has a different experience and set of challenges to help them move into what Jesus wants them to grow in and at the same time they get to journey with people who encourage and one another. This INVEST year is an opportunity for churches to Invest in the lives of individuals and help them in developing their missional leadership skills. It is also an opportunity for individuals to invest some of their time in their personal, spiritual and leadership development. With the support of our Partnership colleagues, WEBA have awarded a Home Mission Special Ministry grant to enable Dave Kingswood, one of the members of Welton Baptist Church to dedicate one day per week to develop and facilitate this process. We are already seeing encouraging signs of growth in the lives of those who are investing their year in INVEST.
Thank you once again for your giving and your prayer support which makes all of this possible.
By Alisdair Longwill