Baptist Assembly 2023

You might recall a couple of years ago, we tried to capture on camera in less than two minutes what mission meant to BMS. The narrative – voiced by people from across the continents – opened with the lines, “Mission, what is mission? It’s over two hundred years of matching God’s word with deed. It’s our storied Baptist history and a world still in need.”

This year at the Baptist Assembly in Telford, the theme was ‘Mission is…’, with those three fill-in-the-blank dots putting the question of ‘what is mission?’ front and centre of all the attendees’ minds as we buzzed around the halls, seminar rooms and stalls belonging to faith-based organisations of all shapes and sizes. It was exactly what was asked of Kang-San Tan, BMS’ General Director, on the main stage on Saturday.

“Mission is God’s job description, our participation is a privilege”, was Kang-San’s answer. “For BMS, it is about faith in Christ and all people having abundant life.”

One of the highlights of the weekend took place in front of a packed main hall on the Saturday night as all those who had transferred as fully accredited ministers, pastors, preachers and mission personnel during the past year were commissioned. They were welcomed and prayed for in a deeply moving celebration service. In a break from the past, BMS mission personnel appeared beaming from the big screen rather than being there physically on stage.

It was a powerful sign of how BMS is re-imagining mission participation by Christians and churches in the West. As Kang-San explained to the audience: “We rejoice in the call for people from all nations, to go to all nations. Today, for every one mission worker that BMS has sent from the UK, there are seven workers from around the world who have responded to God’s call in a similar way and are being supported by you; our family of UK churches.”

And on the screen behind Kang-San, the audience could see Dil Bahadur Chhetri, from Nepal serving in Nepal; fellow Nepalese mission worker and climate change specialist, Sahara Mishra, who also serves in the land of her birth; Isaiah Thembo, a Ugandan serving in his native country; and Wissam Nasrallah, from Lebanon, also serving in his homeland.

As they were blessed from the stage, Kang-San said, “They may not be with us in person, but we want to acknowledge and commission them today, to pray for them, and to ask that the Holy Spirit would fill them as they take forward the call to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ.

“Mission is changing. Through this growing global mission community, we are seeing the gospel spread in ways not seen before, and in places it’s never taken root before.”

Spreading the good news is core to one of the newly named ministry themes we launched from the main stage on Saturday. When you’ve been around for 231 years, as BMS has, it can sometimes be a bit complicated to explain everything we do – there’s quite a bit of ground to cover! That’s why we’ve come up some new titles for BMS’ ministry areas that sum up all the work you make possible: Heart for the Gospel, Hope for the World and Help for the Journey.

Our Hope for the World projects are motivated by faith, powered by compassion and deliver real changes that make life easier for the most marginalised, striving towards the same goal: bringing hope to the world.

And Help for the Journey can be summed up in work that supports Syrian children back into school in Lebanon, helps Afghan refugees find safe haven in Lesbos and welcomes migrants from every walk of life into churches in France.

The weekend was brought to a close with a rousing scene as hundreds came together to worship and listen as BMS’ Director for Communications and Fundraising Ben Drabble raised our eyes from the near to the far. He said from the stage, “Sometimes it’s easy to think that just because we can’t see the bright promised future, it doesn’t exist. But that is not the case when it comes to mission.”

Ben reminded the audience that, “Just because many of us aren’t seeing growth in our local contexts yet, does not mean that God’s Church is not growing and growing fast. I am here to tell you that throughout the world from Delhi to Dhaka, from Cambodia to Kolkata, from Thailand to Tirana, the gospel has been showing explosive growth.”

Because sometimes God’s promises are fulfilled in different ways than we expected. And sometimes God’s promises are fulfilled in different places than we expected. Just as Kang-San said: “Mission is God’s job description and our participation is a privilege.”