A partnership of promise

A partnership of great promise:

BMS World Mission and Spurgeon's College

Everywhere BMS World Mission works, we work in partnership. In the UK, that’s no different. 2020 marks the beginning of a new partnership between Spurgeon’s College and BMS, combining over 250 years of missional expertise with the college’s academic rigour and reputation.

Rising to the challenge of modern mission

Modern mission is becoming more and more complex as our UK context transforms and develops. We find ourselves in an era of increasing globalisation, making new partnerships and resource-sharing necessities for our fast-changing age. Tackling this change, BMS and the London-based Spurgeon’s College have decided to join forces, offering a ministerial training hub at BMS’ site in Birmingham and expanding the college’s reach to the Midlands and beyond.

It’s a partnership which was inspired by last year’s event, “How to Mission”, a conference hosted by BMS for UK Christians exploring what mission looks like in our modern era. Exciting discussions began between Mark Ord, BMS’ Director for Mission Training and Hospitality, and Reverend Professor Philip McCormack, Principal of Spurgeon’s College, with much support for the venture from the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Heart of England Baptist Association.

BMS' training centre in Birmingham against a blue sky with a green lawn.
BMS' training centre in Birmingham will be the central hub for this new partnership.

An innovative approach

“There’ll be a real connection between the Global South, Majority World Church and our British context,” says Mark Ord. Spurgeon’s College brings an innovative approach to theological training, stemming from their history. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who began the college in 1856, had a pioneering approach and started hundreds of churches.

This, coupled with BMS’ missional expertise, will enrich their academic courses, bringing learning from the World Church. “We’ll gradually explore together what kind of mission material we can develop,” says Mark.

An exciting new programme

Opening the hub in September 2020 is just the beginning. The aim is to create a joint programme where Spurgeon’s College can take BMS’ missional experience and turn it into learning and training for their students. “The partnership enables us to bring what we do well and do it better together,” says Mark. Philip McCormack, Spurgeon’s College Principal agrees, “BMS brings an enormous wealth of missional experience and expertise, and Spurgeon’s brings a wealth of academic and ministerial expertise.” The programme will begin next year.

Hear Dr Kang-San Tan and Rev Prof McCormack share their thoughts on the new partnership

Going global

The new missiological material could go global, being used across the world by BMS’ partners who already deliver ministerial training in their home countries. “We will feed in more robust, cutting-edge content for the UK and at the same time we can develop material for where it is needed for partners overseas,” says Mark. “Spurgeon’s College are looking to grow and have more of an impact,” he explains. “They’ll be able to reach more contexts with their training.”

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Transforming congregations

The new partnership is an investment in the UK Church and its call to mission. Those undertaking ministerial and missional training will have access to global material and will benefit from context-driven training. “The strengths of both institutions can be harnessed in an even more intentional manner with the vision of transforming congregations and missional communities,” comments Philip.

Spurgeon’s graduates will be able to enrich their congregations and communities with the latest thinking adapted to a rapidly changing, multifaceted and multicultural UK context. It’s a move which aims to transform missional thinking and action across the UK. And, with this vision of transformation, the partnership is an incredibly exciting start to the new decade.

Words by Melanie Webb.

3 reasons to listen to the World Church

3 reasons to listen to the World Church

BMS World Mission is committed to listening to the Majority World Church and to contributing to a conversation between the Global South and western Church. Mark Ord argues why.

1. When someone’s talking, it’s polite to listen

The Majority World Church has something to say: experience to share, points to make and questions to ask – and to answer. In all sorts of pockets of western culture we are used to being protagonists, having the answers and calling the shots. In this conversation, though, we may find that we are not at the centre of things – that, more than anything, there is much to be learned and gained from listening. We’ll discover that our experience of secularisation is a minority report in the context of global Christianity, that elsewhere faith is on the front-foot, not in retreat. The challenges of pluralism are still there, though lived differently, and the gospel is met as power, rather than propositions.

Want to join a global conversation about local mission? Sign up for How to Mission.

On 8-10 July, you can join BMS partners, personnel and friends and be part of a conversation based on 225 years of mission experience to help you and your church.

Don’t miss this opportunity. Sign up today!

Learn more about How to Mission
How to mission logo with world map and pointers

2. Joining the conversation of global Christianity is an antidote to our obliviousness

Much of the Majority World has been minimally affected by the materialism and rationalism that define our outlook and confine our imagination. We don’t know what we don’t know, but others see us – and everything else – differently. Their experience sheds new light on our world and priorities. It unveils our blind spots and names our fixations. Conversation is an art and as we learn to listen and sympathetically engage, we become more skilled at receptivity and grow in our ability to see the world anew.

We also join the conversation because we have a perspective, experiences, understanding and mistakes to share. If global Christianity is the table at which all are welcome, then we too have our place and our contribution to make to the kingdom cause of welcome and inclusivity that sees none left on the doorstep.

Kang-San Tan, General Director of BMS World Mission
Want to learn from the World Church? Start with BMS

Watch Kang-San Tan’s latest challenging Bible study series, Is God British?, now.

Watch now

3. Despite the silos – South/West, majority/minority – we are one Church

These categories are still, I think, important as they keep us aware of history and privilege, but they are destined to disappear and we ought to get in on the act in advance. We are one, we will be one – every tongue and tribe! We don’t join the conversation for strategic reasons, we listen, speak, engage and embrace, because the deep and sometimes brutal lines that divide us are not so entrenched that the Spirit of fellowship cannot freely pass.

Mark Ord is Director for Mission Training and Hospitality at BMS. If you want to hear from engaging and inspiring speakers from the World Church, sign up for How to Mission, a three day conference from 8 to 10 July to engage and inform you for outreach in your own context.

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Mission: it’s so much more than you expect it to be

Mission:

It’s so much more than you expect it to be

We all learn about mission in different ways. But many of us come to it with the same preconceived ideas of what it’s all about. Part of our work at BMS World Mission aims to change that. So even (and perhaps especially) if you think you know what it’s all about, read on. We might just surprise you!

Where do you expect mission work to happen?

An illustrated map of the world

When we imagine mission workers overseas, we often imagine them being sent to far-flung places we would never be able to visit. We think of people flying off to Africa or India and doing things we could never do at home.

Where does mission work actually happen?

A woman stands with a microphone and a Mozambican man stands outside a building.
Our mission workers serve all across the world – from France to Mozambique!

We do send mission workers to places like Mozambique, India and Peru – but we also work much closer to home! Christine Kling serves as an associate pastor in Paris, about two hours away from London.

And we support work in Southend, helping fight modern slavery. In fact, we’re also helping UK churches learn from and with our brothers and sisters in the world church, changing theologies and learning to minister better – and all that is mission too!

Who do you expect mission workers to be?

Illustration of a woman in brown clothes standing in a desert

Who do you picture when you think of a mission worker? It’s easy to imagine western Christians who have worked overseas for many years. It can be difficult to imagine anyone other than ‘white saviours’ with imperial attitudes and insensitive approaches maybe?

What does a mission worker actually look like?

An 80-year-old woman sits on a sofa and a Ugandan woman stands outside a building.
Anyone can be a mission worker, no matter what you look like or where you come from. In fact – every Christian is!

Mission isn’t restricted to a single age group. Whether they’re 18-year-old Action Teamers or an 80-year-old BMS volunteer like Ann Bothamley serving in India, all our mission workers are an important part of God’s work across the world.

And mission isn’t just sending people from the ‘West to the rest.’ We have mission workers serving in their own countries, and crossing borders. People like BMS lawyer Annet Ttendo Miller, who was born in Uganda but who is currently serving in Mozambique, or like Ben Francis, planting churches in his homeland, India!

What do you expect mission work to be?

An illustration of a teacher and a doctor

It’s easy to imagine that the main thing mission workers do is preach. Or provide traditionally ‘missionary’ things, like medicine or teaching. We imagine them distributing Bibles to local people or setting up health clinics, and it can be difficult to see them doing anything else.

What does mission work actually look like?

A woman in a blue top sits outside and a woman in a white top sits outside.
Our mission workers want to serve the communities they’re working with in the best way they can, which is why their jobs aren’t always what you would expect them to be!

Mission work can be almost anything. Healthcare and education are a big part of what we do – but even that isn’t constrained to teaching English. Take the BMS supported Siloam Bible Institute in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Many young Karen people enrol there, so that they can study the Bible in their native language. Or our many training programmes to develop crucial skills in local Christians around the world!

Mission today is about responding to the World Church’s needs. Laura-Lee Lovering is an environmental scientist working on a number of different sustainable horticulture initiatives in Peru. And Lois Ovenden is serving as a speech therapist in Uganda, helping those who struggle to communicate. We have physio therapists, chief executives, HR professionals and computer geeks – all serving God alongside local Christians, bringing life in all its fullness to people in Jesus’ name. And it happens because people like you support it. And because people like you go.

We’ve hopefully shown you how much amazing work is done under the umbrella of mission across the world. If you want to help us keep changing expectations of mission work, share this story with your friends and family, and show them what mission actually looks like.

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Words by Laura Durrant.