Defining Home Mission
Simply put, Home Mission is the Baptist family sharing
together and enabling mission to take place throughout England and Wales.
The Baptist Union of Great Britain exists to share God's
mission. It does this be funding and supporting mission locally and
nationally. The finance for this comes through Home Mission.
All churches in membership of the Baptist Union of Great
Britain have the opportunity to be a recipient of the many and varied
materials and services provided by Home Mission.
 Home Mission helps churches, that could not otherwise
afford a minister, to have one. It funds chaplains working in
education and industry. It supports evangelists, missioners,
Superintendents and Associations as
well as providing materials, help and advice from the national resource at
Didcot.
By sharing together, we enable the spread of the Gospel
and the growth of the Church. And by working together and pooling
our resources, we can achieve so much more.
Your support can make a world of difference - it
enables the Baptist Union to help others across the country. As a
member of the Baptist family, Home Mission has got everything to do with
you! And with God's work!
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Financial support for Home Mission is boosting the
health of the Baptist Church and the communities it serves across the
country. It does this by:
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Associations -
Regional Minister Teams across the twelve associations and one partnership
support churches pastorally and practically enabling them to fulfil their
mission to the local community.
-
Baptist Union Resource
Centre at Didcot assists Baptist Union churches with mission,
ministry, financial, communication and legal issues, as well as fostering
partnerships and relationships with other denominations and Christian
organisations in the UK and worldwide.
-
Churches and Chaplains
- 400 grants are awarded each year to enable churches to have ministers
and chaplains to work in education and industry, where it would be very
difficult to do so without Home Mission.
-
Dealing with Deprivation
- 1% of the money raised annually goes to 'Against the Stream' grants for
projects that alleviate the effects of poverty.
-
Evangelism - 1% of
money raised goes to 'Green Shoots' grants for evangelism and mission
projects.
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Home Mission is about enabling, encouraging and
resourcing work in many different situations. The following examples
may already be familiar to your church - but your support can help others
to aid mission in their areas.
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"Home Mission enables me to
be an industrial representative in the Church and a Church representative
in industry - hoping that both may discover faith in Jesus, the carpenter
in the world." (Rev James Hall, Industrial Chaplain, Glamorgan
Industrial Mission)
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"Believing we were called to
plant a church on Hayling Island, Home Mission helped us to achieve
that purpose. This was confirmed by the personal and numerical
growth during our 18-months of existence. Without Home Mission
we would not be here."
(Rev Steve and Rev Jan Worthy, West Town Baptist Church, Hayling Island)
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"Home Mission helps us to
maintain Baptist witness to the people of the Manor estate and our
ecumenical partners. It is good to serve this community with all its
need and sadness, alongside its strength and resilience"
(Rev Sue Thompson, Manor Local Ecumenical Project, Sheffield)
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"I count it as a privilege
to serve the Baptist community. One key task is to see that the
polices of the Union agreed by the council are carried through to action;
but I also spend time in the constituency speaking and preaching.
It's a varied calling with many aspects, yet they are help together
through Home Mission, which supports all that I am involved in." (Rev.
Keith Jones, Deputy General Secretary)
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"I help churches fulfil
some of the social and political implications of gospel faith. Home
Mission enables us to fund, support and encourage initiatives that attempt
to challenge circumstances that do not reflect the values of the Kingdom
of God."
(Rev Anne Wilkinson-Hayes, Social Action Adviser)
-
The 'Against the Stream'
initiative enables churches to resource projects that have at their the
alleviation of poverty, or the effects of poverty. Histon Baptist
Church run a mobile job club for young people based on a converted
double-decker bus.
(Histon Baptist Church, Cambridge)
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