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Our Church's
Mission Statement:
To fulfil
God's Purpose in
Our Community & Beyond
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Missionary Activities |
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< Return to main Missionary intro page |
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B.M.S. World Mission
The Baptist Missionary Society (B.M.S.) is the oldest in the world. It aims to share life in all its fullness with the world’s peoples.
They are not simply about aid work, or evangelism, or rescuing street children or healing the sick – they do all of this and more. They are still there when others move on. At any one time the B.M.S. is involved in working in more than 35 countries across four continents.
B.M.S. World Mission works mainly in the following areas:
Church planting
Doing something to help others know Jesus.
Development
Doing something to improve the conditions of life. Encouraging people not to become dependent on them but to make it happen for themselves.
Disaster relief
Doing something when disaster strikes.
Education
Doing something to help people better themselves through learning.
Health
Doing something to make lives healthier and prevent unnecessary suffering.
Media
Doing something to make Jesus known around the world.
Also there other areas of work e.g. prison ministry in Thailand, working in the post war situation in Kosovo, counselling in Nepal, organising training for church planters in Brazil and more.
Opportunities are available for gap year students on short term Action Teams, professionals in the prime of life and people taking early retirement, using their skills on short-term programmes ranging from three weeks to two years.
Financial support is received from member churches (we have a monthly standing order) and individuals (envelopes are available at reception), including the Birthday Scheme which supports medical work.
www.bmsworldmission.org
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Baptist Union of Great Britain Home Mission
Home Mission is based at Baptist House in Didcot and administers the operation in England and Wales.
As part of the Baptist Family there are 13 local Associations (we are in the Eastern Baptist Association (EBA) covering Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire). These comprise the Regional Ministers and support staff who support, encourage and advise churches also they give pastoral support to ministers and help in their settlement in a church or other area of service. These Associations are funded by Home Mission.
Home Mission supports and funds over 200 ministers and chaplains who work in a variety of areas as well as churches, these include education, Armed Forces, industry, retail, healthcare, prisons and sport.
The Resource Centre at Didcot has over 50 staff who serve the denomination by supporting and representing churches, Associations and colleges in areas such as:
Helping churches with local ecumenical partnerships.
Providing resources on political, social and similar issues.
Providing worship material.
Supporting ministers.
Providing grants for mission projects.
Advising on evangelism and church planting.
Help with legal and property issues.
Dealing with the media.
Advising on child protection issues.
Giving financial guidance on taxation and charity accounts.
Advising on charity registration.
And much more!
On a regular basis Didcot issues magazines and DVD’s giving up to date information and articles on what is happening in the Home Mission field of operation.
Financial support is received from the member churches (we have a monthly standing order) and individuals (envelopes are available at reception).
www.baptist.org.uk |
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Baptist Union of Uganda (BUU)
In August 2009 Steve and Laura Cook went with a small team from BMS World Mission to Uganda and worked alongside the Baptist Union of Uganda in carrying out evangelistic community work in two villages in rural Northern Uganda.
The BUU mission statement is ‘to reach out to the lost with the gospel of salvation with the view of growing and strengthening churches to be self sustaining, self propagating, and self growing to meet the human needs, and to be supportive to the BUU.’ The BUU have a specific youth team that works with young adults aged 12-35 years (approx) and it was this team that Laura and Steve worked with.
In July 2011 Steve and Laura will be running a youth trip to Uganda for 6-8 young adults aged 18-30 (ish!) from Shoeburyness & Thorpe Bay Baptist Church. This will be organised in partnership with the Baptist Union of Uganda and specifically working with their Youth Department.
The main aims of this trip are:
• To partner young adults from STBC with young people in a Ugandan Baptist Church to take part in a community outreach project.
• The project would be relationship focused with an emphasis on young adults working together to serve God in a difficult and different context. This project would have both an evangelical and practical focus.
• That it should be mutually beneficial for both UK and Ugandan young adults.
A potential wider aim of this project would be to set up a long-term partnership with the BUU so that regular youth mission trips could take place in Uganda. This wider aim would need to be explored with the BUU and reviewed after the initial youth mission.
Baptist Union of Uganda
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Christians Against Poverty (CAP)
Christians Against Poverty is a Christian Charity whose main aim is to bring relief from debt. It has a network of hundreds of churches around the UK, and now abroad, who are running Money Management Courses and/or operating Debt Centres.
Within our own Church we ran the Money Management Course for the first time in February 2010 and it will be repeated at regular intervals. The purpose of the course is to teach basic budgeting and encourage delegates to use cash rather than cards. Overall we want delegates to take back control of their finances and if they are already in debt find a way to stop further damage and start reducing debt. Where more serious issues are in existence delegates can be referred to CAP headquarters in Bradford where fully qualified debt advisors can help them to find a solution including negotiation with creditors.
The course is for all ages in all situations and we want to extend its spread to involve friends and neighbours in the community. To find out about the next course contact Richard Leadley via the church office.
www.capuk.org |
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Citizens Advice Bureau
Our Citizens Advice Bureau in Southend celebrates its centenary year in 2010 and serves the community in seeking to achieve its dual objectives of:-
a) Ensuring that individuals do not suffer through lack of knowledge of their rights and responsibilities or through the inability to express their needs effectively. This first aim is mainly achieved through the advice and assistance provided to its clients through face to face and/or telephone advice sessions.
b) Exercising a responsible influence on the development of social policies and services, both locally and nationally. This second (but no less important) aim of the bureau includes the provision of evidence of client problems to local and national government to influence the future law making decisions.
www.southendcab.org.uk
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Compassion
Compassion is an evangelical Christian child sponsorship organization that gives loving Christians a chance to make a difference. It has over 50 years experience of working with some of the poorest communities in the world and during that time has assisted over one million children. It currently works in 25 of the world’s poorest countries. Compassion works through local churches enabling them to run projects, which provide healthcare, education, vocational training, and social, emotional and spiritual care to children in need.
It costs just £21 a month to sponsor a child, plus the opportunity to send £10 or £15 at Christmas and for the child’s birthday. The child you help will have just one sponsor and you will be able to develop a personal relationship with your child through letters, pictures and prayers. Many children are sponsored by members of the church, either individually, or as families, or within Small Groups, or as members of church organisations.
If you would like to sponsor a child please contact Mitch Oliver via the church office or see the website
www.compassionuk.org
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Eurovangelism
Eurovangelism is a Christian charity primarily active in Eastern Europe. It supports churches, summer youth camps, hospices and many other avenues where help can be given to the disadvantaged.
In 2009, Eurovangelism made a major appeal for Romania and our church managed to collect and send a 7.5 ton lorry full of furniture, electrical goods, clothes, games, toys etc.
Our church’s main activity on behalf of Eurovangelism is participation in “Harvest for the Hungry”. In the past we have filled food boxes for distribution to starving people in very deprived areas and in 2009 our church filled 118 boxes and donated £705. Shoeburyness & Thorpe Bay Baptist Church also acts as a depot for Eurovangelism so that other local churches and schools can bring their Harvest boxes and money to us. In total in 2009 we sent 323 boxes and £1592.
Eurovangelism now encourages us to donate money so that the food for the boxes can be purchased locally where more food can be bought for the money and support is given to the local economy. Eurovangelism maintains that these boxes, delivered to churches for distribution in those deprived areas, open doors, build relationships with families and enable churches to invite people to Alpha Courses and other church events with very positive outcomes.
See the weekly notice sheet in late summer/early autumn or contact the church office around that time for more details.
www.eurovangelism.org.uk
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Gideons International
In 1899 three commercial travellers in the USA formed an association of Christian businessmen to encourage each other in their Christian faith and to spread knowledge of God through personal evangelism and united service for the Lord Jesus Christ. They chose the name Gideons after an Old Testament leader who, with a few chosen men, did a great work for God (See Judges chs. 6-7).
Today, over 250,000 members work in 191 countries placing a total of some 78 million copies of the Word of God annually as well as witnessing personally for Christ. Internationally over 1 billion scriptures have been presented. Our objective is to share God’s message of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ by personal witness and through placing Bibles and New Testaments into people’s hands. The Gideons became established in the British Isles in 1949. To date over 30 million Gideon Bibles and Testaments have been presented nationally and there are 5,000 Gideons and their wives involved in the work across Britain. We are a non-denominational extended missionary arm of the Christian church. We work closely with Christian churches, for it is through them that we draw our membership and our prayer and financial support.
The work in this area which extends across three local authorities is the responsibility of the S.E.Essex Branch. Five Branch members are also members of our church. We aim to place copies of the scriptures in hotels, guest houses, hospitals and hospices, nursing homes and rest homes and prisons. We also aim to offer to all young people at the age of 11 a copy of the New Testament & Psalms when we visit their school. Each year we visit about 30 secondary schools for this purpose and we have the opportunity of commending the scriptures to them usually in an assembly. The local members are responsible for raising the funds to enable us to purchase copies of the Scriptures for distribution in this area and we are grateful to our church for providing generous prayer and financial support for this work. All donations received are used in their entirety to purchase scriptures. Nothing is used for administrative expenses.
www.gideons.org.uk
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Harold Hill Urban Expression Church
This is a church plant with a difference. Rich (who was our Youth Pastor for a number of years) and Alison Shorter have moved to the area of Harold Hill under the umbrella of Urban Expression who seek to bring ‘church’ to people in urban area who don’t go to church.
Although Rich and Alison are fortunate to have the use of a manse linked to Harold Hill Baptist Church (no longer in operation) they are currently working in the community to see what people want and see how as Christians they can meet that need and share their faith in Jesus. There are currently three members of our church who support them practically and helped set up this operation.
They will continue to do this until local people are found who will form the local church and can take on those roles.
http://shorteradventure.blogspot.com
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Havens Christian Hospice
Havens Christian Hospice incorporates Fair Havens Hospice (adult) and Little Havens Children’s Hospice.
Fair Havens aims to provide respite breaks and specialist end-of-life care to adults through its services to make their illness and last days as comfortable as possible. These services include a ten –bedded In Patent Unit, Day Care Centre, Community Macmillan Nursing Team and Hospice at Home. In 25 years it has cared for in excess of 18,000 patients plus their families throughout Southend, Castle Point and Rochford.
Little Havens offers life-limited children and their family expert care and support in a home-from-home environment, supporting them from the point of diagnosis. It provided respite breaks, symptom control and end-of-life care to those youngsters not expected to reach adulthood. In 10 years it has cared for over 1,000 children and their families from across Essex and parts of East London.
Havens Hospices continues its care after the death of a loved one through bereavement services. It costs nearly £5 million each year to ensure this care continues, with limited funding from the government. All care is provided free of charge.
www.havenshospices.org.uk
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The Koinonia Trust
The Trust was established in 1973 in Southend-on-Sea by two Baptist ministers who purchased a house in Westcliff-on-Sea to meet the need for accommodation, for as long as the residents required, to those who were being discharged into the community from Runwell hospital with minimal support.
Since that time the Trust has expanded its work to accommodate those with a history of mental illness. At the present time it has four houses in Southend/Westcliff also houses in Gloucester, Grays, Birmingham and the West Country.
The Trust owns and maintains the houses with the residents’ support being provided by mental health charities.
Originally the Trust provided group homes with the residents having their own bedrooms and shared communal facilities (kitchen/diner, lounge & bathroom) as this was the most suitable for those coming out of an institution. However over the years the requirements have changed and the Trust now provides en-suite bathrooms in most houses, but time moves on and the requirement now is for studio flats, the Trust is moving to provide these and now has two flats in its house in Grays.
The Trust is a Charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee.
Further information can be obtained from the website – www.koinoniatrust.org.uk |
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To see more Missionary Activities click here or go back to the Missionary home page |
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Our five core purposes |
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