Connect Step Out: Where Are They Now? October 2017
For over 30 years Step Out has been enabling young people to come together and reach out into communities across Scotland with the Good News of Jesus. The summer of 2017 saw the last Step Out teams go out on mission across our nation. Over the past 30 years there have been holiday clubs, games afternoons, street evangelism, laughs, tears, disasters and triumphs. Many young people and churches have been deeply impacted by the experience of stepping out into mission together. Reading the testimonies of those who have served on teams since the mid 1980 s stirs 3 thoughts within me. Firstly, how important it is that we give young people a platform to step out in faith from - in a culture that tends towards being part of the crowd. Jesus calls us out, to be distinct and to follow him by stepping out in trust. It s there we discover the freedom, joy and adventure that it is to be part of His mission to the world. Secondly, the importance of celebrating all that God has done through this long running initiative as it comes to an end. It s incredible to think of all the teams, holiday clubs and missions, all the preparation and all the ways Jesus has been shared throughout Scotland. God is amazing, faithful and His work through Step Out is more than worthy of celebration. Finally, I find myself asking Why stop Step Out? Do we want to stop our young people from having these formative experiences and not reach their generation with the good news of Jesus? Of course not! Culture has changed dramatically over the last 30 years and we have heard from the Lord that there is a need to develop new ways of reaching the younger generations. My prayer and our intention as a Union is captured in John 12:24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. The Kingdom of God is a movement of multiplication and growth. We desire to see even more young people engaged and enabled to take a step of faith out their comfort zone and reach their generation. As you read these stories lets pray for multiplication that whatever the future holds we see many more young lives impacted by Jesus. Ali Laing Next Generation Development Coordinator
Step Out: Where Are They Now? Name: Shãron Mathers - previously Shãron Sleith. Years involved in Step Out: I am a huge Step Out old timer! My first Scottish Baptist Mission was in1987 (before it became Step Out) in Rosyth - I was 16 and petrified. I also needed to leave halfway through for knee surgery. However I have to say that the friends I made then, 30 years ago, I still feel I could call on. 1988 was the year of the world Baptist Youth Conference in Glasgow and there were no summer missions. However in 1989 I went to Kilmarnock and in 1990 I went to Ellon. After that I served with Step Out in Montrose, Irvine, Linwood and Springburn - sometimes a week, mostly a fortnight. Most of my trips were on my university holidays, with my best friend Jennifer... really special times. Now I m married with 3 children and living in Aberdeen. I work as a Teaching Assistant in a primary school - which all those years of Step Out kids clubs really prepared me for - you d be amazed the amount of puppets I use on a daily basis! I learned so much in these amazing trips - faith, patience, love, hard work, community...it struck me years later that we thought we were working for the churches to help them out when actually they were helping us so much. It must have been tough for them to house us and feed us and put up with us! Thank you so much to all the churches that ever hosted a Step Out team. Name: Yvonne Faddes Years involved in Step Out: 1992-1996 I am currently working for SU Scotland as their Church Partnerships Coordinator. I am trying to create better links with the churches we are connected with all across Scotland. Doing Step Out helped me to gain a better kingdom perspective, learned to share Jesus with people through building relationships as well as being on the streets chatting with strangers. It pushed me out of my comfort zone into a place where I learned to rely on God in any circumstance. Serving churches within the BU helped me to see the wider picture of church throughout Scotland as I came from a church where there were no young people my age. It was an invaluable experience for me.
Name: Jillian Ferguson Name: Mo Gibbs Years involved in Step Out: 1997-2000/01ish Domestic Engineer and People Developer - a.k.a stay at home mum of two. We moved to Cambridgeshire last year. Lionel pastors an LEP church and I m getting to know people informally. I m involved in various things at church and have recently started volunteering time with the Eastern Baptist Association as Secretary of the Ministerial Recognition Committee. Serving God is fun and worth giving everything to...and I was called to ministry, Step Out started me off. Years involved in Step Out: 2003, 2009, Step Out Plus 2006 and 2007, and I was Young People s Coordinator from January 2010 to June 2011. I m married to Greig who is the pastor at Yoker Evangelical Church in Glasgow. I m a full time mum to our three children Alistair (6), Eilidh (very nearly 4) and Jonathan (2) and I do what I can to help with things at church, mainly the toddler group and starting soon the youth group. I think it would be that God always gives you the strength you need to accomplish for him what he wants. In week 6 of sleep deprivation, I mean Step Out Plus, He gave us the strength to remain energetic during the kids and youth groups we were doing, to serve him well and share the gospel with those who came. And He still gives the strength I need to serve him each day. Name: Ailie Shaikh (Colville) Years involved in Step Out: 2004 Lossiemouth & 2006 Step Out Plus I have a gift shop in Portobello in Edinburgh with my sister called Two Sisters. We have had the business for 7 and a half years. I honestly learnt so much from Step Out! One thing that stands out to me was how many effective ways there are to show people Christ, rather than just preaching at them. That along with how to play a good prank!
Name: Iain Black Years involved in Step Out: 2005-2012 I work in Sainsbury s as a check-out operator. I go to Kirkintilloch Baptist, where I am involved in the youth work. Not every week is going to be the same and it doesn t always go to plan, but God will use it. Don t think because it s not perfect you have failed - God can use it. It s amazing what the kids and youth get out of the holiday club! Lastly, always rely on God. Name: Andy Shaiman White Years involved in Step Out: 2008-2012 Just moved south of Seattle, Washington with my wife Katie taking on a joint youth director position in a local church. The most important lesson I learned while on mission is one I presume most people have answered - to trust God. Regardless of how prepared you were for a week of mission, or by week 6 how familiar you were with everything, God always surprised you. Sometimes that was scary. Sometimes hard. But always brilliant. I m so grateful to the BUS for giving me the opportunities I had to learn this and much more! Name: My name is Kayleigh Nicol Years involved in Step Out: I started Step Out in 2013 Nowadays I work in a small shop in Fife, and lead the Friday night youth clubs at my Church. The most important lesson I learned on Step Out is that God works in wonderful and surprising ways. God has pushed me into situations I never thought I d be in and help me learn and grow in them. He has also showed me that being a Christian is not in any way easy, but in every way worth it. Also within Step Out, God has shown me the difference I can make for Him.
Prayer Link October October 1st Baptist Union of Wales Nairn Baptist Church New Prestwick Baptist Church Newton Mearns Baptist Church October 8th Irish Baptist Networks Oban Baptist Church Paisley Central Baptist Church Peebles Baptist Church October 15th BMS World Mission Perth Baptist Church Peterhead Baptist Church Pitlochry Baptist Church October 22nd European Baptist Federation Pollok Baptist Church Portobello Baptist Church Queen s Park Baptist Church October 29th Renfrew Baptist Church Rosyth Baptist Church Rutherglen Baptist Community Church Irish Baptist Networks We give thanks for the encouragement of the wider Baptist family and BUS. Please pray for the relaunch of the IBN website in October and our November seminar on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and the believer. Please pray that this seminar will inspire and impact those who attend. Please also pray for Nabil Costa visiting us from Lebanon in December as he comes to minister to us at our AGM. Baptist Union of Wales Give thanks for a wonderful 150th celebration of the Baptist Union of Wales and over 400 attending to celebrate together. Please pray for our small rural chapels that they might face the future with faith and hope; and pray for those seeking to engage in mission in new and creative ways. Perth Baptist Church Give thanks for God s continued blessing on our Sunday services and the many and varied activities emanating from the fellowship. We rejoice in the recent induction of a second pastor to envision and lead in community ministries. Please pray for a clear vision and enabling as we seek to further connect with our community particularly through Messy Church and other family initiatives; various Children and Youth activities; the Church cafe and a number of developing Friendship ministries aiming to link particularly with those who may be socially isolated.
Queen s Park Baptist Church Give thanks for our new campus at Partick & the sense of community developing there as we worship & witness. Please pray as we move into a new & exciting season of our vision of Calling A City To Life that God will inspire all ages at QP as we seek to grow as disciples who are salt & light in our city. Pray specifically for the following ministries in this year ahead: The Point - a new community hub at our Queen s Drive building: The Gathering - a midweek space to gather together & worship, & the launch of Messy Church. Nairn BC Give thanks for the progress of an exciting 25th Anniversary year, which has creatively connected with our town and raised our profile and identity as a local Baptist Church in Nairn. Please pray that this identity as a Church would be coupled with a growing vision for the years ahead. Peebles Baptist Church In our longer term journey towards a full church and community building, we ve sensed a challenge from God to act now. The church has therefore agreed to invest what money we ve already raised in a Phase 1 building. This won t be big or fancy, but it will be quick, and will allow us to establish a physical presence on the South side of Peebles for missional activity. This is exciting - pray for unity and faith! European Baptist Federation Please pray for European Baptist Aid which seeks to run aid and development projects in the EBF region as well as to co-ordinate a response to the requests for help which we receive from Baptist Unions and churches in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. Give thanks for the many church planters supported by the EBF Mission Partnerships. Pray that the new church plants in Eastern Europe will continue growing strong and overcoming obstacles. Pray that the unions leaders will develop the vision for creative planting of new congregations in the needy nations of Eastern Europe. BMS World Mission Please pray for: BMS new General Director, Dr Kang-San Tan, as he begins working with BMS this month. Pray that his house purchase will go through quickly and smoothly, whilst they settle temporarily in a BMS house in Didcot. Give thanks for: The arrival of the new mission trainees and Action Teams at BMS International Mission Centre. They are already making a big, positive impression in their first few weeks and we look forward to all that God will do in and through them in the coming months and years.
Pollock BC As church family we are still praising and thanking God for our two new Pastors Rev Dr Mark Bentham & Rev Dave Murray. Please pray for them and their families as we work together to serve God in this exciting new ministry. Portobello Baptist Church Pray for new homegroup system starting in the autumn. We want the groups to help us be disciples, while looking outward and finding creative ways to serve the community. Half the congregation have signed up! Praise for a steady stream of new people coming to church with a real desire to serve God and for the real sense of faith and expectancy, especially in the worship. Renfrew Baptist Church We are so very thankful for Jesus our rock and our redeemer! We would like to give God all the glory for the children that worship with us, the 90 year olds and the 9 year olds alike! We praise God for our recent new members and upcoming baptism. We ask God to make us a church that will jealously and passionately seek His glory in all that we do. We ask God to bring to salvation 25 people by His grace in the next twelve months through the work of RBC. We ask God to move our members to disciple the young ones in our church which make up roughly 2/3 of the body. Rutherglen Baptist Community Church We give thanks for the development of Messy Church and the Men s Shed and the on-going success of our out of school service called ARK. Please pray as we review all of our activities to make them more focussed in order to nurture members of the congregation in faith and to help those in the community find an accessible place to explore faith. New Prestwick Baptist Church We would appreciate your prayers for our ongoing outreach work into our local community. Toddlers Group, Lunch Club, midweek Children s Club and Youth Club are all bridges to the people living around our church. Give thanks with us for God s work in the lives of many. Recent months have seen baptisms and a number come into membership. We re thankful also for those who have sustained both preaching and pastoral ministry through our pastor s recent sabbatical. Oban Baptist Church We give thanks for a busy summer of visitors from all over the world. We are grateful for the continued growth and strengthening of our congregation as we look to serve the Oban community. Please pray for us as we establish our Hospitality Hubs around Oban open doors to strengthen our fellowship and offer a safe and welcoming place where our neighbours can see the gospel in action.
June and September Council Digests 2017 Digest of the meeting of Council which took place at the Park Hotel in Falkirk on 19th June 2017. This extra Council meeting was required this year at the request of the Trustees. The meeting was convened in order for Council to consider pressing matters which could not wait for decision until the usual September Council gathering. The primary matter at hand concerned the way in which BUS procures legal services. Currently, our Law Agent is Alan Holloway of Holloway Martin, Solicitors. It is anticipated that with the upcoming incorporation of BUS as a company limited by guarantee; the need for more legal work in connection with the drawing up of licences to occupy BUS owned churches; and the need to convey BUS property into the new company name, our legal costs are going to dramatically increase over the next few years. Furthermore, it is anticipated that legal costs for our churches are also going to increase over the same period. One reason for this will be as a consequence of our churches grappling with the possibility of becoming Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations or Companies Limited by Guarantee, with all the related set up and conveyancing costs which such constitutional change will entail. Another reason lies with the necessity for conveyancing work to be carried out bringing the old titles to some church properties on to the Land Register before the government insists on compulsory registration taking place by 2024. The proposal was therefore put before Council that Alan Holloway, who has unique expertise in church related conveyancing, be brought in house to undertake this work. As a part-time employee of BUS, he would undertake our Union s legal work. Furthermore he would operate from our offices a new private practice which would serve our churches and other churches around the country. It is anticipated that this arrangement would reduce legal costs for both BUS and our family of churches, and provide a high quality of legal service. Council thoroughly discussed the implications of this change to the way BUS procures legal services and authorised the Core Leaders to proceed in the way outlined. Alan Donaldson also updated Council members on the position around the pension issue. He advised that the National Team had been responding to enquiries from churches with attentive listening; the provision of as much information as could be made available at this time; and with pastoral support, as needed. He also advised that the employers group set up by BUGB were preparing a seminar which it is hoped would be presented in Scotland in September, following the September Council meeting.
Alan also introduced Council to the idea of setting up a new group to be called The Public Theology Group and the proposal that Rev Norman Graham be appointed as the Chairperson of this group for 3 years was accepted. Finally, Alan Donaldson led a discussion on the suggestions for the BUS 150th Celebrations which had been gathered at the previous Council meeting in March. The set up of a 150th Anniversary Celebration Task Group to coordinate plans for a year of celebration in 2019 was thereafter proposed and accepted. Frances J. Bloomfield, Convenor Digest of the meeting of Council which took place at the Park Hotel in Falkirk on 5th and 6th September 2017. At this meeting Council members undertook a very full agenda of business. The various written reports presented in the Council papers and verbal reports brought in person were considered. The written report were then all accepted and if was agreed that they should all go forward to be placed before Assembly next month. In particular Council heard from Rev Peter Dick, as Finance Director, on the BUS accounts; Rev Nigel Heath on the Scottish Baptist College; Rev Dr Brain Talbot on the work of the Baptist World Alliance; Mrs Maureen Russell on BMS World Mission and Rev John Claydon on BUGB. Council also heard encouraging stories from some of the Council members on the work currently happening in their own churches. Much of our time together as Council was however spent on a detailed discussion of the draft of the three documents BUS will require in order to take forward the incorporation of our Union. The drafting of these documents was explained and the stages of scrutinising by OSCR; an external charity lawyer; and our own Trustees detailed. There followed a very full discussion of suggested amendments, the texts of which were subsequently agreed. Questions arising from these documents were fully considered and as appropriate, answered. The final wording of these draft documents was thereafter accepted for preparation for Assembly next month. The role of the Mission and Ministry Advisor was reviewed and the Rev Dr Jim Purves encouraged in his work. A final informal session was led by our new Next Generation Development Coordinator, Ali Laing. The work of our Council members is greatly appreciated and I thanked all who attended for their prayerful and insightful interaction during our time together. Frances J. Bloomfield, Convenor
Messengers of Hope This year at our Assembly, October 26-27, we are encouraging churches to think of the people they send as messengers rather than delegates! People whose primary role will be to share an encouragement, challenge, story or opportunity that flows from the ministry of your local church. Messengers who can also return to your church with news, challenge and opportunities that have been discovered during our time together. For the last few days, I have been listening to messages of hope from across Europe and the Middle East. It is amazing and encouraging to hear of the life of Christ that is evident in the middle of persecution. In so many nations around us Christians are sacrificing to welcome their Muslim neighbour, risking persecution by sharing their faith and responding to the surprising move of God s spirit in people s lives. A Romanian Baptist leader has challenged us to live in hope and act in hope. Tony Peck the European Baptist Federation General Secretary summarised the last year with the phrase something new is being born. We are giving every church the opportunity to share a key message in advance of Assembly via a 1 minute video, recorded on a phone. Churches can also choose to write a letter or send a message on social media. Remember that the message should capture some aspect of hope that the church is experiencing at this time. At Assembly, every messenger will be given a chance to share key stories and challenges from their local church with other messengers. We will all be asked to answer the question: where have you seen God at work recently? We have already received some videos which you can watch on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. Let us encourage one another with recent reminders of the hope we have in Christ; of lives transformed from darkness to light, of communities receiving love in Christ s name, of new opportunities to demonstrate grace and of people responding to gospel proclamation. since we have such a hope, we are very bold 2 Cor 3:12 To upload a 1 minute message of hope 1. Film the video 2. Use https://wetransfer.com/ to upload the video 3. bushope2017@gmail.com is the email address to use on the we transfer site 4. You will receive a message to say that we have received it. #BUShope @scottishbaptist
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