who we are

The churches that comprise the Association are grouped into Forums to reflect the former county associations that merged to form the Central Baptist Association.

Through their forum, churches are able to maintain their fellowship, clustering and mission together at a local level. Each forum has its own Moderator and Secretary. 

mission statement

The Regional Ministry Team and Association Council have a vision that by 2010 every church will have:

• A course for faith and discipleship
   
• A project in the community for the community
   
• A concern to reach across cultural divides
   
• A share in strategic mission planning
   
• A responsibility for supporting Baptist Mission

Together we can!

how the vision developed

In developing the Association's Mission statement, Helen Wordsworth explains that there are important principles from Luke 9:57-10:24 which shaped it.  These include:

• Commitment to prayer
• Communication of vision
• Cultural sensitivity
• Cost awareness
• Connecting and equipping people 
• Constructive reflection

The BUGB Five Core Values gave basic shape to the strategy that seeks to build churches which are: A missionary community, A prophetic community, An inclusive community, A worshipping community, and A sacrificial community

Helen says that research showed that five things were found to be the most urgent needs: 

1. To make the Gospel accessible to non-church-goers  
2. To develop more community/social action projects
3. To learn to engage with other cultures
4. To respond to the challenges of new housing development
5. To increase the resources we have available for mission

Therefore in order to achieve all this the Regional Team will:

Envision, promote, and teach holistic mission

Enable churches to release members for service beyond their local church

Encourage inclusive clusters of churches appropriately resourcing one another

Explore new ways to respond to church planting and mission opportunities

Enlarge our financial resources to implement mission priorities

Full presentation slides:  PowerPoint presentation download | PDF file download