Baptist Assembly 2026: Church, community and change

“The church is with the community and the community is with the church.” As I heard these words spoken out over the auditorium in Harrogate, my heart rose. These were words from Rev Alex Kamara from Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was nearly the same thing I’d heard the night before, echoed in a different accent, yet with the same voice, by Baptist Minister Graham from Hartlepool, when he said “Really what my hope is that the church really does become the church of the community because we’re in the community...”

I’d come along to this year’s Baptist Assembly eager to see connections between the BMS World Mission-supported work I’d just filmed in Sierra Leone and what God might be doing among UK Baptists. I was not disappointed.  

Training that empowers

The Baptist Convention in Sierra Leone has been training churches across the country in a process to help them lift their communities out of poverty. The training empowers participants to see the resources around them and equips churches to work side-by-side with their communities to gain improvements that benefit everyone. In Sierra Leone, that can mean anything from starting a small farm to building public toilets, to bringing a new school to a crowded neighbourhood or paved roads to a remote village. Local people decide what will serve their community best.   

At Baptist Assembly, we heard what that community engagement can look like in the UK. The Friday evening plenary showcased the Northern Baptist Association (NBA), including video stories of local Baptist churches creating something for the community around them: a barber shop, a supper club, a dementia choir, and a coffee shop and food pantry for migrants. We heard the heart behind each ministry: that people meet a Jesus that truly loves them as a whole person, no strings attached, and wants to meet their needs – a message I’d heard from Sierra Leonian pastors too.  

The parallels to Sierra Leone did not stop there. We heard about the loss of industry and income in the North of England, the disparity in wealth between north and south, and how each of these small but vibrant ministries is supported by Home Mission grants. The session ended with a powerful word from General Secretary Lynn Green to the NBA: that the smallest Association will lead the way for the Baptist Union as a whole.  

A way forward for the whole Church

Despite its natural richness, Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world. Only 16% of the population has access to basic sanitation facilities, only 35% has electricity. There is no public transport, no free school or healthcare. Very few people have a stable income. So, you can imagine then, how churches must struggle too. Yet, in the churches of Sierra Leone, I saw a way forward for the whole Church. 

Here’s the five-minute video testimony BMS shared from Sierra Leone at Baptist Assembly.  

You can download the film to share with your church here.

Churches working to improve the lives of their members and spearheading positive change in the community is leading to both physical abundant life and spiritual abundant life. At Awesome Praise Baptist in Freetown, Sierra Leone, that looks like a Muslim steel bender helping to build a new church building following the support from Christians his family received when their house burned down. “This church is my church,” he says. At Headland Baptist in Teeside, that looks like a daughter who would never go to church bringing her mother week after week to dementia choir and dementia-friendly services.  

Mutuality in mission

People around the world are seeing the Church as something they want to be a part of. They are seeing a Church, and through this a Saviour, that values them as people, believes in their potential, and joins together with them in their own state of vulnerability.  

The idea that the lowliest will lead us is, of course, deeply biblical, as Rev Leoné Martin reminded us in her Sunday preach at Baptist Assembly. She led us through Luke 10:1-16, known as the Sending of the 72. When I’ve previously read this passage, I’ve focused on God calling us to risk, to boldness, and to dependence on him. But Rev Martin pointed out that when Jesus directs the 72 to go without money or proper attire and to accept whatever hospitality is offered, he is teaching mutuality in mission. That as people offering good news and abundant life, we must go out not as superiors or have-it-all-togethers but as vulnerable ‘lambs among wolves’, willing to – no, needing to – receive as well as give. That we must tie our fate and future to the communities we minister within. And we must be led by the lowliest, so that we may grow in strength and in faith together.  

What an important message to call the Baptist church to, in the UK and around the world. And what a privilege to see it proving to be true, whether in Teeside or in Freetown.