Friday 10th to Sunday 12th May found over 30 men gathering in Wimbledon Baptist Church for the first ever Wimbledon Weekender, hosted by Grace Baptist Partnership. The purpose of this gathering was to provide encouragement and enriched Bible teaching to young men who are considering ministry. Attendees converged from across London, other areas of England, Scotland, Amsterdam and Northern Ireland to spend time together in fellowship and being fed from Scripture.
The theme of the weekender was ‘The Lord, the Local Church and the Lost’ taking Acts 2:47 as the theme verse for the two days. Following a barbecue welcome event, Barry King (Pastor of Wimbledon Baptist and General Secretary of GBP) gave the keynote sermon outlining the context and application of Acts 2:41-47, with a Christ-exalting focus on the supremacy and sovereignty of the Lord in forming the Church, and governing it by his grace.
Saturday took ‘the local church’ as its theme with a session by me on ‘Membership’, one from Barry King on ‘Leadership’, a message from Ali McLachlan (GBP Scotland) on ‘Baptism’ and a final Saturday message from me on ‘The Lord’s Supper’. The sessions were interspersed with plentiful opportunity for discussion and enriched conversation with those in attendance, helping to think through the implications of what God had been saying to us in his word. Sunday morning allowed conference delegates to join in worship with Wimbledon Baptist Church, when Ali McLachlan preached powerfully on ‘the lost’, with his focus trained on Galatians 2:19-20. A fellowship lunch concluded these precious hours spent together on the weekender.
Several features stand out from the weekend:
1. The openness and earnestness of the men who attended. Coming from diverse backgrounds with widely different testimonies, across a spectrum of ages, all in attendance demonstrated a genuine desire to hear what the Lord has said, and what he was saying to them personally. Conversations between sessions betrayed a disarming amount of humility and clarity of thinking on the part of those who are considering the next steps they are to take.
2. The distinctiveness of the weekender’s Baptist emphasis. Polity/ecclesiology may seem like a slightly left-field emphasis for men considering ministry, but the wisdom of its selection became ever more apparent as the event went on. In an extended session on Saturday afternoon Ali McLachlan forensically and compellingly laid out a case for believer’s baptism which, while gracious, was also emphatic in its focus on the biblical picture of the ordinance. The instilling of Baptist principles among such an impressionable group has tremendous potential to inform their future ministry and to help them to think biblically about their own commitment to the ordinary means of grace. The weekend insisted that none of the topics in hand were merely secondary or optional. In an age where generalities can be the preferred option in the interests of unity, it was incredibly refreshing to see young men engage in a deep dive regarding what Baptists believe about the Lord, the local church and the lost.
3. The singing. With early-summer high temperatures hitting London over the weekend, those passing the open doors of Wimbledon Baptist Church would regularly have been treated to the sound of roof-lifting singing from the 30+ men attending the conference. Our accompaniment was either a piano on its own, or simple pre-recorded tracks, but the volume and gusto of the singing was a means for great encouragement to every heart present, and a rich opportunity for God’s name to be collectively glorified. I have not heard its like in a long time.
4. The great grounds for humble optimism about future gospel workers. Ours might be a day of small things, but it is also a day when our great God can do more than we imagine or think. My abiding sentiment as I travelled home from the Wimbledon Weekender was that there are definite green shoots among the upcoming generation in terms of a sense of love for Christ and desire to serve him. Multiple conversations with young men revealed a submissive desire to render up their lives for the Lord, the local church and the lost. This not to be boasted in, but neither is it to be gainsaid.
5. The cogency of the Grace Baptist Partnership model. Barry King and the wider GBP team have faithfully and quietly invested in the lives of young men for ministry for more than twenty years. The publicity for their work is not glossy brochures or slick marketing, but the living letters of gospel works and gospel workers who are passionately sharing Christ in some of the UK’s neediest places. Their work is eminently worthy of support by believers globally, and my conviction is that their flexible, light-infrastructure, personally invested approach could helpfully be replicated in other areas of the Lord’s vineyard – including my own context of Ireland/Northern Ireland.
Please continue to pray for the young men who attended the Wimbledon Weekender. The event has come and gone, but the seed of God’s word sown in hearts and live could yet be instrumental in seeing a further gospel harvest reaped across the UK, and far beyond.
Soli deo gloria.
Thinking Pastorally 