Grace Baptist Assembly 2026 Day Three

Our final morning at the conference was taken up with an open forum chaired by DAvid Last where we discussed how to mobilise church members. This led to a discussion of the neglect of the Lord's Day, one reason for some of the problems we have. Finally, Simon Green fro Rattlesden preched an excellent and encouraging sermon from Psalm 126.

Grace Assembly 2024

Ebenezer, Campbell, Relf, Whitton

Jonathan Gulliford, Mark Richards, Matt Benton, David Last

I have spent the time since Tuesday lunch here in Swanwick at The Grace Baptist Assembly. The assembly used to meet in Childs Hill once upon a time and I was on the committee that arranged the assembly. For the last 20 years, however, we have met for a residential conference. For various reasons I have been unable to attend for a few years but it was good to be there this time. The format is largely unchanged and it was good to meet old friends and new.

Paul and Bridget Relf acted as hosts and so Paul preached at the beginning of our time together, looking at some words of encouragement from 1 Thessalonians. On both evenings David Campbell preached to us from that wonderful verse, Romans 8:28. We had two news sessions - one on Reformed Baptist work in Italy (presented by a gentlman from Rome called Davide Ibrahim) and one on the British scene, including reports on Chorlton and irmston; teaching English to internationals in Leytonstone; College Park, Lewisham; Pidley, N C|ambridgeshire, etc.

The conference theme otherwise was The nurturing church and particualrly the perennial subject of eudcation. So on the Wednesday morning we had an excellent survey of the last 50 years of state education in this country by Alun Ebenezer, former headmaster of Fulham Boys School. He helpfully pinpointed 11 things that have changed over this time with good humour - the culture, the view of children, authority, mental health, technology, the view of the body, the matter of the environment, sex and relationships, equality, religion/beliefs and family. This was followed by a discussion panel featuring men who had (respectively) sent their children to a Christian School (Jonathan Gulliford, Yate) home schooled (Mark Richards, Chesham) and state school (Matt Benton, Aylesbury). This was followed up on the final morning with a discussion session, chaired by David Last.

There was  also a necessary business session on Tuesday afternoon. The biggest decision was to move to Northampton next year, due to rising costs at Swanwick (the same change has had to be made by the Carey Conference).

In the final session, Steve Whitton from Lewisham preached from Genesis 19 on The cost of compromise.

GBA 2011 06

At 2.30 pm this afternoon we had a short and happy business meeting where 55 messengers from 34 different churches. Then at 5 pm we had an excellent news session.

Brian Ellis showed a slide presentation on the work in the Philippines. Crawford Gribbin said a little bit about the church he belongs to in Port Laois.

David Butler from EMF spoke about the encouraging work of Andrew and Vivian Birch in Majorca. The only discouraging factor here is the lack of conversions among the indigenous people. Daniel Webber retires soon to be succeeded by martin Leech. Iorg Muller will be coming from Germany to carry on Martin's work.

Walter Johnston is a regular at the Assembly and it was encouraging and challenging to hear him talk about the prison work that he and others from the church are involved in.

Adam Laughton reminded us of his imminent move south to be involved in the London Gateway church planting project which will now begin in West Gravesend.

Martin Grubb flagged up a forthcoming conference with Jim Renihan Roots that refresh.

Finally, a London pastor spoke of the beginning of opportunities in the local mosque in East London.

Grace Assembly 2010 01

Our opening session featured our host David Last. The Assembly this year is entitled Obeying God rather than men and David began by taking us to Luke 4 and Jesus's appearance in the synagogue in Nazareth. He spoke on the subject of expectations and how these can be very difficult. It is especially difficult with regard to the expectations of unbelievers. This what Jesus is facing in the passage. These people are full of expectation about what he can do for Nazareth. Jesus confronts them about the need for repentance. In this obey God rather than men moment he refuses to pander to their selfishness any more than he had pandered to selfishness when he was in the desert shortly before. The reaction to his bluntness is predictable. How dare he treat his own community in this way. They turn into a mob - a devilish mob. Like him they want to see if he can survive a long fall.
Having sketched the picture David made three helpful points.
1. The importance of humility. Like Jesus we need to put others first in genuine humility. This does not come naturally but the same Spirit who enabled him can enable us.
2. We need to be willing to cause upset. It is not always the tone needed but sometimes it is. Sometimes to obey God rather than men, we must go against expectations. It is most likely to happen with those nearest to you. That will no be easy. You will appear to be a failure and it will hurt.
3. We need to look to the hope set before us. In the midst of the tension and the difficulty there is this wonderful message from Isaiah about Messiah. There is an unstoppable plan as are those who serve in it - people like you and me. Jesus was taken to the very cliff edge but it was not his time. Even though they killed him in the end, he rose again. Nothing can ultimately go wrong for the believer. Life can only get better and better.
So a great start!

Grace Assembly 08 Day 3

On our final morning we had two younger men speaking. First, David Last looked at the question of why the Lord’s Supper is important. In a fresh and arresting way he gave us five reasons why we should consider this apparently strange practice as important.
1. Because it is an heirloom – something Christians have always done and that was originally commanded by Christ.
2. Because God and food go together. This striking biblical theological section took us through the Bible pointing out the importance of food in the way God has made us and relates to us.
3. Because it preaches about sin and salvation
4. Because in it we show that the Christians who make up the church are one
5. Because it teaches us humility and other person centredness
It would have been nice to have had a little time for discussion together but it was coffee next and then the closing sermon from Luke Jenner.
Luke took up where his father had left off at the beginning in Philippians 2, helpfully drawing our attention to Timothy and Epaphroditus who, he argued, are chiefly instances of the Christ-like humility Paul commends in the rest of the chapter – the first an example of service , the second of suffering. It was a young man’s sermon in that it was designed to leave us feeling uncomfortable with our commitment to Christ and did just that. We need to hear such sermons.
And so very quickly our time was over. We had lunch together (anothe excellent repast) and then departed. The Olivers very kindly gave Barry King and myself a lift to Derby Station – I hope they found their way home. I was on an earlier train than Barry and only made it just in time. It’s good to be back.