Grace Baptist Assembly 2026 Day One

It is good to be here once again in the Kings Centre, Northampton, this time for the Grace Assembly 2026. We had three session on this first day today - Matthew Gray preaching on three wells mentioned in Genesis, then a news session on the Reformed Baptist works in Romania from Mircea Aioanei from Arad and then this evening Peter Schild, a pastor in Frankfurt in Germany.

Peter spoke on the way Christ trained his men, a model for us. He had seven points

1. Christ the Master chose ordinary weak men who were teachable
2. Christ the Master prayed earnestly before he chose his disciples
3. Christ the Master chose men that they shoould be with him
4. Christ the Master instructed his disciples in private
5. Christ the Master patiently bore with the faults of his disciples and taught them in love
6. Christ the Master gave his men tasks and allowed them to grow in responsibility
7. Christ the Master left his men and sent them out withe the Holy Spirit

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Final Part

So the rest of day two was filled with our usual business meeting, agreeing to meet again here, May19-21, 2026 then a break and a UK news session chaired by Colin Grimwood (work in Chelmsley Wood, Chorlton, Bethersden, Wensleydale, Ferris Lindsay teaching English, etc). Engouragements and difficulties abound. Mick Lockwood preached again in the evening, this time mainly on Revelation 21 but with a lot of Luke 24. So a good day - not just from the platform but chatting away with various people I know and didn't know. There have also been prayer meetings Wednesday and Thursday mornings (Noel Ramsey and Derek Meade leading).

I slept well and woke early as we hade to clear our rooms before ten and I was due to speak in the first session of Thursday morning. I had been asked to do something historical and chose to look at John Fawcett. I made ten points fom the material

Ten Lessons for small churches from the life of John Fawcett (1740-1817)

1. Never forget the importance of love

2. Sometimes a small church may find it difficult to pay its pastor

3. Small churches should not be surprised if other churches invite their pastors to step up into a wider sphere

4. Small churches, like large ones, must be led by and be made up of converted people

5. If even small churches produce men of the calibre of a Sutcliff they greatly serve the wider church

6. Interconnectedness. How ever it is done, it can be a great blessing, especially to a small church, to be connected with like minded churches, large or small

7. Even small churches can be involved, with other churches, in the wider work of mission

8. Remember, small churches can grow into big ones

9. Sometimes ministers even in small churches can exercise a wider ministry through print or judicious use of audio and video online

10. Sometimes it is right to hang on in there, even though thin
gs may look very discouraging

(If you are interested in John Fawcett I have begun a new blog on him here

Also my talk is here).

Today is my birthday. I am 66. Dennis Gamston tipped them off and they sang happy birthday to me, which happened once before.

Our final session was a preaching service. Chola Mukanga from Bexley Heath preached from Haggai 2. He reminded us that God is with us as his people, he is with us in his work and he is with us for his glory.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Day 2 Morning

We had a presentation by four men on different scenarios for small churches to start our second day. It was very interestin and quite moving in parts. This was followed by a helpful time of discussion. David Last chaired.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Day 1/03

Great preaching this evening as we looked behinf the scenes with the aid of Revelation 12 with Mick Lockwood. A blessing to be here.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Day 1/02

Our second session was a report session on the work of the gospel in Iran and among Iranians. Our speaker was Pooyan Mehrshahi, the pastor of Providence Baptist Chapel in Cheltenham. He gave a brief but illuminating history of Iran and the inroads the gospel is currently making among Persian people. He sought to give a balanced assessment of the apparent growth in numbers.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2025 Day 1/01

So I am in Northampton once again. This time at the annual Grace Baptist Assebly, where Particular Baptists from all over England come together as churches to hear and to share. The opening speaker was Mark Stocker, the pastor of Spring Road Evangelical Church in Southampton. Appropriately, he took us to Revelation 5 and spoke of the Lion of Judah in whose hands are all things.

For recordings see link here.

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.

Lord's Day July 8 2018

I was down in Portsmouth last Lord's Day preaching for the folk at Grace Baptist Church, Copnor Road. (I was last there in 2009). A former member, someone who came to us as a student, is a member there and he looked after me for the afternoon. I know one or two other members of the congregation a little bit also. We were about 30 in the morning and something less in the evening. I preached on Ephesians 2:8-10 in the morning and Romans 8:28 in the evening. It was blessing to be there. More on the church here (the sermons are currently there also).
Alexander was preaching here for me and I think they got on well with several visitors.

Catch up

It is not possible to keep a record of everything that goes on here and I don't try but I thought I'd try a quick round up as I do sometimes, covering things I have missed. Last Saturday we had the second of our men's meetings and the six of us who met for breakfast enjoyed it and found it worthwhile I think. We have a chapter to read and then we discuss. The subject was a purity, not one that arises spontaneously among us so it was good to talk it through.

I do mention the Westminster Fellowship from time to time and I enjoyed the last one I attended (Robert Strivens on preaching) but I don't think I mentioned that (nor the last pastoral friendship walk which was very enjoyable).

There were also some interviews at the London Seminary, which I tend not to mention for obvious reasons. All good candidates though.

The other thing was the Grace Assembly which I attended just for one day at the end of May and enjoyed very much. The recordings can be found at the website here. I also picked up some nice books courtesy of the Dunstable Bookshop.

Reformed Conferences

This sketchy Venn diagram shows 12 Reformed Conferences and something of how those attending cross over. Most are ministers conferences but the four in yellow, red, orange and pink are aimed more broadly. I am conscious that this does not include Word Alive or Keswick. (The Affinity Study Conference is only every two years). I'm sure I've missed one or two other conferences such as the EFCC ones.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2017 Day 3

The assembly finished with Oliver Allmand-Smith speaking on William Gadsby and Mike Judge preaching a closing sermon. Oliver began with five things that stood against Gadsby from early on.

1. He was a sinner. Born in 1773 the ninth of 14, he was the son of a road mender. A life adn soul sort, he was profane in his language and utterly opposed to religion.

2. He was poor. His parents were desperately poor. When he married in 1796 they possessed a chest of drawers and an umbrella. They sold the umbrella for a bed! They were involved in the weaving industry, a cottage industry with such narrow margins that one mistake could wipe out all profit even working all hours.

3. He was poorly educated. He attended the church school in Nuneaton three days a week for a short while. He managed to learn to read but barely. When he began to preach he could hardly read out the Bible passage.

4. He was doctrinally aberrant. Although he lived in the era of Andrew Fuller and the rediscovery of evangelical Calvinism, he rejected those views. He called Fuller a great enemy to the gospel. He did not believe in the free offer of the gospel. He was also antinomian in his view of the Law. Along with this there was a distinctiveness and individuality, an obstinacy, that made him pour scorn on ministerial education and inter-church fellowship. Even at his ordination he behaved in a very anarchist manner.

5. He ministered to deprived and poverty stricken people. He became a minister in Desford when he was 27 before moving to Manchester in 1807, where he ministered for 39 years in the same church. Manchester was the first industrial city and the dirt, poverty, crime and vice was horrendous. Gadsby reached out nevertheless to uneducated and needy people with great success.

Despite all that was against him Gadsby was greatly used by God to be a great blessing to many, many people. At the age of 17 he saw a hanging in Coventry. One man was so emaciated that it was difficult to hang him. it left an impression on Gadsby that led to a deep conviction of sin. Eventually he was converted. He went on to be a powerful and effective preacher not only in Manchester but in many other places too. Not only that but he did a great deal to help the poor also. This included political activity on behalf of the poor.
On his grave are these words

Here rests the body of a sinner base
Who had no hope but electing grace
The love, blood, life and righteousness of God
Was His sweet theme – And this He spread abroad.

1. Be careful what you do with your heroes. If only those who often make Gadsby their hero were more like him in their desire to see souls saved and to bless his people.
2. Do not forget the importance of compassion. May his spirit live in us to the glory of God.

The very last message was given by Mike Judge. Mike was late joining us as his wife has just given birth to their third child, Lorica. Mike spoke very warmly of the Assembly and the influence it has had on him. In his sermon he took us to Acts 10. e went through the story of Cornelius and his conversion - being about both justification by faith and the breaking down of barriers.
Barriers are broken down by proclaiinng Christ in all the earth.
A reminder - all the talks can be heard by going here.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2017 Day 2 Afternoon and evening

I

In the afternoon we had our business meeting which is an integral part of the Assembly. Messengers from the 58 registered churches discussed future assemblies and one or two other things. There was lots of participation and a good spirit. We were free for an hour or two then before reassembling at five for our news session, which is always a good time. We heard from Glen Hanna now pastor at Downe, Kent; Matthew Cox from Chorlton, soon to move to Bethersden; there was then a reference to a new pastor going to Basildon and a lovely description of things at Derby Rd, Watford (whose paator Tom Forryan is soon off to France) by Phil Jordan. We also heard from Sandra Stevens about God's goodness to the folk in Kirby-Le-Soken in what was something of a financial crisis and from Pam Thomas of Wigan and getting to know Muslim women in Liverpool. Keith John s very kindly offered me the opportunity to say something about Childs Hill. People were particularly struck by remark about not knowing quite what to do there (after 30-odd years that is). Ma;colm McGregor so enjoyed it that he asked me to join the two speakers (Paul and Paul) later as we fielded written questions following on from their messages. People are very kind.

In between that, after tea, Paul Lintott gave his second message on justification. Having spoken of the relevance of the doctrine to the unconverted, he spoke of what an encouragement it is to believers. Good stuff.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2017 Day 2 Morning

For the morning of the second day here at the Assembly we were led by Paul Watts from Coventry for two sessions on transculturalisation. First, we had an introduction to the biblical material, chiefly from Acts and then after coffee something about practical application. This was a good presentation of the position most of us would take. I was sorry there was no immediate time for discussion as it raises a host of questions. It is an old chestnut and the devil is in the detail.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2017 Day 1

I am at the Grace Baptist Assembly today. This is the start of a three day conference that began at lunch time today and will end lunch time Thursday. I did n't get here until the second of the three messages today was almost over. I listened, however, to the opener from Malcolm McGregor (you can do the same here) a Schaefferesque state of play address full of interesting things and will get round to the news session with Ruslan Antonov from Ukraine later. Paul Lintott gave us a very helpful summary of Luther's rediscovery of justification by faith and applied it well.

A useful resource

Following his message at the recent Grace Assembly, Stephen Rees's comparison of the 1689 Confession and the 1966 Affirmation is now available in pdf form here on the Assembly website.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2016 Final Sessions

On the Tuesday evening Alun McNabb gave his second and final message. In what was no doubt not the first outing for this material he gave us six or seven reasons why Jeremiah would probably find it difficult to secure a pastorate these days. He instanced his God-centredness, his failure to be "seeker friendly", his seriousness, the way he exposed sin, the fact he was emotional and too repetitive and finally his lack of "musicalness". This was good old fashioned stuff.

On our final day we had a fascinating session first on the document "We believe" one of the two standards of the assembly, the other being the Confession of 1689. It being 40 years since the publication of the Affirmation it was good to hear Peter Day recount the origins of the document. Stephen Rees then compared the 1689 and 1966 documents showing how the latter is a shorter more relevant document in modern language. I have never looked seriously at the 1966 Affirmation as it includes a strict view of communion, not my position. However, that is a mistake on my part as there are many good things in it clearly.

That fist session ran over slightly but we were able to get back on track for the final session when Jonathan Chell of Ramsey preached very helpfully from Psalm 23 to close the conference and bringing us back eventually to where we started off.

Assembly plans to gather again in the same place (Hayes Centre, Swanwick) next year, May 9-11. More here.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2016 Home News

One of the great features of the assembly is the news sessions. Having done something overseas style yesterday, this afternoon we had some news chaired by Keith Johns, recently retired from Caterham. Items covered

1 Caterham (Keith Johns) which has recently called Jonathan Bailey as pastor.

2 Chatham (Paul Relf) Enon where opportunities especially with Africans abound

3 Bethersden (Ian Jemmett) the Kent church where the pastor has recently had to step down

4 Wigan (Matthew Gray) Jireh where there are some problems with young people

5 Halifax (Luke Jenner) where there are many opportunities to reach Muslims

6 Coopers Edge, Gloucester (Harold Gamston) a new church reaching out

7 Halstead, Essex (Graham Field) a still quite new work

8 Coventry, Lower Ford Street (Peter Cordle) where opportunities abound following major building works

9 Evangelical Library (Gary Brady)

Great session.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2016 02

This morning we had two messages at Assembly from Tim Curnow. The first was on the church and the state and the second on the church and the world. The first message was a very clear and helpful outline of the nonconformist, anti-establishment position as seen in Scripture. The second, more difficult message sought to outline the New Testament position on the Christian and the world. We spent some time after these messages in discussion of both messages, which was helpful. These topics are part of the bread and butter of an assembly like this but it was good to be going over it once again.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2016 01

It's good to be at the Grace Baptist Assembly again in Swanwick with around 120 others. The committee kindly asked me to chair this year and so I opened with a sermon from Revelation 7 emphasising the everlasting rest that is ours in Christ.

After that Micky Mollalegn from Amyand Park spoke in our first news session on the work of the gospel in his native Ethiopia. It was a well informed introduction to the history of that nation. We also had a short report from Ian Jemmett regarding a man they are seeking to support in Zimbabwe.

The third section of the day was a preaching session which I chaired with Alun McNabb who spoke powerfully and in a challenging way on John 13:34, 35. We had hoped to hear Mr McNabb two years ago but he was unwell. It was worth waiting. A full day tomorrow. If you want to hear today's messages they can be downloaded from the website here.

Grace Baptist Assembly 2015 Final Day

I have been a little constrained in my reporting the GBA as I forgot to take the computer lead with me. I am back home now and can report that our final morning was very good. Hugh Collier spoke on Adoniram Judson, a great hero, especially of we Baptists. He judged it very well for what to include and what to leave out. It was very good to hear the story again and areal challenge. Carl Muller preached from Romans 8:28 for the finale session and sent us home on the right note.

Having missed last year's assembly I particularly appreciated being there this year. It is good to be with these people. We share so much in common and there is great sympathy one for the other. May such fellowship long continue.