Below you will find links to recommended articles and websites for further exploration about different aspects of living as an Evangelical Baptist.
ARTICLES FROM THE BAPTIST UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN
The Courage to be Baptist is a collaborative document written by a number of Baptist Ministers with differing views on sexuality and marriage.
LIVING OUT
‘Living Out’ encourages Christians, equips churches, and engages the world with God’s plan for sexuality and identity. To visit their website click here.
THE CENTER FOR FAITH, SEXUALITY & GENDER This group equips leaders with theologically sound and accessible resources, and helps leaders shape the people entrusted to them. Click here to visit their site.
THE ‘R’ NUMBER
During the global COVID-19 pandemic we became used to considering the R number explaining the reproduction/infection rate. John Hayward uses a similar approach to consider denomination growth in the UK. Growth, Decline and Extinction of UK Churches Published May 15th 2022
DENOMINATIONAL GROWTH RATES
Fulfilling Christ’s instruction to make disciples is a central part of being a Baptist, yet our Baptist churches aren’t all growing. John Hayward helpfully charts UK church growth rates and compares them with denominations that are more open to progressive ideologies and theology. Published May 20th 2022
John Hayward’s data analysis for our Baptist family is explored further here. In this analysis he says ‘…, the long term decline [of the Baptist denomination of the UK] indicates prevailing structural weaknesses within the Baptist denomination. Identifying and dealing with those weaknesses is essential to halting decline.’
EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE STATEMENT OF FAITH
Evangelical Baptists will often unite around the Evangelical Alliance Basis of Faith. It isn’t just a document to put on a website or a poster for the wall. This is something to have as a summary of our foundation for our unity and ministry.
LEARNING FROM OUR ANGLICAN BROTHERS & SISTERS
The Church of England Evangelical Council, while not from our own tradition, this group provides some excellent resources and comments on contemporary challenges and situations from an evangelical perspective. Click here to go to their website.
Similarly, the Evangelical Group of the General Synod have collated blogs, articles, videos and other resources on discipleship, church planting and other topics including human sexuality. Click here to visit their page.
PUBLIC WITNESS
Rev Malcolm Duncan shared this paper at the February 2021 Elim Pentecostal Theology conference. It is a call for church leaders to take or realise their position as a public witness to Jesus. The link goes to Malcolm’s webpage which includes a number of other excellent articles on current issues that church leaders face.
LIVING IN HOPE? SHOULD EVANGELICALS STAY AT THE TABLE
A blog from Ian Paul (2019) written from an evangelical CoE perspective Living in Hope? The Church of England’s ‘Living in Love and Faith’ project on sexuality | Psephizo
An article by Terry Griffiths which offers exegesis of part of Romans chapter 1. https://www.ministrytoday.org.uk/magazine/issues/64/488/
SERMON SERIES ON IDENTITY & HUMAN SEXUALITY
Wotton Baptist Church produced a fantastic series covering topics of identity, conversion therapy and human sexuality. The sermons link strongly together and should be explored in order to put each sermon into context etc. With thanks to Tom Wharin for allowing us to share these messages here. How to Read the Bible Right What is the main thing? (The Gospel and how we respond to it) Christian Identity Friendship, Marriage and Sex Speaking the Truth in Love
THEOLOGIES OF ORDAINED / ACCREDITED MINISTERS
This is a link to our colleague Gareth Garland’s PhD thesis. It offers an interesting analysis of the different theological understandings of ordained and accredited ministry that are current in Baptists Together.
ANDRE VAN MOL
André Van Mol, MD is a board-certified family physician in private practice. He is the co-chair of the American College of Pediatricians’ Committee on Adolescent Sexuality, and a blogger and media spokesperson for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. He and his wife Evelyn are foster and adoptive parents. He has written a number of interesting articles such as ‘Scapegoating the Church for LGBT Suicide & Stigma’, ‘Evidence Opposing Therapy Bans’ and many others on mental health, transgender and sexual identity issues especially among children and young adults. Most of his work is based in America and the statistics relate to that country but he does also write at times about issues in the UK. He writes for Christian Medical here