A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Grace Baptist Assembly. For those of you who have no idea what the GBA is, it’s simply an annual conference at which representatives of churches gather to encourage one another and to discuss matters of mutual concern.
Any church that has a baptised membership (i.e. whose members have all been baptised as believers) and upholds the doctrines taught in the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith and/or the 1966 Strict Baptist Affirmation of Faith may register its interest and send ‘messengers’ (i.e. representatives, delegates) to the Assembly. Churches represented may identify as ‘Baptist’ or not. They may belong to some national or local fellowship of churches or not. Many are completely independent.
A church may send messengers to one year’s Assembly and never again. No one is asked to sign up to any ongoing organisation, movement, or association. To register and send messengers to the Assembly in any year is simply to express a church’s desire to have contact with like-minded churches during the days that that year’s Assembly meets.
The main theme for this year’s Assembly was ‘The Challenge of Small Churches’. That’s certainly a pressing issue for many of the churches that were represented at the Assembly. I don’t know what their average size would be. But I know that some have fewer than ten members; some could count their members on the fingers of one hand. The church I pastor would certainly consider itself a small church, though not as small as some.
In recent years, at least one session at the Assembly has taken the form of a panel discussion on some matter of common concern. This year, four men sat on the panel and spoke about the challenges facing small churches.
