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BMS Expect’26

(William Carey:  Expect great things from God, Attempt great things for God.)

Expect is the quadrennial conference of the BMS.  Shelley and I were invited to attend the Wednesday, 24 June, of this 5 day event, at High Leigh Conference Centre near Ware, Herts.  Delegates from all over the world included BMS missionaries (including Mark and Andrea Hotchkin).  Over 150 delegates were there – and all received a copy of Jane Coates’ second book, More Encounters and Journeys.

The programme was packed, with a plenary every morning, breakout sessions and workshops, meals together and worship.

I arrived just in time for the Plenary by Rula Khoury Mansour, a Palestinian Israeli Christian lawyer who addressed what I estimate to be around 200 people in a packed very large ‘tent’.  She spoke very movingly and incisively about Christian responses for peace in times of conflict, showing by examples how people together in conflict together “carry what would crush any of us” and are “formed into something we could not become alone”.  She reflected on Palestinian experiences in recent years, using the Arabic word ’sumud’ meaning ‘steadfast remaining’ – in which people can become hard and bitter, or soft and making life.  A stone near Bethlehem says ‘we refuse to be enemies’ and said that all acts for peace are a rehearsal for reconciliation in the future, not waiting for the new world somewhere in the future, but building small pieces of it now – ’to rehearse with bare hands the world God means it to be: Jesus told us the kingdom of God is here, now’.

Rula has built an International Centre for peace studies in Nazareth: “Peacebuilding is worth doing even when peace does not come.  Where the Holy Spirit works to form us together or just coordinating us, we show up and God forms us through it.  Can anything good come out of Nazareth?  Come and see…”   Dr Aniu Kevichusa (Exec Director for Intercultural Learning and Collaboration – and a PhD student of Prof Haddon Wilmer of MBC, over 20 years ago!) followed this up powerfully, reflecting that mission is the attribute of God who seeks the lost. To the potential disciples’ question “where do you live”, Jesus invites us – “Come and see” – and shows that this is close to the Father’s heart and close to the hurt of the world.

Shelley and I attended the same ‘making disciples’ breakout session (which she referred to in the MBC service on 28 June) – disciple making is a lifestyle, not a method; the church exists for people who are not there.  We all have a circle of people we can reach out to, to take the good news of Jesus to their homes. 

The time allowed us to meet several really valuable contacts.   We of course met with Helen Harris, BMS Director of Communications and Fundraising, who spoke at MBC in April, with whom we have ongoing close contact.   MBC is historically a strong contributor to BMS through people and through our giving.   We met for lunch with Orla Moxon the BMS Youth Engagement Officer, to discuss the recent highly successful BMS March4Mission 26 event in March in Malaysia, which was a pilot to replace the Action Teams; based on this success (a fuller report is available) the next March4Mission event will be in Thailand in March 2027 – aimed at training 18-35 year olds for mission at home or abroad.   The Jane Coates memorial fund helps to support all of this activity.  

We later met John Settatree who had organised the Church-Community Mobilisation (CCM) webinar Phil attended, in conjunction with Christians Against Poverty: some of the schemes in CCM – which is learning from overseas experience, e.g. in Nepal – are of great relevance to our current thinking about what Mission looks like and can become for MBC [separate slides with notes available].   Phil also met the new church engagement specialist in the UK, Nick Drury with whom we will develop contact.

After lunch, Shelley and I attended the Hope plenary session – a range of really encouraging, specific ‘stories and voices’ from around the world, including Mark and Andrea Hotchkins describing how God had blessed their Chad hospital, especially their local medical co-worker who had stepped up to undertake life-saving operations in their absence.

We then attended the Church Leaders session, to hear Kang San Tan, the BMS President, speak eloquently about the changing nature of mission movements, which increasingly involve partnership with a move from 80-90% of UK people going to the world (“the west to the rest”), to ‘everywhere to everywhere’ (or, polycentric mission).  BMS seeks to be catalytic in this, aiming for more sustainable activities, enabling mission through generosity with partnership and seeking to avoid dependency.  This includes the view ‘every church can receive and every church can send’.  Some areas are very strong (e.g. over 2500 missionaries from Brazil are currently on service) but this is unusual, and there are moves to develop for example, ‘Africans to Africans’ seeking to raise Global South leaders and workers.  The BMS still sees its resources as serving global mission, but the BMS three strategy areas: Heart for the Gospel; Hope for the World; and Help for the Journey link with the increasing emphasis on mission in our neighbourhood as well as far away.  It was noted that the BMS is still founded predominantly on the support of UK Baptist Churches.

A Leaders Q&A session (fielded by Helen Harris, Kang and Aniu) was lively and informative. Questions included: Why should UK Baptist churches continue to support BMS?  The local church can do local mission, but BMS is working in partnership with trusted people, for the longer reach – BMS approach is not UK-led by to create locally embedded leadership, avoiding dependency.   Due diligence is always undertaken on fund distribution, aiming at long term sustainability.

What about the next generation of UK pastors/leaders? – in part this is beginning to be addressed by Orla Moxon’s role, with March4Mission as one aspect; Orla has a Harvest pack for kids this year.   BMS engages with the training colleges. Interestingly, it was noted that the BMS journey is similar to that of local churches, changing to meet current needs.

Kang reflected that the BMS is unique in his view.  It was founded by William Carey in 1792  (over 230 years ago) with a very strong history (and MBC has a very pioneering mission track record from 1960 onwards) but it is adapting to the new paradigm of mission in the current world in meaningful ways; it remains global in its reach (unlike many others), being wide ‘as is the gospel’.

The BMS statement ‘We believe that every follower of Jesus has a calling to mission’ holds well in these days!

I was privileged to then attend the latter part of the end of afternoon worship session, where retiring missionaries were gratefully thanked, celebrated and prayed with.

A very full day!

There were also 6 regional Expect meetings going on in June – see https://bmsworldmission.org/events

Overall reflection:

I already had high respect for the BMS, over many years, not least because of the involvement of so many (most known to us personally) in Moortown Baptist Church in full time and part time service abroad, including our own direct connection through Jane.  That respect has grown, with the excellence of this event, the quality of the people leading BMS World Mission (and our increased positive contact with them), the clarity of the vision and theology of mission, and the willingness to embrace change – yet firmly rooted in the clear desire to follow Jesus, and sharing His love.  Superb! 

I believe that we need to continue to strongly support the BMS enthusiastically at MBC, learn from them in partnership, and further develop our links with them so that we have a strong, dynamic connection.

We have asked Orla to come to speak at MBC, most likely in the autumn now, to help our church see some of the steps being taken by BMS to encourage all generations – potentially some of our own church?   I’m sure we will invite Helen Harris again in the future too.   Meanwhile, we will continue our warm and direct links with them, and with Aniu, which I aim to continue to develop, to the benefit of MBC.

Phil Coates

28 June 2026