Where did we come from?

>> In 1892, various groups of Baptists (Associations) covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, plus some churches just outside that area, joined together to form the East Midland Baptist Association. There were around 150 churches then in membership.

>> In 2002, following national Baptist re-organisation ‘East Midland Baptists’ was formed. This is the umbrella name for the two organisations - ‘East Midland Baptist Association’ and ‘East Midland Baptist Trust Company’.

>> 160 Churches agreed to become members of the new Association. The Association wholly owns the Trust Company which has the specific responsibility of looking after all Trust and property matters.

Why are we here?

Our Mission Statement is “ East Midland Baptists: Encouraging and Resourcing one another in our God-given mission.” The intention behind this statement was to recognise that all our churches can be involved in encouraging and resourcing one another.
This happens in four ways …

The first way is through churches, and individuals, giving to Home Mission. The money we receive from Home Mission each year currently enables us to employ 4 members of staff. These are the two Regional Ministers, a Mission Enabler and an Administrator. All four of these people are available, in their different ways, as an encouragement and resource to the churches – but they can only do that if churches give to Home Mission. So, your gifts to Home Mission mean that not only will your church benefit from the expertise available, but so will other churches – one way of encouraging and resourcing each other. Click on the picture to find out more about these staff members and how they can help your church.

The second way that churches can encourage and resource one another is by enabling some of their Church Members to use their gifts and skills to serve the wider church through the Association Structures. Now, the four members of staff could run the Association on their own, but they wouldn’t make a very good job of it! The Association is much more effective when lots of other people are involved – and it is important that we see people from many different churches serving the wider Baptist family in this way.

Membership of the Board of Directors and the Ministry Development Group, as well as our representation on the Baptist Union Council and BMS General Committee, are open to all. Whenever the need for new people arises, churches will be asked to make nominations

Other groups also need members but they are appointed in slightly different ways. These include the Church Relations Group, the Training Advisory Group and the Mission Task groups. More information on these, and other, ways of serving the wider Baptist family can be found here

The third way in which churches can be encouraged and resourced is through our Association Days … but only if churches participate! Association Days happen twice a year – in March or April and September or October. Sometimes they include a little Association Business and each church will be entitled to send two voting delegates to vote on their behalf.

But they are much, much more than Business meetings! They are events which are for encouraging and resourcing churches and individuals – through worship, speakers, workshops and just meeting together and hearing what is going on in other parts of the Association. Activities for children are also included in each of the days. Click on the target to find out about the next Association Day

The fourth way churches can encourage and resource each other is through clusters and local groupings of churches. These are not formal structures but groupings of churches whose aim is to encourage and resource one another in our mission. Sometimes that will mean sharing news and praying for each other, sometimes it will mean worshipping together, sometimes it will mean supporting something one church is organising, and at other times it may mean working together.