|PIC1|Around 800 Scottish Baptists are expected to turn out this Friday for Live Connections, the title given to this year’s annual Assembly of the Baptist Union of Scotland.

Stuart Christine, who serves with BMS World Mission in Brazil, is among the main speakers at the Assembly, which will be held in the Albert Hall in Stirling and in the town’s Baptist Church.

“We’re looking forward to an exciting and challenging time,” said the Baptist Union of Scotland’s general director, the Rev. Bill Slack, in The Baptist Times. “The fellowship will be great, but the challenge will also be there.”

Included in the Assembly programme are ‘breakout’ meetings. The Ministry Breakout Group, led by BUS Ministry Advisor, the Rev. Andrew Rollington, will take a closer look at the content and implications of the Consultation Document: Models of Good Practice for the Pastoral Care of Pastors (Appendix 9).

|QUOTE|BUS Mission Advisor, the Rev. David Gordon, will lead another Breakout Group focussing on the three year strategy developed by the Mission Resource Team as outlined in the ‘annual report’.

Other Breakout Groups will look at new developments in the children’s and youth work and ministry within the Union, as well as review progress made over the past year in relation to the administration and financial management of the BU.

Rev Slack said: “We’ve been moving towards having more business undertaken by the Council, which frees more time in the Assembly for resourcing and inspiring delegates.”

He added that the new format of shifting assemblies to the weekend has led to a wider participation by the denomination with a younger age-profile.|TOP|

The evening celebrations will run under the theme ‘RE:Connection’, with Dr. Elaine Storkey, president of Tearfund, delivering the evening message under the title “Re-connected – for what?”. Dr. Storkey will also speak on Saturday morning on ‘What a truly Christian spirituality looks like’.

Saturday afternoon will see two special seminars on ‘Mission and Ministry in a Small Church Context’ with three Baptist ministers speaking on their experiences from working in small inner city or rural churches, and ‘Spirituality’, which will take a closer look at spirituality in relation to women, the workplace, evangelism and consumerism.

The Assembly will close on Sunday 30th October with the theme of ‘Fw:connections’, after morning presentations by BMS World Mission’s Stuart Christine on ‘Our relationship with God’ and ‘Our relationship with each other and our communities’ and a final evening talk by Rev. Slack entitled ‘Empowered by the Spirit’.