Pastor’s Thoughts – Autumn 2026
Being called a Senior Pastor makes me feel old, so I asked Tim to drop the "senior" and just set up pastor@stortfordbaptist.org and to put that on the office door too. Joking aside, it really is an honour and privilege to serve as senior pastor of this wonderful church.
In God's providence, I had planned to attend the European Leadership Forum in May as part of my first ever sabbatical, long before God began moving the pieces that would bring us to BSBC. Discovering that a group from the church would be there too turned one blessing into two. Alongside teaching from some of the finest in their fields, I had the joy of spending time with Rupert, Jo, Steve, Neil, Tim and Patrick, and introducing them to some friends of mine from around the world. The highlight of the week was winning our private game of ten-pin bowling. I thought Americans were supposed to be good at their own sports. Apparently not! Sorry, Patrick.
I am particularly grateful that BSBC paid for my place at the Forum, while my previous church, Wellington Chapel, generously paid for my flights. Kindness like that deserves to be mentioned. Yet I wonder how often we receive kindness, appreciate it inwardly, and then forget to say anything. I know I do.
That reminds me of Luke 17.
Jesus heals ten men with leprosy, but only one comes back, praising God loudly and throwing himself at Jesus’ feet, and he was a Samaritan, the outsider.
“Where are the other nine?” Jesus asks.
Ten men walked away with their skin restored and their health handed back to them. All ten received an extraordinary gift, but only one returned to the Giver. And Jesus’ final words to that man suggest that he received something deeper still: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
That gap between the nine and the one illustrates the difference between gratitude and thanksgiving. Gratitude is a feeling. Thanksgiving is that feeling getting up, walking back across the road, and saying or doing something. It is good to live with an attitude of gratitude, but Christian faith calls us to respond to what we have received. That isthanksgiving: gratitude expressed in a way that honours God and blesses others. My prayer is that BSBC becomes increasingly saturated with that kind of culture.
So let me practise what I am preaching.
I am grateful to you for supporting my ongoing discipleship and my time at ELF. I am grateful to you for receiving me and my family so warmly as your new "senior" pastor. And I am most grateful to God, for saving me, sustaining me, and for calling my family and me here. I hope to express that gratitude by serving you faithfully and wholeheartedly, and by leading us wherever the Living God calls us.bsbc.life
The day after we arrived in Stortford, I quietly slipped into the final meeting of Prayer Week. I came away enormously encouraged. There was a wonderful willingness to embrace whatever changes God may bring, coupled with an honest desire for the Spirit’s help in letting go of anything that might hinder us.
I am grateful for that openness and appetite for change, and I am equally grateful for your patience. Beyond a few small tweaks that many of you have noticed (and, thankfully, welcomed), I have deliberately held back from anything larger. This is a season to listen, learn and love: to observe, assess, ask questions, build relationships and pray unhurriedly about what comes next. It also honours what God has already done here through John, and through the many others who have invested in the church we love today.
Finally, thank you, too, for the encouraging response to our recent series on Abraham. My prayer is that, as we keep mining the Scriptures together, we will keep discovering their greatest treasure: Jesus, the One for whom we have most reason to be thankful!
This week, we will all be recipients of God’s kindness in various ways.
Will you be one who responds with thanksgiving?
