'It made a difference to how I live out my faith in my local church and community context'

Feedback from this year's Crucible Course has been encouraging - and there are upcoming taster days in new places, writes Stuart Murray Williams

The Crucible course has been running in London (at Spurgeon’s College) and Exeter (at South Street Baptist Church) for the past few months. 36 people have participated in one or both of the first two modules - ‘After Christendom’, which explores mission in a changing culture, and ‘On the Edge’, which focuses on those on the margins of church and society.

Feedback has been encouraging. Kate Grant (Queens Road Baptist Church, Broadstairs) writes, ‘I'm currently doing the Crucible course, I've completed four modules so far and I'm absolutely loving it. The content has really stretched my thinking and made a difference to how I live out my faith in my local Church and community context. There is a great mixture of teaching, interaction and group work and the material is very relevant and engaging.The speakers are friendly, sessions very accessible and I always come away from the course buzzing with ideas and challenges.

'I would recommend the course to anyone working out what it means to be a whole life disciple of Jesus in today's culture.’

Participants can start with any module. There is still time to book in for the third module - ‘Church Unplugged’, which offers insights and resources for pioneers and churches engaging with this new environment.

We have been invited to consider running the course in three further locations from the autumn (as well as continuing in Exeter and London). To test the level of interest, we are holding ‘taster days’ (10am-4pm) in these places:

Manchester (16 March)
Southampton (30 March)
Belfast (25 May)

There is no charge for these taster days, but you need to book a place if you want to be there.

To book a place on the ‘Church Unplugged’ module or one of the taster days, or for further information on any of this, contact Rachel Jay: rachel@urbanexpression.org.uk

The Crucible Course is run by Urban Expression and the Incarnate Network in association with Northumbria Community, BMS World Mission, Rural Ministries and more.

Baptists seeking recognition as pioneers via the Equipped to Pioneer track can seek combine modules taught on the Crucible Course with modules taught at Baptist colleges, together with a supervised placement.