“
EVERYONE TREASURING JESUS
We want everyone in Orpington to treasure
Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Our target
in faith for the next few years is 10%.
THAT’S TOO FEW BUT IT
WOULD BE A START.
”
introduction
Crofton Baptist Church, Orpington, is a vibrant, witnessing church of approximately 180 members,
attracting around 200 adults and 50 children on a Sunday morning. We expect visitors every week
and assume that not-yet-Christians will attend services and activities. Crofton is Evangelical and
Baptist by constitution and persuasion, though attracts members from a wide spectrum of Christian
traditions, experience and worship styles. Communion is open to all who own Jesus Christ as their
personal Saviour and Lord. Membership is similarly open to all believers who hold to the church’s
statement of faith, are in enthusiastic agreement with its vision and aims, and who want to play a
wholehearted part in the church family as we seek to extend the Kingdom of God in Orpington and
further afield.
vision
We want evangelism, community, compassion, worship and faith-filled growth in discipleship to be
increasingly the heartbeat of our church. Crofton is an outer suburb of Greater London, with a varied
demography. Around 15,000 people live in the immediate catchment area of the church premises.
We estimate only 5% of these yet have any regular connection with a Bible-believing church.
Our vision is to prayerfully work with the Lord to see this increased to 10% in the coming years,
recognising the challenges that this will bring for outreach and coping with church growth. In a
suburban location where there is comparatively little sense of community, we want our church to be
a beacon, a community of grace that is so attractive that people won’t be able to stay away!
Comparatively few people in the area are interested in spiritual things, but many are interested in
good activities for children. We have a large, six-form entry primary school on our doorstep.
Recognising this we have a growing focus on discipleship aimed at getting whole families to come
and hear the good news. We have developed this area in recent years through the ministry of a
community worker, church interns and a youth worker. Churches Together in Orpington, with whom
we have a warm connection, enjoys excellent community relationships.
The church has always had a strong interest in missions agencies and workers in this country and
abroad. We have a special connections with the Sat-7 Satellite TV ministry to the Middle East and
North Africa, Educacion Plus in Costa Rica and increasingly rich connections with a church and
missions in Nepal. But we think we can do more, especially through developing new leaders. In the
last ten years the church has released six new people into ministry and missions work and we would
like this number to continue to grow.
Crofton is a church where there is excitement about future possibilities. Lots of ideas come from
within the congregation for developing our evangelism, discipleship of every believer, global mission,
compassion ministries, pastoral care and prayer life.
we wish increasingly to be…
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a witnessing, mission-focussed fellowship whose passion for the glory of God and confidence
in the Gospel of grace is matched by a deep love for the lost
a worshipping community whose faith finds expression in earnest, believing and sacrificial
prayer for the power of the Holy Spirit to be at work through the spiritual gifts of every
member
a discipling community where every believer is becoming increasingly well trained and
equipped to make disciples
a church that pushes out the frontiers of the gospel, close to home and around the world
a family whose compassion wants to meet the physical and social needs of those within and
in the community in which we are set. We also want to be involved in areas of pressing need
beyond the UK
ethos
Crofton is a church with a family feel. People at all ages and stages are found in our congregations
(with a gap in the 20s which reflects something of the demography of the area). This can make
services feel pretty informal, but in a growing and exciting way! The church faces the challenges of
recognising and responding to a rich diversity of pastoral needs.
We wish to be a church that develops strong disciples, where the spiritual gifts of all are in evidence
and everyone is growing in intimacy with the Lord. Over coming years we wish to see the church
becoming increasingly intentional in developing and releasing the spiritual gifts of every member.
We place a clear emphasis on the need for conversion and baptism, and seek to teach the message
of God’s grace strongly and regularly. We want the fruit of the Holy Spirit to be evident in our
personal lives and our corporate church life. Our desire is to be a church that models love, grace,
faith, kindness, repentance and forgiveness.
Being a church with lots of variety, we encourage a wide mixture of worship material and styles.
Services are led not only by pastor and elders, but also by other gifted members of the fellowship.
We are theologically open to public manifestation of the gifts of tongues, prophecy and
interpretation within a clear biblical framework, but there is little evidence of their public use in
services at the present time.
The church seeks to ground all practice and vision and continually seeking God’s will for the future in
clear application of the Bible. Our reading of, and submission to, scripture is firmly within the
evangelical tradition. We hold to the Evangelical Alliance statement of faith and the Declaration of
Principle of the Baptist Union.
“
THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We want the fruit of the Holy Spirit to be
evident in our personal lives and our
corporate church life. Our desire is to be a
church that models love, grace, kindness,
repentance and forgiveness.
”
programme
The weekly programme contains a large variety of activities and events, opportunities to pray and
worship.
The church has two Sunday morning services. At present children’s work only happens during one of
these, with some differences of style and content being used as appropriate to the different people
who come to each.
Central to the church’s worship is the preaching and teaching of the Bible in the power of the Holy
Spirit, in the two services on Sunday morning (in which the same Bible message is preached),
frequent services on Sunday evening and through many other opportunities, both regular and oneoff. We understand God’s Word to be absolutely foundational for evangelism and growing in faith.
Home groups form a core part of the church family life and are a first line of pastoral care. We have
run Christianity Explored courses fairly regularly over recent years.
leadership
The leadership team consists of a team of a senior minister (Adrian) who functions as team leader, a
community worker, youth worker, elders and deacons. Elders have main responsibility for strategy,
vision, preaching, teaching and training, while the diaconate fulfils vital roles in a wide range of
ministries, including evangelistic, compassion, financial, fabric and administrative areas. In line with
normal Baptist practice the leadership team has authority to counsel and guide, but final authority of
decision rests with our church meeting, which is the key place the church members gather for praise,
prayer and discernment. We are about to implement a new leadership structure to enable more
people to serve according to their gifts and to better enable us to reach our community for Christ.