Our Vision
To be a Christ-centred community, where loving God goes hand in hand with loving all people, empowered by the Holy Spirit to love with every part of our being: heart, soul and mind.
Our Church’s vision is taken from Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 22:36-40;
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
We seek to promote a community where loving God goes hand in hand with loving people. And we want to take seriously the command to love with every part of our being; mind, body and soul.
Open Hearts
Hearts open to the truth of God’s love made known to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
Hearts open to express our love for God in all that we do.
Hearts open to love one another despite any differences we may have.
Open Minds
Minds open to hear from God through prayer, scripture, worship and daily living.
Minds open to wrestle with the challenges of scripture and life.
Minds open to the truth of God’s love and grace and his call for us to offer the same to all people.
Open Arms
Arms open to receive God’s care and love through other people.
Arms open to offer God’s love and care to other people.
Arms open to embrace the needs of our communities.
Mission Partnerships
Winchester Baptist Church supports a range of mission organisations and Christian Charities working in Winchester, the UK and overseas. Our Church Members are actively encouraged to support our missionaries and mission partners through hands-on involvement and prayer, as well as direct financial support.
Local
Members of Winchester Baptist Church work for or regularly volunteer for a large number of local organisations.
Here’s just a few of them:
Boaz, Trinity Winchester, Churches Together, NHS Hampshire Hosptial, Winchester Basics Bank, Street Pastors.
National
Winchester Baptist Church supports the activities of several national organisations.
Here’s just a few of them:
CAP, SASRA, Baptists Together.
International
As part of our role in the Great Commission, Winchester Baptist Church is involved with a variety of people and projects around the world. Alongside financial and prayer support, we encourage members to visit and have built up some amazing links over the years. Each person, family or project has an advocate within our Church.
International Mission
As part of our role in the Great Commission, Winchester Baptist Church is involved with a variety of people and projects around the world.
Barry and Heather
Barry and Heather are members of WBC who work in Lesotho with Africa Inland Mission (AIM) and Growing Nations, a Trust developing the use of conservation agriculture. Heather is the CEO of Growing Nations and oversees strategy and finance; Barry oversees media and communications. Their main focus is on training and equipping the local Basotho team who run the project. They also have responsibility for the care and development of other AIM team members in Lesotho and helping to co-ordinate AIM’s Harvest Team initiative.
(Advocate – Janet Jones)
August and Anita
August and Anita Basson were founders of the Growing Nations Trust in Lesotho. In 2015 they returned to South Africa to take up a new role with Africa Inland Mission (AIM), accepting the challenge to mobilize the African church to be more involved in frontline missions. August’s main focus is on finding young Africans with a calling to mission, helping to open doors for them to work in a cross-cultural setting and developing sustainable models for them to become long-term missionaries. August also remains a Trustee of Growing Nations.
(Advocate – Gil Ratcliffe)
Operation Mobilisation
WBC supports a family serving with Operation Mobilisation (OM) in the Middle East. They are involved in community development amongst rural populations, training new workers in several countries, and in organisational leadership within OM. Their desire is to make Christ known in word and deed where He is not known, and to see communities of Jesus’ followers established where there are none.
(Advocate – Catherine and Gareth Bartlett)
Baptist Missionary Society
WBC supports the work of the Baptist Missionary Society.
"Michelle and Dave Mahon and family have been serving in Peru since 2118. Initially based in Iquitos they have now moved to Trujillo, where amongst other things they teach in the Trujillo Bible Seminary. Dave and Michele are both Baptist ministers. They have three children: Jonathan, Ruth and Phoebe."
Eco Church
At Winchester Baptist Church we take care for the environment seriously. We believe that we are called to be responsible stewards of God’s Creation and that this is part of our mission. We recognise that environmental care and social justice often go hand in hand.
Being an Eco Church
Winchester Baptist Church aims to be a green church and has a dedicated group focused on identifying things we can do as a church and as individuals to help look after our world. Following the advice of bodies such as Green Christian, A Rocha and Winchester Action on Climate Change, we have actively making improvements and have now achieved the Silver Award from A Rocha.
Current initiatives include:
Encouraging as much recycling as possible at the church, with separate bins throughout the building.
All our toilets have been ‘twinned’ through Tearfund’s Toilet Twinning Scheme.
We are making increased use of environmentally friendly cleaning products
We use LED lighting throughout much of our building
Our weekly newsletter always include a Green tip
Switching to green suppliers for our energy contracts
Using Fairtrade coffee and tea and sourcing other products ethically whenever we can.
