We might describe our theme for 2025 as an invitation to look in three directions. Firstly, it calls us to look outwards, remembering that we are called to share the love and hope that we have found in Jesus with the communities around us. Secondly it invites us to look inwards, remembering that we have been called to love one another as God has loved us. And that connection between the love of God and the love that we share with one another speaks to us of what might be described as an upward direction, for as those words from 1 John chapter 4 go on to remind us (v19), we love one another because God first loved us.

Our Baptist Declaration of Principle describes it as a duty of every Christian disciple to bear witness to the Gospel. That may well feel like a daunting challenge, but we are delighted to be part of the Everyone Everywhere initiative that is developing across our Baptist community nationally. At its heart is a desire to help each of us grow in confidence as we seek to engage in that task of making Jesus known. People often speak of an unease in sharing their faith in case they somehow get something wrong – yet the words of 1 John 4 remind us that sharing the Good News is not so much a matter of communicating the facts as sharing the love that we have found in Jesus. During the year, we will be sharing more of the opportunities and resources that are available through the Everyone Everywhere initiative.

The chapter goes on to make the point that 'No-one has ever seen God but if we love one another, God lives in us and God's love is made complete in us.' (v12) The life that we share together is an outward sign to the world of the reality and nature of God's love. This is a poignant reminder that the relationships we foster and display to a watching world are crucial to our outreach and witness.

Another defining element of our Baptist identity is the liberty of each gathered community to discern God's purpose under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. This inevitably makes us a diverse community, able to learn and grow through our shared life together. In recent years we have recognised something of the reality of that diversity, particularly in relation to issues of human identity that are often the source of some debate in wider society. The call to share God's love together is a reminder that our response to difference is not simply a matter of debating things through to a common outcome, but demonstrating to a fractured and divided world that love can prevail even in the face of difference, and that difference does not need to require division. As we move forward together, it feels important to remind ourselves of the overarching call to be a community defined by God's love. The writer of 1 John is quite clear in their own understanding that love is an essential and defining feature of Christian community.

Given the constant reminder that we are firstly loved by God, it might feel strange to include this as the final element of our vision. But I've done so to try and make the point that the previous two elements are utterly dependant on the third. We cannot share what we do not have, and we will simply never find the capacity to share God's love with others until we first allow ourselves to realise just how much God loves us. 1 John reminds us that God's love has been displayed to us through the life and death of Jesus – whatever theological understandings we might have about the events of Calvary, we must never forget that this is a demonstration of immeasurable love. Our capacity to love others is rooted in our own experience of God's love through God's living presence within us.

Our world can sometimes be an unloving place, and when it becomes so, its values and behaviours can easily rub off, leaving us feeling unloved and unloving. That's why it's so important that we never lose sight of God's unfailing and immeasurable love. A key purpose of our shared life as Christian disciples is to remind one another of the love that God has for each of us, to help one another to experience and re-experience God's gracious and constant love as we grow in our faith and character. As we each seek to love and serve God in our own unique situations, let's grasp every opportunity to share God's love together.

Phil Jump – January 2025