Bournemouth beach baptisms draw thousands as churches unite

The beach baptisms, which are now in their second year, are hosted by 14 churches across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) to form the BCP Church Collective. Wonderfully, the event has gained coverage on BBC News and in local media outlets. It represents significant growth from last year, when five churches came together to baptise 92 people in a single morning, with more than 1,300 people gathering to watch. 

Peter Baker, senior pastor of Lansdowne Church, an Evangelical Alliance member church, said, ​“These baptisms on the beach represent, for us locally as evangelical leaders, a journey that we’ve been on for eight to ten years.” What began as a monthly gathering for church leaders as ​“a context for prayer, fellowship, honesty and ministry among leaders” began to go deeper as trust grew between them. Peter explains that together with the leaders of Bournemouth Community Church and Lovechurch, they decided to ​“focus on not just being together as leaders, but bringing our churches together around the gospel, around mission.” Last year’s baptisms were the first fruits of that, followed by evangelistic events with Bear Grylls in the autumn and a programme for local schools based on his book.

Peter shares that the Collective majors on the idea that ​“it’s about kingdom, not tribe”, so despite the wide variety of churches in the group, ​“there is a shared confidence in the gospel and using the moment which we’re in nationally and culturally.” 

Indeed, there is a real openness to the good news of Jesus in this season, with several people spontaneously deciding to be baptised on Sunday. ​“Some of these are quite remarkable stories”, Peter says, with young and old alike, from all kinds of backgrounds, getting baptised. ​“There’s something happening in our culture that churches like ours, or areas like ours, seem to be able to maximise because we as church leaders have been on a journey praying into this for 10 years … we’ve been sowing into this, and now we are in a season of reaping.”

Among those who got baptised was Mary Lambert. Mary grew up in a Christian home but returned to Jesus around two years ago after 40 years of ​“trying all sorts of things” and finding ​“nothing could really make me truly happy”. In her darkest moment, she said God answered her prayer by miraculously sending her a Bible and, later, gently led her to Landsdowne Church just after last year’s beach baptisms. Mary said it was ​“fantastic” to get baptised alongside so many others, each with their own story of God’s amazing grace, to ​“witness to my children and stand up for Jesus”. ​“It gave you a real feeling of how amazing God’s church is” and ​“how magnificent a work He’s doing in the community”, Mary said.

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After the service, many stayed on for a picnic on the beach. It’s the kind of unity you can often find at Christian festivals, but which Peter notes: ​“may actually be more impactful because you are literally having a sandwich for a couple of hours with people who are in your town and love Jesus, but you’ve never really met them before.” This growing unity means there is great potential for future collaborative events.  

When we asked Peter for his thoughts on how other church leaders can foster unity, he was keen to point out that this didn’t happen overnight. The key is growing ​“a group of leaders who love each other, and give each other space, and yet support each other”. A unity group shouldn’t be an ​“advertising board for all the events you’re doing in your church that you want the other churches to support”. Rather, prayer, fellowship and building relationships are the foundation. 

Building up trust is also essential: ​“You’ve got to have a strong sense of confidence that you’re on the same page. By which I mean, you don’t just love each other relationally in Jesus, but you are prepared to let certain things go in order that you can stay together for the sake of the gospel.”

“My advice is: go slow, make it relational and then try and keep word-based proclamation evangelism primary”, Peter concludes.