Mississippi Pastors on the Road in the UK
A team of pastors from Mississippi travelled across the UK last month to explore new church-to-church partnerships.
Ipswich, Leatherhead, Macclesfield, Leeds, Milnthorpe, Diddly Squat Farm, Leamington Spa, and Norwich were all visited in early September by a team of pastors from Mississippi.
Over four days and travelling more than 1,000 miles—the team made their way across the UK to explore new church-to-church partnerships.
The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board has had a historic connection with FIEC churches for a long time. Their aim is simple: to connect pastors and send teams in both directions, building partnerships for mission.
Multiple UK churches already benefit from such partnerships, with many others waiting eagerly to join.
“Dream big”
Pastor Greg Spencer (First Baptist Church, Ellisville, Mississippi), who leads the partnership work from the Mississippi side, encouraged churches again and again to “dream big as you think of a team that could come alongside you for a week of intentional outreach.”
The visiting pastors were encouraged by the breadth of gospel work across the UK. They met church planters like Dave Heart in Macclesfield, preparing to launch a new congregation, and long-established churches like Whitton Baptist Church in Ipswich with Cole Maynard, exploring fresh ways to engage their community.
Pastor Greg was struck by “the same gospel preached, yet all facing the challenge of working it out in very different contexts.” Those contexts ranged from Trinity Church in Milnthorpe, reaching a small rural community, to City Evangelical Church in Leeds, serving an ethnically diverse community in an economically deprived area.
For the Americans, one of the most eye-opening parts of the trip was seeing churches think carefully about mission in such a highly secular context. As one pastor reflected, “This is coming to us—and we need to get ready.”
Stories of partnership
Grace Church, Kidderminster
This year, Grace Church connected with Pastor Ben Simpson (First Baptist Church, Collinsville, Mississippi). In summer 2025, his team helped run a Wild West holiday club, BBQ, and fun day, complete with a bucking bronco! They even struck up conversations in the local park that led people to attend church events later in the week.
The youth night went from 3 church teens to 30 because of those conversations. Pastor of Grace Church, Duncan Cobbett, said the partnership has “turbo-charged” the church’s profile in the community and strengthened their fellowship through to stepping out in faith together so early on in this new church’s life.
CityGates Church, Norwich
For the past four years, First Baptist Ellisville has supported CityGates with their week-long summer outreach, SummerFest. Events include a community fun day, holiday club, sports, crafts, and evening activities like line dancing.
In the first year, 70 children came to the holiday club; this summer, 177 attended on the first day alone—85% from the local community.
Alongside the outreach, wonderful friendships have formed between the church members, and the opportunity has come to host Mississippi university students as summer interns (for 6 weeks) to help prepare for SummerFest. One former team member even returned through “Serve365” to spend a year serving with the church.
How does it work?
The model is simple: the American teams cover their travel costs, while the UK churches provide housing, food, and transportation. Hosting them has been a great joy, with church families experiencing rich fellowship. The same is true in reverse—when UK teams travel to Mississippi, they are warmly hosted there.
CityGates, Norwich, is sending a team to Ellisville this October half-term for a second time, to support local mission through evangelism at the county fair, a holiday Bible club, and to watch a college* (*American) football game!
How can you get involved?
If you’re interested in exploring a partnership, you can listen to Greg and me talking about it on this FIEC podcast...
...or get in touch with me using the form below.
You can also hear more about SummerFest in another FIEC podcast episode and read about the encouraging work at Grace Church Kidderminster on in an article.
(And in case you’re wondering—Diddly Squat Farm wasn’t looking for a partnership, but the Americans couldn’t resist seeing Clarkson’s Farm in person!)
