Who is my neighbour? 

In late November, New Addington Baptist Church contacted us to ask for help. Their church manse had a problem with water penetrating the external wall of their minister’s study. This made the study unusable. This was at a time when everyone was trying to work from home to keep safe and help the pandemic effort. New Addington is not an affluent area and the church couldn’t afford the repairs. They reached out to the churches around them to see if any could help with the cost of the repairs.

SBC is blessed with the generosity of the church members, God’s provision and, we are more affluent then many other churches. The Covid pandemic has affected our income and there are giving opportunities for us all in the coming months. So when our neighbour Baptist Church in New Addington couldn't afford repairs to their only manse and we are blessed with three, we had to offer to help. New Addington had received a quote for £6,400 for the work and we offered to underwrite the cost of up to £5,000 of this work.

In January they were able to get the work completed and their church secretary Viv wrote to us at SBC to thank us for our help. According to Viv, they now have “a very happy minister”. The final cost of the works was also reduced.

Money can be a very emotive subject. How much is enough? How much is too much? How should we use the wealth that God has bestowed on us to steward? It is never easy answering these questions, but I wanted to share with you this story of how, as a church, we have used the gifts that God has given us to help our neighbour up the road.

Thank you to you all for being a part of this story,

Andy Crossley  
SBC Secretariat