FBBI Gathering 2025: Reflections from Wales
By Marc Fraser, BUS Invest & Increase Assistant
At the end of October, Ali and I travelled down to Wales to take part in the Fellowship of Baptists in Britain and Ireland (FBBI) gathering. If you’ve not heard of FBBI before, it’s essentially a space where leaders from the Baptist Unions across the UK and Ireland—plus friends from the European Baptist Federation (EBF) and BMS World Mission—come together to share updates, encourage each other, and explore what God might be saying across our different contexts.
There were twelve of us in the room this year. Ali and I were representing the Baptist Union of Scotland, joined by Alan Donaldson and Sven-Jonatan from the EBF. The BMS World Mission team were represented by Arthur Brown, Nicola Temple and Orla Moxon (with Orla joining on Zoom), and our hosts from the Baptist Union of Wales included Simeon, Marc, Sioned and Carwyn. Isabella Senior also joined online as the BUGB young adult lead.
Wednesday: Arriving & Going Deeper
We kicked off on Wednesday evening with introductions over dinner, followed by a session where each person shared a personal highlight or challenge from the past year. It was surprisingly moving- hearing honest stories helped us quickly grow deeper in relationship, which set the tone for the rest of the gathering.
Thursday: 4 Sessions, 1 Theme – Raising Up Leaders
Thursday was full-on, with four sessions giving each organisation space to share.
The Baptist Union of Wales opened the day. They spoke candidly about the decline they’re facing- shrinking membership, fewer pastors, and church closures. Amid the challenges, Marc Owens shared an inspiring vision of old churches being creatively repurposed into beautiful living spaces. Sioned also shared about their youth programme, ESGYN which is growing year by year- an encouraging bright spot.
Session two focused on inspiring a new generation of leaders for mission. Isabella from BUGB spoke about their work with young adults (18–35), including taking a cohort to the EBF “SENT” Mission Summit.
Ali and I shared next, talking about INVEST, Magnitude, and the impact these spaces have on young disciples. I shared personally how life-changing Christian festivals had been for me growing up, and how special it is now to help create those environments for others. We celebrated by sneaking off for an ice cream at Barry Island afterwards!
The BMS team then introduced ‘March 4 Mission’- a month-long mission training experience in Malaysia. It sparked some great conversation about how we prepare people practically and spiritually for global mission.
The final session was led by Sven-Jonatan from the EBF, who shared his remarkable journey into ministry: planting a church in his early 20s and becoming General Secretary in Estonia by his late 20s. His story carried a real sense of what can happen when young leaders are trusted, released and well-mentored.
It raised important questions for us in Scotland: who are the young leaders in our context that could thrive if we took some brave risks?
Overall, it was an encouraging time of fellowship and gave us a great opportunity to hear what God is doing in the Baptist Unions across Britain and beyond!
