National Mission

As a Baptist Church, we are committed to mission at home and abroad and believe that we should share God’s love to the community around us. We are building close relationships with several mission organisations based nearby, in the UK and in different parts of the world, supporting their ministries and raising funds to support projects. As a church we aim to give 10% of our income to their work. 

We support two national charities ...

Baptist Home Mission

Home Mission through the Baptist Union (BUGB) is all about helping Baptist churches and individuals to reach out effectively and bring the love of God to their communities. It is the Baptist “family purse” and each year the BUGB raises money which is used to fund:

• • Grants to local churches. These 200+ grants, channelled through regional associations, assist with church planting, renewing local churches and mission project grants. Through Home Mission, hundreds of lives have been affected and many have found faith in Jesus.
  • Regional Associations, who are engaged in supporting new initiatives and churches and the continuing work of churches and their ministers and families.
  • Three Specialist Teams, which provide resources for churches through legal, ministries and finance support. These teams also represent Baptist churches in national ways such as engaging with Government and speaking out on matters of faith.
    

Dorchester Baptist Church is affiliated to the Southern Counties Baptist Association (SCBA), a family of about 160 Baptist Churches spread mainly throughout Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Dorset and Hampshire. Each church is independent and self-governing but works with other fellowships in unity through the SCBA, encouraging and resourcing each other.
You can find out more about the Baptist Union here – www.baptist.org.uk – and the SCBA here – www.scba.org.uk
  

Christians Against Poverty (CAP)
CAP Debt Help, CAP Job Clubs, Fresh Start and CAP Life Skills address some of the most common causes of poverty: debt, unemployment, addiction, low income and difficulty budgeting. In addition, the CAP Money Course provides vital money education and empowers delegates to become more financially resilient. All these services are run through local churches, creating an important community aspect to help break the isolation that poverty can cause. At the end of 2019, there were 287 debt centres, 111 job clubs, 55 fresh start groups and 135 life skills groups across the nation which reached 22,778 people and enabled 2,450 individual adults to become debt free.

At Dorchester Baptist, we run the CAP Money course. This is a money management course that teaches people budgeting skills and a simple, cash-based system that really works. It will help anyone to get more in control of their finances so that they can budget, spend and save better. There are also student and youth versions of the course to give young people a better idea of how to manage their money. Nearby, there are CAP debt centres at Weymouth and Yeovil

Founded in 1996, CAP registered with the Charity Commission in 2003 (charity number: 1097217). You can find further information here – www.capuk.org