Spiritual Reflections
It’s good to pray together, share together, encourage one another and learn together.
The YBA produces resources and reflections to encourage churches to think about Lent, Advent and other key times in our Christian calendar.
We have been blessed to hear your stories which have resulted from these shared studies.
Please feel free to adapt/update and use any of these resources.
YBA Prayer Diary 2026
W/C Sunday, 1st February
Bentley Baptist Church, Doncaster
Joel, minister with Bentley BC, has shared the following prayer points with us:
Thanksgiving
Growth - We give thanks for continuing growth, with many new believers and folks moving into the area coming to our services. We're now running two morning services to increase capacity, a mid-week 'church outpost', an online service and two monthly evening services.
Children's and youth ministry - Our new children's and youth worker, Sophie, has made a really solid impact and as numbers of kids have increased, so has the volunteer team and vision for the ministry. We're excited to see what God will do next!
Connecting with the community - We give thanks for the ongoing work of our Food Bank meeting practical needs in the community. We also thank God for the ongoing ministry of our Renew 127 centre, converted from an old betting shop. The building is open 5-days a week, with 3 emotional wellbeing drop-ins, a small group and a church service taking place across those days
Prayer Requests
Alpha Course - We've got our biggest sign-up yet for our next alpha course. Please pray for new Christians to develop deep roots and firm foundations, for seekers to discover what they need to become followers of Jesus and for the teams leading and catering the course.
New 'Church Outposts' and Life Groups - Pray for opportunities and resources to plant fresh expressions of church in the community and across the city alongside those we already have. Pray that we don't stagnate by standing still, but continue the momentum of growth and planting. Pray also that everyone in our church joins a small group so they can be effectively discipled and cared for.
Pastoral Care in the church - Pray that we can build great relationships across the different subcultures and services in our church and put in place structures to ensure people's diverse needs are met. We are mindful that as we grow, it becomes harder to be aware of individual needs - especially for those not part of a Life Group.
Berean Baptist Temple, Sheffield
Please remember the folk of the Berean Baptist Temple in your prayers during the coming week.
You can find out more about them through their website here.
They are located at Cemetery Road Baptist Church, Sheffield.
The “why and how” of our YBA Prayer Diary
Prayer undergirds the work of the YBA. Prayer demonstrates our utter reliance on God and our care for one another. One of the ways we do this as a staff team and wider Baptist family, is by regularly praying for all our churches through the year using the YBA prayer diary. Thank you to all who have been doing this faithfully or maybe even sporadically. For those who may not know, each week, a couple of our churches are featured in the prayer diary and become the focus of prayers from other churches and people across our Association. We may not know the specific needs of these churches, but we hold them in our hearts in prayer before the Lord seeking His blessing over them and their ministry.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were to additionally be able to pray for the specific, expressed needs of our featured churches each week? That is exactly what we want to do – to raise up the specific needs of our churches before God’s throne of grace in obedience to His word: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Phil 4.6).
Ahead of their scheduled week, we invite our featured churches to send in their prayer requests and thanksgiving points. This is uploaded to this section of our YBA website. Any church who, for any reason, is unable to respond to our invitation will still be prayed for.
So be on the lookout for your church’s invitation to send in your prayer points and also do check out this area of the ‘Prayer & Spiritual Reflection’ section of the website, each week, so you can pray with knowledge for the needs of our churches across Yorkshire. We look forward to celebrating specific answered prayers as we join together in praying for our churches.
If you have any questions about the administration of the prayer diary, please click here to contact the Admin Team.
Nike Adebajo
YBA Regional Minister