Long-established team — twenty-two committed ladies (per 2015 booklet) Leader of record (2015): Deaconess Avis Gordon (three leaders heading the team) [Current lead Steward — to confirm]

The Stewards are HBC’s welcome team. As Deaconess Avis Gordon wrote in 2015: “The Stewards of Harlesden Baptist church are 22 committed ladies who have dedicated themselves to serve God through Stewarding within the Church. There are three leaders heading the Stewards. The duties of the Stewards vary and are set out by quarterly rosters.”

Their work covers welcoming visitors at the door before every service, handing out service sheets, helping anyone new find their seat, assisting with refreshments, and the many small acts of hospitality that hold a Sunday service together. They are recognisable in church by their dress code and bearing, and their work is one of the first impressions any visitor receives of HBC.

The team is enthusiastic about their annual Thanksgiving service (a longstanding tradition of theirs which the 2015 booklet describes as “usually a success”), and in 2015 conducted their first “Stewards Training Day” to develop the ministry further. They also undertake outreach by visiting and performing at events at other churches.

The Stewards’ motto, taken from 1 Corinthians 3:9: “We are labourers together with God” — a motto, in Deaconess Gordon’s words, that “gives us a strong bonding together in Christ Jesus who is our ultimate goal as we work together for Him within this local church.”

Sources: [125th] p. 46.