London Churches Update

I always enjoy meeting up with Newfrontiers leaders from across London at the start of a new term and at our recent morning together I spoke about the key leadership lessons I had learnt in the past year – which seemed to be well received!

The highlight of the morning for me was hearing of the on-going success of the church plants in Camden (led by Stef Liston) and Greenwich (led by Stu Gibbs). Both these new churches are flourishing – praise God! It was also exciting to hear that our church planting agenda for London continues to progress, with plans to plant 4 churches in the next 2 years.

Roger & Elizabeth Smith are moving to Richmond-upon-Thames and are already gathering a small group.
Clive & Debbie Sharp are planting in Islington, while
Mark and Jen Waterfield are planning to start Sunday meetings in Newham around Easter 2010.
Plans for a further church plant for North London will be confirmed in due course.

As we look to continue planting churches, the training of future leaders is a high priority in our movement. I am delighted to tell you that our London Training Base began this year’s programmes at full capacity with 40 trainees on FP Impact, 36 on Leadership Foundations and the exciting new Leadership Advanced phase being piloted in London with at least 10 trainees. The extension of the preaching training element within this course and the addition of a marriage in ministry module are very positive developments. This year we have had to turn away a number of later applicants on two of the courses – we anticipate that this rise in demand for training will continue and are already addressing the issue of future capacity.

On a more ‘personal’ note to King’s, I am excited to announce that Malcolm and Cathy Kyte are joining the team here at Catford. Malcolm has successfully led the church at Wimbledon for the last 15 years and is a valued part of the London team. He joins Kings at a time of accelerated growth as we look to build a leadership team to serve a church of 2000 and to fulfil our wider call. Malcolm will continue to serve on the Newfrontiers London team.

I look forward to seeing our London church leaders and their wives on 20-22nd November in Bedfordshire for a time of rest and spiritual refreshment.

Looking ahead to ‘Together at Butlins’ at Bognor – we received some excellent feedback from this event last year and would want to encourage as many as possible of the churches in London to be there and not miss out on a great event! We are looking for between 4500 and 5000 to attend, so please encourage your people to book early!