At Mobilise 2012, Matt Hatch who leads the UKCP team was interviewed about Church Planting in the UK. Watch the video to hear what he had to say.

When I was a student (long ago!), there was a craze for trying to cram as many people as possible into phone boxes and Minis.

Nowadays we play the same game on Sunday morning in the dedicated large room on the ground floor of our home on the south-west edge of central Paris!
 
It’s been three years since my wife Kerry and I came here with a clear commission and prophetic confirmation from God to start a new church called ‘le Chemin, la Vérité et la Vie’ (CVV) and God has blessed us mightily.
 
When the church plant started in October 2008, there was a core group of about 20-25 people. We saw slow but steady numerical growth for the first two and a half years and then, more recently, an acceleration. The number of people who would now regard CVV as their church is around 90-100 although thankfully they are never all present on the same day! We did manage to get just over 90 into the room at the last water baptism service!
 
Three quarters of the church are French and all meetings are conducted in French; the Brits and other internationals all make their best efforts and it works well.
 
Many in the church live right across the Paris region and some travel at least an hour to get to the Sunday meeting, with the average travel time at least 30 minutes. This is a challenge in seeking to build community, but we have a growing network of life groups across different parts of the city - currently five and probably at least two new ones early in 2012.
 
Knowing that God’s purpose is for us to grow, we have been looking for somewhere larger to meet since 2009. We have visited, telephoned and emailed hundreds of different places including cinemas, theatres, conference centres, other church buildings and private schools (it is not possible to hold church meetings in state schools in France). We have not yet found a suitable location which would be available permanently for Sunday meetings, so we have now begun a nomadic life of moving from one place to another on successive Sundays. However, in recent weeks a potential opportunity has come up for a permanent home in an ideal building in the very centre of the city - so this is currently our main prayer focus and would be a wonderful fulfilment of God’s prophetic promises and faithfulness.
 
Our leadership team from the start has been made up of myself and two men to whom God spoke in very different ways about joining CVV. For George (and Gill) Tee, for 10 years the leader of the Jubilee Church in Coventry, there was a heart conviction and many prophetic words for them to move to Paris in summer 2008. For Johan and Maryse Sode, who had been in Paris for the last 30 years, it was a longer process of prayer and conviction that they were being called to a new venture in a new church on the other side of town. For all of us, it has been a challenging time of change and personal growth which will no doubt continue as God leads us into the next phase.

We are now seeking to develop a wider leadership team as different giftings become apparent and we rejoice that God has sent us many talented musicians and young men well able to preach. 2012 is going to be an exciting time as we see the next stage of God’s plan unfold for Paris.
 
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Reproduced from Connect Magazine, Spring 2012.

Should the local church be involved in planting churches? How quickly should a church planter think about planting out again? I want to argue that we need to plan and develop strategises for further plants in the early days of the initial church plant! Church planting must be in our DNA.

To those who are just starting out in pioneering a brand new church, it may feel irresponsible or even arrogant to plan for another church plant before you have achieved the goal of growing the first one. The reason this intentionality is so important is that you tend to get what you plan for. Those leaders who have a desire to send people and plant new churches but do not have a plan find that they don’t achieve their stated intention. This is because without a game plan other seemingly important things crowd their diaries and dominate the churches agenda.
 
At Christ Church Manchester, Tim Simmonds and I regularly find ourselves deep in conversation, often looking and conceptually planning the next CCM site or church plant. People who have recently joined the church spark our imagination and subsequent discussion can stimulate this. Or sometimes our dreams, more often daydreams, catalyses a conversation that gets the adrenalin pumping with an audacious and often unrealistic plan.
 
In this environment church planting can take on momentum that comes somewhere near the prophesy of planting 1000 churches John Kpikpi mentioned at the Stoneleigh Bible week 1999.
 
 
This article first appeared on Colin Baron’s blog.

Stewart and Gaynor Morris have been church planting in Bradford & the Aire Valley since mid 2010. Gaynor shared their ‘story so far’ in the latest Connect Magazine. We caught up with her again recently and asked for an update.

Having become a Christian at Leeds University in the late eighties, I reluctantly left Yorkshire and in the mid-nineties married Stewart, knowing his heart was fully committed to The King’s Church, High Wycombe. Only a divine intervention would shift his focus!
 
Whilst attending the Together on a Mission conference in 2007, Jeremy Simpkins was leading a brief prayer time for church planting in the M62 corridor. At this time Stewart had a vision of being lifted up and transported to an area of green hills and valleys’ coinciding with the Holy Spirit filling him with God’s compassion and love for the people in this place. Stewart could not ignore this call, and following meetings with Steve Tibbert and Jeremy, was invited to church plant in Bradford and the Aire Valley. The journey to move north took three years in all! We were keen to be passed well, like a baton, from one region to another. There were many highlights’ particularly the support of the leadership team at King’s Church, and how we were embraced by the Yorkshire Team.
 
Now in Bradford, the cost of what we have left behind propels us onward. High Wycombe had been Stewart’s family and spiritual home for nearly 30 years, and he had been part of a church that grew from a living room to a large auditorium, from 40 people to over 500. Reflecting on the move, Stewart commented, “Giving up full time leadership of 12 years, at a very fruitful juncture, and taking up part time employment outside the church, was actually not that difficult. Unsurprisingly, the greatest cost has been relational, due to deeply forged bonds over many years and recent friendships with those new to the faith.” Leaving was never going to be easy! On our last Sunday morning, we experienced such a surge of strong emotions for this supportive spiritual home.
 
Fear of the future was a real challenge during those bridging months.
 
Moving our 10-year-old daughter away from extensive church youth work, a Jesus-centred C of E school and great secondary school options felt costly. We sensed the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the story of Abraham’s willingness to give up Isaac, and felt challenged to trust Natalie’s life into his care too.
 
So how about the first few months of being parachuted into a new city and life? As pioneers, we are celebrating the joy of the new adventure. The tough days are those where we feel isolated and unknown. On these days our minds are naturally drawn back to the familiar routines and the confidence of relationships back in High Wycombe. As the days have ticked on, establishing friendship at the school gate, seeing God’s provision of part time jobs for us serving the local communities, and the warm welcome from Gateway Church Leeds and Bradford Family Church have all helped steady the transition.
 
On a lighter note, home life has been full of food and visiting friends: we wonder what our neighbours think of our frequent visitors! Despite the occasional need to draw up the ramparts for vital recuperation, we are encouraged by the momentum in the church plant as others move from High Wycombe and as we gather more locally!
 
Six months has passed since this above section was written and it’s fascinating re-reading our reflections on the journey then. The article focuses much on the looking back, marking the initial stage of transition whereas, now & with these few months under our belt, our thoughts are rooted into the emerging life of a new church. We are loving the city & the area! With a home gathering having reached twenty adults this summer, we are currently extending our get-togethers’ to a local community hall in Bradford.  Alpha was launched this autumn in a Saltaire café with about 15 guests including many students. We are praying as a team for doubling in numbers, salvation and a church plant launch in September 2012 – but ultimately for His leading. 
 
If you’d like to know more about what is going on in Bradford & the Aire Valley, please contact Gaynor & Stew through their website.

Basecamp 2011 brought together 20 church planters, those who might plant a church or current leaders to a hotel in the midlands for two and a half days of teaching, worship, food, relaxation and calling on God for Him to speak.

Here is one mans reflections from a life-changing weekend:

“My wife and I met at our Newfrontiers church, were married last year and are involved in some church leadership.
However, we’re in our 20s, have our challenges and are acutely aware of our lack of experience in many areas.
We arrived at Basecamp 2011 having felt God speak to us about church planting into a particular hard-to-reach overseas location. However, we were holding onto this lightly, aware of its challenges and that God may have given us this calling for some years hence or used it to spark an interest in church planting which could lead us elsewhere.
We prepared for Basecamp expecting to be way behind everyone else, but ready to be honest about this – ready to answer ‘We don’t know’ – and looking forward to it as a fantastic opportunity to seek God on His plan for our lives, connect further in to the Newfrontiers family and learn from great teachers and other would-be church planters further down the line than we were.
Looking back one week on, Basecamp 2011 was an emotional roller-coaster but one I’m glad I bought the ticket for, queued for, rode for everything it was worth, braved until the end and would thoroughly recommend to others.
God met us both powerfully, gave us much more clarity on what we could do if we rely on Him and built our faith immeasurably.
We gained so much from the teaching of Matt Hatch, Tony and Ann Thompson and Chris Mason, were joyously lifted by our worship together, received significant prophetic words and enjoyed praying for others.
We gained so much from teaching on the qualities and calling of a church planter, how church planting can be done and from hearing real-life stories.
Having little experience of church planting, this was all wonderfully new to us. I probably reached a mental saturation point for absorbing new information on Saturday but, nonetheless, was determined to keep listening, discussing and learning – and, when I couldn’t take everything in immediately, at least scribble it down for future pondering!
We also really valued simply chatting with leaders and other Basecampers.
Finding times when we could be ‘alone together’ as a couple was also crucial. We were hearing so many new things and so many new ideas were sparking of it was essential to take time out often to catch up with what each other was thinking.
By Saturday afternoon, we had, in our minds, headed off in very different directions and it was necessary, if painful, to talk through this together. Later, Tony was a great aid to this.
So, we finished the weekend much more confident of where we stood, bolder about what we could do and clearer about what we needed to do next.
If you’re considering church planting, I would strongly recommend considering Basecamp. Pray, talk to your elders, talk to those who know you best and be ready for an adventure of learning about and experiencing God!”

Following the success of last years 'Basecamp Conference' in 2010 and the original in 2009, we held this years Newfrontiers Church Planting Conference in late October 2011.

Aimed at training those who felt God may be directing to lead a church plant, the conference was designed to put delegates face to face with other planters, coaches (those who oversee a plant) and leaders of the Newfrontiers UK team.  It challenged, provoked, envisioned and hopefully lead delegates into what God is calling them to.

Watch this space for comments and thoughts from the conference.

These are exciting times!

Here is a newsletter from the recently started church plant in Berlin, giving some of the things they are thankful to God for (Including their first public service) and some of the things they need prayer for.

After a busy summer visiting Nigel’s mother in Spain and friends in England, we returned to Berlin to a very busy life juggling family, school and church life. The children had a great time in England but they were all OK coming home to Berlin. The day after we got back, we went to the amazing wedding of Anna Lena and Johannes, a wonderful couple who are hoping to come and join us. At present they are living in the UK, but it still felt like our first wedding in the church plant! May there be many more!
 
To summarise our most significant news, we have had a great family of six join us whom Nigel met through the school. We have known them for over a year and we are are thrilled that they have decided to join us.
 
Then, on 24th October we held our first public service in the Foyer of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the centre of the city. We still cannot believe that God has opened up this venue for us! This is the best known protestant church in Berlin, so we are not only easy to find but the venue also gives us a degree of credibility. This door opened through developing a friendship with a minister who leads the work with the poor in the building. Since then we have been able to donate 200 € worth of good quality sleeping bags to the Bahnhofsmission that provides shelter for the homeless during the harsh winter. We are so thrilled to have a heart to serve the poor built in and lived out in our DNA.
 
Our first service was hard work but so rewarding. Since we do not have a worship leader, the worship was led by a young Indian friend, Joshua, and four other guys he brought along. Not only did they lead us so graciously into the presence of God in a mixture of German and English, but their presence demonstrated our determination to be a church for all nations. Nigel preached with a substantial amount of humour on the grace and liberty of the gospel and there was lots of food and drink as well as laughter. Many guests commented on a warm and genuine sense of team-work that seemed to pervade the whole celebration. Not that numbers are everything, but we were obviously so encouraged that 60 people turned up to this first meeting. I think most of us were in faith for about 40 at the most. (By the way, it was also great to have Rich and Lally Tutt with us for the weekend from King’s Church Lewes. They have been a massive source of encouragement, also in our darker moments).
 
On the back of our first service, we held our first Alpha session last Wednesday in our home. Once again, God amazed us as ten guests showed up, a wonderful mixture of young and mature, students, internationals, work colleagues, people who responded at our meeting last Saturday and people who found us on the internet. We had a great evening with lots of laughter and some people stayed till gone 11 pm. Alpha seems to work well in Germany (although it is not well-known) and we love the way for the second time we have as many guests as church plant members for we long to be a church where unbelievers outnumber our core membership.Today, as I write, I am delighted to say that one of our Alpha guests has just become a Christian! For our church plant a historic day.
 
In the months ahead leading up to Christmas we have planned a mixture of celebration meetings, prayer meetings and vision and values talks - plus Alpha of course. We also plan to hold a few larger parties in our home and one or two evenings where our youth and students can chill out together.
 
All of this hard work and excitement has most certainly focused us in our vision and prayers, so here are the prayer points for our current season:
 
1 - Thanksgiving to God that He really has opened doors and enabled us to begin to carve something out of nothing
2 - Protection over our team for good health and strength as the pressure increases and the winter kicks in
3 - Thanksgiving but also for protection over our public venue - that we will be able to use this venue throughout next year
4 - We urgently need a worship leader or even worship team. This is probably our most urgent need right now, so please pray but also spread the word around the churches.
5 - For wisdom to know how to pace ourselves into next year. We would love to hold more regular celebrations but we have to be wise due to the small size of our core team and Nigel’s full-time teaching job and family life.
6 - Clarity about the apostolic oversight of the church plant - a work in progress
7 - For a super healthy financial situation as we begin to explore the possibilty of Nigel going part-time next autumn
8 - For the youth work in the plant to grow
9 - For our increased contact with students, especially on the campus of the nearby Technische Universität
10 - For our core team to grow
11 - For people to get saved and more to be added
12 - For excellent and fruitful relationships with other church leaders across the city.
   
Thank you so much for standing with us. Feel free to encourage your friends to sign up for the prayer newsletter too and to become a fan of Newfrontiers Church Plant Berlin on Facebook and Twitter.
 
With love from sunny Berlin
 
Nigel, Clare, Toby, Abbie, Ben and Ewan, together with our wonderful church planting team.

Rhys and Sara Scott from ChristChurch London are leading a church planting team to Vancouver, Canada. In this video, Rhys talks about the first few weeks of the plant and some of the things that he and the family are up to and would value prayer for.

As part of the Together@North 2011 Conference held during the bank holiday weekend in August 2011, the North Team put together a short profile / information video highlighting a little of what's going on in the north in the Church Planting Arena.

It's exciting stuff. We thought you might like to see it.

Real Life Church is a new church plant in Sutton Coldfield. The Church is a growing group of men, women and children who have been changed by an encounter with Jesus and live that out in everyday life. As a church they love to meet God, hang out and have fun, study the Bible, serve the needy and see lives impacted by the power of Jesus.

Louisa Collington went to see them.

For more information click here.