Training at the Frontier in Tunbridge Wells

 

One of the training options that we offer to churches is our Learning Communities.  These are generally 4 immersions spaced out over 2 years and are an intensive way of getting teaching, process time and strategic planning for church leaders and their teams. The Tunbridge Wells Learning Community have just finished their 3rd immersion and Sean Dooley sent us this story about how they’ve been raising other leaders up to run LCs themselves.

 

“One of the great things about the Tunbridge Wells LC is that it has been the vehicle for Frontier Leader Training. We are clearly modelling to all the participants on the LC the taking of LC leaders around the discipleship square (see diagram). We deliberately point out to the participants on the LC that, for example, ‘Andy Strajnic is now doing L3 as a LC leader on this third immersion. Please encourage and support him.’

 

We call it Frontier Leader Training because we are taking a select group of people who have not only internalised missional discipleship, but are living it and have the anointing to coach others in it. Our hope is that they will be the guys that will develop missional discipleship training for other church leaders in their relational networks, using the 3DM material. In other words, that they would be leaders on the frontier of training church leaders in mission and discipleship. In turn doing what I have done with them – training other Frontier Leaders. In fact, Phil Stokes is doing that as I write!

 

I spoke to Paul Maconochie (Director of 3DM USA) recently and he reminded me that getting a movement going requires doing the same things, in the same way, over and over, until people ‘get it’ and begin to run with it themselves. The guys we are training are leaders on the frontier of making that happen in our nation and that is no overstatement. There are still thousands of churches in our nation that have not even begun to ask the right questions about what is wrong with the church, let alone begun to search for the answers. There is still massive scope for Learning Communities.

 

Those currently on Frontier Leaders Training are Andy Strajnic, Phil Stokes, Nic Bradshaw and Richard Glazier.”

 

Sean Dooley

Dragon’s Den Winners

 

 

At the fourth gathering of the Liverpool and UK Learning Communities last month we held a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style competition where each team got to pitch to a group of Frontline Church business owners to take a share in a pot of money for a missional endeavour.  Here are the reports from the winning teams about what they’re going to spend the money on!

Journey Communities, Bicester

dragons den may 16 7“Our church, Journey Communities, is opening a specialty coffee shop as a business as mission. FLTR Coffee will be at the heart of one of the residential neighbourhoods in Bicester. At the core of this new coffee shop is a missional community with a vision for people to encounter life on earth as it is in heaven, and journey towards full life through relationships with God, his extended family, and their neighbours.
Construction for the unit where FLTR Coffee will be located begins soon. We want to capitalise on the moment it is being built and get the word out to the locals. We plan to use the £1,000 to buy a coffee trike, as well as the equipment and product needed, to go throughout our estate meeting our neighbours, offering free coffee, and telling them about the new coffee shop. dragons den may 16 6A coffee trike will also allow us to promote the new shop at other local events leading up to its opening and be used to serve as another source of income that we can reinvest back into Kingdom mission.”
Jeff Lothamer, Minister, Journey Communities

 

 


Stoneycroft Salvation Army

“Thank you so much for the award of £250 for The Meeting Place. The Meeting Place is our church’s first missional community. Its missional vision is: To be a community where people in recovery from addiction can make friends and meet with the God who transforms and heals and reach out in love and faith to others in recovery.

dragons den may 16 5This MC has been running for 8 months now and during this time we have averaged around 18 – 20 men and women coming to every meeting. During this time it has been amazing to see how relationships have been developing, but one thing that has become apparent to us is the lack of safe social space for people in recovery to access. This is mainly because of the fact that alcohol is available in so many social spaces and the issue that most people in recovery find it difficult to make the time for safe social space because of attending AA support meetings nearly every day. Also due to the chaotic lives of many of the attendees, they are not able to organise something by themselves, at least at this point in their journeys.

We feel that we are currently in a season of breakthrough with this group, and we know that with this investment we will be drawn in to a season of blessing as the group starts to grow more organically as community is truly formed amongst the members. We will be looking at arranging a day trip away and a meal for group members in settings that will help them to relax and enjoy time together outside of more structured meetings. Our prayer is that this time together will not only enable the members of The Meeting Place to experience social time but also that relationships will be deepened, and that people will come to know the Lord in a deeper way as experience his lavish and free generosity.

In regards to the future, we plan on this being a kick start to us taking the initiative to finding more creative ways to bless the community, and we are going to seek to forge further links with our nearby Salvation Army hostel and other agencies that might want to partner with us in giving a much neglected and marginalised people group a fresh start to a life of dignity and hope.” – Territorial Envoys Craig and Gemma Gaudion, Church Leaders, Stoneycroft Salvation Army

 

Wirral Christian Centre Church

dragons den may 16 4“The dream is see Christian young people energised as a community to make a substantial and sustainable difference among 17-30s in Birkenhead. For the young people of Wirral Christian Centre in particular to be doing life together not solely for their own benefit, but to be growing as disciples who make disciples, radically changing the culture of the town and enabling young adults to journey into amazing futures with God.

So, the plan is to enable the existing young adults community of the church to plan and to pray into being a ‘Night Church’ for Birkenhead. This would be a safe and welcoming Christian space of spiritual enquiry and encounter, which would serve and transform the night-time environment in the heart of the town. Starting one Friday a month (in partnership with the existing Street Pastors teams, and potentially with business owners we already know) we would develop a venue with a cafe space, a prayer space and a live music space – all designed to value those out during the night (and be a safe space for the vulnerable), and help them to explore what life with God could look like for them. This incredible and gracious grant would go towards equipping the ‘Night Church’ spaces (we have visited the pioneering space in Chester, and they have offered to consult with us on development), providing for running costs, and promoting the venture throughout the night-time economy of Birkenhead. We envisage this healthy rhythm of mission as an expression of a growing and vibrant community of young adults at WCC, and across the town…who knows what could be next as God’s kingdom comes in new and exciting ways to Birkenhead!” – Revd Greg Epton, Lead Pastor, Wirral Christian Centre Church