Training at the Frontier in Tunbridge Wells
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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.
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
“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.
A 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.” –
This 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.
“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.