2021 Church Life, Leadership, and Planting (Advanced) Network
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In the 2020 Church Life, Leadership, and Planting Network, Mike Betts and his team from Relational Mission explored the key values and practices for healthy church life as demonstrated in the New Testament. What does health and maturity look like for local churches built on these New Testament principles and practices? How do we raise communities of leaders that will last the course and carry their authority with a heart for genuine relationships and humble servanthood? How do we build churches together in a culture of mutual care, alignment of values, giving and receiving of spiritual life, and working together for the sake of mission to regions beyond, doing much more together than any could on their own?
Mike and his team have explored all of these themes and sought to put them into practice over 30 years of experience working with the Newfrontiers network of churches worldwide. They bring a wealth of hard-earned experience, as well as biblical conviction, about what we might aspire to in seeking to build whole families of churches to a genuine New Testament pattern. This network is for any church leader who previously participated in the 2020 Church Life, Leadership, and Planting Network.
Prior preparation will be set for all applicants.
Applicants should be involved in the senior leadership within a local church or those leading or seeking to build a network of churches. This Network explores values, principles, and practices found in the New Testament for local church life, leadership, and planting. Applicants should be leaders who have previously participated in the 2020 Church Life, Leadership, and Planting Network.
Network Leadership
Network Speakers
Mike Betts is one of the leaders of Relational Mission, a family of churches itself part of the wider Newfrontiers group. Mike is the author of From the Inside Out, Relational Mission: A Way of Life, The Prayers of Many and Everyone a Witness. Mike enjoys… Read more
Angela Kemm grew up in South Africa, where she pioneered work in the townships of Cape Town and saw God do wonderful things to lift the heads of the poor and oppressed. She now lives in Cambridge and serves churches in Relational Mission and elsewhere in ways that advance the Kingdom wherever… Read more
Stef Liston along with his family and a small team, planted Revelation Church London in 2006, and he now serves as an elder there. Stef helps to lead the Relational Mission family of churches and carries specific responsibility for training and church planting. When it comes to serving the Lord… Read more
Maurice Nightingale is a member of the Relational Mission core team with responsibilities that include the supervision of early-stage church planting on the mainland of Europe, in particular training and coaching pioneer leaders and developing strategies for both initiating and supporting church… Read more
Network Programme
Sunday, 16 May
Serving the body of Christ in leadership is a privilege, a joy and a blessing. It is also spiritually draining, mentally demanding, and emotionally challenging! How do we take care of ourselves so that we will last the course and finish strong? What we know we are called to do will flow from who we know we are called to be.
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the power and effectiveness of servant leadership in terms of a ‘theology of the cross,’ rather than a ‘theology of glory’ as practiced by the so-called ‘super-apostles’ in Corinth. This discussion remains extraordinarily relevant to the expression of servant leadership in today’s culture.
Monday, 17 May
Writing to the saints at Philippi, Paul calls them his brothers, his beloved, longed for, joy and crown (Phil. 4:1), not terms used in a professional relationship. Nowhere to be found are the formality and externalism which sometimes characterise the modern church. A culture of deep, genuine relationship creates the context within which godly authority is best exercised.
This session looks at the importance of creating a relational culture of genuine care, released through leaders and into the life of local churches, and gathering these leaders into community with leaders of other churches. Such relationships would be characterised by a fatherly family atmosphere and willing leadership accountability.
Tuesday, 18 May
Families share the same DNA. For churches and families of churches, this DNA is a set of agreed core values. Paul urged Timothy to ‘hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me’ (2 Tim. 1:13). How important is it to establish alignment to a set of agreed core values? How is such alignment to be maintained?
Paul longed to be with the saints in Rome so that he might impart spiritual life and that through this they would be an encouragement to one-another. This session explores the importance of imparting the life of the Spirit of God to the individual as well as to the gathered church, as ‘ministers of the New Covenant’ (2 Cor. 3:6).
Wednesday, 19 May
Having been affirmed in his apostleship by the Jerusalem apostles, all they asked Paul was that he should continue to remember the poor. Paul affirmed that this was ‘the very thing I had been eager to do all along’ (Gal 2: 10). This session is a call to incarnate the care of the poor into the very life of the local church, not as some separate specialised ministry.
‘The Great Commission is not the Great Suggestion!’ This Great Commission is the direct command of Jesus, our Commander-in-Chief, to every believer and every church. The life of every individual believer and every local church should be shaped around this commission to make disciples locally, globally and holistically.