together AUTUMN 2018
new beginnings
INSIDE New ÂŁ3m building for Lansdowne A new thing in Scotland Evaluate your training
WELCOME...
Our front cover is a picture of the ongoing work at Lansdowne Church’s new building in Bournemouth. Together is published by FIEC, 39 The Point, Market Harborough, LE16 7QU. 01858 434540 fiec.org.uk admin@fiec.org.uk fb.com/theFIEC @theFIEC Editor: Phil Topham 01858 411553 phil.topham@fiec.org.uk Designed by: AH Graphic Design www.ahgraphicdesign.co.uk ah@ahgraphicdesign.co.uk 07500 465753 Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Got a story? We’d love to hear stories from your church – why not get in touch with us? The deadline for submissions for the Spring 2019 edition is Friday 14 December.
The headline on the front of Together magazine feels very apt. In this issue, National Director John Stevens outlines some of the changes we are making to serve our churches even more effectively. But we’re not the only ones looking forward to new beginnings. On page six you can read about Lansdowne Church in Bournemouth who are preparing to move into their new £3m building in 2019. There are also exciting things happening with church planting. It was a joy to speak to Rob Scothern about a new church in a rural area which will launch in September. You can read about Peak Trinity Church on page 20. Meanwhile Reach North Wales has been set up to support church planting there. A church in London has changed its name to better reflect its vision and mission. Read all about Enfield Town Community Church on page 18. In the centre pages, FIEC Director Adrian Reynolds introduces us to his training manifesto for Independent churches. So as you read about these new beginnings across our family of churches, I pray you will be encouraged and inspired about all that God is doing as we seek to serve Christ and reach our nation with the glorious good news of the gospel. May Christ Jesus have all the glory! Phil Topham, FIEC Head of Communication
CONTENTS 3
Sign up to receive Together
16 A new thing in Scotland
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Serving our gospel vision
18 What’s in a name?
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Lansdowne without walls
20 Market town plant
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Just do something
10 News in brief 13 GDPR – subject access requests 14 Evaluate your training
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23 Supporting missionaries 24 Protecting the vulnerable 26 Book reviews 28 New church affiliations and church plants
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SERVING It is more than eight years since I started work for FIEC in what was then a new role of National Director. It has been thrilling to see how the Fellowship has grown, as more than 130 churches have chosen to be part of our vision to be ‘Independent John Stevens churches working together to reach Britain for Christ.’ Over these years I have been blessed to work with a wonderfully gifted team of Directors and office staff, who have vastly improved the ways that FIEC has been able to support and serve its churches, especially in the areas of Training, Mission and Pastoral Care. For example, over £1m has been raised and distributed by our Training Fund, and FIEC churches are planting at least one new church a month. The past year has seen very considerable change as all the Directors who joined me in 2010 have either retired or changed their roles. Johnny Prime and Adrian Reynolds have taken on the work of Richard Underwood and Trevor Archer respectively, whilst Trevor has moved to become our first London Director. Andy Paterson will be moving from his full-time role as Mission Director to a half-time role when he joins the staff of Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh in September.
Serving the missional objective All these changes have led us to carefully review the way that we work together as a team, and to take account of the lessons we have learned over the past eight years. We want to ensure that we serve the missional objective of FIEC as
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OUR GOSPEL VISION effectively as possible. We have, for example, realised that everything we do has to be focused on our gospel vision, so that responsibility for ‘mission’ lies not with a single Director, but is the underlying objective of all the Directors. Given that only 3% of the British population are bornagain believers in the Lord Jesus we want to embed a mission emphasis in all our work and activities. Another significant change is that our Directors with a national ministry are now all based in Market Harborough, so we are able to work much more closely together.
Working as a team All these changes have led us to review our roles and responsibilities. We are not planning to change what we do as a team to serve the FIEC family. We will continue to support and develop Training, Evangelism, Church Planting, Women’s Ministry, Church Revitalisation and Pastoral Care for our churches and pastors. However, we will work to do this holistically as a team. All the Directors have found that individual churches do not approach them separately for help in different areas, but fiec.org.uk
they speak to a single Director about, for example, training leaders for the local church and for advice on church planting. All our Directors are generalists rather than specialists, with experience of all aspects of church leadership.
ALL THESE CHANGES HAVE LED US TO CAREFULLY REVIEW THE WAY THAT WE WORK TOGETHER AS A TEAM. As a next step towards implementing this change, our Market Harborough based Directors with national responsibilities (Johnny Prime, Adrian Reynolds and Andrew Nicholson) will become ‘Associate National Directors’, leading ministry teams of FIEC staff to deliver our gospel work across the country. This won’t change what we do, but it will ensure that we are able to do it even more effectively.
Less-well served areas Just one example of how we plan to do this is that we are developing a new
strategy to help understand, support and encourage gospel ministry in the lesswell served communities in our country, including urban deprived places, rural areas and ethnically diverse communities. We will be gathering pastors and leaders from FIEC churches in these contexts to listen and learn about how we can do more to support them and their vital gospel work. I hope that you will be excited by the development within FIEC and we are thankful for all your support, prayer and generous giving that has made this possible. Please do pray for us as we seek to serve you and advance the gospel in our needy nation. We will be setting out our plans in detail at the FIEC Leaders’ Conference (12–14 November 2018) in Torquay, where there will also be opportunities to pray corporately for FIEC and our nation. We very much hope that your church will be represented at this important event. For more info Leaders’ Conference passes cost just £180 if you book before 16 September. Book online at fiec.org.uk/LC2018
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LANSDOWNE WITHOUT WALLS Ten years ago, Lansdowne Church in Bournemouth was faced with a problem. As people were becoming Christians and joining the church, their Victorian building just wasn’t fit for purpose. Lansdowne needed a radical
building work started we
solution. For this FIEC church
moved from being on one site
on the south coast, that
with two congregations to
solution was to knock the
being a multi-site church with
building down and start again.
multiple congregations. We
Pastor Peter Baker came to the church in 2013. By
walls, and we thought we
then the plans were already
would be without walls for
in place for a new building.
a couple of years. But the
What’s followed since Peter’s
overrun on the building has
arrival has been a period of
meant we are still without walls
multi-site church and church
three years down the tracks.
revitalisation, while work
“This has given us a
continues on a new £3m
focus on what the gospel
building in the town centre.
is all about. It’s not about
For now, Lansdowne has
buildings, it’s about people;
three services in two locations
about gathering to scatter.
every Sunday morning. One
Our long-term commitment
takes place at Bournemouth
is to leave a lasting legacy
University and two others at a
on The Townsend Estate;
former Brethren church on The
a congregation that will
Townsend Estate in a suburb
reproduce other congregations
of Bournemouth.
– because that is what we’re
Peter said: “When the
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called it Lansdowne without
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all about.”
The Townsend Estate is a great story of church revitalisation. Formerly Strouden Park Chapel, the congregation was dwindling and the leaders there asked for help from other evangelical churches in Bournemouth. Strouden Park handed their building over to Lansdowne and the chapel is now full of worshippers once again. It’s hoped around 150 church members will stay on to complete this revitalisation project once the church’s building project in the town centre is completed. Lansdowne’s new building will open in 2019. It has an auditorium to seat 1,000 people but it’s been designed over two tiers which means nobody will be more than 12 rows from the front. For a venue with such a large capacity, it has a very intimate feel. There will also be sports facilities for the local community along with meeting rooms and a café to fiec.org.uk
offer a very visible Christian presence in the town centre. Bev Savage is a member at Lansdowne and is Chair of the Lansdowne Group which is managing the building project. He is particularly excited about the outside space they have been able to create. He said: “The old building was rather blind on the street but the new building will be glass – transparent to the community – and have a café right on the pavement. We’ll have a sports hall and an outside space. We are rather pleased with that – it will be above the auditorium on the roof and be suitable for wedding receptions and kids’ clubs.
WHEN WE GET INTO THE BUILDING, THAT’S WHEN THE WORK STARTS – TO REACH ALL NATIONS WITH THE GOSPEL. “We’re so blessed that a group within church agreed to do the job, which reduces our costs but makes it a slower process as they all have full-time
jobs. But the main structure is up, we are halfway through the build and we are still on budget.” So, God willing, Lansdowne will open their new church building over the next 12 months. God will have used them to revitalise a church on The Townsend Estate, and they are beginning to pray about church planting with their Communities Worker Tom Davenport. Peter added: “One of the things about Bournemouth is that, outside of London, it has the highest proportion of international schools and languages. So one of our clear mission fields beside university students is the people on our doorstep. When we get into the building, that’s when the work starts – to reach all nations with the gospel.” Do pray for Lansdowne as they seek to proclaim Christ in such diverse circumstances. Pray for the work on their building to be completed soon, and pray that they would hit the ground running with their ministries when they move in. For more info Please visit lansdownechurch.uk to find out more.
THE NEW AUDITORIUM
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JUST DO SOMETHING
Phil Topham introduces us to Reach North Wales (Cyrraedd Pobl Gogledd Cymru) which has been set up to help support church planting and revitalisation across North Wales.
With best estimates suggesting just 3% of British people are born again Christians, the need to reach the nation is vast. It’s a burden that led four FIEC churches in North Wales to start praying – and dreaming – about what God might do in their region through church planting. “We don’t have any great expertise,” explains John Richards, Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Mold. “But we know there’s a need. It would be hard for one church to do anything by itself, but together we felt, with God’s help, we could do something. So that’s why we set up Reach North Wales.”
launched with a joint service in May. “We soon realised that we had six or seven guys around the table who shared the same vision to see churches planted,” John added. “None of us wanted to set up a para-church network to plant churches themselves, rather we wanted to offer support to local churches in their planting initiatives. “It’s our hope that Reach North Wales can help galvanise planting and revitalisation in the area. We’re starting small but we’re excited to see what could happen.”
CHURCH PLANTING TEAM IN BUCKLEY
Partnership for planting The aim of this new charity is to support churches with church planting in north Walian communities. Ebenezer Baptist in Mold and Grace Church Denbigh are partnering with Wrexham churches Bradley Road Baptist and Gwersyllt Congregational on this initiative. Leaders of these four churches have met regularly to pray about the gospel need in North Wales, and Reach North Wales was formally
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Learning from others To work out the best way forward, Reach North Wales met with representatives from Gospel Yorkshire and 2020 Birmingham, which are groups with similar aims. They were also enormously helped by James Mitton, one of the Deacons at Ebenezer Baptist, during a six-month sabbatical from work. The first plant being supported is a new church in Buckley, which is a small town near Mold in Flintshire. It’s being planted by Ebenezer Baptist, but Reach North Wales have been able to pay for the creation of a promotional video to help launch the new plant. John continued: “Lewis Allen from Gospel Yorkshire was really helpful, encouraging us to raise money to be effective, so that is what we are trying to do. We’ve now got a bilingual website and have already started to hear from other churches in North Wales who are keen to partner with us and receive support in church planting. “We’re at the point now where we need to put more of our vision into action, with more prayer and time investment to move things forward. We’re hoping we might be able to pay someone to give a bit of time over the next year
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or so to help organise us and start to do some more detailed research on the areas of greatest need in the region.”
IT’S OUR HOPE THAT REACH NORTH WALES CAN HELP GALVANISE PLANTING AND REVITALISATION IN THE AREA. FIEC has been able to support Reach North Wales by helping them to set up their governing documents and charitable status. John says it would be great if the FIEC family would remember Reach North Wales in their prayers. He concluded: “Please pray for us. Pray that God would use this initiative to reach lost people in our communities. We cannot do this on our own, but with four churches working together – and hopefully others too – we believe we can do more.” For more info You can visit the Reach North Wales website at reachnorthwales.org (available in English and Welsh).
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NEWS IN BRIEF MIRACLES OF GOD’S GRACE Holbrooks Church in Coventry held a special dedication service for five new babies on Father’s Day. For the church, this was a great confirmation of God’s grace towards them over many years – especially as so many of the parents of these children have come to faith at Holbrooks. In fact, pastor Ben Holmes says it was one of his favourite days so far in ministry. He said: “One of the mums had grown up in the church but gone completely away. If I’m honest, I never imagined her coming back, but
the Lord had other ideas, and she has returned over the past couple of years and has been gloriously saved. She now wants her kids to grow up to know the same Jesus that has saved her. Isn’t God good? “During the service we looked at the value of a human soul, and how it’s only safe when
NEWNESS OF LIFE The latest edition of our Theological Resource Primer came out at the end of May. This time it’s called Newness of Life and focuses on the Doctrine of Sanctification. Primer is aimed at church leaders and is designed to help you scribble, underline and highlight as you learn from experienced pastors and theologians. Issue 06 includes articles from Tim Chester, Eric Ortlund, Dan Green, Julian Hardyman and Matthew Roberts. There is also an article from
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you hand it over to Jesus. We want the very best for these kids, but above all we want them to be saved. There were loads of people at church who don’t normally hear the gospel; we’re praying that God would break into their lives in the way that he has with these parents.”
editor and FIEC Theological Adviser David Shaw. Commenting on this latest issue, David said: “To many of us, ‘holiness’ conjures up ideas of joyless abstinence – the price we pay for being forgiven. Yet that is so far from the truth. The Bible preaches to us the good news of holiness – the promise that we can be forgiven and transformed to live life as it should be lived. That is the life we enjoy and the life we offer to the world. “So, we’ve designed Issue 06 of Primer with that great missional goal in mind. To equip gospel workers to understand more clearly what it means to be holy, and how the church can live that out before a watching world.” You can buy all six issues of Primer – including Newness of Life – from The Good Book Company. Just go to thegoodbook.co.uk/primer fiec.org.uk
Added to that, word ministry often feels slow and ineffective. “What an encouragement, then, to meet with others in similar circumstances, to be reminded that God’s word really does work, to take time to talk
MINISTRY REFRESHMENT FOR WOMEN
and to pray, and to encourage one another to keep going.” FIEC hosts these conferences at Holland House, a retreat centre in Worcester, every May. When Thrive comes to a conclusion on Wednesday
Our annual conferences for
lunchtime, The Ministry Wives
women in ministry and ministry
Retreat takes over for the rest
wives took place in May. Sian
of the week.
Baker from Lansdowne Church
Emily Fenning from Beccles
in Bournemouth was the main
Baptist Church was one of the
speaker at both Thrive and The
women at The Ministry Wives
Ministry Wives Retreat.
Retreat, she added: “Sian Baker
Both conferences are a
taught us from God’s word as
chance for women to come
we looked at three different
away from the busyness of
Bible characters (Moses,
church life and spend time
Hannah and Anna) and how
reflecting, learning and sharing
they each encountered God.
experiences with others in similar situations. Elspeth Pitt from
“She helpfully lifted our eyes from the characters in the story to God himself and
Highfields Church in Cardiff
how he so graciously revealed
attended Thrive this year
himself and dealt with each
and commented: “Many of us
person. Sian spoke from the
work in small teams and are
perspective of a ministry wife
perhaps the only woman on the
herself, and so could wisely
team. Sometimes we can feel
and insightfully apply God’s
burdened by things we can’t
word to our lives.”
share, or pressured to do things
Keep an eye on fiec.org.
that the people we are working
uk/events for news of these
amongst will see and applaud.
conferences in 2019.
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FILM RESOURCES FOR CHURCHES During the annual Evangelical Ministry Assembly (EMA) in London, National Director John Stevens and Mission Director Andy Paterson took some time out of the event to film a short discussion on evangelism. They were joined by Rico Tice, who you’ll recognise if you run Christianity Explored courses at church. The conversation covered storytelling as well as some of the difficulties evangelists face as they share the gospel in 2018. There was also a discussion on using evangelistic courses including Christianity Explored and Life Explored. Do look out for these films on fiec.org.uk in the coming months. In the meantime, you can enjoy our latest Get to Know… films as we take four minutes to profile two FIEC churches. You can also download prayer points for these churches on our website. Just head to fiec.org.uk/gettoknow
FILMING AT EMA
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NEWS IN BRIEF A WIDER PERSPECTIVE
agreed percentage of our regular income to mission but there was a gap in our national perspective.
Back in 2008, Rotherham Evangelical Church (REC) was small, writes pastor Ian Jones. In fact, questions were being asked about its viability. But, over the past ten years, there has been an encouraging period of revitalisation, and this has led to us asking very different questions. As the church has grown, it has inevitably been a challenge to know how to best deploy our limited resources. Our membership of FIEC has been part of those discussions. On some occasions I have heard friends ask: “what do we get for the fee we pay to be members of the FIEC?” In some ways this felt like a fair question because we want to be good stewards, but something was bugging me about the question being phrased in that way. During 2015, we spent some time reviewing our budgets, including our giving towards mission outside of Rotherham. I felt pleased that our church family were keen to be generous and outward looking. But although we supported some global mission organisations, we did not really have a handle on how we might support UK-based mission. We made a commitment to giving away an
In the course of these discussions, it was suggested that we look again at our FIEC donation. We realised that we were viewing this as a ‘charge to belong’ and were evaluating it in terms of what we could get out of it. It was being seen merely as a value-for-money proposition. In actual fact, we do feel that we have benefitted from being part of the FIEC family in many different ways, and the wider work of FIEC is increasingly significant to us. So we decided to reclassify our annual donation not simply as a cost but as a contribution towards, and an investment in, the work of the FIEC. We moved our giving to FIEC from a ‘miscellaneous’ category to be part of our overall mission giving. Over the past three financial years, this simple internal ‘accounting’ change has served to help broaden our vision and has encouraged our people to think in terms of us being part of and invested in a wider UK mission perspective. Ironically, this has helped to increase our sense of belonging to something more national, and stimulated us to pray more intelligently about gospel growth across Britain.
ROTHERHAM EVANGELICAL CHURCH
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GDPR – SUBJECT ACCESS REQUESTS Mark Jones is Head of Employment at Edward Connor Solicitors – a Christian law firm set up by FIEC to provide churches and Christian charities with the Christ-centred legal expertise they need. We asked him to help us understand Subject Access Requests which form part of the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) launched in May. May 25th has passed. Hopefully most churches now have policies and practices in place that are GDPR compliant*. The GDPR has modified the right of an individual to access data held about them by organisations including churches. Here is a basic guide on what to do if you receive a request for this information, called a Subject Access Request (SAR).
Is the request valid? Requests can be either verbal or written. The request doesn’t need to refer to the legislation or even say it is a ‘subject access request’. An indication of a future intention to make a request, is not a request.
Is a fee payable? A fee can now only be charged in rare circumstances: where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. Whilst you may feel a request will take excessive time to process, that is normally a reason to introduce practices that will make future compliance easier, rather than justification for a fee.
Who is the request from? Don’t assume the person is who they say they are. Is the request from an email address that is not known to you, even if it says it is from someone you know? If in any doubt, verify it. Time for complying with the request does not run until verification is received. fiec.org.uk
Do I need more information? If you reasonably require more information to identify or locate the data requested, you should ask for it. For example, if asked to provide copies of emails, you may need to know whether this relates to emails to or from particular people, or during a particular period. Time for complying with the request will not run until that information has been received.
Do I have to provide everything asked for? Just because someone’s name appears in a document does not mean it is their personal data, it must also relate to the individual in some way. NB you are under no obligation to provide copies of any original documents.
What about data that also relates to others? Those other people have the right to have their privacy respected, so don’t hand over their data unless you have their consent or it is reasonable to do it without their consent. In order to honour your obligations, you may need to redact documents or put the relevant data into a new document.
How long do I have? You should comply as soon as possible and within one month. If that isn’t possible, communicate within that first month that you need more time and explain why. All requests must be processed within three months.
For more info *If you are not sure whether you are GDPR compliant, our legal team can help. Just call 01858 411569.
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EVALUATE YOUR TR Associate National Director Adrian Reynolds has written a brand new book called The Grid which is his training manifesto for Independent churches. Here he explains why he wrote it and what he hopes churches can learn from it. In his bestselling and highly influential business book Adrian Reynolds The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, management guru Stephen Covey is clear that good leaders ‘begin with the end in mind.’ It’s an approach that he could have lifted straight from the pages of Scripture, for the entirety of the Christian life is dependent upon such a strategy. This, in essence, is the process of sanctification.
Ultimately, God transforms us by his Spirit into something – the likeness of Christ. Our ultimate goal is not to speak in a more wholesome way or to stop doing unholy things. Our end point is nothing less than being “transformed into his image with ever increasing glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). The same is true for church life. There is an end goal that Jesus himself has for the church: “to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27).
Visionary not functional It seems extraordinary, therefore, that we reduce leadership down to things that we do. It becomes functional rather than visionary. Or, to use the terminology of FIEC Australia leader Andrew Heard, we make everything about inputs instead of outputs. These are all ways of expressing the same problem. In Covey language we fail to begin ‘with the end in mind’. It is no wonder
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therefore that we fill our time and church programmes with events and activities that we simply do because ‘we always have done’ or because ‘we ought to.’ Moreover, we find it very hard to stop doing things, or even evaluate where our priorities will lie. Of course, church leadership is not quite as aimless as this. We are gospel people with gospel instincts and so we make the right decisions much of the time. A prayer meeting in a church? Of course that’s a good plan and we know it without prompting. But beyond that we come unstuck. How many prayer meetings? What kinds? What should we be praying for? And when it comes to asking a church to invest money, focusing on the things we do without first asking “Where do we want to be?” can be deadly. Why would a church member dig deeply into their pocket unless they can see where things are heading? All of this is a plea for church leaders to be visionaries. fiec.org.uk
RAINING Embracing a vision I don’t mean we want them to be constantly strategising, but we need leaders who can show a church the end point and then lead them there. This is especially crucial when churches need to do radical things to grow. Lack of vision will mean such a church will only ever stagnate.
WE WERE DOING PLENTY OF WORTHY THINGS (AND MANY RIGHT THINGS), BUT WE NEEDED A CLEARER VISION. This is not anti-gospel or anti-Bible. God presents us with the glorious objective that he is working towards, and it behoves leaders to embrace his vision for the church. Part of the reason for writing The Grid is that I felt that I (and many others too) were not clear enough about the end point when it comes to raising up leaders. We were doing plenty of worthy things (and many right things), but we needed a clearer vision. This book – I hope – is it. I wanted us – as a family of churches – to see the Scriptural vision for leadership in the local church, embrace it, and work towards it. How churches do that will depend on a huge variety of factors: there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But the vision is in the Bible and so it is common to us all. Let’s welcome it. For more info: The Grid is available from 10ofThose and costs £2.99. Just head to 10ofthose.com and search for ‘The Grid’.
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A NEW THING IN SCOTLAND The Bingham and Magdalene housing estate in Edinburgh is ranked by the Scottish Government as one of the most deprived areas in Scotland, writes FIEC Development Manager Lucy Hiorns. Substance abuse, broken homes and high crime rates are amongst the many difficulties faced by people there. And tragically, until recently, the gospel witness in the area was almost non-existent. Yet a lingering gospel light remained in the form
of a handful of elderly saints meeting in an old chapel building. They had been praying for younger men to take on the work when Paul McLoughlan, who was training as a church planter, turned up looking to start a gospel work in the area.
THE NEW COMMUNITY CAFE
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Paul was raised in a similar housing estate in Scotland. Wonderfully, he became a Christian 12 years ago whilst recovering from addiction in a Christian centre. Early on he had a passion to make Jesus known and knew that he wanted to give his life to gospel work.
The Lord’s providence The chapel was a perfect opportunity in so many ways and yet Paul was daunted by the scale of the work that needed to be done to make the building fit for purpose. In the Lord’s providence, however, an FIEC church hundreds of miles away in Ravensden, Bedfordshire, took the difficult decision to close, releasing money for church planting. The work of FIEC is often about getting alongside churches and pastors, offering support with things like church planting and training. But sometimes it means helping churches to fiec.org.uk
close well so that others can thrive. We grieve when a church closes, but it sometimes means significant resources can be ploughed into fresh and exciting gospel opportunities where the Lord is at work.
Closure creates new life In this case, the members at Zion Baptist Church in Ravensden asked for the money from the sale of their building to be ploughed into church planting elsewhere. So, after many hours of hard work from the FIEC legal team and others, £60,000 was given to complete this refurbishment in Scotland. Some of the money came from Ravensden and the rest from an FIEC mission fund. The transformation is incredible. The money was enough to totally refurbish the new meeting area, with enough left over to create a small café. This has become a fantastic meeting place and hub where relationships can be built with those in the wider community.
together in the gospel. The heroin addict who once begged on the streets, transformed and trained for ministry. “God is doing a new thing in Bingham and Magdalene, and we would like you to be involved. We would be hugely grateful if you could join us in prayer.” So, we join with the church in praying that this wonderful modernised building will be one day be full of people who have come to know Jesus. Would you join in praying for this too? For more info If you would like to support church planting, and other work which equips churches for gospel ministry across the UK, you can give via our website fiec.org.uk/donate or using the form on the back of your magazine address label.
THIS HAS BECOME A FANTASTIC MEETING PLACE AND HUB WHERE RELATIONSHIPS CAN BE BUILT WITH THOSE IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY. Paul will, God willing, plant Hope Church Bingham with 20Schemes in the months ahead. 20Schemes exists to plant churches among Scotland’s poorest communities. Hope Church is also a recognised FIEC church plant. Church Plant Recognition gives a new church help and support while it’s being established. Paul said: “Our prayer is that this once old building, now fully revamped, will once again be full of men, women and children worshipping the Saviour. Lost souls who were once heading for eternal damnation, regenerated by the Spirit of God and growing as faithful disciples. Families who were once broken and fractured by life, united fiec.org.uk
THE REFURBISHED BUILDING
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THE RELAUNCH
WHAT’S IN A NAME? Abi Colthrust introduces us to a new name for an FIEC church in London. Here’s the story of how they used these changes to share Christ with their community in Enfield. “A name change on its own doesn’t really mean much... but it’s a great opportunity for us to use this to talk to people in Enfield about Jesus!” So said our grinning pastor, Nathan
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FIEC Together Autumn 2018
Howard, to a room full of church members. And so it was put to us – a ‘relaunch’ as Enfield Evangelical Free Church became Enfield Town Community Church. There
would be new signage, a new website and a timely excuse for a big invitation to all our community. We had been aware of the plans to change our name for some time, as it had been put to the church members a year or so beforehand. Enfield Town Community Church is a simpler, more accessible way to describe who we are. It pretty much says it on the tin – we are based in Enfield Town, we are a church, and ‘community’ speaks about what we exist to be (a godly and distinctive community of believers). We exist to benefit everyone in the local community! In addition to this, we have been a sending church for four church plants in the past decade and our new name fits better with the names of these young, partner churches.
Gather, grow, go These are three words that were helpful to us as a church as we set about achieving our new strapline: ‘Making Jesus known in Enfield Town as we grow to know Him better’. They were also helpful in preparing for our big launch weekend. Gather. We came together in several gatherings, additional to the regular Sunday and midweek services, for extra fellowship. Grow. We received helpful teaching and training to equip us in this whole area of living fiec.org.uk
life on mission in an everyday sense. Go. In our countdown to launch, we were urged to ‘go’ as the Spirit led, not just to wait until the dedicated launch weekend.
WE RECEIVED HELPFUL TEACHING AND TRAINING TO EQUIP US IN THIS WHOLE AREA OF LIVING LIFE ON MISSION. Personally, I found living life on mission like this eye-opening. As a stay-at-home parent, almost all the friends and acquaintances I spend time with at the moment are Enfield-based, and the opportunities for gospel conversations crop up constantly. I found I was viewing all of these links through a fresh gospel lens. It was exciting!
Launch weekend We secured a market stall in the town square on Thursday to Saturday and engaged passers-by in conversation using a questionnaire designed to open up a chance to share the gospel. We also handed out literature about the church, an evangelistic tract, and invitations to a community festival on the Saturday and a special visitors’ service on the Sunday. We invited our community into our building with the aim of putting something of church life
and the gospel on display. We sought to put on a really welcoming, fun day on the Saturday. There was a heritage trail detailing the 121 years of church history, complete with photos from the archives and a ‘ration book’ children’s quiz. A video story and Christian music were playing too. Elsewhere, we had prepared craft stations, softplay, toys, outdoor games, singing and of course, tea, coffee and cake. We also gave out 300 ice lollies. The following day, we were thrilled to have some extra guests join us for our Sunday services and be part of our worship. In the preaching, Nathan urged us all to get to know Jesus better – from 2 Peter 3:18 “...grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. We have made so many new contacts through this launch. So, as Enfield Town Community Church we are praising God for his goodness and continue to pray for His saving work in our community, asking him to fuel us to live life on mission every day!
For more info A longer version of this article first appeared on the FIEC website – just search for ‘Enfield Town Community Church’ at fiec.org.uk You can find out more about the church at enfieldtown.church
COMMUNITY FESTIVAL
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MARKET TOWN On average, one in six people in England lives in a rural area. That means the need for a gospel witness in rural parts of England is vast. Burdened by that need, Rob
the Scotherns have lived in
and Claire Scothern will be part of a team that will plant Peak
Stoney Middleton – a small village around six miles from
Trinity Church in the market town of Bakewell in Derbyshire this September. The church is an Acts 29 plant from The Crowded House (TCH) Sheffield and will also be supported by FIEC. Rob is an elder at TCH Sheffield and will lead the plant bi-vocationally alongside his work as a teacher. The Scotherns plan to move to Bakewell over the coming months but, for this church planting couple, the Peak District is already wellknown to them. Claire grew up as a farmer’s daughter in the area, and for the past eight years
Bakewell. And it’s evident that God has been preparing them for this new ministry.
Village life “I remember getting home from work and seeing a group of young people at the end of our road,” Rob explains. “I was suddenly struck that we weren’t doing anything for them and Claire felt the same. So I went to knock on the door of the local Wesleyan Reformed Chapel in the village to enquire about whether we could use their building to start some youth work. I was given
the keys to the Chapel straight away and, before I’d got home, the youth were asking me when we were starting – that’s just what village life is like! “Claire and I started a youth work in the village, and it was a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel and our lives. We were then able to start opening our home and conducting Bible studies, and this gave us the opportunity to speak with the parents of these children too. “The work has been reshaped and gone from strength to strength. There are now more than 20 young people actively involved in the youth club.” When Rob and Claire started this youth ministry, they were members at Holmgate Evangelical – an FIEC church in nearby Chesterfield.
WHERE PEAK TRINITY WILL MEET
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PLANT As it became clear that God was doing something in their rural community in Stoney Middleton, the church began conversations with TCH Sheffield. Holmgate then sent Rob and Claire to be part of TCH with a long-term plan to explore churchplanting in the Peak District. Rob became the first Church Planting Resident at TCH Sheffield, for two years immersing himself in leadership in the steel city while training with what is now Crosslands Seminary. But, in the meantime, gospel work was continuing in their village. “Momentum picked up,” Rob continued. “A gospel community began to form about three years ago when a younger lady called Heather Ireson joined us along with Michael and Jo Tinker from Sheffield. It was a great joy when the mum of one of our youth group members came to faith and we got to baptise her in her garden. At that point we began to get really excited and think about what a church would look like in the Peak District.” TCH Sheffield will send out Peak Trinity Church on 30th September and they will begin meeting weekly in the centre of Bakewell at 4pm on Sundays. “Our Peak Trinity Sunday meeting will initially be a deliberately low-key, relational and Bible-centred family gathering.”
Great gospel heritage “The vision is to reach the 38,000 people in the Peak District National Park through the planting of gospel-centred communities in the villages and in Bakewell itself. Bakewell is the agricultural capital of the area and sees around 10 million tourists every year. It’s also an area with a great gospel heritage – there are many in ministry today who were saved and discipled in this part of the country.” fiec.org.uk
THE SCOTHERN FAMILY
There are twelve adults who have already joined the Peak plant (or are transitioning from sending churches) and Rob hopes this might increase to 15 by their launch Sunday. “From day one we want to be an Acts 1:8 church. Of course we want to reach the villages, hamlets and farms on our doorstep but, through our affiliation with FIEC and Acts 29, we are very excited to be partnering straight away with the wider UK mission and, indeed, with workers based further afield in international gospel priority areas. “Peak Trinity has the privilege of being part of a collective of TCH churches sent from (and including) TCH Sheffield that aims to provide tangible support to Bible translators in Nigeria and Tanzania and, also, to church planters in France, Italy and the Middle East. “Please be aware, a movement of the gospel to rural areas like ours is not going to happen by accident. Unbelievers will not travel 30 minutes to church, so we need to take church to them. We’d love anyone who shares our doctrinal convictions to come and join us.”
For more info If you would like to support Peak Trinity – either financially, or by joining this new plant – please check out peaktrinity.org where you can sign up to their newsletter or email Rob at peaktrinity@thecrowdedhouse.org.
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FIEC Together Autumn 2018
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SUPPORTING MISSIONARIES Mike Hitchings is pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, Farnham. This is the story of how the church has grown, where it is today and how they are involved in supporting mission. In 1834 William Smith of Farnham built a small Strict Baptist chapel in Upper Hale, just outside Farnham. The congregation grew and baptisms were held in the Basingstoke canal. Since then, the congregation has continued and flourished. The church is blessed with a high proportion of young families, almost a third of the congregation are under 18 and there is usually a good sprinkling of seekers too. Our annual Holiday Bible Club attracts up to 220 children and we are a busy church community with fellowship, teaching and outreach groups for people of all ages – though working out how to mobilise Christian men to
reach men is one of our big challenges. We appointed an Assistant Minister last year to focus on youth work and reaching out more effectively to a nearby housing estate. Our desire is to start a regular meeting there. Bethel also has a long history of mission and currently supports missionaries working at home and overseas. The fellowship has three members who work with the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Scripture Readers Association (SASRA), which has its headquarters in nearby Aldershot. This year is SASRA’s 180th anniversary, and to chime with the Centenary of the end of the First World War, SASRA is running a prayer relay from 8 August to 11 November this year – this mirrors the ‘100 Day’ offensive which brought the conflict to its final close. We’ll be giving our evening service on 30 September to hear about and pray for this mission work. Back in 2016 the church voted to affiliate to FIEC. There was a desire to express our connection to the Church nationally and to support the FIEC in its strategy for the future of Independency and for UK-wide mission. Farnham is generally affluent and aspirational, a demographic which – according to John Stevens’ Knowing our Times – is not especially responsive to the gospel. But we have rejoiced in recent baptisms and encouraging work amongst our young people. In November, we are joining with other evangelical churches to hold a mission. Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics is partnering with us to run local events so please pray with us that the Lord will build his kingdom.
For more info BAPTISMS AT BETHEL
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Please visit bethelbaptist.org.uk to find out more about the church and sasra.org.uk to find out more about SASRA and their 180th anniversary.
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PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE Paul and Sue Harrison are members at Grace Church, an FIEC church in Loughborough. They also work professionally to offer training in safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk. They’ve recognised the challenges for churches and church leaders around safeguarding, so they’ve decided to do something about it. Bringing together their decades of experience in the public and charity sectors with their local church leadership positions, they have now launched Safe in Church. It’s a programme designed to help churches to understand and meet the requirements of safeguarding.
The programme sits under their specialist training and consultancy provider, Phasic Ltd, and is designed to help churches to avoid the pitfalls. Paul and Sue agreed to tell us more about it, and are offering to provide training to other FIEC churches.
First of all, what does safeguarding actually mean? Safeguarding is essentially about protecting people – both children and adults – from harm and abuse, and promoting their wellbeing. It’s the responsibility of adults to keep children safe, but when it comes to safeguarding adults, we mean an adult who is at risk of abuse or neglect. For example, a learning disability can impede an adult’s ability to make an informed choice, thereby making them vulnerable. Safeguarding is not just about spotting and addressing indicators of abuse; it’s about looking at early signs and stepping in, and this takes into account the evidence we see from outside the church’s four walls.
What is the current climate around safeguarding? For a significant number of years there has been a shift which means organisations are essentially being told to ‘develop effective systems’. This,
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of course, can cause complications as it is less directive as to how to achieve this. Added to this, historically, organisations haven’t dealt with cases of abuse and allegations of abuse effectively. Examples can be found in churches, youth camps and those working abroad on behalf of charities. These things have shifted a perception of churches because we haven’t been whiter than white.
OUR BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES DEMAND THAT WE TAKE SAFEGUARDING SERIOUSLY – WE ARE CALLED TO CARE FOR THE VULNERABLE AND WEAK. There’s also greater awareness among the public about where the risks are and the expectation that churches should be responding. But if you don’t know how to respond effectively, you can’t. That’s where we come in; we’re approaching safeguarding from a biblical perspective.
Tell us about Safe in Church? Safe in Church is all about taking hold of our specialist knowledge and taking it to churches. As evangelical Christians, who have assumed, and still hold, leadership positions in an FIEC church, we approach safeguarding as an outworking of our faith. We see safeguarding as a natural extension of our biblical principles and the gospel. We know that adhering to biblical principles will enable us to far exceed the legal requirements. Therefore, we don’t separate the two, as we know that isn’t an accurate way to view it. Many churches do not have expertise in safeguarding, so we established Safe in Church to help churches reach and exceed the necessary competency. We want to help churches to fully understand what is required and to be able to confidently and competently fulfil their duties and engage with statutory fiec.org.uk
safeguarding services where that is required.
Why is it worthwhile to seek expert help? There’s a lot of information available and some churches have specialist knowledge within the membership. Our aim is to support churches who don’t have that specialist knowledge. The available guidance can be quite difficult to apply into the church context and it can be difficult to keep up with the speed of change. Also, churches may miss some of the subtle nuances unless they have a specialist in their ranks. We have more than 30 years’ experience in church ourselves – a number of them in leadership positions so we understand the complexities. For example, we know how to deal with very specific situations, such as integrating an ex-offender into church life, and working through the practical solutions for the sake of the gospel.
Why should churches take safeguarding seriously? Our biblical principles demand that we take safeguarding seriously – we are called to care for the vulnerable and weak. One wrong move, if handled incorrectly, can bring a church – or worse the gospel – into disrepute. So, let’s ‘do’ safeguarding well and transparently. A version of this article first appeared in the Evangelical Alliance magazine Idea – eauk.org/ idea/how-healthy-is-your-church-or-charity.cfm For more info A half-day training course for up to 25 people with Safe in Church costs £250. How about partnering with other FIEC churches near you to put on a morning of safeguarding training? Paul and Sue are also running safeguarding training up and down the country, and this can be booked on a ‘per seat’ basis. For more information, or if you would be willing to host regional training in your church, please contact Paul and Sue. Visit safeinchurch.org.uk or email paul@safeinchurch.org.uk or call 07960 751778.
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BOOK REVIEWS
All you need to know about the Bible
Echoes of Exodus
Brian Edwards
The message of Echoes of Exodus really reverberates. The basic premise is that the Exodus is the overture of the Bible, and its echoes are heard throughout Scripture. In just 22 short chapters Wilson and Roberts write a delightful book explaining the symphonic nature of the Bible seen in the rich melody of the exodus. The book is divided into four main movements. Movement one hones in on the book of Exodus all the way through to Joshua. Movement two is the prequel to the exodus, looking at the themes foreshadowed in the great events of Genesis particularly in the lives of Joseph, Jacob, Abraham and Noah, casting these seismic events as exodus-esque episodes. Movement three is a panoply of other Old Testament stories resonating with exodus themes, with an all-star cast including David, Absalom and Achan. Lastly, in movement four, the crescendo builds to show exodus in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and cascading out into the book of Acts. The finale of this movement shows that only at Christ’s return will the exodus truly end. This book is very readable, very thought provoking and brilliantly written. The chapters are short, the ideas are deep, and the questions at the end of each chapter help to consolidate the learning and stretch the reader. It is an ideal book to give to people to encourage them to mine deeply, unearthing the inexhaustible treasures of the Bible. Echoes of Exodus will help people in their personal devotions, thrill Bible study groups and be a wise guide to the preacher. It is clear, careful and captivating.
If you’ve ever heard Brian Edwards speak about the veracity, reliability and historicity of the Bible, you’ll know it’s a subject on which he is both an expert and wonderfully accessible. There are many books on the same subject which – whilst useful and comprehensive – fail on the readability test and therefore end up being for scholars and pastors. Brian’s various books and writings have now been reworked, updated and expanded to make a nicely presented six-book series from DayOne: All you need to know about the Bible. Book 1 is about trustworthiness, Book 2 about inerrancy, Book 3 on the canon, Book 4 on how our modern English Bible came to be, Book 5 on modern day evidence for the Bible, and Book 6 is about reading the Bible well today. All six are superb. Each can be read cover to cover or, if you would prefer, dipped into from time to time. Buying all six allows you to complete the picture on the spine! I didn’t fully agree with Brian’s conclusion on translations, but that’s a very minor quibble in what is a wellthought-out series. Not only will this give Christians confidence in their own Bible, but these books will help them defend the Bible today against its many accusers. Adrian Reynolds, FIEC Training Director
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We would like to say a big thank you to Jonathan Carswell and 10ofThose for providing these book reviews.
FIEC Together Autumn 2018
Andrew Wilson and Alastair Roberts
Jon Gemmell, The Proclamation Trust fiec.org.uk
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For Richer, For poorer
The Gospel Comes with a House key
Clare Heath-Whyte
Rosaria Butterfield
Today, marriage is seen in society as being about personal fulfilment; for the good feeling that commitment brings or for the sake of children. These aren’t all bad reasons, but they aren’t the best. Clare Heath-Whyte’s new book, For Richer, For Poorer, shines a spotlight on six godly women whose lives demonstrate marriage centred instead on service. Alongside pioneering and persevering Elizabeth Fry, we meet women who took on hard administrative and practical tasks, like Mary Muller, Susannah Spurgeon and Emma Moody, and those whose devoted support and companionship enabled their husbands to fight hard battles courageously. The simple writing is fresh and lively, with plenty of quotes from primary sources – diaries, letters and personal writing. For each woman, Clare traces a spiritual journey from childhood to deathbed, allowing the reader to see the how the Lord met, challenged and changed them. Bible studies at the end of each chapter draw out lessons further. These women and their husbands are not idealised in any way. Barbara Wilberforce’s fussiness is shown and so is George Muller’s insensitivity. A common thread in all the narratives is suffering, whether through poverty, bereavement or rejection. But the personal flaws and pain help us to see more clearly God’s grace amidst the struggles. I was left not awed by saintly women, but by the way God worked in their often messy lives. It motivated me to imitate them as they imitated Christ.
The driving principle of this book is Butterfield’s biblical conviction that as you love your neighbours, and share your life with them, they may well become part of the family of God. Butterfield holds no punches as she outlines how, if we accept the gospel, we should be prepared to practise ‘radically ordinary hospitality’. I was struck by the deliberate and devoted way in which Butterfield and her family go about this radical hospitality. It really challenged my own relationships – or lack of – with my neighbours. As I began reading t he book, I found m yself slightly in awe of the life the Butterfields are leading. That kind of awe that made me think I couldn’t possibly do what they are doing. But as I read on, I was relieved to hear her encouragements in the practical out-workings, and it began to feel a little more doable, even just in a few small ways to begin with. As with her previous two books, I found it a little frustrating that Butterfield champions her denominational ways of going about gospel living, although I think this book is less dominated by that. Butterfield’s autobiography is inescapable in all her writing, and that’s true of this book as well. I think her insightful and challenging comments regarding how Christians relate to the gay community were helpful as well as reminding us of the remarkable way in which God worked in her through others offering her radical, loving hospitality. I found this book compelling, and I was challenged in so many ways to open up my home, share life and so share the gospel.
Sarah Allen Hope Church Huddersfield fiec.org.uk
Felicity Patterson FIEC Together Autumn 2018
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Since the last edition of Together:
NEW CHURCH AFFILIATIONS Emmanuel Church Marlborough (Formerly a recognised Church Plant) Potton Baptist Church, Bedfordshire Trinity Baptist Church, Gloucester Coton Green Church, Tamworth Newtown Evangelical Church, Powys Hill City Church, Pontypool Baglan Community Church, Port Talbot Beccles Baptist Church, Suffolk Bethany Christian Church Ulverston Cambridge Bethel Pentecostal Church Cauldwell Hall Rd Baptist Church, Ipswich Cuckfield Baptist Church, West Sussex Emmanuel Epsom (Formerly a recognised Church Plant) Hope City Church, Edinburgh Libanus Baptist Church, North Wales Refuge Church, Glasgow Speke Baptist Church, Liverpool Wheelock Heath Baptist Church, Cheshire
NEW CHURCH PLANT RECOGNITIONS Grace Church, St Austell (Planted by Truro Evangelical Church) Redeemer Church Manchester (Planted by Grace Church Manchester) Loch Leven, Fife Peak Trinity Church, Bakewell (Planted by The Crowded House) Grace Church Kidlington (Planted by Woodstock Road Baptist Church Oxford) Grace Church Sandbach (Planted by Wheelock Heath) Aviemore Church, Scotland Ridgeway Community Church, Redditch
fiec.org.uk fb.com/theFIEC @theFIEC 01858 434540 admin@fiec.org.uk The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered in England and Wales with charity number 1168037 and in Scotland with charity number SC047080.
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