2020vision magazine - Jan 2012

Pioneering | Proclaiming | Transforming | Together

January 2012 www.saltlight.org/uk

Contents Welcome Missional Communities Report: FOUR Conference PLO Report Youth Summit Review

3 4 & 5 6 7 8 9

ective 10 & 11 p rs e P l a n io at rn te In n a From 12 & 13 w ie v re P 2 1 0 2 rm o sf Tran 4 & 15 1 rt o p e R ce Annual Finan ily of Ministries for the UK fam published by Salt & Light 2020vision> magazine is an churches sell | Design Richard Hardim tions Manager Oliver Rus nica mu Com | s Gile Jon Editor g | +44(0)1865 297440 g/uk | contact@saltlight.or Contact > www.saltlight.or Oxford, OX2 0ES, UK King’s Centre, Osney Mead, Salt & Light Ministries, The and Wales, number d lan Eng in rantee, registered A company limited by gua ber 3603373. . Registered charity num h Street, Witney, OX8 6HB Registered office 22b Hig 1071600.

Hello and welcome to our latest Salt and Light magazine.

2012 is bringing so many events of note. The Olympics, Queen’s Jubilee and a number of our very own significant anniversaries and birthdays to name but a few. And in our church family we have Transform 2012 (to rival the Olympics!) as well as many national UK events to look forward to. Have a look at the details included later especially if you haven’t been to Transform before.

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One of our themes in this issue is ‘Building Together’. We have been encouraged by a number of events and initiatives recently that have worked to serve the UK church and this issue underlines some specific insights.

What are these ‘Missional Communities’ that we hear about? There is an article which helps us to understand them a little more; pages 6 and 7 outline how we can impact, and be a part of transforming our society and provoke us to consider this a little more.

As well as all that we have an update on the wider Salt and Light International family from Steve Thomas and Tom Butler introduces himself plus a little on the checks and balances!

We hope that you find this magazine informative and encouraging and please feel free to get in touch for more information, comments and suggestions.

We are always keen to hear stories and testimonies about what is going on around the UK. Happy reading!

Mark PS Keep your eyes peeled for all the key words…. family, transform, community, equipped, radical and kingdom!

Mark Harland

welcome

missional communities ‘Missional Communities‘ might be a phrase or buzz word you have come across in the last few years and wondered what they are and how they work. A number of Salt & Light churches across the UK have been looking at Missional Communities and exploring how to launch them in their local settings. We asked Rich Robinson of Network Church Sheffield to give us some background on what they are.

reflecting a 3 dimensional life “We recognise a change in culture amongst our neighbours – we pray with so many of them – they expect that to be part of our relationship with us and are proactive in asking us to pray with and for them.”

This is a testimony from one of the Missional Community Leaders at Network Church Sheffield (a church with three bases – St Thomas Church, Philadelphia; The King’s Centre and City:Base) where the good news of Jesus is being shared across the city through individuals and missional communities. This is their story.

St Thomas Church, Philadelphia has operated over the last 15 years in a ‘research and development’ capacity for the wider church. Missional communities have been innovated and pioneered at St Thomas’ and have become the heartbeat of the church. They have seen growth in salvation and mobilisation of the church, as well as discovering some key biblical and leadership principles.

The team have established a discipleship culture within the church which has produced missional disciples leading Missional Communities. These disciples live across many of the networks and neighbourhoods of Sheffield. There are now over 120 Missional Communities (each with 15 30 adults) across the city with people living incarnationally; sharing the good news of Jesus to multiple people groups and various neighbourhoods.

One Chinese student who got involved in one of the Missional Communities wrote:

Rich Robinson

“I have already arrived in my hometown, located in the central part of China. Thanks for the caring of you and the other friends.

By the way, my parents cannot believe that so many local friends can help an international student, and I said you guys are really, really kind that I never meet before, and I have learnt a lot of the British culture and some meaning of Jesus. And I bring the bible back and introduce to my parents.”

The church has a resource centre with gatherings, training and prayer. All the Missional Communities across

January 2012 | 2020Vision Magazine | www.saltlight.org/uk

the city regularly orbit into and out of the centre. This means they gather at the central church on a regular basis as well as meeting out in their missional context.

These Missional Communities are spiritual households (referred to as oikos in the New Testament) consisting of 15–30 adults and are all formed around a missional vision. The community comes together with the purpose of being ‘good news’ to those that don’t yet know Jesus. The focus of the group is either towards a network (age group, social grouping, demographic or ethnicity) or a neighbourhood (a specific geographic area) St Thomas uses simple ‘Lifeshapes’ (detailed in ‘Building a discipleship Culture’ by Mike Breen) as the language for discipleship and leadership. Each of the communities have a three dimensional life.

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UP

In ‘Lifeshapes’ terminology this is known as the ‘triangle’ – upwards to God, inwards to Christian community, and outward to the world. The leaders of these groups are held accountable to personally living out and leading according to these three dimensions.

Three of the key values of the culture are incarnation, participation and low control/high accountability. The aim is that every member would live the life of a disciple – living out whatever they are called to do and living out the good news personally. Disciples are not reliant on a member of staff or another leader to do the job. Rather, they are empowered and released to be part of fulfilling the Great Commission, whilst being kept accountable in areas of character and competence.

IN OUT

The team at St Thomas’ also interact with a large number of churches and leaders in different cities, churches and contexts. There are three main questions that keep appearing:

• What is the future of the church?

• How do we properly disciple people?

• How do we reach those that don’t know Jesus?

These are the questions that the church in Sheffield has been asking for the past 20 years and, although definitely not the finished article, have had experience and seen breakthrough in these areas. Consequently myself and Paul Maconochie, alongside our local roles of church leadership, are creating space to be able to serve the wider church by teaching, training and equipping church leadership teams to begin to look at discipleship, mission and re-imagine church.

We’re doing this through three primary ways: Learning communities, coaching and writing and developing content.

The team at St Thomas’ also offer regular coaching huddles which give a context for continued support, strategic input, character development and biblical reflection and we are develop more resources to help people who are looking to establish a discipleship culture and launching missional communities.

For more information the team at Network Church Sheffield have put together lots of resources about missional communities here at: www.missionalcommunities.co.uk

Mark Mumford writes about the FOUR conference held in Oxford in December…

Care

We had an excellent ‘Four’ conference on Saturday 3rd December, and I believe it was significant for our whole UK family of churches. First of all, I want to thank King’s Theological College (KTC) and the Goal 4 team for working together to host this event – it was great all round so well done.

I also want to thank all of you who came.

130 people were there, representing key ‘transforming society’ influencers in our UK network and churches. Events like this will be a springboard for resourcing and equipping local churches to take responsibility for this aspect of the 2020vision>.

Mark Mumford

Malcolm Duncan’s teaching was (as ever) inspirational, clear and had plenty of depth to it. He spoke about the absolute biblical imperative that word and deed go together in the gospel. He was also very provocative to those of us in smaller churches, with his conviction that every church, of whatever size, can and should play its part in God’s great kingdom purposes in its local community.

I want to strongly encourage everyone to get hold of the resources from the day, so we’ve made Malcolm’s 2 talks and PowerPoint available for free download from our website. Why not download and listen to his sessions today to get a fantastic insight into the reasons we must send out the good news wherever we are.

For resources from the day please visit: www.saltlight.org/ukresources

Care emphasises the campaignin influencing aspect of Christian a Westminster, Care has many gov www.care.org.uk

Christian Conc

Christian Concern keeps us abre directly affects Christians, with a persecution in the workplace an support for good legal defence. www.christianconcern.com

The Christian I

The Christian Institute is well kno campaigning on issues of morali www.christian.org.uk

The Evangelica

The Evangelical Alliance is a high umbrella organisation, incorpora evangelical churches nationwide www.eauk.org

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P L January 2012 | 2020Vision Magazine | www.saltlight.org/uk

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You could be forgiven for feeling a bit depressed when you read the news over the past year. Financial belttightening, riots in London, gross interference of the media into people’s private lives and more. However, in a country where the government admits that it can’t build the sort of society that it wants without help from the Christian church, we have never had a greater opportunity to demonstrate in practical ways that the love of God is the major force in building caring, safe and healthy communities.

That recognition is manifested in the welcome that is given to representatives of church groups such as Salt & Light in Westminster meetings and consultations. In my role as Parliamentary Liaison Officer for Salt & Light I, along with representatives from the main evangelical church streams, have had opportunity to present the views of committed people with a real faith on all sorts of vital subjects.

Civil partnerships, human rights in relation to religion and belief, sex trafficking, euthanasia and assisted suicide, sex education, freedom to serve, parenting, sexualisation of children – are all subjects that have been discussed and reviewed over the past year.

For decades Christians have largely managed to portray themselves as ‘disapprovers’ – railing against the excesses and profanities that have marked the second half of the 20th Century. A new image is now emerging of Christians who match their opinions and beliefs with action. We are not just lobbying our MPs, but supporting and helping them too. We are not just expressing shock at the state of society, but we are being proactive in changing that society for good. We are not just looking at the messes made by a government that can’t cope with all the need, poverty and distress – we are mopping up those messes and influencing some of the decision-making.

What issues and causes can you become involved with and take up with MPs and ministers?

Four major Christian organisations (see the box) are well-organised, excellent at keeping us fully informed, and increasingly working together to present coherent advice to people who want to be involved in shaping society.

Diane Taylor

Parliamentary Liaison Officer

All of these organisations will send information on news and campaigns which is extremely helpful.

Corporate voices are good – but individual voices en masse can be a powerful influence on policy.

Let’s get stuck into the heart of our society, and demonstrate that God’s ways are best.

national youth team introducing Tom Butler

Tom Butler

At Transform 2011 we announced a change in the leadership of our national youth team.

Chipper and Anna Betts have been leading national youth event and initiatives for many years and with a number of changes for them it was time to hand on the baton. The UK Team have asked Tom Butler to take on the leadership of youth in the UK. We asked Tom to introduce himself and share a little of what is on his heart for Youth in the UK!

Firstly let me start by introducing myself, my name is Tom Butler and I’m the full time youth pastor at LifeChurch Manchester and I’m married to Sarah. I have the privilege of leading an amazing team of volunteers and working with, in my opinion, the best and most exciting group of people in the Church!

I recently read a quote that I felt summed up what I wanted to talk to you about:

“Youth is easily deceived, because it is quick to hope” The quote turned out to be Aristotle, not the most prolific youth ministry writer, but he did like to think. He has connected one the greatest traits of our young people within Salt & Light with their potential Achilles’ heel.

As a movement of churches we need to be valuing the cry of Hope from our young people, not as naivety or petulance. But as PASSION, as POTENTIAL, and as PROPHETIC. I long for us to develop a natural national climate within our young people that sees them as the answer to the 2020vision. That they have the avenues of mission and opportunities to serve and lead created for them; this allows their HOPE to be fanned and directed towards the purposes of the great commission.

Will we be a network of churches that hears hope from our young people and struggles to connect them to leadership opportunities in our church, to alter our budget priorities, and disturb the neatness of church?

OR will we allow the quickness and zeal of youth to fuel and inspire a prophetic passionate army that will plant relevant churches, lead kingdom advancing ministries, and support current churches to become prevailing and cutting edge?

I hope so, in fact I long for, a new wave of leaders over the years to arise. To dream, and to hope for the things that are yet unseen!

If you would like to contact Tom for more info about how your youth can connect with what is happening nationally please email youth@saltlight.org

January 2012 | 2020Vision Magazine | www.saltlight.org/uk

9 sandcastles or disciples?

Each year we call the senior leaders of UK churches to a 24 hour ‘summit’. These focus on how we work in regions and build local churches together.

Simeon Chapman of Worcester City Church gives an insight to this year’s Summit held in October 2011.

So these Summits: Are they just a leaders ‘jolly’ at the expense of a church or ‘summit’ to do to keep leaders busy in the week?

Sometimes as leaders we need some help or some timely, God inspired input, that isn’t just a good sermon that stimulates or a lovely worship time that leaves you feeling warm inside. We need impartation that comes from heaven that helps us pursue “your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”. For me and for us as a church the Summit couldn’t have been more poignant not only providing us with challenge but also some real tools to help. I knew I had been equipped. Wow! When impartation comes, truth gets revealed, we have the sense deep inside “yeah I knew that” and then the realisation, “DOH! If it’s that simple why haven’t I been doing it?”

The main thrust for me was the call on us all to “go and make disciples”, extend the kingdom and not be burnt out church managers. Jesus builds His church, not us.

How do we do that effectively? Well we do what we really want to do, which is see all churches be radical disciples, who do what Jesus tells them to do and be all that they are meant to be. We want everyone to fulfil their destiny in God. I want to be a leader that models that and makes disciples.

What we saw is that as a family of churches we want to release people and have, but often we have lacked accountability to the area of release. Accountability is where discipleship takes place, so we need to continue to release but with more discipleship. Low control +High accountability = Discipleship. DOH! Paul Maconochie walked us through the journey of Network Church Sheffield including the success of the church leadership golf team. We were all inspired by their example of doing life (golf) together and not just meetings. We were challenged in taking time to review, reflect, prune and grow again. This is the natural rhythm of life as he calls it. Who wants to be a busy church leader anyway?

The challenge as always is in the sand/rock story Jesus told, are we hearers and doers or just hearers.

Simeon C hapman

Go ask your leaders what they heard and whether they are making sandcastles or disciples!

P.S. It was a good jolly!

And it’s a fair question. For most of us, we identify with what we are most involved in ourselves.

And most of us are firmly rooted in local communities, so that becomes our main focus.

Does it add anything to be part of a bigger family? Well, needless to say, looking at a bigger perspective delivers us from the very worst sort of parochialism, where we are only concerned with our own little worlds. Our whole life experience tells us now that we are part of a big world. We hear news from other nations every day, whether the Arab spring uprisings, or the economic problems of the Eurozone, or floods in the Philippines or earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan.

More important than the merely pragmatic, the Bible tells us that the Church is the Body of Christ, and we are all connected to one another:

“so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:25-26) In other words, there are not just pragmatic reasons, but principled reasons for experiencing connections with Christians in many nations. We belong to them, and they belong to us!

It has been our joy in the Salt & Light family to be connected with people in many nations, and to experience the richness of that through connections with leaders from many continents.

When we get together, we encourage and challenge one another; we share news of answered prayer, joys, conversions, healings, and challenges. We challenge one another’s limited perspectives and practices; and that is very good for us!

In the last 6-7 months, I have had the privilege of travelling with teams to Zimbabwe, France, Myanmar (former Burma), Poland, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, India, Nepal and Uganda.

You see a fair bit of the body of Christ on such visits, and I can assure you that the church is alive, well and flourishing in many parts of God’s world!

here are some of our in

The church in Zimbab flourishing. We often and economically, bu us in terms of evange vigorous faith and po the last year, church le family, from Zimbabw have connected toge closely together, to h of ways. This team is l count, but we have u with different indigen whose leaders also co

Africa

What does it mean to be part of an international family of churches? I get asked that question fairly regularly!

In Scandinavia, there has been a significa number of leaders across Scandinavian co with our Nordic team, led by Dave and Ch of these pastors are looking for fatherhoo

Scandina Steve Thomas

own lives and ministries, as well as lookin ministries to equip their churches. This so input is often not available in denominati There are a number of different national g emerging now in Finland, Sweden, Denm These groupings also have connections in Germany and other European nations, to

from an international

January 2012 | 2020Vision Magazine | www.saltlight.org/uk

me of the highlights international family

nificant growth in the ian countries connecting nd Chris Richards. Many erhood, to input to their

navia

ooking for five-fold his sort of friendship and minational structures. onal groupings that are Denmark and Norway. ons into Estonia, Poland, ns, too.

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Francophone Countries

India In India, there are a number of different networks with which we have relationships. Just recently, many of these different networks were at a leadership weekend hosted by Stanley Mehta of Gateway Ministries International, and this has laid a strong relational basis for future work together. GMI have themselves planted 19 new churches this last year!

U.K. In the UK, we have received at different events over the years, ministry from Fraser Hardy and Greg Burson. They are from New Zealand, where there is a group of 20 or so churches called LinkNZ. They are lively, prophetic and growing!

l perspective

In North America, we have three families of churches who connect with us in different ways, but who are beginning to criss-cross relationally more and more.

There is a group of churches in Canada and US who have related for many years, with a clear Salt & Light identity, now led by Ron Maclean and John Isaacs and their teams; then there is a group of churches called Foundation Ministries based in Iowa, Indiana and Michigan, led

by Jim Swihart and his team; and more recently, the C2C (Coast-to-Coast) group led by Doug Kreighbaum and his team.

These churches have links into Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria, and many other nations

North America

mbabwe – and many African nations – is often hear of major challenges politically lly, but these churches are a challenge to vangelism and church growth. There is a nd powerful supernatural manifestation. In urch leaders connected with the Salt & Light mbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, & Burundi d together, and resolved to work much more r, to help and support one another in a variety m is led by Ngwiza Mnkandla. It is not easy to ave up to 1000 churches in Africa connected digenous families of churches in Africa, lso connect with the Salt & Light family.

In the French-speaking world (at the moment, mainly in France, Belgium and Switzerland, but the Francophone team has lots of vision for French-speaking Canada and African nations) there is a significant consolidation of family, through laying foundations of family values, and a Joshua training programme now attended by 100 delegates from several different bases. This grouping of 25 or so churches is becoming stronger year by year, and has links with Italy, Spain, Mongolia, Libya, Algeria and other North African nations.

Here are only a few highlights. Needless to say, most of these nations will be represented at our International Leaders’ Conference, so the best plan is to book in for this conference, and meet people from different continents in the flesh! They are part of our Salt & Light family, and we love them very much!

getting ready for

Transform…ation!

“It was awesome, my daughter lov ed it and has come on loads – Big thanks to all the kids workers!” es and style of speakers - some to “Excellent having a variety of typ rall theme for all to focus on.” suit all! However great having ove

“We had a great time. We thought the layout of sessions was great, always something to choose from if you want to. Having shop and cafe on sit great, saves trips out and less cooking, so more holiday. The children loved their groups!!

“a lovely atmosphere!” rship was good and the “Spiritually it was good - the wo inspiring. Thank you!” teaching was varied, helpful and

January 2012 | 2020Vision Magazine | www.saltlight.org/uk

n!

t of the oose n site is ore like a

It is interesting when you look back at Transform 2011 everyone has different memories. Anna, our 6-year old daughter, remembers watching ‘JJ’ and making a really good new friend from church. In fact for many people they talk about how significant a time it was for getting to know people from their own church family in a much deeper way. Josh, our 8-year old, remembers playing in the football and getting knocked out ‘unfairly’! He also remembers an amazing worship time when he just wanted to go on and on telling God how great He was. Others remember the amazing weather, the late night chats, receiving personal revelation from heaven themselves as well as seeing family and friends experience the transforming power of Christ.

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For me, Transform is so much more than just a conference to attend. Just like some families who are spread out across the country gather together at Christmas, Transform is the one time that we as a family of churches across the UK are all able to gather together. It is a great opportunity to engage with one another and the vision that God has given us. I am also always incredibly excited to meet people who have first begun their own relationship with Jesus while at Transform.

As we look ahead to summer 2012 we have very intentionally entitled the event ‘Radical Disciples….Equipped and Empowered’. We know that the only way our vision will be fulfilled is for us all to engage in that radical discipleship lifestyle. Our aim for this coming year is to move on from the envisioning of 2010 and 2011 and focus more on the equipping and empowering we need to fulfil the vision. There will be more practical seminars and we are expecting the ministry of our 2 main speakers Malcolm Duncan and Katherine Ruonala to play into this.

At the same time the Olympics are just going to be beginning so do come ready to partake in our different camp activities and be part of the fun carnival atmosphere generally.

More than ever in these unstable times our nation needs the hope of Jesus and his people to be ‘equipped and empowered’ to be his agents of transformation. I am praying that our nation will feel the impact of our 2012 gathering like never before – please let me encourage you to make sure you are there and bring as many people with you as possible!

Andrew Barclay-Watt

www.saltlight.org/transform12

A subject often shy of discussion in church circles, finance is one the things Jesus challenged people hard about: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also!”

Over the last couple of years, as our leaders have met together, we have talked about finance, challenging one another about our priorities and commitments. This brief report gives an update on S&L UK finances.

For many years the Salt & Light national Operations budget has funded administration for the family of churches, including support for the work of the various teams, event management and finances (including Church Relief International). Some of our administrative work has been to support European or International team initiatives. This budget does not include King’s Theological College or King’s School of Theology, which have their own budgets.

UK-only operations budget During the last year the S&L Trustees, UK Team and International team have worked on a demerger of finances, so that the financial responsibilities of each team can be seen more clearly. Previously a single UK-based budget funded the operational support for UK, European and International teams. This demerger brings increased clarity and ownership. The UK Team are committed to supporting the work of the International team, and are making an annual contribution to that budget (see across).

Events Operations budget As part of the ‘demerger’ we have separated the costs of the Events team. Our approach is that delegate fees should be set at an appropriate level to cover the costs of the event, including a fair proportion of events-related overheads (e.g. staffing, insurance, credit card handling costs).

UK Church giving The major source of income to the UK national Operations budget is giving from churches, for which we are very grateful.

We continue to recommend that churches consider giving 2% of their tithe/offering/regular income to S&L to help us do together what needs to be done for 2020vision.Church giving for 2010/11 was £103,000, and adjustment for 2011/12 make the total £105,000. We have set a faith target of a further £5,000 increase in regular giving.

Budget 2011/12 For further information please talk to UK Team Administrator Jon Giles, or email jong@saltlight.org

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January 2012 | 2020Vision Magazine | www.saltlight.org/uk

UK Development Fund

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Since 2009 we have run a Development Fund for the UK which was launched at the same time as the 2020vision. Our heart is to use this resource to help release people, resources, training and other initiatives nationally and more locally to help equip for the vision. Here is a summary of what has been done with some of this money.

• Training and coaching for the UK team • Funding the development and launch of King’s School of Theology • Funding development of training for the 2020vision • A one-off specific gift to Derby (EMCF) to help transition Mark Mumford to his national role in 2010/11 • Subsidising the recent FOUR conference in December to make it as cheap as possible for people to attend.

church giving

£105,800

staff £72,500

2011 expenditure

contribution to ernational fund £10,000

other costs inc compliance costs)

£13,818

2011 income

faith gap for giving growth £5,000

other income

£9,200

offi ce costs £16,637 design & i.t.

£12,500

Financial Position for 2011/12 Funds brought forward from 2010/11 Predicted Surplus/Deficit in 2011/12 Predicted funds carried forward to 2012-13

£8,000 -£5455 £2545

managing our affairs

2012

Saturday 28th July – Wednesday 1st August Lenchwood, Evesham www.saltlight.org/ transform12

DISCOUNT BOOKING STILL AVAILABLE

Book before April 9th 2012 events@saltlight.org +44 (0)161 820 7530

012 Transfor m 2le s…

Radical Discip ed ower Equipped & Emp