CRT Newsletter 006
It is a pleasure to share all that has been happening as our network of churches have had the opportunity to meet in person, worship together, build community, and emerge from this challenging lock down period.
We have had such an exciting start to our new term as church plants are launched. We welcomed a new cohort of leaders onto the Peter and Caleb Stream and our Accelerator Programme introduced its new Estates Stream, and our online training portal and handbook.
Thank you for partnering with us in prayer, encouragement, and donations; it remains a constant privilege serving our communities and being part of building The Church together. We’re so grateful for all that has been made possible through your support and generosity.
With very best wishes,
Rev’d Sarah Jackson
CEO of the Church Revitalisation Trust
Network Highlight
Our new plants and network have loved the opportunity to be together again in person, especially meeting new faces who engaged with church online. Below are some key highlights across our new and existing plants, please do pray for them!
- Andy Dykes was licensed as vicar of St John’s, Blackpool
- Saint Mary’s, Southampton launched a new site: Carlton Road
- River Church, Ipswich launched their first Sunday service
- The Well, Swindon launched their first Sunday service
- CRT’s Accelerator Programme welcomed 21 new leaders, across the Planting Stream and the pilot launch of the Estates Stream.
- We welcomed 33 new leaders to the Peter Stream and 12 to the Caleb Stream.
New Launch The well
The Well led by Paul Freeland has been planted from Pattern Church in Swindon and launched its rst service in September. Their launch was a day of fun and fellowship, eating barbecued sausages and jumping on the bouncy castle. They are continuing to meet in a school, have started Alpha and are building community. Paul and the team are thankful for all that is happening: “We are just nding our feet, but we’re praying that over the next years we’ll see this place become full of Jesus, friendlier, more caring and more connected. Along the way we’ll have great fun and serve as many people in as many ways as we can.”
Accelerator Programme
Last year, due to lockdown we moved to Zoom and realised that having an online presencereally enhanced the students’ experience. This led us to building an online portal.
“The Training Portal is our new resource and features the weekly online curriculum, links to join the online course each week, information and photos about the course contributors, recordings from previous weeks, homework submission forms and much more. We are so excited about how this resource can expand the reach of the AP.” – Tom Lane, Network and Events Manager
Estates Stream
Running parallel to the Accelerator Programme is a newly developed Estates Stream, designed for leaders who feel called to lead in areas of particular social deprivation.
We chatted to CRT’s Head of Estate Church planting, Ray Driscoll to find out more…
What is your vision for the Estates Stream? Our vision is to develop a bespoke training programme for estate-based church plantleaders and their teams that reects the joys and challenges of planting a church on anestate.
Why is it needed? Estates are an amazing place to plant a church! In 2019, the Church of England committed to working toward a thriving church on every signicant social housing estate in the country. I’m excited for us to play our part in training leaders for this incredible vision.
What does it mean for the Network? It is a recognition of the distinctiveness of estate-based ministry that requires a different type of leader and a unique approach to mission. I think we’ll see a whole range of approaches that can help inform our wider strategy while resourcing new estate plants.
Peter & Caleb Streams
The Caleb Stream was launched this term with 12 participants, after a successful pilot last year and 33 new leaders have started on the Peter Stream this term; we started with 4 Peter Stream candidates in 2018!
The Caleb Stream is designed to create a pipeline of mature self-supporting ministers, richin life and leadership experience, who can serve in predominantly rural areas.
The Peter Stream was launched for those who sense a call to ordained church leadershipbut have felt themselves excluded from the process of discernment, selection or training. This is designed to ‘love through the process’ those from a wide range of social, ethnic and education backgrounds.
“Our vision is for every Peter to ‘see the gold’ in them and get a better senseand clarity of what it means to be called to church leadership within the CofE. We are excited to see the calling, the gifts and the difference Jesus has madein their lives and for them to share this with others.” – Julian Powell, Peter Stream Chaplain
church Spotlight
Penny Lane have had an amazing year – they started online, are now meeting in person, and all its services have grown. In their first freshers’ season in person lots of students have also joined them too. They have even hosted a few gigs and are getting a reputation for being a music venue in Liverpool.
They are about to launch an asylum seekers and refugee café teaching conversational English and providing community food. Community is being built around football and the play café and they are seeing some of the parents starting to attend Alpha.
“We are at the stage where we can begin to say with some kind of confidence who we are as a church community. The first ‘gathering’ stage is where we have been this past year and it feels that we can now move into a ‘growing’ phrase before, hopefully, sending out our first church plant in the next two years. All in all, we have been bowled over by God’s goodness in this year. ” – Alex Rayment
Friends of CRT
None of this would be possible without your continued support, prayers and donations. Thank you so much for your faithful and generous support of CRT.
We would love to invite you to become a Friend of CRT by giving a one-off donation or supporting us monthly.