Church Plant in London

If you were at Church on Sunday, you will have heard me talking about my journey with God over the past ten years or so, and the exciting plans that are beginning to develop for the next few months – which means that we will be moving to London to plant a Church!

God has really been challenging me over the past ten years, and preparing me to leave Loughborough to pursue his Kingdom elsewhere. Ever since arriving as a Fresher in 1998, God has been challenging me on lots of different areas, but in particular on three main strands. These have been the arts, church and London!

He has opened my eyes to the potential that art can play in the church, and in reaching out to people, regardless of where they are on their own spiritual journey. He has allowed me to dream about the potential the arts and creativity have in communicating about God and his role in contemporary society. He has broadened my perspective of what Church is, and what Church could look like. He has encouraged me to put down my own stereotypes and preconceptions of church, and push the boundaries out, so that they are beyond my horizon. Alongside of all of this, God has really affirmed my affinity with London, and confirmed it as something of a spiritual home for me.

As a result, and a lot of thrashing out ideas with each other and with God, these strands have all culminated in Becca and I, along with a few other people, planning a Church plant predominantly, but not exclusively, in to the creative and expressive culture in London. We are looking to move to London during the summer this year, to the area in the Southwest of London which incorporates Wimbledon, Balham and Clapham.

Once there we will look to build community with people we meet, as well as investigating what God is already doing in the area. We will then begin to build church, although this is unlikely to be church as we know it! God has spoken to us about birthing the church out of the individuals who become connected in, and not enforcing a structure of roles to which people need to mould themselves to. He has also encouraged us to think outside the box, and to expect the unexpected in terms of what our church might emerge. Although we do not yet have a defined structure, we do have a defined value system, by which everything we do must measure up. The key values we are working to are:

• Growing and emerging out of the community we build, therefore avoiding set structure.

• Supporting peoples journeys with God, wherever they are at. This means we will not have a membership criteria, and expect our community to be built predominantly from the unchurched.

• Loving and serving the arts, media and entertainment culture, and the people we meet around us in our everyday lives.

• Developing, supporting and releasing people in to their true potential in God, and allowing them to exercise their gifts and calling.

• Authentic, honest individuals and authentic, honest community.

• Experimenting with expressive and creative ways of doing church, being experimental and fluid in what we do. We will be risk takers, and will not be afraid to make mistakes along the way. This also means we will not settle in to a comfortable routine when something does work, but will continue to grow and emerge and develop at all times.

I read the following quote recently, and thought I would share it with you. Regardless of where we are doing church, this should challenge us and inspire us to pursue the potential of church, and how it could impact the communities God has positioned us in. It's written by Rob Bell, in his book Velvet Elvis – if you have any interest in the Church, and how God uses it, you need to read it!

“It is our turn to step up and take responsibility for who the Church is going to be for a new generation. It is our turn to redefine and reshape and dream it all up again. It is our turn to rediscover the beautiful, dangerous, compelling idea that a group of people, surrendered to God and to each other, really can change the world”

There have been so many encouragements recently, but this has really stood out to me, and has continued to motivate me and drive me on to see what God has in store for us as we make this massive move to London. If you have read this, and have found it interesting, there are a couple of ways to respond! We are, obviously, looking for people to come down with us, and if you think this might be you, get in touch and we can have more of a chat about our plans. Alternatively, you might want to commit to support us in some way. Again, get in touch, and we can discuss possibilities. Even if neither of these apply to you, let me encourage you to dream dreams about Church and what God can do, to not count yourself out of what God has in store for your future, and to grab the adventure before you with both hands and run with it!

If you do want to find out more, get in touch with me. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Wayne

Listen again to what Wayne shared on Sunday via the podcasts section of our website. 

Posted by: Wayne Cullum on Wednesday Apr 30th, 2008

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