A family of churches – our genes

As a family of churches we are united by a conviction that God has joined us in relationship. We believe that every pastor needs a pastor; that every church needs apostolic or five-fold ('Ephesians 4') ministry that may not be available locally; and that every healthy church will see itself as part of something larger.

The churches in our family and the apostolic teams that they relate to are not a 'tidy' picture - but then neither is family life! Families grow organically, and not organisationally. Every church is unique, and every church's relationship to others is also unique!

We want to strengthen local churches so that they can be all that God wants them to be. This will often involve input into local churches of five-fold ministries not available within those local churches. We believe we can serve one another in this way. We are not promoting Salt and Light Ministries - we are promoting the life of God in our local churches. To this end, we believe we need a multiplication of apostolic teams and apostolic centres, which will have many ministries and many giftings, but will be led by someone with an apostolic ministry.

In our own hearts, there is a desire to avoid denominationalism.  Relationships must be real for the church to be truly the Body of Christ - we are committed to that, and enjoy the fruit of it together. We want to go on encouraging this relational life as strongly as we can, for pastors to receive pastors themselves, and local churches to be able to receive apostolic input.

We want to continue to raise up a number of flexible and mobile apostolic teams across the UK and Europe. We want everything to grow relationally and organically; and all church-planting strategy to have local roots and bases, just like Paul's commissioning base was Antioch.

But we do need to think bigger than we are. God has spoken to us prophetically very clearly about Europe - sending workers to plant and to partner others working in different countries. This must also embrace the UK and church-planting in the UK. We sense we have not been active enough in this regard, and need to keep seeking God for his direction in this. We believe God wants to pour His life afresh on Europe, and that rivers will flow in this spiritual desert again!

We want to encourage a big and expansive vision of the Kingdom of God, and provoke churches and leaders to consider what this means for them. We are looking for a strong and robust corporate vision stewarded by local churches!