Newfrontiers Explores the Future of UK Churches in the Coming Conference and Mission Tour

Newfrontiers Leadership Conference 2004 will kick-off tomorrow. At the Brighton Conference centre, on Tuesday 22 - Friday 25th June, it will become the hub for Newfrontiers leaders from across the nations, to gather for teaching, envisioning and prayer together. Thousands of mission ministers from over 40 nations are expected to participate in this key event.

The conference is specifically designed for men and women in leadership, or who are in training for leadership to local churches, cell or small groups, worship, children’s work, youth work and community works.

During a recent special prayer meeting for London “Hope for the City”, as one of the speaker, Terry Virgo, Director of NewFrontiers, has highlighted the crisis of the UK’s modern churches. In the past three decades, 1,598 churches in the UK have closed down, and 1,000 more are in danger of closure over the next decade. He therefore called on Church leaders to “Revalue and reinvestigate the true value of the church.”

The upcoming conference is therefore expected to focus on this issue. The goal is to honour the Bible and eagerly to welcome the Holy Spirit as well as to convey a large world vision. As Virgo believes, “This nation needs mission; the UK church is a mission! The Apostles in the New Testament went out and evangelised the world, let us follow them.”

Through the conference, church leaders will be able to rediscover the mission shape of a church should have. Seminars from experts are offered in very diverse and relevant spheres of activity. Here are some highlighted seminars: “Prophetic and Apostolic Teamwork” by Sam Poe, discussing the practical benefits of prophetic and apostolic ministries walking together in the church to mobilize the members; “Built to Last” by John Groves, sharing of pastoral experience about how to put good Christian foundation in people’s lives in this hyper-choice culture; “Leading a church through growth from 120 to 300up” by Steve Tibbert, giving advice to church ministers on efficient growth of church.

Immediately after the conference, Terry Virgo will start an international mission tour programme named, “Does the Future Have a Church?” with group of speakers and worship leaders. The first station is Brighton, UK. From 2 August- 6 August, the team will head for Moscow, Russia. For the rest of the year, the mission will be focus on different places in the UK such as Glasgow, Cambridge, London and Bournemouth. Large scale youth presentations on the Friday evenings are the highlights of some tours. Some other activities are large scale celebrations, seminars for pastors and leaders, as well as special topic seminars on worship, youth and other relevant issues.

Newfrontiers is a worldwide family of churches together on a mission, currently there are nearly 300 churches worldwide. As the Apostle Paul’s mission strategy, the Newfrontiers believe that the most effective form of evangelism is worked out from strong local churches. Back to the basic of Christian faith, the ministry shares a passionate commitment to build the church according to New Testament principles.

It defines churches where each member participates, the gifts of the Spirit are outworked, where there is joy in caring one for the other, where there is a desire to make a difference in society and to reach those in need. It aims to achieve this by restoring the church, making disciples, training leaders, planting churches and reaching the nations.

For further details, please visit the official website http://www.newfrontiers.xtn.org.