Resource Church Leader Gathering 2025

Resource Church leaders from around England met in-person at two gatherings; London on 24 March and Preston on 31 March. Please find below a summary of the key sessions.

Pascal and the Gospel in a God-Haunted Age

Bishop Graham Tomlin

Bishop Graham opened each gathering with a reflection on Blaise Pascal, the Seventeenth Century philosopher, exploring lessons that can be applied to our present culture. Discover more about this in Bishop Graham’s latest book.

Global Vision and Perspective on Church Planting

Bishop Ric Thorpe introduced key church planters from across the Anglican communion. Each shared what they are seeing happen in church planting in their region, and offered insights into what may be in the mission field of England.

“Very strangely when you do God’s work the funds come in by themselves.”

Bishop Moon Hing, Anglican Bishop of West Malaysia, spoke on encouraging a Church Planting culture.

“One model will reach one group of people. The joys of Micro-church is that you can have 50 different models reaching 50 different groups of people.” 

Bree Mills, Canon for Church Planting, Melbourne Diocese, outlined what she is seeing in micro-churches in Western contexts.  Resources that Bree recommends are: Brian Sanders ‘MicroChurches: A Smaller Way’ and the KC Underground website.

“God is calling you and me to go out there and preach and plant churches, to make disciples of every nation. So you and I have that responsibility.”

Fraser Mzungu, Church Planting Catalyst, Mozambique and Malawi, described the amazing ministry of Lay Catechists in Mozambique and Malawi.

Developing leadership presence

Dr Roger Bretherton, clinical and coaching psychologist, presented on developing leadership presence as a means of negotiating the challenges of Resource Church leadership. 

God is present in every single moment of our lives, including extremely difficult contexts and conversations that we might wish we could avoid. Our challenge is to notice the presence of God in these times, in order to help us manage and thrive in these contexts, and be formed as leaders. 

To this end, Roger suggests attending to five Cs within the context of having difficult, challenging or even traumatic conversations:

• Calm – we must learn to be calm and non-reactive out of our confidence in God
• Clarity – we need to be clear what our intentions are in each conversation
• Curiosity – if we can be curious about the person we are with, positively considering what is good about them, we can overcome judgement
• Courage – it is important to persistently act bravely in spite of being scared, for example, by naming the elephant in the room
• Compassion – identify with the person in front of you and want the good for them, and you’ll be amazed with what you can get away with saying

By practising these five Cs (before, during or even after conversations) we can develop the muscle of being present to God’s presence, helping us to connect to our sense of identity, our understanding of ourselves, and overall psychological health. Roger will be leading workshops later in the year in London and York.

Updates

Bishop Ric Thorpe introduced how we have been responding to some of the findings & recommendations of the Voice of the Resource Church Leader.

In the near future, Mark Powley and Bishop Ric will publish a booklet about Resource Churches, with an updated definition and analysis. It hopes to improve clarity about what Resource Churches are, and their purpose among diocesan teams. 

This will be supported by training for newly appointed bishops as to the purpose and role of resource churches and their leaders

One on one support for Resource Church leaders is available through John McGinley and, in the North, through a new Resource Church Enabler and Church Planting Support Lead (soon to be announced, working with Mark Powley). Please get in touch.

We have set up a webpage specifically for resources and training events pertaining to Resource Church Leaders. Here you can find articles signposting support in the areas of HR, Finance and Buildings.  Do tell us if there are other resources that would be useful.

Additionally we are providing ‘Developing Leadership Presence’ as an offering to leaders in London and York. If there aren’t spaces available, please join the waiting list.

In September, St Hild College is launching the Camino training pathway for potential Resource Church leaders in the North.

The future of Resource Churches in the Church of England

Philip James, Bishop Ric Thorpe, and Mark Powley

Over the past decade there has been significant growth in the number of Resource Churches (from 14 to approximately 120). During this time many Resource Churches have experienced very impressive growth in attendance. The last decade has shown us that the model can work very effectively. Read more about this.

There is great momentum for further positive change:

1. Resource Churches are generating missional energy
2. Revitalisations are bringing new life and change
3. The need for revitalisations is growing ever stronger
4. There is a significant amount of investment available for Resource Churches and revitalisations 
5. A growing number of diocesan teams are operating strategically

Nevertheless, the impact of Resource Churches depends on the strategic maturity of diocesan leadership teams. If a Resource Church is in a diocese which isn’t very strategic right now, it is necessary to:

• Grasp available planting opportunities, which will in turn gradually change the culture of the diocese
• Be patient and pray – at some point something will change in the diocese

The most urgent challenge is the lack of leaders for Resource Churches and revitalisations. We need to identify them, we need diocesan teams to help develop and deploy them, and we need Resource Churches to actively promote ordained leadership. 

How can Resource Church leaders solve this problem?

• Collaboration and shared work on leadership pipeline across Resource Churches in the same city, diocese and region. 
• Individual Resource Churches can support their plants in the identification, training and deployment of leaders.
• Be intentional about increasing diversity, particularly in reference to raising up more global majority leaders and women as resource church leaders.
• Develop and maintain fruitful intern schemes
• Through discipleship pathways, form existing and potential leaders to be willing to make sacrifices for ministry and who understand the cost and rigours of the resource church leader role.

Closing reflections

Both gatherings closed with a strong sense that we are being called to respond to the spiritual awakening in society, especially among Gen Z, who are discovering the anxiety and emptiness at the heart of secular culture. We must be confident in Christ that what we have to offer culture is so much greater. 

Finally, there was a great sense that the relationship building in the room, across different networks in the Church of England, was of enormous value and blessing, creating space for mutual encouragement and inspiration.