Stories

In June 2020, as the country was emerging out of its first lockdown, Lydia Corbett became the new leader of St Leo’s Basford in North West Nottingham. We spoke to Lydia about reopening St Leo’s, planting a new worshipping community during Covid and her vision for this church to become a beacon for Basford and beyond.

In October 2019 a team from KXC London planted into St Saviour’s Finsbury Park. The church had always been a vibrant and welcoming multicultural community in North London and although its numbers had dropped, a core community remained. Eighteen months later, St Saviour’s has now grown to over 100 people and the church site has undergone an amazing transformation.

In April 2019, Hannah and Jonny Patton relocated to Goole in the Diocese of Sheffield to lead the last Anglican church in the town, St John’s. The community was facing many challenges but had a vision to see new life in their parish. Hannah and Jonny share their story of being welcomed by this community and the experience of leading a revitalisation project during Covid.

Bishop Ric Thorpe responds to questions hosted by Wole Agbaje

After planting Imprint Leicester, Wole went on to complete the Plant Course and start Imprint London in the city.

Janie Cronin planted Nelson Street Church in Rochdale

A new resource church has just launched in the heart of Bradford. Its home will be a former city centre nightclub and its heart is to be a sending church from the very beginning. We spoke to Fountains Church’s leader, the Revd Linda Maslen, to find out more about this vision to grow and send out leaders to bless the city of Bradford.

IMPRINT Church London launched September 2019, with nearly 200 young people filling St Edmund the King in the City of London. Its leader, Wole Agbaje, is just 24 years old and onto his second church plant, after starting IMPRINT Church in Leicester in 2017.

Idina Dunmore and her team talk about the missional community, The Table.

Part of the series on church revitalisation, the Rev’d Pete Snow shares his experience of leading a team to revitalise St Paul’s Harringay. Amidst the differences of theology, styles of worship and backgrounds, Pete describes how this diverse community is drawing together to become a reflection of God’s love and grace.

The article on ‘Church Revitalisation’ looks at the painful privilege of sending a team to revitalise another church. Phil Allcock, Associate Minister at Church Church Mayfair, describes the dual emotions of joy and sacrifice involved in commissioning members of Christ Church to help revitalise and bring new life to St Paul’s Harringay.

What is a church revitalisation and what are the steps involved? This series explores these questions from three different points of view – an existing congregation member, the sending church and the leader of a revitalising team. In our first article, Terry Vanhorne, a church warden who grew up in St Paul’s Harringay, describes the steps of faith involved in inviting a team to revitalise his church…