Church Plants that Plant Churches
Huddersfield and Wolverhampton
In the United Kingdom we currently have 222 churches, and are planting around ten new churches a year. Two of our key plants at the moment are in Huddersfield and Wolverhampton; both of which are intended to be churches that quickly replicate, reaching into the surrounding areas.
Huddersfield
At the end of July 2010, Steve and Ruth Hurd left York to plant a church in Huddersfield, leaving York City Church, which they had planted in 1999, in the capable hands of a leadership team led by Alan Rose. Steve writes:
‘Huddersfield is a town of around 150,000 people, with another 250,000 in the surrounding district. The vision is to plant a church here by reaching out to the lost and then to plant other churches in the towns and cities of West and South Yorkshire, including Halifax (200,000), Wakefield (315,000) and Barnsley (225,000).
This area of West Yorkshire is one of our priority areas for church planting in the UK. We have a vision to plant churches right along the M62 corridor, from Hull on the east coast to Huddersfield on the west coast. So, we are keen that potential church planters come and join us, help us to get established here, and then get sent out to plant in one of the towns or cities in Yorkshire or Lancashire.
Our church plant in Huddersfield is gathering around 50 at Sunday meetings. We are in the middle of our second Alpha course, and baptised four new Christians at a recent meeting.’
For more information, visit www.newfrontiershuddersfield.org.uk
Wolverhampton
Anthony and Gill Henson have been involved in leading a number of church plants in the South and across the Midlands for many years. Anthony writes:
‘Over this last year we have been sensing that God was calling us to church plant again. Through different ways God has been leading us towards starting a church plant for the Black Country.
The Black Country is a vast West Midlands conurbation to the north and west of Birmingham. It is called the ‘Black Country’ because it was an area covered with black smog during the industrial revolution.
The city of Wolverhampton (251,000 people) is only seven to nine miles from the boroughs of Dudley (over 200,000), Sandwell and West Bromwich (285,000) and the district of Walsall (239,000).
The Black Country is one of the most under represented areas for the Newfrontiers family of churches. There are no Newfrontiers churches within this area of 1.1 million people.
We currently have a core team of 12 people and the vision is to plant a ‘church planting church plant’ for the Black Country. Our aim is to have one initial church plant based in Wolverhampton, but with potential church planters living in other nearby locations right from the start. We will be looking to start other church plants from here in the years ahead.
The initial Wolverhampton church plant will begin in October 2011. This is an area of great opportunity and great need! Please pray, and get involved!’
For more information, visit www.gracechurchwolverhampton.org
By Steve Hurd and Anthony Henson |
