Twenty years ago God gave us a vision to plant churches into the different communities of Greater Manchester (Hyperlocal). These churches were to be webbed together (Multisite) giving them much greater impact and profile across the city in a way they could never achieve on their own.

In January of this year I found myself sitting with a group of friends in the basement of a cafe/bar in Withington (South Manchester) dreaming about what a new church could look like in this community. It had all the energy, laughter and intentionality that captivated each of the previous plants. CCM:CitySouth is beginning to come to life.

A mile up the road, as you travel towards the center of Manchester in Fallowfield, CCM:City is gathering pace. After having started in September 2009 in a vodka bar with a small group of motivated people and a few ridiculous ideas we have seen some success. After a year in the vodka bar CCM:City moved to a theological training college where it is has gathered momentum. We have seen around 80 first time visitors since September 2011 and a number of them wanting a morning meeting. CCM:CitySouth is looking to fulfill this need as it also serves the local community.

If you want to follow our progress then check out on the CCM:CitySouth Facebook page as well as following Christ Church Manchester and me on twitter.

In my opinion this is mainly due to those people, who have stayed with the sending church, needing to recover from the loss of their friends who moved on to new church plants.

This is sometimes due to confusion with the strategy of trying to build a resource base before you send people out. This can happen because two philosophies are being operated simultaneously. One is where we spend the first few years building people together into a community, and then when we have achieved this you “relationally rip” that community apart by sending a number of people out. 

Sending people out in small pioneer teams can help minimise this as fewer relationships are affected. Also, effectively communicating the church planting vision encourages people to build relationships with those they will be planting with in the longer term.

South Manchester Family Church was the first church I was involved in planting when we relocated to Greater Manchester in the early 1990s. This wonderful church sent out six church plants in the first nine years, some 200 people. I was always amazed at the vitality and faith in the church as new people stepped up to fill the gaps that sending made available.

Christ Church Manchester is the church plant I am currently leading and it is so exciting to see how, even in its formative days, people started to pray for another congregation to be pioneered. In the spirit of young churches having babies they stepped out before they were properly established, giving money and people. This has enabled CCM:City to start in south central Manchester and has now gathering around 50 adults in just over 2 years. CCM:City is now involved in pioneering a new congregation in Salford and is praying about other parts of Manchester.

At Christ Church Manchester we have endeavoured to help every pioneer leader feel part of the team reaching the whole of the Greater Manchester Region. They can then draw on a diversity of complimentary strengths and gifting, also helping one another through difficulties. Some will concentrate on the city wide work while others are diligently reaching their locality.

Having a commitment to one another and therefore for the whole gives a great sense of unity and enables the strength of the whole to be utilised in breaking open hard areas.

We often talk about being a Hyperlocal and City Wide Church. The essence of that is the team context where everyone loves the whole city and is focussed on a particular locality.

Having a strategy for on the job training, as well as oversight, is vital for these new pioneers. Making sure that the pioneers have a sober assessment of themselves is also important as they take on more responsibility. They will need to see that as the church grows they will probably have to hand over leadership to someone else, who’s gifting and ministry fits the growing work. Putting in the time and energy to see the church begin to grow, and yet not holding to tightly to a leadership position is emotionally challenging.

At Christ Church Manchester we have developed a training academy where we deliver generic leadership skills to all who desire to be involved in leadership. We also gather pioneers to learn specific incites and keys from gifted pioneers. They also benefit massively from each other as they share their own stories and challenges. These training schools allow us to give experience and coaching to the untried and untested. 

In every community there are people whose lives revolve around their immediate locality. They are very linked into the community where they live. It would be very strange and difficult for them to feel part of something that gathered miles away. For others they are used to commuting and getting in a car to travel. This is part of every day life for them and therefore a large resource church a few miles away can be a very attractive option. With this in mind I believe that for most cities we should have a church planting strategy that encompasses both the mega church and the community church.

Years ago as a teenager, I worked for a major super market chain. They decided to close the local small branch, as it did not fit their current strategy of concentrating resources on larger premises. It fascinates me to see that recently they, along with the other major supermarkets chains, are actively developing local smaller outlets. They are doing this to generate extra revenue from those who want to shop local or in a more convenient way.

I am sure that if we are to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God with all the personal and subsequent society change that this initiates. We should be planting hyperlocal community churches and citywide mega churches in every town and city.

To those who are just starting out in pioneering a brand new church, it may feel irresponsible or even arrogant to plan for another church plant before you have achieved the goal of growing the first one. The reason this intentionality is so important is that you tend to get what you plan for. Those leaders who have a desire to send people and plant new churches but do not have a plan find that they don’t achieve their stated intention. This is because without a game plan other seemingly important things crowd their diaries and dominate the churches agenda.

At Christ Church Manchester Tim Simmonds and I regularly find ourselves deep in conversation, often looking and conceptually planning the next CCM site or church plant. People who have recently joined the church spark our imagination and subsequent discussion can stimulate this. Or sometimes our dreams, more often daydreams, catalyses a conversation that gets the adrenalin pumping with an audacious and often unrealistic plan.

In this environment church planting can take on momentum that comes somewhere near the prophesy of planting 1000 churches John Kpikpi mentioned at the Stoneleigh bible week 1999.

During my years of planting churches in Manchester I have been provoked to see that God is able to use people of every age and situation to start new Churches. 

In recent times at Christ Church Manchester we have been using the catch phrase - “Be a student and plant a church”. However we are aware that this could be fraught with problems. Excuses like time constraints, no money, not old enough, or only being in the city a number of months can easily put people off. Every age group and circumstance of life can offer its reasons why people can’t be involved in this great work of planting churches.

Alternatively we could see the different stages of life as a potential opportunity to get caught up in the great commission of making disciples of all nations.

An example of this would be in the pioneering of new mission/midweek groups in your city. Gathering potential pioneers and giving them a new place to start is a great way of releasing the pioneer and adding more momentum to your growing church. On the job training for these trainee pioneers is so important. This should also include faith and perseverance and to learn to pray the Lords prayer “for more workers into the harvest field,” as this is great preparation for them to eventually move and plant a new church.

We also need to help pioneers find faith for finance. When I ran a youth group in my late teens as part of a local Methodist Church. We had no access to finance from the church funds. This led us to pray and find creative ways to raise money. Enabling us to purchase a mini bus, PA equipment and host many outreach events. Hudson Taylor the great pioneer to Inland China believed God for his finances before going overseas.

It is so important that as new people join our churches they receive faith to belong to a sending church and maybe even to be sent out themselves. People come to church for many different reasons. Often people join churches so that the church can meet their own or their families needs and aspirations.

As we introduce people to the vision of extending the “Kingdom of God” we should be explicit about how we believe each new member can be caught up in the same great commission that Jesus disciples got caught up in. As actions often speak louder than words it is important that we have practical examples of how and where we are sending people, and not just giving good ideas and concepts.

Is your church talking about and planning for church plants?

Yet Jesus was overwhelmed with compassion for all those he could not reach as he slowly made his way from village to village. He saw them, “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Motivated by the needs of the nation he said to his disciples “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few ask the Lord of the harvest therefore, to send workers into his harvest field.” The disciples “relatively” focused and successful world was about to be radically challenged and changed. Jesus was going to vastly increase his and their ability to impact the nation, by sending the disciples out in small teams.

With some churches at this time seeing a measure of success and there attendance growing it is important that we, like Jesus, set our eyes on the people and places we have not yet reached. It’s during a time of partial success we need to lift our eyes and begin praying and planning for a massive increase of sending people and planting new churches.

“We will facilitate the lost coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ by beginning and nurturing church planting movements among all people.”

They went on to describe a church planting movement as “a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches, planting churches within a given people group.”

As I read statements like this and then hear stories about how there is an exponential increase in churches being planted in certain parts of the world my heart leaps at the prospect of being in such an environment in the UK. I believe that there are clues that will help us get to this stage in our cities where we will find ourselves planting with increasing momentum.

“….believe him for 1000 churches to be planted throughout this whole nation (UK) through this movement. There’s a river that is flowing out from this place, there’s a river that is flowing. Wherever it goes this river is going to cause fruit to be borne. It’s a river that is flowing from this place and the river is in your heart. Wherever you go this river will bear fruit and the Lord is saying that those of you who don’t like agricultural imagery he says there are going to be new births of churches all around.

You have been used to planning before having births. God is saying there is going to be unplanned births as well. There’s going to be unplanned pregnancies leading to unplanned births because God is going to be bringing things that are not even planned or thought about. They will suddenly arise and spring forth in the end. You shall dare to believe him for a thousand churches through the work of this movement in this place, says your God.”

Years later this prophesy still resonates with me. I also realise that one of the most important elements of this prophecy was the statement “Dare To Believe”. 

Over the years I have endeavored to allow scripture, especially Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom, to keep me from a “small thinking” mindset. I also try to be mindful that many of the biblical leaders who shared Jesus world view also experienced many years of frustration and setbacks.

The culture and growth expectations of churches and church plants are mostly set by the movement or denomination leaders who are overseeing the urban church planter. These movement leaders need to be able to “shoot for the sky” in their expectation of growth and impact, but need to articulate their awareness of the long slog that can be the reality for many urban church planters.

These movement leaders need to play the long game, sticking by those who are on the front line and giving them every chance to succeed. They also need to make sure that the definitions for success are relative to the environment the planter is working into.

The reality is if you plant churches into certain sections of British towns and cities that contain an affluent and mobile population (often with large student communities) it is easier to build and maintain momentum. These regions often have larger churches with many floating Christians who live on the fringe of churches looking for next new exciting church or ministry.

Many city focused churches often meet in urban venues, but are mostly made up of people traveling in from the suburbs who often pay lip service to the communities around them. Reaching out and building into these urban communities is one of the major challenges facing the church in our generation.

At Christ Church Manchester we are describing an urban area as having high unemployment, often made up of ghettos based around ethnicity, with poor housing, low standards of education and health. The population of these urban areas often feels disenfranchised and like the world owes them a favor.

Over the next few blogs I want to look at how the church can contextualize and build in these communities.