Bangor University PROFESSIONAL DOCTORATES Newfrontiers church planting in the UK: an examination of their distinctves and practices Cooper, Barry Award date: 2009 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 05. Oct. 2021 Newfrontiers church planting in the UK: an examination of their distinctives and practices A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Ministry to the School of Theology and Religious Studies College of Arts and Humanities, Bangor University Barry Cooper, May 2009. 2 Abstract At a time when many denominations and church groups in the UK are declining, one "family of churches" is experiencing growth and opening new churches at an increasing rate. This thesis examines this phenomenon by considering the practice of church planting in the UK within a group of churches known as Newfrontiers, and seeks to suggest reasons for their growth and expansion. In doing this, it considers four main questions: " How has Newfrontiers developed and maintained a programme of intentional church planting? (Section 1) " How does Newfrontiers go about planting churches? (Section 2) " What might a "successful" church plant look like? (Section 3) " What makes a "successful" church plant? (Section 4) In the course of this thesis, two main sources of information are used. They are the primary sources of Newfrontiers (in-house magazines, books, and audio/audio visual material), and empirical research carried out by the author. This research included a series of interviews with senior and other relevant leaders within Newfrontiers, as well as a survey and follow up interviews with leaders of a number of current/recent Newfrontiers new churches. 4 Acknowledgements The author wishes to express his thanks and appreciation to the following: " My supervisors: Dr. Neil Hudson and Dr. William Kay. Without their patience, encouragement and practical help this thesis would not have been written. " Dr. Keith Warrington and the other faculty members at Regents Theological College for their support and wisdom. " Terry Virgo, David Holden, David Stroud and the other leaders within Newfrontiers who agreed to be interviewed and have shown ongoing interest in this research. " All the leaders of the Newfrontiers church plants featured in this thesis. Without their willingness to fill in questionnaires and answer endless questions on the phone, there would have been no material to examine. " Tony Thompson for reading and helping me make sense of my empirical research as featured in section 4. " Mike Cornish for reading and helping me to focus my thinking. " Andrew Greenhalgh for proof reading and helping to get my commas and apostrophes in the right place. " And lastly to Ruth, my lovely wife for putting up with me, and giving me the space required to carry out this research. Without her constant support, I would not have been able to start, let alone finish this project. 5 Contents Tables and Charts 8 Abbreviations 10 Introduction 11 1.1 Church planting in the UK 12 1.2 Newfrontiers 14 1.3 Church planting within Newfrontiers 17 1.4 From restoration to church planting 18 1.5 The brief of this thesis 18 1.6 Unique contributions 19 1.7 Terminology used 22 1.8 Is Newfrontiers really different? 27 Literary review 29 L. 1 Relevant historical literature relating to Newfrontiers 29 L.2 Relevant missiological literature relating to Newfrontiers 31 L.3 Relevant practical theological literature relating to empirical research 32 Methodology 42 M. 1 Documentary analysis 44 M. 2 Interviews with Newfrontiers leaders 44 M. 3 2002 church planting list 46 M. 4 Church members' sample 48 M. 5 Church planters practitioners' focus group 48 M. 6 Limitations 48 Section 1: The national context 50 1. Why does Newfrontiers plant churches? 51 1.1 Because of its "prophetic history" 51 1.2 Because of its self-belief in being a distinctive people 64 1.3 Because of its particular view of eschatology 74 Conclusion 78 2. How is its church planting momentum being maintained? 79 2.1 Impact of the prophetic 79 2.2 Conferences: Downs, Stoneleigh, Brighton, Prayer and Fasting 82 2.3 Mobilisation of teens, students and twenties 87 2.4 Influence and involvement of Virgo and other senior leaders 89 2.5 Publicity and promotion 92 2.6 Release of finances 98 2.7 Training and mentoring 99 Conclusion 101 Section 2: Newfrontiers church planting in practice 102 6 3. How does it plant churches? 103 3.1 Original vision and foundations 104 3.2 Leader, leadership team and initial core group 108 3.3 Small groups and Sunday services 111 3.4 Alpha and other evangelistic strategies 114 3.5 Involvement in the local community 118 3.6 Involvement and support from the wider Newfrontiers family 120 Conclusion 121 4. What impact are its church plants having? 122 4.1 Levels of numerical growth 122 4.2 New additions: Conversion and transfers 125 4.3 Church attenders: Who are they? 129 4.4 Community involvement 130 4.5 Planting other churches 131 4.6 Contribution to the mission of Newfrontiers 133 Conclusion 135 Section 3: "Successful" church plants 136 5. Defining and measuring "success" 137 5.1 Defining success 137 5.2 Measuring success 141 Conclusion 144 6. What factors might contribute to a successful church plant? 146 6.1 The leader, core group and first Sunday 146 6.2 Small groups and Sunday services 149 6.3 Alpha and other evangelistic strategies 150 6.4 Involvement in the local community 151 6.5 Support from the wider Newfrontiers family 152 6.6 Location 154 6.7 The "God" factor 156 Conclusion 158 Section 4: Statistical analysis 159 7. The statistically significant and not statistically significant 161 7.1 Factors statistically significant 161 7.2 Factors not statistically significant 174 Conclusion 177 8. "Not so successful" and "very successful" church plants 178 8.1 Growth and development 178 8.2 The initial period 180 8.3 The location 181 8.4 The life of the church plant 182 8.5 The leader 184 Conclusion 186 7 Conclusion 188 C. 1 Key observations 189 C.2 Statistically significant 191 C.3 Hard questions 195 C.4 Potential for further research 199 Bibliography 200 Appendices 208 Appendix 1: Chronology of main events 209 Appendix 2: Locations featured in the 2002 church planting list 211 213 Appendix 3: 2002 church planting list - questionnaire 219 Appendix 4: 2002 church planting list - telephone interviews Appendix 5: The church members' sample questionnaire 223 8 Tables and Charts Chart 1.1 Newfrontiers membership 13 Chart 3.1 Reasons why church plants started 87 Chart 3.2 Time of initial meetings 93 Chart 3.3 Location of initial meetings 93 Chart 4.1 Adult membership 105 Chart 4.2 Origins of people who join church plants 111 Table 5.1 2002 church planting list graded according to how many success measures they had achieved 128 Chart 6.1 Age of church planting leader when started church plant 130 Chart 6.2 Main gifts of senior leader 131 Chart 6.3 How was the leader financed during the first year of the church plant? 136 Chart 6.4 How important to the growth of your church has been the support from other Newfrontiers churches? 136 Chart 6.5 Number of church planting venues in each ACORN main category 138 Table 7.1 Significance of measure 1 and Government regions 143 Table 7.2 Crosstabulation between measure 1 and Government regions 144 Table 7.3 Significance of measure 2 and social activities; signs and wonders; and other midweek meetings 144 Table 7.4 Crosstabulation between measure 2 and the perceived importance of social activities 145 Table 7.5 Crosstabulation between measure 2 and the perceived importance of signs and wonders 146 Table 7.6 Crosstabulation between measure 2 and the perceived importance of "other" midweek meetings 146 Table 7.7 Significance of measure 4 and Sunday worship; Sunday teaching; social activities; and theological training of the leader 147 Table 7.8 Crosstabulation between measure 4 and the perceived importance of Sunday worship 148 Table 7.9 Crosstabulation between measure 4 and the perceived importance of Sunday teaching 148 Table 7.10 Crosstabulation between measure 4 and the perceived importance of social activities 149 Table 7.11 Crosstabulation between measure 4 and theological training of the leader 149 Table 7.12 Significance of measure 5 and Sunday worship; social activities; open airs; and seeker services 150 Table 7.13 Crosstabulation between measure 5 and the perceived importance of Sunday worship 150 Table 7.14 Crosstabulation between measure 5 and the perceived importance of social activities 151 9 Table 7.15 Crosstabulation between measure 5 and the perceived importance of open airs 151 Table 7.16 Crosstabulation between measure 5 and the perceived importance of seeker services 151 Table 7.17 Significance of measure 6 and Sunday teaching