Some FAQs about our plans for the future
How is this different from the last vision (2025 vision)?
It’s the same vision – a healthy church serving the city – but with an updated strategy.
Are Hubs just small churches?
Hubs will form part of an overall strategy that will include central resourcing, local hubs and a variety of smaller missional groups that we are calling ‘core communities’. Hubs will be locally focussed gatherings and will provide support for leaders of core communities, connect group leaders, pastoral support for people in the area, host weekly gatherings and bring co-ordination to some activities [eg. outreach, youth/children, etc.] and facilitate partnership with other local churches and organisations. We hope they provide the sense of belonging that ‘small churches’ provide and maintain a strong, localised focus on mission.
What is the purpose of defining the structure of these communities?
We are seeking to release the creativity within the community, increase the diversity, extend our missional reach, and grow in our evangelistic effectiveness. We want to release people to their God-given callings and as leaders offer support and resource to enable them to flourish.
Is the time frame fixed for the different phases?
No. However, we are still working towards 2025 as the time when we hope all aspects of the strategy are working.
Will I have to be part of a core community or hub in my geographic area?
No. We want everyone to find a place of belonging that works relationally and not just geographically. Connect groups will continue to provide a place of belonging during this time.
How will leaders be selected and commissioned?
We are looking to see evidence of God at work in people. In biblical terms, we are looking to see where God’s anointing is on individuals, couples, and families. Then we as a leadership will recognise, release, and support those people to do what they are sensing God has called them to do.
Where did this vision come from?
We believe that God breathed this church into existence with a purpose and we continually seek to ensure that we are aligned to God’s vision for us. We were birthed as an apostolic community to serve the city, the nation, and the nations. That is our DNA, and we believe that the latest iteration of this vision is in line with that calling.
What is a hub?
Hubs will be locally focussed gatherings that will provide support for leaders of core communities, connect groups, pastoral support for people in the area, bring co-ordination to some activities [eg. outreach, youth/children, weekly gatherings, etc.] and facilitate partnership with other local churches and organisations. We anticipate having four hubs in the city – west, east, north, and south.
What is a core community?
We want core communities to have a very clear focus for mission. These communities will be diverse in expression but places where people can find a place of belonging and where everyone can grow and contribute.
What about children and youth?
There is power in gathering and power in the family. We want to encourage parents as the primary disciplers of their children and we will look to continue to equip and empower parents to do this. It takes a church community to raise a child in faith, so local hubs and core communities will provide a good space for multigenerational and diverse expressions of Next Generation ministry. Peer relationships and knowing that you are part of something bigger is faith building, so we will continue to have times for children and young people to gather across the church as well as joining in with events across the city, region, and nation (festivals).
Why are we making these changes?
We have taken this opportunity to listen afresh to God and are seeking to respond to his leading. We hope that this new strategy will help us engage more locally, extend our missional reach, help us grow in our evangelistic effectiveness, strengthen our sense of community, facilitate discipleship, release creativity, increase diversity and enable us to identify and release new leaders.
How can I start a pilot core community?
If God is laying a place or a people group on your heart, then please talk to one of the leaders. We will develop some processes and support structures to ensure that any new initiatives have the best chance of success.
Haven’t we tried this in the past? Why are we doing it again now?
We are not claiming to have a new strategy that has never been tried before but simply responding to God’s leading. Since the early days of the church we have tried all sorts of strategies. We began in homes, moved to community centres, developed local congregations across the city, planted out and released churches in the region, moved to Central Hall, planted out into Eastleigh, Swaythling and West End, started congregations for young adults and young people, supported multiple caring initiatives, and even started a few schools. All with the aim of reaching as many people as we can with the life-transforming good news about Jesus.
Why is there a gap between each phase? What if we stop moving and get stuck at phase 1?
We hope that will not happen. We will begin to pilot new core communities and develop leadership in each local hub as soon as people are sensing God’s leading and as a leadership and group of Trustees, we will be monitoring progress to ensure we are doing what we said we would do. We recognise that change takes time, and we want to commit to the long term, building slowly and steadily, reviewing and revising as we go along.
With a variety of church expressions what will hold us together and prevent the church from falling apart?
This is where we are seeking to learn from the ancient monastic. These early Christian communities were held together by a common commitment, or rule, and common rhythms of prayer and worship. We are in the process of looking at what that could look like for us. This forms the basis of our togetherness as well as a commitment to relationship across the whole church.
We acknowledge that things will look different and for different people different connecting points will be more important than others. For some a sense of belonging will be in the context of core communities, others at hub level, and some still across the whole of New Community.
What prophetic words have led us to this?
As we took time to ‘reset’ we took many things into consideration – the overarching story of Scripture, God’s plan and purpose for ekklesia, our unique DNA as New Community Church, where we have seen fruitfulness in the past, and the flow of the prophetic to us over the years. In regard to specific prophetic words, we considered again the ‘warship and the fishing vessels’, the ‘no no-go areas’ and the ‘train entering and re-emerging from the tunnel’, as well as Billy’s visit to the ancient monastic site in Ireland where God spoke the words ‘I’m taking you back to the future’. All this input along with a number of consultations have helped us form our approach.
What is apostolic church and behaviour?
The word ‘apostle’ simply means ‘sent one’. Our conviction is the church has been sent into the world in the same way that Jesus was sent by the Father to bring life and destroy the works of darkness. To be ‘apostolic’, therefore, means that our priority as a church is God’s mission in the world to bring the life of Christ into every part of our city.
What does ekklesia mean?
‘Ekklesia’ is a Greek word translated as church in our Bibles. It was actually a secular term referring to a local city council, a group ‘called out’ to make decisions on behalf of the people of that particular city. When Jesus and the writers of the New Testament used the word ‘ekklesia’ they were seeing this body of men and women, called out by God and called together to serve and bless the people in the city, bringing life and transformation. For a fuller explanation of ‘ekklesia’ check our Billy’s 6 talks on the subject on New Community’s YouTube channel – September 20th - October 5th, 2020.
What does apostolic mean?
The word ‘apostle’ simply means ‘sent one’. Our conviction is the church has been sent into the world in the same way that Jesus was sent by the Father to bring life. To be ‘apostolic’, therefore, means that our priority is God’s mission in the world - bringing life and transformation.
Where can I get more information?
We will be hosting information evenings in April and May and will be producing a video that will unpack details.
How will you facilitate the church forming into Core Communities? What if I am not sure who or where to go?
When we gather back together in the summer and through the autumn we will be providing input on the strategy and creating opportunities for people to explore what God is saying to them.
Can I be part of a hub but not a core community?
We anticipate that this will be a season of flux and therefore everything will not be tied down from day one. Our vision is that the core communities will have a clear focus for mission and will provide a place of belonging. This will be where some people have their primary connecting point. However, for others, the weekly hub gathering or existing connect group will provide a place of belonging.
I love gathering together as a big city church. It’s why we joined New Community. What opportunities will we have for gathering together as a whole?
We will continue to gather as a whole church. This will not be every week but the frequency has not yet been decided. We will continue to use Central Hall for these whole-church gatherings. If conversations with the DfE progress then we will need to revisit this.
My children love the kids work; my young adults love the youth programme. They have formed life-giving peer relationships. They feel at home at New Community. Will these centralised programmes continue?
Yes. We will continue with a centralised strategy and programme for children and young people.
A reason we joined New Community was because of the anointed corporate worship. What plans are there to ensure we continue to worship together regularly?
Worship and prayer will continue to be central to who we are and what we do. We will create opportunities to gather as a whole church and locally throughout the year and will be organising regular worship gatherings, e.g. regular Deeper events.
We love New Community. We come because it is multigenerational and life-giving. Community in this church is a lifeline. How will you ensure this doesn’t erode over time?
One of our stated aims with this new structure is to strengthen community. We want to create places where people find family, are known, can make their unique contribution, and can grow. We will continue to invest in the next generation – children, young people, students and young adults – create a welcoming family environment, and trust that God will continue to help us.
How will you ensure the more vulnerable members of our community are catered for? We have many people who are on the fringe who are vulnerable, who love coming to the main gathering. What is the plan to support them?
We have an amazing community where love and support are expressed in all sorts of ways by all sorts of people. We will continue to promote this commitment to being a community that cares. We also have a great pastoral team who meet regularly to ensure care and support are available where most needed.
How will you teach the children and young people about what is happening? This is a crossroads moment for those children/youth who love their church. What’s the plan?
The Next Generation team will be working on a communication strategy.
Why do we need an Exec Leader?
Billy is employed 2 days a week to serve as our Senior Leader. Those who know Billy know that his primary gifts are in the areas of visionary leadership, networking, supporting new initiatives and empowering people. He exercises these gifts within the church and more widely in his role as International Leader of Pioneer.
However, in recent years Billy has been drawn into more and more management and operational aspects of our church life which distracts him from his primary calling and contribution to the church. Therefore, the Trustees have advised that we employ an ‘executive leader’ to work alongside Billy and the church leadership team providing support across the whole organisation in all management and operational aspects. Theo did fulfil this role for a while but was released into his current role as congregational leader as that was a better fit with his gifts and calling. Joe is employed part-time as Operations Manager and has done a great job bringing cohesion to the operations team and supporting the work of the church, but he was not appointed to manage across the whole Charity. This new role will have more time and delegated authority with the aim of releasing Billy from many of his current responsibilities.
How does this work financially?
A portion of the salary for the proposed ‘executive leader’ will come from her/his role managing New Community Ventures and the rest will be budgeted through New Community Network.
Why would we sell Central Hall and what are the implications?
The DfE have made an enquiry to purchase Central Hall as a new permanent base for Hope Community School. We are currently looking into what this could mean without making any commitments to sell. There are many things to consider, so please join us as we prayerfully discern if this is God’s will or not and what this might mean practically for the church.