Over the last six years, a training ministry initially developed for a local church in the north of England now has a truly global impact.
The Porterbrook Network started in 2007 when church planters Steve Timmis and Tim Chester started work on a course that would equip Christians for mission and ministry in everyday life. It needed to appeal to busy Christians who couldn’t take a day a week for training. They wanted something that connected biblical theology to both heart change and mission. A key aim was to help men and women see mission as something to which they could contribute.
The result was Porterbrook Learning. It centred on biblical theology, character development and sound doctrine, as well as equipping people to speak the gospel into everyday life. It gave Christians a renewed vision for the centrality of the local church in mission, and trained people for evangelism and cultural engagement.
Going viral
Over the last two or three years the curriculum has gone ‘viral’. Initially it was designed to serve members of The Crowded House churches and others in the north of England. But Porterbrook now has a network of over 45 learning sites in local churches around the world with over 1,000 students. The course is also available to individual users and, in 2012, 4,000 users took the modules on their own or as part of small groups.
An Italian network, with learning groups in Bologna, Sacile, Salerno and soon Rome, has been set up through a translation project. The Italian network has enabled a new church planting network to emerge as part of Acts 29 Europe. Translation teams in Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria are working on the materials to launch networks in those countries. This year there are new sites opening in the UK, South Korea and the USA.
The rapid growth of the course, especially among church planters and pastors, has revealed the lack of materials out there equipping ordinary Christians to follow theology through to practice in mission and ministry, particularly in the world of church planting. People want truth to drive community and cultural engagement.
Mez McConnell of 20Schemes.com in Scotland has pioneered its use among new believers from the kind of needy areas evangelicals haven’t reached for decades. Many testimonies from these students speak of a love for biblical theology and doctrine, as well as an insight into how the gospel transforms the heart and a drive for mission.
Partnering with BibleMesh
The demand for the course was beginning to outstrip Porterbrook’s ability to keep up. That was until the opportunity arose for Porterbrook to partner with BibleMesh, specialists in e-learning.
BibleMesh are driven by the same values as Porterbrook. Their courses are about getting Christians back to the Bible. BibleMesh’s Bible Story course teaches Christians how the Scriptures fit together, while their innovative biblical language courses have already gained a strong reputation.
As a result of this shared passion, the two organisations have collaborated to enable Porterbrook Learning to go online this September. Students can choose from a growing number of courses to study at home or connect with a learning site so that their online study is supported through tutorials, conference days and student interaction.
Global impact
Porterbrook is a story of a UK-produced gospel resource that now has significant global impact. The Network regularly receives stories from around the world of how the course has been used by the Lord to revitalise churches by creating a renewed passion for the gospel and mission, and opening up new contexts for church planting projects to emerge.
Church planting is in vogue. Ten years ago it was still seen as a specialist area. But the last decade has seen a rapid growth in new churches and new forms of church. Across Europe, church planting is on the agenda. Churches are being planted in cafes, households and city centres. More traditional churches are thinking about how to change to a ‘missional’ way of doing things — recalibrating the church around the need to reach the lost.
One of the benefits of this enthusiasm for church planting is a renewed vision for the involvement of ordinary Christians and everyday life as the primary location for ministry and mission.
Gospel-driven church planting
But a danger of this rush to church planting is that the gospel can be reduced to the message we pass on and not also shape our methods. When this happens our practice is driven by sociology, cultural analysis or pragmatism instead of theology.
Paul planted churches by laying the gospel as the foundation of the church and looked for leaders who would continue to build with the gospel. The gospel is not just the message; it should also shape our methods. This means church planting must be driven by theology if it’s going to be successful. It’s about establishing communities of believers rooted and built up in the gospel. If anything else forms the foundation, then church planting will be abandoned as an ineffective idea when sociological methods begin to fail.
The ultimate goal of the partnership between Porterbrook and BibleMesh is to help shape individual Christians and churches with the gospel so that both our message and methods are gospel-centred.
Jonny Woodrow is the associate director of Porterbrook Network.
