The Gospel Yorkshire conference on 5 October, ‘Making It Happen’, kicked off with Hugo Charteris of Heaton, Newcastle addressing the question ‘Why we plant: biblical foundations’.
He identified four kinds of churches: where people trade on heritage and the Bible is not taught; where the Bible is taught, but is detached from the culture around it; where the Bible is taught but people don’t live it out; and lastly, where there is devotion to the Scriptures, to one another, to hospitality, to prayers and engaging with others (Acts2.42).
Three plants for 2017
Church planting should take place where there are no gospel churches or where they conform to the first three types listed above. The work must be in partnership with others to reach the neediest parts of Yorkshire, with its 5,500,000 population. Yorkshire has just 0.05% of evangelical Christians.
Currently Gospel Yorkshire is working in conjunction with three church plants which, God willing, will be planted in 2017. Jonty Rhodes, Lee McMunn and Graham Thomson plan to plant churches in central Leeds, Scarborough and the Spen Valley.
After a series of practical seminars on various aspects of planting, Lewis Allen, director of Gospel Yorkshire and pastor of Hope Church Huddersfield, directed the conference to the need to plant for eternity, from Deuteronomy 10.20-22. The challenge was to pursue godliness, courage and perseverance in the work of planting. The 2017 conference is planned for 11 October and titled ‘No Easy Gains: church planting when it’s tough’. See www.gospelyorkshire.org.uk for more information.
