Dear Friend
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What began as a simple intention to encourage and equip our one Barnabas church in Livingstone, Zambia, has grown into something far bigger than I first imagined. Over the past year, I’ve been coaching a group of pastors from different denominations in the city, and God has done far more than we asked or thought.
During The Turning mission to Livingstone last year, I decided to open up the coaching to any pastor in the city who wanted to explore church planting. I took them through In-Reach, a church planting tool I’ve developed over 30 years. We started with twenty pastors; twelve stayed the course. From that first cohort, 10 new churches have been planted in a single year.
A few months ago, I offered to host a church planting conference for the city, to ask a bigger question: Does Livingstone want to become a church-planting city? Following that conference, the city’s pastoral fraternity, around 120 pastors who have a standing Committee and gather for a regular Friday prayer meeting, agreed together that they do. They want Livingstone to be a church-planting city. watch the following video.
This is a legacy project and I hope you will help me achieve it!
The Pastors have sent me an official letter requesting help to achieve this. Livingstone itself is a city with a profound spiritual heritage made famous by David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary who gave his life for the evangelisation of Africa. It is a privilege to serve in a city that bears his name and where, according to tradition, his heart is buried. Now, by God’s grace, that legacy is taking fresh shape as Livingstone steps into its calling as a church-planting city.
The obstacles and the medium-term vision. While we in the West are blessed with stable and affordable internet that lets us jump on Zoom at will, things look very different in Livingstone. At this stage, all our coaching has to happen over WhatsApp. Once a month, the pastors gather around a single phone in a church building, listen carefully to the training, and then go out and put it into practice. It’s both humbling and inspiring to see their hunger and commitment.
Of course, this isn’t a sustainable model for the long term. In the medium term, what’s really needed is a Church Planting College but I want to make the following commitments.
- The syllabus will be delivered by volunteers, not paid staff.
- It will be funded on a mixed model of social partnership, private investors, gifts and, contributions the charitable aspects will be accountable to Barnabas Fellowship of Churches. Having worked in Africa for over 30 years my thinking is we cannot build something that will rely on donations it must be self sustaining so it is intended that once the building and facilities are up it will sustain itself.
- The major costs will be the start-up costs.
- The College will be located in the heart of Livingstone and serve the whole nation but start with the pastors in Livingstone
Over the next few years, I’ll be working towards establishing this. This will be a course based and ultimately those we train and raise up in church planting will form a colaborative community. It will produce church planting pastors not academics. Running costs will be met through renting out the properties we build on the site.
The Core Tool is effective The In-Reach church planting tool, which forms the backbone of our coaching, has consistently led to new church plants wherever it has been applied. The book version of In-Reach is due for release early next year, making the framework more widely accessible. A future church planting college in Livingstone would build on In-Reach while also drawing from the best of other church planting academic resources. Wherever possible. But, it will always have renewal at its core aim.
The Ask!
Would you be willing to pray about helping us with some seed funding? And would your church consider partnering with us in this vision? If you feel led to give, you can do so directly to The Turning c/o Barnabas Fellowship of Churches (the charity through which this project is being managed). The account details are:
· Sort Code: 20-05-00
· Account Number: 93613348
· IBAN Number: GB80BUKB20050093613348 · SWIFTBIC: BUKBGB22
At this stage, I estimate the land will cost @ £30,000- £40,0000, this will be the first stage. Perhaps your church would gift towards the seed money for this first stage. If you give, please email me at adeyinka@bfoc.org to let me know you have done so and let me know how much you have given.
Or, you may not be a church, and you may not feel able to give a large amount, but as a friend you want to help, I’m asking friends to give sacrificially towards this. This is one of those legacy moments where something can be established that will outlast our own lifetimes. A gift that will keep on giving. so , you could invest £500 or £1,000 towards this vision. Just think about that: you may never be a pastor or lead a church, but you can help start a college that equips pastors to plant churches. Your gift becomes seed for churches you may never visit, reaching people you may never meet, yet God sees it all. Again if you choose to give as an individual email me and let me know you have done so
Finaly, I am also happy to do an original painting in exchange for such a donation for you if that incentivises you, as long as you pay for postage I will create one of my themed sheep ones, like this one called ‘his sheep love coffee’.
or a biblical scene for your church Just email me for details at Adeyinka@bfoc.org.
Updates at The Gate:
| Over the last few weeks here in Reading, we’ve been seeing around fifteen new people come to faith in Christ across our congregations, t’s been so encouraging and genuinely exciting. In Didcot, just last night, two people gave their lives to Christ, where Sue and Nathan provide oversight, there has been noticeable growth and fresh momentum. |
| Similarly, in Sindlesham, we’ve rejoiced as around ten Iranian friends were led to Christ by Pastor Joanna. And just two weeks ago, following the conversion of a young man on the streets of Reading in October, two of his friends joined us for discipleship, and Pastor Evelyn and I had the joy of leading them both to Christ. |
Personal Update & A Gift For You
In January, God willing, I’m planning to take a sabbatical. My hope is to use that time primarily for study and research.
On a more personal note, Fiona and I managed to get a holiday together this year, the first one we’ve had without the children, which was very special (I do love the children, honestly!).
A Gift for you: I have included my take on Psalm 1 in both video form below and that you can download here as an mp3 file that you can download it’s called Tell me who you walk with which you can play and use as you wish just give me credit for it. This a gift from me to you.
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