Revitalise Trust Newsletter 010
Welcome to our summer update. I’m pleased to share some recent highlights with you as we continue to be encouraged by all God is doing through our network of churches, how he is preparing leaders to plant new churches and how he is continuing to work through Love Your Neighbour - helping churches to love and serve those most in need. We really value your ongoing prayers in all that God is doing through the HTB Network.
With my very best wishes,
Sarah Jackson, CEO, and the Revitalise Trust team
Head of Training for Accelerate
Rachel Bedford was appointed earlier this year as Head of Training for the HTB Network. As an ordained minister herself and having previously led a large parish church, Rachel brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this new position. Rachel’s main role is to oversee and develop the content of Accelerate (our church planting training programme) and to act as a coach and mentor for the leaders.
Rachel says:
“There is a wealth of experience and insight throughout the Network and part of my job is to ‘mine the gold’ and share it as coherently and widely as possible.”
Accelerate has historically been run for final year curates only. However, for 2024-25 we’re extending the programme to all curates – with an opportunity for those in years 1 and 2 of curacy to access the training as well.
New Leadership Podcast
The Good Leader podcast is a new series of accessible 15-minute interviews developed and hosted by Will Van Der Hart (Revitalise Trust Wellbeing Chaplain).
Topics will include useful discussions with HR and Operations experts, testimonies from pioneering plant leaders and more. These resources have been created to encourage, train and inspire church leaders and will be available as audio podcasts as well as videos on YouTube.
There are 30 short films currently in the pipeline due for release this October, with a view to developing this as an ongoing resource for church leaders.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch the videos.
LYN Hub Accelerator
The work and reach of Love Your Neighbour - through our alliance of church-based Hubs - continues to impact thousands of people across the UK week by week. In 2022 we launched the Hub Accelerator, a programme specifically designed for churches with existing social transformation ministries, who are passionate about strengthening their teams, developing sustainability, increasing their impact and deepening their partnerships nationally. To date 36 Hubs have participated and completed the programme and are putting into practice the skills they’ve learnt. Through the amazing work of our 118 Love Your Neighbour Hubs over the past four years, 28 million meals have been distributed, 12,000 people have been supported with debt advice, more than 13,000 people have been supported with employment training and over 295,000 hours have been volunteered.
Visit the Love Your Neighbour website to find out more!
An Update from Bay Church, Torbay
Bay Church was planted in 2021 with a vision to see Jesus loved, the Church alive and society transformed in Torbay and beyond. Led by Rev’d Matt Bray, Bay Church has a particular focus on children, young people and families. Since launching, they now have more than 120 people involved in various small groups, feed around 50 people a week through ‘Bay Tea’ - a social outreach project - and they recently launched ‘Party Church’, an interactive family service which sees many children aged 2-11 participating. They continue to run Alpha courses regularly with 13 people from their last two courses having given their lives to Jesus and they’ll be planting a new church in September to allow for more growth!
Thank You
We have much to thank God for in all the ways he’s working through the Network. We have just returned from Focus - our annual holiday away with the whole church family where we heard from some inspirational speakers, worshipped God together and had a lot of fun! We were so blessed with good weather and encouraged by all that Jesus is doing in and through our churches.
We look forward to sharing more news with you soon about our latest church plants and revitalisations – so watch this space!
Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
