Mission groups come to UK for first time

Two mission organisations are planting a foothold in Britain for the first time.

HeartCry Missionary Society is now supporting missionaries in England; while the New Anglican Mission Society (NAMS) is preparing to establish a UK base for church planters.

Josep Rossello, former vicar at Christ Church Exmouth (where he still serves), is the Global Bishop Guardian of NAMS, an evangelical and gospel-centred ‘religious order’ of church planters ‘through discipleship’. He and the three other bishop guardians in NAMS are also part of GAFCON or Global South.

NAMS works around the world. In fact, Rossello wrote his response to en’s questions on his mobile phone while sitting under a tree in South Sudan – where he was training a church planter.

Rossello, who is also regional team leader for Europe, Africa and Middle East, said that NAMS’ strategy is to establish a Base – formed by a group of NAMS companions. ‘A companion,’ he explained, ‘is a man who feels a call to church planting and being part of NAMS.’

A NAMS Base is responsible for planting new churches through discipleship and Great Commission Cells – ‘kind of a small group aiming to multiply’. Once a church has been planted, the NAMS Base moves onto another church plant. The new churches are under the jurisdiction or denomination with which NAMS has an agreement of understanding (they work with Anglican as well as other evangelical denominations).

As well as in the UK, NAMS plans to establish Bases in Spain and Italy, and possibly in Albania, Hungary, France and Ukraine.

Rossello commented: ‘If people want to plant churches without the politics, NAMS is ideal. However, we have a unique call and way of doing so, and we realise it is not for everybody.’

They are looking for people who feel called to do church planting in the UK and Europe. Rossello added: ‘They don’t have to be pastors or ministers. We also do seminars and workshop on discipleship and church planting.

‘We are called to support churches with a heart for church planting, not only Anglicans, but any gospel and evangelical church. We would love to partner with different denominations and grow a church planting movement to reach England for Christ in a post-Christian and pre-gospel society.’

HeartCry

Meanwhile, HeartCry is a missionary society working with indigenous missionaries in their own countries. It is helping Robin Singleton, pastor of Grace Community Church in Loftus, North Yorkshire; and Graham Thomson, pastor of Spen Valley Church in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire.

HeartCry stated: ‘Places where Protestant evangelical Christianity once triumphed has now been replaced, in many instances, with empty pulpits and dying churches. Although statistics would tell us [England] is ‘reached,’ much work is needed on this minority Christian island.’ It was founded by Paul Washer in 1988 while serving as a missionary in Peru. Today, it supports missionaries in around 33 countries across the world.