Christ Church Central, Sheffield calls itself ‘a church for people who don’t go to church.’ It was planted from Christ Church, Fulwood in 2003 and has a congregation of 250. Tim Davies is the minister and one of the features in the programme is Tuesday morning English classes for ladies, with halal refreshments. The church website announces these in what looks, to a linguistically handicapped visitor, like Arabic. Also planted from Christ Church, Fulwood is Christ Church, Endcliffe. Its Sunday services take place in St Augustine’s church. Fifty people from Fulwood planted the church in 2009.
St Thomas’s church, Philadelphia is a planted offshoot from St Thomas’s church, Crookes, Sheffield. The plant grew out of clusters, groups of people meeting regularly and reaching a total of 2,000. It is now housed in a new building of its own. Meanwhile the mother church has continued to grow; it describes itself as having 1000 in the church family. Having had close links with the Baptists, it has been an LEP (local ecumenical project) for 35 years. It has had its own £1m refurbishment. Close by is another church plant, King’s centre, calling itself ‘a fun family of faith’.
The Church of England is not the only player in the church planting movement. Open Heaven sees itself as one church with multiple expressions across Loughborough. In 2017 it sent Rachel and Alan Radbourne to Anglesey to plant a new church called Lighthouse. In an unusual initiative it planted a church in France in 2011. Open Heaven is affiliated to the Pioneer Network, which has church plants in a number of places in the UK and beyond. Mustard Seed, Edinburgh, sees itself as a ‘community of good news’, commissioned by the Bishop of Edinburgh to be a community of mission. A similar enterprise is to be found at All Souls’, Fife.
The big player in the church planting movement is Holy Trinity, Brompton with a network of something like 50 church plants in England. It has a bishop to supervise its activities and has the backing of a course in church planting in St Mellitus College. A good example of the HTB network is Harbour church. This was planted in Portsmouth in 2016 with 20 worshippers. It now has 700 in three locations. In a characteristic move the Harbour church plant is doing its own church planting. It is sending a team of 40 to set up a new plant in Cardiff.
CHINESE CHURCH
The Sheffield Chinese Christian Church came into being in 1972 as a Christian fellowship with three congregations – Cantonese, English and Mandarin. It flourished and in 1976 it re-located to a property of its own. In 1990 it purchased a large redundant Methodist church and began hosting conferences of Chinese churches. It speaks of itself as aiming to be ‘a pure and radiant bride of the returning Christ.’
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