Dear friends
Well spring is on its way and we’ve got a new look to our Newsletter to match those visions of new life we’re seeing sprouting up around us. It’s a new look bursting with new content!
This month we’ve got a powerful story from London showing how a simple meal can snowball into a citywide mission collaboration. Our Learning Community this month looks into another practical aspect of Social Transformation, see all our upcoming webinar dates below and get yourself registered. We get to know another of our Regional Connectors in the “Meet the Team” section and we’re also sharing about the upcoming Ekklesia Conference happening this month. If you’re a church leader, make sure you sign up for a refreshingly real time exploring what Church is all about.
BRAND NEW THIS MONTH… We are launching a Gather Movement Podcast! Have a listen and please share your feedback or ideas for future episodes.We are so excited to see all the new things happening in our towns and cities as God is drawing the Body of Christ together in unity, prayer and action. We hope these stories and updates will spur you on in your work for the kingdom.
Blessings
Gather Movement |
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From a Meal to a Mission Week
Gratitude in Islington Sparks a Movement Towards Cross Cultural Mission Activity in the London Boroughs. With more than 140 churches signed up for London Mission Week 2025 we caught up with Andy Frost from the London Mission Collective to hear how this collaborative mission movement began. |
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Don’t miss the upcoming March Learning Community, where we’ll hear from Peter Heywood, founder of Genesis Trust, a charity supporting homeless and vulnerable people, and Ruth Lancey, CEO of The Hideaway, a charity and Britain's first 'Pay What You Can' play centre in Manchester. Building on last month’s insightful session on Social Transformation we’ll be exploring more helpful ideas for seeing real positive change throughout our networks, using referral practices and warm handovers. Join on Tuesday next week to gain practical solutions and ask your questions to these experts in the field.
Please register in advance.
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Join us for our Gather Movement Learning Community.
Here’s the learning community programme for H1 2025.
Please register in advance
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11 MAR 2025 • SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
(Referral Practices and Warm Handovers)
Peter Heywood - Founder Genesis Trust
Ruth Lancey - Hideaway, Greather Manchester
How do church unity networks get the right care to the right person? What do good referral practices and warm handovers look like across a cross-sector network. |
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8 APR 2025 • SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION
(Prayer Strategy)
David King - Prayer Coordinator for Gather Movement
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13 MAY 2025 • CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
(Intercultural Church Leadership)
Osoba Otaigbe - Bible Society
Tani Omideyi - Liverpool Lighthouse
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10 JUN 2025 • SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
(Towards a Poverty Free City)
Alison Dawson - One Voice Social Action York
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In February we had an inspiring Learning Community with Elaine Morgan, Greater Manchester Combined Authority Strategy Principal. She talked about how Systems Leadership and Impact Networks play their part in social transformation.
If you missed it, you can catch up here. |
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You can also catch-up on any Learning Communities that you missed by visiting our Learning Community Playlist on YouTube.
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This month we’re getting to know our Midlands Regional Connector.
What's your name and where do you live?
My name is Steve Botham and I live in Birmingham.
If you were a chocolate bar, which one would you be?
I think a Mars bar. Because I quite like that sort of combination of a nice clear outer frame and something to chew inside.
Why are you passionate about unity?
I've always been passionate about unity. So as a young Christian in my 20s, I got involved with the Billy Graham Mission to England in the 80s and one of the things we saw time and time again, was when brethren come together in unity it’s there the Lord's commanded the blessing. I ran a number of training events there with up to 400 people in them and there was this real sense of something extraordinary in terms of the blessing of people coming together from lots of different churches and really seeking together for God's purpose. I think that's really been quite instrumental for me and also that sense that I've never seen myself as part of a denomination, but more as somebody who's just a Christian, and that's my call.
What is one thing that excites you about your region?
I think the distinctiveness of the different cities and trying to understand that distinctiveness. With quite a lot of the cities, they're very aware that God's put a call on them. So if you look at Coventry, they're very aware of God calling them, moving forward in a sense, a blueprint of going deeper and deeper. With Lincoln, they're very aware that God's called them as a forerunner, an innovator, they're trying things that others haven't tried before. With the Black Country, they're very aware of God's calling for them to raise up the next generation. I think it's that sense of cities searching out for what God's calling them to do.
What's your favourite part about working with Gather Movement?
I'm a strategist by nature. So it's looking at the big picture and how things link together and how we create networks where we believe that we can bring change and blessing to our cities. So I suppose it's that vision. I've done a lot of work, for example, on health recently, and there is just so much untapped potential where churches on their own are doing little things, but if churches were to come together they could have a much more powerful intervention. I was speaking to lots of council leaders last year, and I was saying, the church will surprise you! You probably think we're conservative, but actually we often lead the way in communities on innovation because we're finding new ways to do things. We're finding ways to do things without resources, without money, but out of faith, we drive ourselves that there's always going to be an answer to local needs and issues.
If you’re from the Midlands region and you’d like to find out more about Gather Movement or share a story about your Unity Group, please get in touch with Steve at botham@btinternet.com
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Gather Movement Podcast
Our newly launched Podcast is available on our website and Spotify. We’re starting by revisiting some of our most popular Learning Community recordings. Our aim is to make each episode inspirational, insightful and applicable to equip you in your unity and transformation journey.
In our first episode we are joined by Claire Fenner Crawley from Churchworks to talk about how Church Unity groups can help levelling up through Family Hubs.
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Ekklesia 2025 - Church Leaders’ Roundtable Conference
Andy Frost who helps facilitate Gather also runs a church leader's event called Ekklesia. It is an overnight conference for church leaders to explore together the raw and the real of church life. It’s a space to unpack some of the thinking and the practical ideas that help us effectively bring about Kingdom change. This year it's happening on 19th & 20th March at St Paul's Hammersmith, London. Find out more and book your tickets at ekklesiaconference.com.
Find out more... |
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Our Vision is to see a unified Church working together across every city and town, to see social, cultural and spiritual transformation across the UK. We are grateful to God for how far the Movement has come but we still have a long way to go.
Could you, or your unity group, help us to deliver this vision by becoming a Gather Movement Supporter?
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Posted: March 2025 |