Training Course: Beginning a New Place for New People

Is God calling you to pioneer a new Christian community?

What is Beginning a New Place for New People?

This is a fully funded course for those who are planting NPNPs (church planting), designed for those who are actively shaping a vision, about to launch or in an existing project. It mixes teaching and reflection, prayer and deepening our calls. The next course is on 7 to 9 November 2025. Following this, we meet monthly online for four sessions on Thursday evenings. Bookings via this link. This course is only available for those based in Britain.

When we talk about New Places for New People (NPNPs), we mean beginning diverse new Christian communities that reflect the context in which they emerge. Just as a plant will look different in a neat vegetable patch compared to one that springs up self-seeded in the wild, so too will the many NPNPs that are taking shape across the Methodist Church.

We want to support every pioneer, in every context, to begin the new Christian community that is needed in that moment. We are not trying to make every NPNP in Methodism look the same. While there are some key elements shared by all Christian communities, they will take on diverse forms, shaped by the people and places they grow in.

The course content will help us explore together what these new Christian communities might look like in each of our projects. We’ll also reflect on how pioneers can stay healthy and how projects can find sustaining rhythms for the long term.

Beginning a New Place for New People (residential), 7 to 9 November 2025, 6 pm on the Friday until lunchtime on the Sunday, bookings via this link, followed by online sessions (Thursday evenings). It begins with a residential at Cliff College, from 6 pm Friday evening until Sunday lunchtime. It is really important that anyone booking is able to attend the whole course; you may need to arrange for others to lead worship on your behalf.

Following the residential, we meet online for six sessions on Thursday evenings between 7 - 8.30 pm:
dates tbc

Next course: 14 March 2026 (online). Bookings via this link.