Pioneering & Church Planting
As a YBA Regional Minister, Alex Harris’s focus is on Pioneering and Church Planting
His role reflects one of the YBA's key priorities - planting, revitalising and reimagining churches.
He also serves as Director of Baptist Church Planting at the St Hild Centre for Church Planting, Yorkshire.
He has extensive experience and expertise in church planting and his doctoral studies were in church planting in post-Christendom Europe.
"Ask me how we could work together to start a new church or begin a new venture that helps people meet Jesus. I would love to help!"
Alex
How God is at work
ALEX Harris, our Regional Minister for Pioneering and Church Planting, is encouraging people to consider and to think about what pioneering and church planting really means in our communities today. Below, he highlights two encouraging stories that show how God is using ordinary Baptist churches in this way.
Firstly, Gareth tells how a new Baptist church came to be planted in Sheffield.
Secondly, you can learn how a former drug dealer became a prolific church planter.
Sheffield Church Planting
Over the 10 years since Gareth, his family, and the Eden Team from St Thomas Crookes Church, Sheffield all felt called by Christ to the Fir Vale estate in Sheffield, they have seen God at work in all sorts of ways.
Last year they reached a wonderful moment in that journey! A growing and vibrant church for Fir Vale has been born! Gareth tells us more of the story in this short video:
Gareth has also kindly provided an update for this year (2024) so we can see how God has been working:
Share this news in church services, church meetings and small groups! It reminds us of the growing number of churches now experiencing this growth as a normal expectation and within ordinary reach.
Need help? Have questions? Need ideas of how we could work together to start a new church or begin a new venture that helps people meet Jesus - just like Gareth? Then contact
Alex: alex.harris@yba.org.uk
Nearly 200 baptisms over two years!
Working together and learning together are some of the best ways to think about how to reach new people who do not yet know Jesus.
Recently, leaders from six of our YBA churches joined a conversation with Aaron Jarvis to learn together and think about new ways to reach new people. Aaron serves Londonderry Baptist Church, which over five years has grown from just 25 members to 12 congregations! Over a two-year period they saw almost 200 baptisms!
Aaron would be the first to say it’s something every church can pray for… and expect.
Here’s what one participant had to say: “It was an afternoon where God really lifted our eyes after such a challenging two years. Discussing with Aaron how God had been at work, and then being able to pray for each other with the freedom to speak life and hope over our churches, was just so refreshing. I especially appreciated not being in a ‘conference’ environment but instead feeling like we were ordinary church leaders encouraging and helping each other.”
