I’ve got to know Rob Bavington through his connection with Communitas. He has been something of an accidental church-planter, first in Sweden for some years, now in Bradford. We talk about what he’s learned, what he’s learning, and some of the less obvious cross-cultural dimensions of church-planting in the UK today.
Truly excellent conversation, Andrew and Rob. So much to explore here, particularly around “extravert” and “introvert” preconceived (misconceived) ideals of church-planters, culture and context, forms of faith expression and worship, and the learning posture of a faith community as opposed to prescriptive church-planting “recipes.” I look forward to hearing the continuing discussion.
Andrew and Rob, I loved listening to this conversation! Thank you! Such a vivid display of that missiological imperative for pioneering teams to discern the way through on the ground experimentation and deep immersion in context. Accessing the wisdom and experience of other ecclesial innovators but taking care not to undermine the team discernment, idea generation, and formational dynamics (both individual and communal) happening at a grassroots level. If church planting coaches could temper the mentoring, advice-giving reflex — using these more sparingly and wisely, and only in a just-in-time manner when teams are at an impasse or the project is in jeopardy — AND bring the best of client-focused (think “drawing out” instead of “imparting”) coaching, we’d see the gospel much more clearly and effectively embodied at the local level.
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