Newfrontiers

This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (April 2009)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008)

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (May 2012)

Newfrontiers

Founder(s)	Terry Virgo
Type	Reformed Charismatic Church Network
Founded	1979
Location	United Kingdom
Area served	Worldwide
Members	700+ Churches
Motto	"A worldwide family of churches together on a mission."
Website	Official website
References: Registered Charity number: 1060001

Newfrontiers (previously New Frontiers International) is a neocharismatic apostolic network of evangelical, charismatic churches founded by Terry Virgo. It forms part of the British New Church Movement, which began in the late 50s and 60s combining features of Pentecostalism with British evangelicalism.^[1] Other streams of the British New Church Movement with which it shares some features include Together, Ministries Without Borders, and Life-Links. Groups like Pioneer, Ichthus Christian Fellowship, and Vineyard are more distantly related. Newfrontiers is a rapidly growing movement with over 700 churches representing more than 60 nations worldwide to date.^{[2][better source needed]} Newfrontiers describes itself as "an international family of churches together on a mission to establish the Kingdom of God by restoring the church, making disciples, training leaders and planting churches." Its theology is distinctively Reformed. Newfrontiers is committed to building churches according to "New Testament principles." One of the slogans of the movement has been "changing the expression of Christianity around the world," which is based on a prophecy given by Paul Cain (the Latter Rain revivalist) to the movement in 1990.^[3]

New Addington Community Church is a Newfrontiers congregation in suburban London.

Participation

Every Newfrontiers church has its own unique approach to participatory worship, but most commonly, anyone wishing to contribute during corporate worship must first share it with a meeting anchor. If it is considered to be potentially beneficial to the whole church body, any worship music being played will subside for a moment, and the individual can address the congregation. In other Newfrontiers churches the expectation is that members of the congregation will speak out if they feel they have received an idea, message (mental) image or verse of Scripture no prior approval is required or expected. Regular members of the congregation claim that repeatedly, such images, messages etc, turn out to be particularly relevant to the topic that is later preached in the service. Others claim that specific questions or advice they sought has been answered via this process.^{[citation needed]}

Bible weeks

The logo used for the Stoneleigh Bible Weeks

There is a conference that runs over the August Bank Holiday weekend called North, although churches from all over the country, Wales, Scotland and as far afield as Canada attend.^{[citation needed]}

Everything Conference

Everything Conference

Type	Christian conference
Founded	2010
Location	London, England
Key people	Matthew Hosier, David Stroud, Jeremy Simpkins
Website	EverythingConference.org

The Everything Conference is an annual one day Christian conference held in the UK by the Newfrontiers family of churches.^[4] In 2010 the conferences were held in London and Leeds, in March and April respectively, and focuses on cultural transformation.^[5] In its first year, over 1,000 people attended across the two venues.^[5]

The conference borrows its name from the verse in the Bible "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."^[Ps 24:1].^[5][6]

Leadership

In each local church leadership is expressed in a plurality of local (male) elders (though generally one of the elders takes a leading or senior role), often with multiple staff. The raising and training of local leaders to run cell groups (often now called "life groups", "small groups" or "home groups"), worship teams and other ministries is seen as a priority. Newfrontiers runs an annual international leaders conference where thousands of church leaders come from around the world to gather for a mix of Bible teaching and lively worship services. This conference in Brighton runs concurrently with Mobilise for students and Christians in their 20s and attracts, in total, over 4,000 people a year including people from other denominations. The combination of these two events is now called Together On A Mission.^{[citation needed]}

Complementarianism

All Newfrontiers churches hold to a complementarian position on gender similar to that promoted by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This means that women are not allowed to occupy positions of governmental leadership within the local (or wider network of) churches, such as eldership or apostolic ministries.^[7]

Criticism

Some critics believe that Newfrontiers and other British restorationists are claiming too much when they speak of "restoring the church."^[8]

In 1986, sociologist and church historian Andrew Walker wrote of Newfrontiers that "churches are far more centralised and controlled than those of (...) mainline charismatic fellowships... The situation seems slightly analogous to Japanese business practices: they… export with great success, but import virtually nothing from anybody else".^[9]

In April 2009, the Journal of Beliefs and Values published an article reporting on a 2007 study which "set out to examine the psychological type profile of Lead Elders within the Newfrontiers network of churches in the United Kingdom and to compare this profile with the established profile of clergymen in the Church of England". One of the conclusions is as follows:

There is a toughness about this style of leadership that is unlikely to be distracted by opposition. The disadvantage is that this style of leadership can leave some individuals hurt and marginalised for what is seen by the leadership as the overall benefit to the organisation.^[10].

See also

• ChristChurch London, one of the largest Newfrontiers churches in the UK

References

This article lacks ISBNs for the books listed in it. Please make it easier to conduct research by listing ISBNs. If the {{Cite book}} or {{citation}} templates are in use, you may add ISBNs automatically, or discuss this issue on the talk page. (January 2011)

Further reading

• John Fleming. Bind Us Together: To Be the Church That Jesus Really Wants (Seaford: Thankful, 2007)
• John Hosier. Christ's Radiant Church (Oxford: Monarch Books, 2005)
• Terry Virgo. No Well-Worn Paths (Eastbourne: Kingsway, 2001) ISBN 0-85476-990-0
• Andrew Walker. Restoring the Kingdom: the Radical Christianity of the House Church Movement 4th Ed (Guildford: Eagle, 1998) ISBN 0-340-41470-7

External links

• Official website
• Newfrontiers, Registered Charity no. 1060001 at the Charity Commission

·