Departments > Departments A-M > Church Planting & Adventist Mission

Church Planting & Adventist Mission

Michael Simpson

Before his ordination, Pastor Michael Simpson first served as a full time volunteer Taskforce Worker. He then went on to pastor in the Handworth Church (as Intern) and the Manchester district, before accepting the call to serve the North England Conference as Director for Church Planting, Adventist Mission & Personal Ministries.

Michael’s passion is to see the pastors and members (re-)discover their spiritual calling as bearers of the Three Angel’s Messages; that the church should awaken out of sleep, plant churches and give the final call to the lost in all un-entered areas of the conference, and the world.

Planting Churches Across the North of England

Church Planting is a special initiative, voted at the June 2008 Conference Session, to establish new Adventist churches across the NEC, especially in areas where there is currently no established church. God's love compels all NEC members to go into all its territory with the passion of Jesus and the compassion of His love, to reach out to all people who have not heard the Gospel in the context of the Three Angels Message.

As well as working with local congregations, the NEC Church Planting Department will seek to establish new congregations, to reach new people, especially in those areas where there is no Seventh-day Adventist presence, with the support of all departments. Unlike the Personal Ministries Department, the Church Planting Department is specifically geared towards planting and establishing new church plants.

This Department supports new initiatives where efforts are being made to plant new congregations, establish and support holistic groups, frontline ministries in un-entered areas and seeks to involve all church members and departments in the task of planting new congregations.

Objectives:

  1. The overall vision of the Church Planting ministry is to broadcast and drive the vision of the NEC church planting programme as portrayed in the Biblical scripture, especially the book of Acts. The ultimate aim of this department is to become co-labourers with Jesus Christ in building kingdom growth by reaching new people of every race, and especially the indigenous white community within the NEC Territory.
  2. It is the intention of the church Planting ministry to support existing churches in their vision to plant new churches to reach new people in aid of kingdom growth.
  3. It is also the intention of this ministry to take the initiative to have a vibrant church planting programme with a view to start new congregations in areas where none currently exist.

Global Missions

It is the intention of the NEC to promote the General Conference Global Mission [Advent Mission] objectives through the Church Planting department:

Global Mission is a special initiative, voted at the 1990 General Conference session, to establish new Adventist churches where there are none-to reach the unreached with hope. God's love compels Global Mission's holistic, compassion-driven outreach to people who haven't heard the Gospel story.

Although it's important to maintain and support existing missions and institutions, this isn't Global Mission's role. Global Mission supports local initiatives for frontline ministry in unentered areas and helps involve all church departments in this task.