January 30, 2019
Frank Hitchings, Senior Associate Pastor
I am so excited for this year’s World Mission Conference, and I want to share with you some of the reasons for my excitement!
In 1999, the LMPC World Missions Committee graciously allowed me to travel to the United Kingdom with my dear friend and fellow pastor Ed Norton of Independent Presbyterian Church of Memphis (where I grew up).
Although the UK has a rich Christian history, church attendance has fallen dramatically in the last 50 years. Ralph Cunnington of City Church Manchester (one of the churches LMPC supports) points out that, although the greater Manchester area is the 2nd largest metropolitan area in England (with 2.8 million residents), church attendance is only 4%. Compare that with church attendance rates in the American south of over 40%, and the difference is striking.
From that very first trip, we sensed a wonderful opportunity for US churches to partner with like-minded UK pastors and churches to support and encourage church growth and church planting. Over the next decade or so, we worked closely with Scottish pastors like David Meredith and David Robertson of the Free Church of Scotland.
This eventually led to the beginning of the UK Partnership in 2013, with what seemed like an aggressive goal at the time – investing $1 million over 10 years directly into the planting of indigenous, Reformed churches in the UK. What would make this partnership different from others was that the UKP would have no staff, no membership fees, and no overhead – 100% of every dollar would go directly to UK church planting. The plan was simple: the UKP would introduce PCA congregations to UK nationals to help facilitate church-to-church relationships that would result in church planting throughout the UK.
The UK Partnership meets every fall and alternates between meeting in the US one year and in the UK the next. LMPC had the opportunity to host the 2016 meeting, and PCA churches from around the region came together to hear gifted, winsome UK church planters share of wonderful Gospel opportunities for church planting.
Indeed, we have seen God work in amazing ways, and today, 20 PCA churches in the United States are partnered with churches (and church planters) in 4 different UK denominations. The 10-year goal of $1 million was reached at the five-year mark!
LMPC’s World Missions Conference this year will highlight several of these relationships with three of the church plants we support being represented at the conference. This year’s guests include:
- Jonathan de Groot who is church planting in Glasgow, Scotland
- Matt Waldock who is church planting in Manchester, England
- Jonty Rhodes who is church planting in Leeds, England
- Lydia and Robbie Sweet (former LMPC staff members) who are serving with MTW in St. Andrews, Scotland
- Emma Kate (a lifelong LMPC member) who will be heading to Cardiff, Wales
- David Stoddard who is the International Director for MTW Europe
Additionally, this spring we’ll be hosting an intern, Malc Clark, from City Church Manchester. Malc (and his wife Judy and their infant daughter) will join us on the mountain for a month beginning April 1. He will work alongside our pastoral staff, assisting with services, teaching Sunday school, and generally immersing himself in the life of our church.
As my friend Dr. Sean Lucas (senior pastor of IPC Memphis) says, “The Great Commission takes us across the street and around the world.” With all the exciting things going on in church planting in the UK, I would invite you to begin praying for our conference now and plan to attend the events throughout the weekend of March 1-3.
