Could this be a time of convergence for us?

Lock-down forced many of us to stop and reconsider where to best invest the time we have left in life. Even the most activist among us needed to pause in the face of a global pandemic that has so far killed over a million people, stopped whole industries in their tracks and wrecked economies. And it’s not over yet. 

Part of my response has been to do what I can to better prepare for my days ahead. Since March I’ve been up at 5am each morning to create intentional space to better detect what this next season of life could look like. Some real answers started to emerge for me and decisions that may have taken years to make, have been truncated. 

I also set aside a week last month to walk the 100km St Cuthbert’s Way. As I rambled through the borderlands between Scotland and England and finished to the welcome of seals shrieking on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, my connections with God, as well as some close friends who joined me, felt renewed.  As we walked those holy landscapes together, facing the physical challenges of hiking too, my mind grew clearer and my heart grew lighter, ready for a new season of life. Could this be a time of convergence for us? Could what we do and who we are better sync together for more fruitful living?

I’ve needed to let go of some responsibilities to better focus my unique gifts with the right teams from the right bases. I have outlined these in more detail below, but here is a summary of where we see our next season:

1.     URC Ministers & neighbours planted in Winson Green to see its renewal. I was inducted as a United Reformed Church Minister and we started a new local congregation based from URC Lodge Road Community Church. We continue to live in community from Newbigin House which is also a base from which Anji leads Newbigin Community Trust and our FX ‘Church in a Yurt’.  Anji has been recognised as a URC Minister too. 

2.     Launching Seedbeds to better connect with urban communities and leaders to see more grow into fullness of life. I am now a co-CEO launching ‘Seedbeds’ (the new name of the Community for Reconciliation) with a special focus on ‘Seedbeds Learning’ (the new name of Newbigin School for Urban Leadership) based from The Greenhouse at Barnes Close.  Anji will lead the Seedbeds Global work to help build the capacities of our international partners. 

3.     Activist letting go of leading Red Letter Christians UK I helped start to see better suited leaders take RLC UK to the next level. I’ll continue to campaign with RLC UK and support the new leadership team as part of an RLC UK advisory group. 

I am so grateful for all who gave us freedom to focus our calling like this. In some cases, these roles have been years in the making. Anji and I recently found ourselves looking at each other and saying how amazed we are to have these opportunities together. Some opportunities have been hard won, but we feel ready to keep growing, going deeper too.

Our most fruitful years are ahead of us. I really hope you can experience a deep convergence in all you are and can do too.  

Shalom, 

Ash 

These refocused roles don’t come with salaries and so we continue to live at the level of the living wage raised by faith support to pursue these dreams. Please help us if you can.

1.    Planted in Winson Green to see its renewal.  

I have a fresh sense of call to be planted in Winson Green to better discern and see God’s dream for our neighbourhood come true. We belong here and are putting roots down. We relocated as a family to Winson Green in November 2014, but it feels like we’ve just begun to see our dreams starting to come true. I want to see this happen as a neighbour and a Minister. 

To better deepen, sustain and expand this call, on 27th September I was inducted as a United Reformed Church Minister with 32 new local members at our local Lodge Road Community Church. A global pandemic is not the easiest time to start a new 11am Sunday service to go with our 1pm FX Church in the Yurt (at Newbigin House, in backyard at the moment). I will also support a traditional service at 4pm (when it’s safe for the mostly elderly folks to do so) too. With this we also inherited one of the few large community buildings in Winson Green and we are dreaming together what might be possible. We’d love to see this become a base to release the unique God given talents, dreams and gifts of our neighbourhood. As you can see in the pictures it’s a huge opportunity and a huge challenge. 

Anji continues to lead Newbigin Community Trust and now also leads the FX ‘Church in the Yurt’ and has recently been recognised as a URC Minister too. With few community organisations open during the Covid crisis, Newbigin House became one of few bases of support for the most vulnerable. We have also recently re-opened NCT Benson Hub at a local Primary School and that too has been a buzz of locally led initiatives. There are real opportunities too to work in housing and alternative education sectors in Winson Green too. The re-opening of Lodge Road Church Centre as a base has come just in time. 

Please pray for the renewal of Winson Green. Especially pray for our local leaders and teams with their initiatives for change. Pray too for the re-purposing of Lodge Road Church Centre ready to become a base for neighbour’s dreams, visions and talents. Pray our local church can inspire heaven on earth in our neighbourhood. 

2.    Connected to grow leaders and communities by launching ‘Seedbeds’

I also have renewed passion to focus on seeing more leaders and communities grow into fullness of life here in the U.K. and beyond.  To do this in deeper and more expansive ways I’ve become co-CEO of ‘Seedbeds’ (the new name of CfR) with Rev Dave Mann from East London. Dave has been one of the great sources of inspiration here in the UK with his 30 plus years of local church and community organising experience. I’ll also have special focus on ‘Seedbeds Learning’ (the new name of Newbigin School for Urban Leadership) with leadership development for emerging leaders and accredited programmes. We have seen a remarkable and diversely gifted team and Trustees join together with a focus on four areas of engagement.  It hasn’t been easy over the last two years to negotiate this way forward, but we’re thrilled at where we’ve landed. This includes an exciting new vision and four areas of engagement.

The Greenhouse at Barnes Close: Part of taking up CfR was inheriting a thirty-bed retreat and education centre only 20 minutes from Winson Green. Nestled at the foot of Waseley Hills, my favourite hills to walk and pray on, “The Greenhouse at Barnes Close” will be our base to connect and see the unique potential of urban people and places released into deeper experiences of Shalom. It was such a joy this month to see the founders of CfR (John and Joan Johansen-burg) meet our new live-in Wardens Michelle and Ollie Chavez at The Greenhouse and open our library named in honour of the Johansen-burgs.

It’s been a tough time to take responsibility to renew an old retreat centre as well as build a team as well as merge and launch an organisation! Yet, we’ve already been able to host a Change Makers emerging leaders retreat, an MA intensive and Newbigin Community Trust youth and Forrest school programmes, as well as offering Glamping in Yurts with Alpahas!

We really need your prayers and financial support to help us get through this first phase if possible. Please pray too as Seedbeds, merged as an organisation, is launched. Please sign up to keep in contact with what is going on here. That we can see God’s dreams for local leaders and communities come true. That our based at The Greenhouse is renovated and ready for a new generation. We are working with APEC architects to help this happen and yesterday had an inspiring community consultation day. Would you pray too and look around the place virtually on first and second as well as third and fourth floors. 

3.    Instigations and letting go 

Over my three decades of ministry so far, I’ve been privileged to help instigate innovative organisations and to see other, more dynamic leaders go on to lead them further than I could. Some will know that I helped start Surrender Conferences, Urban Neighbours Of Hope  as well as many campaigns, local churches and social businesses. Since we moved to Winson Green, Birmingham in 2014 this dynamic seems to have sped up and has included Newbigin Community Trust, Urban Shalom Society, Soho Albion FC and most recently Red Letter Christians UK . All of these organisations are flourishing now without me needing to lead them. I love all these initiatives and often wished I didn’t have to let go and could be the one lead to them further. I know now, however, there is a complexity after the design and start-up phases that needs a different kind leadership. 

I’m especially delighted that the brilliant Naomi Bennett and Danielle Wilson will to take the lead of RLC UK. They helped shape RLC UK from the beginning and by taking on the leadership responsibilities of RLC UK will enable the quality of campaigning, connecting and communications to grow in even more prophetic and strategic ways. The new Red Letter Christians UK (CIC) Board of Directors will also include the wise and wonderful Dave Mann, alongside Naomi and Danielle. Dave was also part of the team that launched RLC UK and will be serving alongside me as the Co-CEO of Seedbeds, bringing his 30+ years of experience in local community and church development. He’ll continue the strong ‘family’ link as RLC UK forge collaborations with Seedbeds. 

A Lao Tsu poem from 700BCis a good reminder to me. This quote has shaped my approach to leadership from when we first relocated to Springvale, Melbourne in 1992.  

‘Go to the people. 

Live with them, 

Learning from them, 

Love them.

Start with what they know, 

Build with what they have.

But with the best leaders, 

The work done, the task accomplished, 

The people will say,

We’ve done it ourselves.’ 

Please pray for all those organisations, churches and enterprises we’ve helped initiate over the years. Pray they have all they need to thrive and pivot in these unprecedented times. 

What is Convergence? 

Bobby Clinton researched the lives of Christian leaders and found that very few leaders finish well. Those who did, however, experienced what he called a ‘convergence’ phase. He says:

“During Phase V convergence occurs. That is, the leader is moved by God into a role that matches gift-mix, experience, temperament, etc. Geographical location is an important part of convergence. The role not only frees the leader from ministry for which there is no gift, but also enhances and uses the best that the leader has to offer. Not many leaders experience convergence. Often, they are promoted to roles that hinder their gift-mix. Further, few leaders minister out of what they are. Their authority usually springs from a role. In convergence, being and spiritual authority form the true power base for mature ministry.” Robert Clinton, The Making of a Leader, p. 32-33. 

Please pray that Anji and I can experience convergence in this next season of life.