Do you know that New Life Church is part of a large family of churches around the globe called Catalyst? Sharon Clark, who works both for New Life and Catalyst, gives us the latest on our wider community of churches.

The Catalyst Network of Churches connects us with churches in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and beyond. Here in the UK there are more than 80 churches. We are regularly hearing stories of new churches being planted, and others coming into relationship with the network. 

In early November we had the privilege of hosting two Catalyst leaders’ days here in Milton Keynes. Simon Holley who leads Catalyst wrote this review of the gathering on his Facebook page, including mention of the recent focus on the importance of men and women leading together. Have a read as it provides a taste of who Catalyst is and what God is calling us to do together as a family. 

Do also scroll down to the bottom of this post to find out more about the Catalyst Festival, an exciting all-age event coming up in 2024. We’d love you to be part of that.

I am reflecting on some amazing Catalyst days looking at our vision, apostolic foundations and how we build healthy teams of men and women working together. I really felt the presence of God with us in such a sweet way.  

It was thrilling to cast fresh vision together, to lay out our apostolic foundations, to hear of the 300+ churches planted in the past ten years and dream together about what it would look like to train 1,000 church planters. I loved it all. 

What mostly stood out to me so strikingly, though, was the quality and calibre of the women on our teams. Their love for God, incredible gifting and anointing, brilliant leadership, faithfulness in service, graciousness even in pain, willingness to be vulnerable and also speak the truth in love and desire to work together to build a better future together was just stellar.  

What a moment to reflect on how God has called men and women to work together, and that only together can we build a better future for the church and the world and be the prophetic leadership model that we were called to be. “Do not lead like the gentiles,” Jesus said (my paraphrase!). We’re still working out what that looks like. It’s imperfect and there’s lots of work to be done but I feel hopeful.  […]  … if the Lord really has said to us ‘train 1,000 church planters’ then it’s going to take every one of us – women and men, young and old, single and married, black, brown and white to pull it off. Let’s weigh that together and pull together to play our part to see his kingdom fill the earth as we build communities of worshippers on mission together. Thank you to every woman and man who has and who will play your part! 

Tickets are now on sale for the Catalyst Festival

The Catalyst Festival is all about gathering together, loving God and mission ‒ empowering us to make a difference in our workplaces, communities and nations. We believe God has called us to be a blessing in every part of our society, using our skills and passions for the common good. And we also believe God has called us to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the nations of the world.

New Life Church will be gathering with other churches and people from around the world to worship Jesus, hear from the Bible, enjoy one another’s gifts, and get caught up in the bigger picture of what God’s doing.

Do come if you can. As a church family in Milton Keynes we want to prioritise meeting together with our wider family. Find out more and book your tickets at catalystnetwork.org/festival/

Sharon Clark