Newfrontiers

Last updated

Newfrontiers
Founded1979
FounderTerry Virgo
Type Reformed neo-charismatic church network
Location
  • United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
Members
800+ churches
Key people
Terry Virgo, David Devenish
Website Official website
Registered Charity number: 1060001

Newfrontiers (previously New Frontiers International) is a neo-charismatic church network of evangelical, charismatic churches founded by Terry Virgo. It forms part of the British New Church Movement, which began in the late 1950s and 1960s 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 describes itself as "a group of apostolic leaders partnering together on global mission, joined by common values and beliefs, shared mission and genuine relationships". [2] 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 to the movement in 1990 by Paul Cain, a Latter Rain revivalist. [3]

Contents

New Addington Community Church is a Newfrontiers congregation in suburban London. Wolsey Chapel, Dunley Drive - geograph.org.uk - 748204.jpg
New Addington Community Church is a Newfrontiers congregation in suburban London.

History

The logo for the Stoneleigh Bible Weeks Stoneleigh bible week logo.jpg
The logo for the Stoneleigh Bible Weeks

In the early days of the movement a Bible week called "The Downs" was held at Plumpton Racecourse each year. This was replaced by "Stoneleigh Bible Week", which was held at the National Agricultural Centre showground. After the Stoneleigh Bible Week was stopped, a number of smaller more regional events were started, such as "North Camp" which was held in the North of England near Teesside. After running for 10 years "North Camp" was to cease after the 2013 event. Then after two years it started again under a new name, 'Devoted'. Newday is a camping event attended by young people between the ages of 12 and 19. [4]

In 2011, Terry Virgo handed over leadership to a score of leaders worldwide, each of whom is described as being "free to develop his own strategies, training programs, and gospel advance". He also handed general oversight of Newfrontiers to Dave Devenish. [5]

In 2020, Dave Devenish handed general oversight of Newfrontiers to Steven Tibbert. [6]

Beliefs

Fundamental Beliefs

Newfrontiers affirms the four ecumenical creeds (the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Chalcedonian Definition, and the Athanasian Creed) [7] . As protestants, Newfrontiers churches affirm the Heidelberg Catechism, but reject infant baptism [8] . As a contemporary evangelical network, Newfrontiers also affirms the Evangelical Alliance statement of faith and the Lausanne Covenant [9] .

Core Values

In 2024, Newfrontiers released a "Theological Statement", outlining key distinctives [10] . They are outlined below:

Word-based

Newfrontiers believes in the absolute truthfulness, sufficiency and final authority of Scripture. This value is expressed through the Bible having the central place in governing doctrine, practice, ethos and patterns of church life.

Grace-filled

Newfrontiers believes that the message of grace and the gospel is central to the Christian life and local church. Salvation is a work of God from start to finish.

Spirit-empowered

Newfrontiers believes in continuationism, that all spiritual gifts are available today. Newfrontiers believes being indwellt and being filled with the Holy Spirit are two distinct experiences.

Elders in each local church

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.

Ephesians 4 ministries

Newfrontiers believes that all Ephesians 4 ministeries operate today and congregants are encouraged to use their giftings in the churches. Elders are also encouraged to receive apostolic oversight.

Servantheartedness

Newfrontiers believes that Christian leadership should be godly, transparent and accessible.

Local church focused

Newfrontiers operates with a form of congregationalism and regard the local church as the centre of God's mission and purposes.

Mission ought to be expressed locally, globally and holistically

Local churches should be engaging with mission globally as well as reaching the poor and marginalised in society.

Contextual freedom in application

All the core values may be contextualised and adapted depending on the context of the local church.

Positions

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 elders or apostolic ministers. However, women are leaders – and in many churches actively preach, teach and are a part of decision making affecting local, regional and national church decisions. Women also hold positions in almost every other area in the church and are encouraged to do so. [11]

Homosexuality

Newfrontiers do not believe that being gay is a sin, but that sexual acts of homosexuality are not acceptable. It strongly condemns homophobia. However, views differ from church to church. There have been claims that at least one Newfrontiers church has attempted to "cure" gay people, though these have been strongly disputed. [12]

Spiritual strongholds

A book by prominent Newfrontiers leader David Devenish on "spiritual warfare", praised by Terry Virgo as a text that "will help to fortify every believer intent on winning this battle", defines spiritual warfare as

The reality that the advance of the gospel and the building of the church involve us in attacking and experiencing counter-attack in relation to real cosmic forces of darkness under the control of Satan who is also described as the god of this world. [13]

Structure

Since 2011, Newfrontiers has been split into spheres under their own apostolic leadership. [14]

These include

Responses

Nigel Wright believes that Newfrontiers and other British restorationists are claiming too much when they speak of "restoring the church". [24]

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". [25]

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:

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. [26]

In February 2016, musician Joseph Coward wrote an article for Vice Magazine, in which he described a now disbanded Newfrontiers church. He claimed that it had "all the hallmarks of a cult". [27]

Related Research Articles

The Jesus Army, also known as the Jesus Fellowship Church and the Bugbrooke Community, was a neocharismatic evangelical Christian movement based in the United Kingdom, part of the British New Church Movement. The name Jesus Army was used specifically for the outreach and street-based evangelism for which they were known. The Jesus Fellowship was founded in 1969, when Noel Stanton (1926–2009), at that time the lay pastor of the Baptist chapel in the village of Bugbrooke near Northampton, East Midlands, was inspired by a charismatic experience which led him to successfully expand the congregation, largely by appealing to a younger generation of worshippers. As the new church grew and became more charismatic in nature, many of the original congregation left to continue worshipping in more traditional churches. The Jesus Fellowship grew considerably and by 2007 there were approximately 3,500 members in around 24 congregations in various cities and towns of the UK. The Jesus Fellowship frequently engaged in evangelism in public places, seeking through outreach to demonstrate the love of Jesus and the moving of the Holy Spirit. The Fellowship used various slogans, in its early days adopting "Love, Power & Sacrifice" and later "Jesus People, Loving People", and the name "Jesus Army". The church announced in May 2019 that it "will cease to exist and the current National Leadership Team will be stepping down from their roles once the winding up of the central Church has been completed". Members had voted on 26 May 2019 to revoke the Church's constitution, after a decline in membership to less than 1,000 following claims against its founder and two other then members of the church of a history of sexual assault during the 1970s. It was planned that the Jesus Centres charity the church created would continue to operate and that individual churches would become independent congregations. Fewer than 200 people were still living in communal households of the Jesus Fellowship. In October 2021, Companies House certified the change of name from Jesus Centres Trust (1165925) to JCT - Joining Communities Together Limited. Since December 2020, the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust has existed as a residuary body with the sole purpose of winding up the administrative affairs of the Jesus Fellowship Church.

New Covenant Ministries International (NCMI) is an international Neo-charismatic Christian church network founded by Dudley Daniel in South Africa in the early 1980s, currently led by Tyrone Daniel, and active in about 100 countries. NCMI defines itself as a trans-local ministry team which helps pastors/elders build their local churches and equip Christian believers. Independent commentators tend to describe NCMI as not just this team of leaders, but the network of all affiliated churches who partner to the NCMI team, and say it has some characteristics of a denomination. Unlike most denominations, individual churches affiliated with NCMI retain their autonomy and are not required to sign a common constitution or statement of beliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sovereign Grace Churches</span> Network of Protestant churches

Sovereign Grace Churches is a group of reformed, continuationist, and confessional Christian churches primarily located in the United States. Sovereign Grace believes that churches should exist in a close partnership with one another and describe themselves as a family of churches. In addition to the U.S. congregations, there are also congregations in Mexico, Australia, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Great Britain, Germany, and many other countries.

The Neo-charismaticmovement is a movement within evangelical Protestant Christianity that is composed of a diverse range of independent churches and organizations that emphasize the current availability of gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues and faith healing. The Neo-charismatic movement is considered to be the "third wave" of the Charismatic Christian tradition which began with Pentecostalism, and was furthered by the Charismatic movement. As a result of the growth of postdenominational and independent charismatic groups, Neo-charismatics are now believed to be more numerous than the first and second wave categories. As of 2002, some 19,000 denominations or groups, with approximately 295 million individual adherents, were identified as Neo-charismatic.

Terry Virgo is a prominent leader in the British New Church Movement, formerly known as the House Church Movement. He is the founder of the Newfrontiers family of neocharismatic evangelical churches, which has grown into an international apostolic network of over 1500 churches in more than 70 nations. He is a leading Calvinist Charismatic. He has five grown up children and twelve grandchildren.

The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a theological belief and controversial movement that combines elements of Pentecostalism, evangelicalism and the Seven Mountain Mandate to advocate for spiritual warfare to bring about Christian dominion over all aspects of society, and end or weaken the separation of church and state. NAR leaders often call themselves apostles and prophets. The movement was founded by and is heavily associated with C. Peter Wagner. Long a fringe movement of the American Christian right, it has been characterized as "one of the most important shifts in Christianity in modern times." The NAR's prominence and power have increased since the 2016 election of Donald Trump as US president. Theology professor André Gagné, author of a 2024 book on the movement, has characterized it as "inherently political" and said it threatens to "subvert democracy." American Republican politicians such as Mike Johnson, Doug Mastriano, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert and activists such as Charlie Kirk have aligned with it. Some groups within the broader Apostolic-Prophetic movement have distanced themselves from the NAR due to various criticism and controversies.

The Apostolic-Prophetic movement is a US-based Christian movement founded in the early 2000s. It is a network of non-denominational alliances of independent churches and ministries.

Ministries Without Borders (MWB) is an Evangelical neocharismatic Apostolic network of nearly 50 Christian churches, that forms part of the British New Church Movement. It is led by Keri Jones. Keri is the brother of the late Bryn Jones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical Christian Church in Canada</span>

The Evangelical Christian Church(Christian Disciples) as an evangelical Protestant Canadian church body. The Evangelical Christian Church's national office in Canada is in Waterloo, Ontario.

Barney Coombs was a British religious leader, and the first leader of the International Council of Salt and Light Ministries, and Senior Leader at West Coast Christian Fellowship in Vancouver, Canada. Salt and Light is a network of neocharismatic Evangelical Christian churches that is part of the British New Church Movement. Coombs was received apostolically by many Charismatic churches in North America, Africa, India, Europe, the UK and New Zealand, and was seen as the 'father' of the Salt and Light family of churches. He was married to Janette until his death in 2018 and they had three children and eight grandchildren.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Protestant Christianity</span> Protestants of Eastern Christendom

The term Eastern Protestant Christianity encompasses a range of heterogeneous Protestant Christian denominations that developed outside of the Western world, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, and retain certain elements of Eastern Christianity. Some of these denominations came into existence when active Protestant churches adopted reformational variants of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox liturgy and worship, while others originated from Orthodox groups who were inspired by the teachings of Western Protestant missionaries and adopted Protestant beliefs and practices.

The British New Church Movement (BNCM) is a neocharismatic evangelical Christian movement. Its origin is associated with the Charismatic Movement of the 1960s, although it both predates it and has an agenda that goes beyond it. It was originally known as the "house church movement", although this name is no longer relevant as few congregations meet in houses. Gerald Coates, one of the early leaders, coined the name New Churches as an alternative. It is also restorationist in character, seeking to restore the church to its 1st century equivalent. While the Charismatic Movement focused on the transformation of individuals, the BNCM focused also on the nature of the church. For the BNCM since 1970, this has focused on the renewal of the fivefold ministries, particularly apostles, which for others might resemble a charismatically ordained and functioning episcopate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lou Fellingham</span> Musical artist

Louise "Lou" Fellingham is an English Christian worship leader, singer and songwriter from Brighton in East Sussex, England. She is a founding member of the British band Phatfish and has also pursued a solo career. In 2008, she won a Christian Broadcasting Council (CBC) Award for her album Promised Land, in the category of Best Worship. She has worked alongside other Christian artists such as Matt Redman, Graham Kendrick, Tim Hughes and Stuart Townend. She regularly leads worship and performs at different venues around the world. A rendition of Fellingham leading the hymn "In Christ Alone" has had more than six million views on YouTube.

William John Ernest (Ern) Baxter (1914–1993) was a Canadian Pentecostal evangelist.

Ichthus Christian Fellowship is a neocharismatic Christian church movement and Apostolic network based in London, United Kingdom. It is part of the British New Church Movement (BNCM) and has links with other BNCM leaders and movements, especially Gerald Coates of Pioneer Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger T. Forster</span> British theologian (1933–2024)

Roger Thomas Forster was a British Christian theologian who was the founder of Ichthus Christian Fellowship, a neocharismatic Evangelical Christian Church that forms part of the British New Church Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. Peter Wagner</span> American missionary and author

Charles Peter Wagner was an American missionary, writer, teacher and founder of several Independent Charismatic Christian organizations. He is known for leading and building the New Apostolic Reformation, a network in the Apostolic-Prophetic movement. In his earlier years, Wagner was known as a key leader of the Church Growth Movement and later for his writings on spiritual warfare.

The Open Brethren, sometimes called Christian Brethren, are a group of Evangelical Christian churches that arose in the late 1820s as part of the Assembly Movement within the Plymouth Brethren tradition. They originated in Ireland before spreading throughout the British Isles, and today they have an estimated 26,000 assemblies worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Osgood</span> British church leader, author and director

Hugh James Osgood is a British church leader, author, and director. He was appointed Moderator of the Free Churches Group on 17 September 2014, following the resignation of Michael Heaney, and was the first President to serve for successive terms. He was also the Free Churches President of Churches Together in England, and is the co-convenor of the UK Charismatic and Pentecostal Leaders’ Conference, and founding President of Churches in Communities International. He is largely known for his work on racial justice, social cohesion and supporting African Christianity in the United Kingdom.

References

  1. Walker, Andrew (1984), Martin, David; Mullen, Peter (eds.), Strange Gifts? A Guide to Charismatic Renewal, Oxford: Blackwell, p. 214, ISBN   0631133577, LCCN   84008861
  2. "About Us". New frontiers together. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  3. Kay, William K (2007), Apostolic Networks in Britain: New Ways of Being Church, Milton Keynes: Paternoster, p. 260, ISBN   9781556354809
  4. "About us". New day generation. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
  5. The History of Newfrontiers, Terry Virgo, retrieved 13 August 2013
  6. https://newfrontierstogether.org/newfrontiers-story/
  7. https://newfrontierstogether.org/about-newfrontiers/.
  8. https://newfrontierstogether.org/about-newfrontiers/.
  9. https://newfrontierstogether.org/about-newfrontiers/.
  10. https://newfrontierstogether.org/docs/2024-09_Core_Values_of_Newfrontiers.pdf
  11. "Our seventeen values", Together, archived from the original on 19 May 2010[ clarification needed ]
  12. Doward, Jamie; Flyn, Cal; Rogers, Richard (2 May 2010), "Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to 'cure' gay people", The Observer , London, archived from the original on 14 September 2013, retrieved 6 September 2013
  13. Devenish, David (2013), Demolishing Strongholds (rev. ed.), Milton Keynes: Authentic Publishing, ISBN   978-1-860-24371-4
  14. https://newfrontierstogether.org/newfrontiers-story/
  15. https://www.advancemovement.com/
  16. https://catalystnetwork.org/
  17. https://christcentralchurches.org/
  18. https://www.commission.global/
  19. https://www.confluencechurches.org/
  20. https://dnachurches.com/
  21. https://newgroundchurches.org/
  22. https://regionsbeyond.net/
  23. https://www.relationalmission.org/
  24. Wright, Nigel (1986), The Radical Kingdom: Restoration in Theory and Practice, Kingsway: Eastbourne, pp. 118–9, ISBN   0-86065-399-4 .
  25. Walker, Andrew (1986), Restoring the Kingdom: the Radical Christianity of the House Church Movement (2nd ed.), London: Hodder & Stoughton, pp. 317–8, ISBN   034051406X .
  26. Francis, Leslie J; Gubb, Sean; Robbins, Mandy (2009), "Psychological type profile of Lead Elders within the Newfrontiers network of churches in the United Kingdom" (PDF), Journal of Beliefs & Values, 30 (1): 61–9, doi:10.1080/13617670902784568, S2CID   44924301 .
  27. Coward, Joseph (2 February 2016). "I Grew Up in a Religious Cult in Essex". Vice. Retrieved 1 August 2020.

Further reading