In 2011 having overseen the exponential growth of the Newfrontiers family Terry Virgo and his team multiplied the work of Newfrontiers, entrusting it to a number of apostolic leaders who would take responsibility for their own teams and churches. Their vision was that by doing this it would release our family of churches to multiply mission across the nations. These multiple teams would continue to strengthen existing churches, plant new churches and raise up new leaders across the globe. One person described this period of transition as: “the sons are beginning to have families of their own!”
These changes didn’t happen overnight, in fact for many years Newfrontiers had been building a more regional structure which would eventually enable the emergence of these new apostolic teams. One of these ‘sons’ as described earlier was Jeremy Simpkins, who along with his wife Ann, moved from the South Coast, where they had been involved in leadership at Kings Church Hastings, to the North East of England, where Jeremy began to lead Jubilee Church Teesside.
Not long after this move, Jeremy began serving other local churches in the growing North East region of Newfrontiers. In 2004 these eight churches began hosting a joint weekend away called ‘North’, which attracted around 450 people. This event grew to become the ‘North Event’ which in 2012 gathered nearly 2,500 people.
More and more churches across the North of the UK began looking to Jeremy for apostolic leadership, giving birth to the North region of Newfrontiers UK (then known as Newfrontiers North UK). In 2009, Jeremy & Ann moved to lead the new leadership team at Christ Central Manchester, a Newfrontiers church in central Manchester which became the base for much of the work of the Newfrontiers North UK team.
In August 2012 the Newfrontiers North UK Team became known as ChristCentral (part of Newfrontiers). In 2018 having worked in partnership with the apostolic team overseeing Newfrontiers churches in Mexico the team and the churches they serve became ChristCentral Latin America. Similarly in 2019 having worked in partnership for many years Joseph Mwila brought his team and the churches they serve across Sub Saharan Africa into the ChristCentral family. As we continued to forge links with churches in Ukraine and Armenia we are now partnering with Newfrontiers teams in both nations.
ChristCentral is in a season of change and at such times it is vital to remind ourselves of our identity. It’s important for us to remember that we are primarily, friends enjoying God together and a family of churches on mission together. This is a journey of faith that shapes how we work together and we are developing new structures which we pray will bring greater flexibility and freedom. Of course, all this needs to be empowered by the filling of the Holy Spirit.