THE Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication (CCX) is being downsized in response to a funding gap, and a “significant number” of its employees are being made redundant, the chair of its trustees confirmed this week.
Two weeks ago, cash-flow projections indicated that the charity wouldn’t give you the option to proceed beyond the tip of June, and a redundancy process with staff was begun. The chair of trustees, the Rt Revd Pete Broadbent, said on Tuesday that the funding gap was identified after trustees of overseas partners “made the strategic alternative to redirect their funding to church growth in their very own countries”.
Efforts to fund-raise had secured offers from “a few major funders”, he said. “We have needed to downsize our operation — and sadly that has left a big variety of our staff redundant — but this recent pivot in our emphasis enables CCX to proceed in operation with a reduced staffing level.”
The Centre was established by Dr Ric Thorpe in 2015, after he became Bishop of Islington with a remit to guide the creation of 100 recent worshipping communities within the diocese of London and to support church-planting across the Church’s dioceses (News, 10 July 2015 and 29 June 2018). In subsequent years, church-planting took a central place within the Church’s drive for numerical growth, prompting rapid expansion of the Centre (News, 29 June 2018).
Its Myriad initiative was established in 2020, to support the national “Vision and Strategy” goal of building 10,000 lay-led worshipping communities by 2030 (News, 2 July 2021). It goals to “reach a million recent individuals with the excellent news of Jesus Christ”. On behalf of the diocese of London, it runs Creative Growth, offering courses and training as a part of a campaign for each church within the diocese to “start a journey of growth and multiplication” and to determine 400 recent worshipping communities by 2030. It also offers courses in pioneering, planting, and growing churches, the Become course for leaders on housing estates and in low-income areas, and support for resource-church leaders.
Having been established under the aegis of the London Diocesan Fund, the Centre was arrange an independent charity in 2023. The LDF transferred £721,571 to the Centre and paid £331,828 towards the fee of delivering its Vision 2030 programmes.
The Centre’s last annual report, filed in September, sets out plans for “expanding our work across the country” to support diocesan strategies. Income in 2023 totalled £2.5 million, and expenditure totalling almost £1.4 million and reserves of £1.1 million.
Income has been depending on donors and philanthropists, producing “uneven” cashflow, the report says. Grants made up 98 per cent of the income in 2023, of which 28 per cent was listed as “restricted”. This latter category included funding for “national work”, YWAM’s The Send project, and £217,000 from the London Diocesan Fund for Creative Growth. The Centre employed 22 people in 2023.
An announcement on the web site, published on Tuesday of last week, says: “As demand has grown in tandem with financial challenges, we have now pivoted to a recent operating model, under the prevailing charity. We are shifting from direct delivery to a lean, agile train-the-trainer model. This change will multiply CCX’s reach by equipping local leaders to deliver our content in their very own contexts.
“Our mission — to plant, grow, pioneer and serve on estates — stays at the guts of this shift. There is a recent chapter ahead for Myriad, as our lay-led planting initiative will turn into an independent charity — multiplying its impact while continuing to collaborate with CCX. . . This pivot is a daring, essential move — to not cut back, but to multiply mission in a time that demands creativity, stewardship and faith.”
The recent model was outlined alongside the announcement that Dr Thorpe had been elected as Archbishop of Melbourne (News, 30 May). His successor as executive director of CCX might be the Revd Herbert (“H”) Miller, Associate Vicar of St Barnabas’s, Kensington. He has served as Creative Growth Ambition Lead for the diocese of London, having begun church-planting within the United States within the Nineties.
On Monday, Bishop Broadbent said: “We are thankful to God for the prospect to hold on this work — a lot of the Christian life is death and resurrection, and nothing in regards to the Kingdom of God is ever pain-free.”
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