We’re aware that the systems and institutions that have shaped our societies are unravelling, struggling to make sense of a place we haven’t been before. No longer are there easy “fixes” for the systems in which we’ve lived for so long. Powerlessness is the defining emotion of our time.
At the same time the Spirit is stirring hope, imagination, energy and experimenting on the ground among God’s ordinary people. People are discovering ways of coming together to love God and their communities.
Our gathering lifts up these two tensions by listening to one another and attending to what the Spirit might be saying to us. It invites leaders seeking to address the question of mission in the unravelling to a conversation with the purpose of naming what is happening and discerning how we respond as God’s people.
We are delighted to have Roy Searle and his friend the Canadian missiologist and writer Alan Roxburgh to lead our time together. Their recently published book Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unravelling (Roxburgh and Searle, 2025) is receiving positive appreciation from many quarters here in the UK, across Europe and North America.
Our time together will offer the opportunity for Roy and Alan to share about the findings of their four year research in writing the book and engage all of us in looking at the signs of the times and how we might encourage one another to dwell in God and discern what the Spirit is saying in these unprecedented times and how we might explore and discover what it is to form and encourage communities of hope in a changing world.
Drinks will be served on arrival and again at lunchtime. A vegetarian sandwich lunch will be provided.
The cost for the day will be £10. Roy and Alan’s books will also be available at a heavily discounted price for participants.
We look forward to welcoming you and sharing together.
