A short history of Relational Mission

Below is a re-post blog from our dear friends at PLANT NIJMEGEN outlining the key values our network of churches (Relational Mission) holds dear. We recently sent a wonderful couple called Ben and Mikka Parker to be part of the core team that is pioneering the church plant. Ben served as an elder at Redeemer, and Mikka was on staff. They helped plant Redeemer in 2015 and are going again. Head to the PLANT NIJMEGEN website to find out more.

When talking about our family of churches I am often asked the question what is Relational Mission?

In short, the answer is that Relational Mission is a family of churches that was birthed out of a network of churches called New Frontiers.

Relational Mission is a family of churches that work together through mutual relationships and combined mission. It’s a family of churches of around 70+ churches working together across the UK, Europe and increasingly worldwide.

The longer version of the story goes like this.

In the 1960 and 70’s a charismatic renewal took place around the world.  This renewal was called ‘the Charismatic movement’ which was marked by unprecedented outpourings of the Holy Spirit among Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Catholics and Methodists. God used leaders such as John Wimber, Benny Hinn, Billy Graham etc. to bring the church into motion.  This Charismatic movement was marked by large numbers of people being filled for the very first time in the Holy Spirit and through this receiving the gifts of the Spirit such as speaking in tongues, prophesying etc.  

Some churches embraced this change and it transformed the way they did church whilst remaining part of their traditional church denominational structures. Churches such as Holy Trinity Brompton, that later became well known for pioneering Alpha, an evangelistic course used all around the world. 

At the same time, many traditional churches resisted such change and banned believers from speaking of baptism in the Spirit or using their new-found spiritual gifts in the life of the church. Such believers were confined to using such gifts in personal or home group contexts whilst slowly growing dissatisfied with the lack of charismatic expression in the church. There where local churches remained closed to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, believers over time were compelled to start new churches according to New Testament patterns.

As such, many new church movements started such as Sovereign Grace ministries, Vineyard, New Wine, Ichtus, Salt and Light etc. In this season New Frontiers was birthed too.

It started with Terry Virgo, the founder of Newfrontiers, being baptized in the Spirit himself as a young believer. After attending London Bible College and taking up church ministry he soon began to travel and help others to learn and grow in the gifts of the Spirit. He started to gather these people yearly at Downs Bible Week and later Stoneleigh Bible Week. Over time he gathered a team to help him serve the churches he connected with and in 1986 they became officially known as Newfrontiers. Over time Newfrontiers grew out to be a family of around 800 churches in 70 nations.

In 2011 Terry rather than handing over to a successor felt led to multiply the movement into 15 new families of churches across the globe each with their own leadership teams. Relational Mission was one of these families of churches. New frontiers became the name under which the leaders of these new families of churches continue to work together. Between them there are now around 2000 churches connected world wide.

Relational Mission was originally founded by Mike Betts and recently Maurice Nightingale and Steff Liston were added to together form a team of apostles.

Hopefully this gives a quick impression of our history so far. If you are interested to find out more, feel free to use the links below.

Find out more about Relational Mission HERE
Find out more aout Newfrontiers HERE

Wouter Vertegaal
Teamleader Plant Nijmegen

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