What's The Plant all about?

Not unusually,  the aims of the churches that make up The Plant network are for us to know Christ better and to make him better known. Therefore, our activities are focused on sharing the good news about Jesus Christ with those who aren't Christians, and on building up and encouraging those who already follow Christ. At its heart, this means meeting together so that we can study the Bible with one another and encourage each other to grow in faith in Jesus.

In this section of our website, you'll find lot of information about who we are, what we do and what we believe. But first, here's a bit about the structure of The Plant, which is a little unusual: The Plant is not so much a church as a network of (currently) three churches: Sunday@10, Sunday@6 and Monday@7.

Three churches

Our three main church meetings form the heart of all that goes on at The Plant. These meetings are unlike most churches in various ways (e.g. none of them happen in a normal "church building"), but the way we do things is based on important principles from the Bible:

 1. Church like it was supposed to be

The format of Plant church meetings is based on Acts chapter 2, verse 42 - And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers:

• The main emphasis of each congregation’s regular meeting is on reading part of the Bible and exploring what God is saying in it. We believe the Bible is God's book, and that it utterly true and wonderfully relevant for us. The Bible teaching is  coordinated within The Plant network.
• These meetings always involve some form of corporate prayer.
• The meetings always include a meal, which means we sit round tables.
• The meetings always include an opportunity for structured discussion of the issues raised by the Bible teaching, and plenty of time to get to know each other better.

 2. Love that attracts other in

In John chapter 13, verse 35 Jesus told his disciples, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Our hope is that visitors to our church meetings will be drawn to Christ through our mutual, loving encouragement and pastoral care:

• The church meetings are informal in style.
• The congregations are small enough for people to have genuine relationships with one another.

 3. Small congregations sharing resources

These things really require relatively small congregations, so The Plant is committed to growing by starting new congregations rather than growing big ones. This way each church meeting is small enough that people all know one another and it really does feel like a family. However, because each church is small, it is necessary for them to work very closely together and share resources:

• The elder of each congregation is a member of The Plant network leadership team.
  He is accountable to and has been appointed by both his congregation and the other Plant elders.
  He is in theological agreement with The Plant leadership.
• The members of the congregation are also members of The Plant.  
• Many resources (e.g. staff, website, finances) are shared between the Plant churches.

One network

The Plant churches are all very closely linked together in terms of staffing, finances and administration. We have also found that there are a number of things that are better done as a network. These include prayer meetings and material; courses; Bible Reading Partnerships; events for enquirers and our anual weekend away.