Church history shows the many strategies adopted by church movement pioneers as they look to transition from the first generation of leadership to the next. Some appoint a leadership successor or hand leadership over to a team convened for the purpose, some form a new denomination, while some simply keep going without any strategic consideration for the future. In 2011 Terry Virgo, who had pioneered and led the Newfrontiers movement to that point, commissioned those that he recognised as his spiritual sons to begin to form their own networks of churches. He effectively multiplied the one network led by him, to multiple networks of churches led by men now recognised as network leaders in their own right. These networks were to be autonomous, yet somehow remain collaborative and interdependent. Such radical intentional decentralisation is very bold and some might consider perilous to the future of the movement. It is an uncommon strategy and this talk explores whether multiplying autonomous network leaders can be considered an effective church movement succession strategy.

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Maurice Nightingale is a member of the Relational Mission core team with responsibilities that include the supervision of early-stage church planting on the mainland of Europe, in particular training and coaching pioneer leaders and developing strategies for both initiating and supporting church plants. Originally from London, and following a short career as a military engineering officer, he has since been involved for over 30 years in two main areas of service: planting churches and reviving failing churches. Maurice completed a master’s degree studying philosophies of church movement succession, exploring New Testament church leadership principles and practices. Maurice is married to Rachel, with four adult children.
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