Church revitalisation, alongside church planting, is an essential strategy for gospel growth in the countries of Europe. However, a church revitalisation strategy will only be effective if it takes account of the cultural context that has led to church decline in the first place, and is aware of the obstacles that need to be overcome to bring about essential change and restore church health. John Stevens draws on the specific experience of the Fellowship of Independent Churches in the post-Christian secular context of the UK, but the principles of contextualisation he identifies are transferable to other contexts such as atheist, Catholic or post-Communist societies. The talk does not seek to provide answers but rather equip leaders of networks and churches that have a vision for revitalisation to ask the right questions so that the probability of success is improved. 

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John Stevens is the National Director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, a family of over 500 Bible-centred churches in the UK, a position that he has held since 2010. Prior to this he was one of the founding pastors of City Evangelical Church Birmingham, which was planted in the centre of the UK’s 2nd largest city in 1999. He was instrumental in starting the Midlands Gospel Partnership, was the course Director of the Midlands Ministry Training Course and is a visiting lecturer at Oak Hill Theological College. John is also one of the pastors of Christchurch Market Harborough, a church he helped to plant when he took up his current role. He was converted whilst studying law at Cambridge University, and after taking a post-graduate degree at the University of Oxford worked for 16 years as a University Lecturer, ending his career as Deputy Head of the Law School at the University of Birmingham. John is married to Ursula and they have four children aged between 12 and 7. He blogs at www.john-stevens.com on theology, church life and ministry, culture and politics.

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