The Seedbed team on a mission in Madrid

Seedbed: the training that changes 'Disciples Making Disciples’ from a catchphrase into a reality

King’s Church Warrington is an Elim church using its Seedbed scheme to equip believers for local and overseas mission. Darren and Jacky Johnson explain

Darren and Jacky, tell us about about Seedbed

Jacky: We started Seedbed in September 2021. It’s one year of training which aims to equip people who want to plant churches or share the gospel in their neighbourhoods, workplaces or friendship groups or to live as missionary disciples. We invite speakers who are leading or planting churches and who have prophetic or teaching gifts to help.

Darren: We meet on Thursdays – in person and on Zoom – for two hours and do simple teaching, discussion and life application. Then, we provide opportunities to go and pioneer missions in the UK or overseas.

Jacky: We’ve had around 25 people each year on Seedbed; from our own church, from places in the UK like Leighton Buzzard, Ipswich and Lancaster, and also from Elim Missions. We’ve had church leaders who’ve come with their churches and journeyed through Seedbed as a team too.

Darren: We get a real spectrum – people training to be international missionaries or already living overseas, Elim ministers, people who have retired and are thinking about how they can use their time for outreach, people who are looking to plant, and others who want to take the gospel to a new neighbourhood or network. The aim is disciple-making for all people.

Where did the idea come from?

Jacky: We visited our daughter and son-in-law, who were training to be missionaries in Mexico, and went to see a church planting network. The vision for Seedbed came from just being in that environment among missionaries where there was such a desire to see a heart for mission released in the body of Christ.

Darren: Visiting a city on the Mexican/US border, which has a lot of crime and drug cartels with missionaries living there, leading people to Jesus, serving the needs of the poor, living as community, inspired us to think about how we could put some training together that could help people to do likewise in all kinds of contexts back in the UK or in other places overseas.

Why did you call it Seedbed?

Darren: In Matthew 13, Jesus uses the picture of the seed in three different ways. He says sometimes the seed is like the Word of God, sometimes it’s like the kingdom of God, and sometimes it’s like the people of God. On Seedbed, we explore how the Word of God gives increase, how the kingdom increases and how we, as God’s people, increase and grow where God has placed or is sending us.

Tell us more about the programme

Jacky: We start the journey looking at identity and the importance of being secure in our relationship with our heavenly Father, with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. From there, we look at biblical models of people of peace and what that can look like in permanent settings like your workplace and family or temporary settings like prayer-walking on your estate or visiting the supermarket. We touch on things like social media and funding, too.

Darren: Then we look at how to build teams and live as a spiritual family. We think about how you identify with different people groups and how you scatter seed generally and with a focus – things like social action ministry, cross-cultural mission and so on. The big themes are: who are you in Christ? how do you live as a spiritual family? how do you reach out with the gospel? and how do you cross barriers with the gospel to plant a church or an expression of church in different contexts?

How are you seeing Seedbed help people with evangelism?

Jacky: Most weeks, we share stories and hear from people who’ve had an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus – that can be anything from actually leading someone to Christ or having a conversation or an opportunity to pray with someone.

Darren: We’ve seen people have words of knowledge where they meet someone who has specific needs with sickness or something. People have had opportunities to pray for the sick on the streets, in the supermarket or at the school gates, so there’s a real cross-section of things happening.

Jacky: We’ve had a couple on this year’s Seedbed from our own church who have just taken on a missional community. Seedbed helped them to form their vision and discover what God is saying to them, so it’s helping us to raise up leaders within our own context. Some people have stories from their workplace, which is really great too. They feel encouraged to step out in the place where they are, Monday to Friday.

Darren: We have a couple from our church who are missionaries who were training to be church planters. We went over to visit Abi and Manu while they were doing the training, and now they are planting Kaleo Church in Madrid. We take a team from Seedbed to them each year. This has a significant impact on people. Seedbed has helped people set off on the journey of church planting into new places. It has also helped people to live as missionaries in their neighbourhoods and everyday life. It has helped people to see who they are in Christ and how they belong in God’s family.

How does Seedbed fit into the wider work of your church?

Darren: Seedbed is a reflection of what we’re trying to do as a church – to live as missionary disciples in different neighbourhoods and networks around the town and to be a family on mission. We want to see people living as missionaries for Jesus, wherever they are.

To find our more about Seedbed email Darren and Jacky: info@kingschurchwarrington.co.uk

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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