Previous Years
last Breakout gathering-2018
Theme : ‘Adventures of the Spirit’
We are excited to have Roy Searle who will be helping us explore ‘Adventures of the Spirit’ as we unpack the Celtic way of pioneering.
Roy was born and grew up on Tyneside and North Yorkshire and is passionate about the North East. He came to faith when he was training as an Outward Bound instructor in Scotland before going on to prepare for ministry at Lebanon Missionary Bible College, Berwick-upon-Tweed and University College, Cardiff. A creative, missional pioneer he began his church ministry at Portrack Baptist Church on Teesside, before becoming Senior Pastor at Enon Baptist Church in Sunderland. He is one of the founders of the Northumbria Community, where he has been one of its leaders since 1992.
He works ecumenically and has served in various aspects of denominational ministry, is a former President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and from January 2016 is working part time as the Baptist Union Coordinator for Pioneering in the North of England.
He is a visiting lecturer at several colleges including Spurgeon’s College, London, South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff and the former International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague. He has worked as a consultant, associate and adviser to individuals, several church, charity and secular organisations, including the Baobab Centre, York, Bible Society, Together in Mission and Torch Trust and is a board member of Renovare and the Journal of Missional Practice.
Roy travels extensively throughout Britain and the rest of Europe, encouraging people to love God and live generously. He has a wide range of interests, including leadership, missiology, new monasticism, Celtic spirituality, post-Christendom culture and serves as a mentor, spiritual director and worship leader.
He is one of the writers and contributors of the Northumbria Community’s very popular daily office, Celtic Daily Prayer and is currently working on a book on missional leadership and, together with Bishop Mark Tanner, (the former Warden of Cranmer Hall), is writing a book on the spiritual disciplines.
Roy is married to Shirley and they have four children and five grandchildren. He lives in the Cheviot Hills of Northumberland and enjoys sailing, tennis, badminton, curling, golf, walking, photography and being with his family and friends. As a loyal and long-suffering Middlesbrough football supporter he has come to appreciate the notion of purgatory!
Roy teaches on the leadership module at Cranmer, the new Free Church Missional Leadership course and as the Baptist Hub tutor he has pioneered and established Cranmer Hall as a college that trains people for Baptist ministry in conjunction with Northern Baptist College, Manchester.
Helping with one of the workshops is Jane Alton She has an interest in all kinds of Christian spirituality, including Celtic spirituality, especially in how their idea of the anam chara (soul friend) may be a model for mentoring or contemporary spiritual friendships. Jane will be around to chat over the 3 days too.
Jane Alton- is a Salvation Army officer (minister) and, with her husband David, have been a Salvation Army church leader in various places in Scotland before being appointed as Spiritual programme directors for the SA school for officer training in London for over 6 years. Now in SA church leadership in Bournemouth. Currently studying for an MA in applied theology with a Christian mentoring stream. Passionate about spiritual formation, journeying with others and Christian mentoring.
Breakout 2017
Theme : Radiclal and Rooted -Where we will discover that we need to go deeper into Gods love to enable us to go further for his kingdom with the help of 3 great speakers carolyn Skinner, Calvin Samuel and Paul Unsworth
Carolyn Skinner - Chief Executive of Third Space Ministries:
As a Baptist Minister, Carolyn has had experience of church leadership, community engagement, and mission in a variety of ways since 2005. 7
In working in partnership with other organisations Carolyn has been a sports chaplain at Royal Ascot 2007, Winter Paralympics 2010, Women’s Rugby World Cup 2010, Olympics and Paralympics 2012, Commonwealth Games 2014. She heads up ‘Love All, Serve All’, the annual initiative with the Wimbledon Tennis Queues. She is also a chaplain at a gym and has had experience of chaplaincy within the music industry. Carolyn has regularly worked with 24-7prayer in Ibiza as part of a team demonstrating God’s love in practical ways to holiday makers and workers. When not involved in Third Space Ministries, Carolyn can often be found going for a run, drinking coffee with friends, or sitting in the sun!
Calvin Samuel - Prnciple London School of Theology
Revd Calvin T Samuel BA MBA PhD will be the next Principal of London School of Theology . His previous appointments include Director of the Wesley Study Centre, Durham and Academic Dean of St John's College within the University of Durham. New Testament Lecturer at Spurgeon's College in London and Chaplain to Farrington’s School in Kent.
Calvin brings with him a wealth of experience, including previous roles as Assistant Director of Research and Faculty Administration at London Business School, and Visiting Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Nazarene Theological College in Manchester
Born in Barbados and raised in Antigua before coming to Britain to study for a BA in Theology and Pastoral Studies at Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, Dr Samuel went on to complete an MBA at Manchester Business School before pursuing PhD research at King’s College London. Calvin is a Methodist minister and is married to Ramona who is also an ordained Methodist. His interests outside of work include blogging and Formula 1 (watching not driving). He has research interests in holiness in Scripture and in Wesleyan tradition.
Paul Unsworth -
Baptist minister Paul Unsworth established a commercial coffee shop, which is also home to a church community, in London's Brick Lane. Kahaila opened in June 2012 and there are now plans for another.
https://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories/kahaila
Breakout 2016
At this year’s gathering we want to reclaim the words "Good News". We want to explore together what this news means to us as Pioneers, our communities and the world. We will be engaging with some speakers and hearing lots of our stories to help us think creatively about what is good and news.’
John 10:27 “My Sheep Listen to my Words”
This year will again have a stream for ‘new pioneers’ as part of our programme and As usual there will be plenty of time for meeting old and new friends, having fun, and learning & worshipping together.
Good news and Me with Ruth Perrin
Ruth was on staff at Kings Church, Durham 2006 to 2013 and continues as an associate staff member. She has over 20 years of experience in mission, discipleship and Bible teaching particularly focussing on the discipleship and leadership formation of young adults. She recently completed a PhD in the Durham Department of Theology and Religion. Her research has included role models among young evangelical women and the ordinary hermeneutics of Generation Y. She has published a Grove Booklet, B52 Inspiring Women (2009), a chapter in The Faith Lives of Women and Girls, Slee (ed), (Ashgate, 2013) and writes forwww.cloudofwitnesses.org. She enjoys movies, gardening, loves travelling and writes the Cloud of Witnessses website.
Good News and the Community with Simon Thomas
He is director and founder of CitytoCity network(2008), a global city network of people working together in different spheres of society collaborating to bring innovation, inspiration and an intentionality in seeing our cities flourish and develop in “Just” prosperity, health, wholeness and value. He is national /International trainer and Strategist for Steet Pastors International, working with local councils and police forces Nationally and Internationally to foster peace and cohesion in their communities particularly as far as a good and healthy street culture is concerned. he is a trustee and co founder of Columbus barns , a new monastic spiritual retreat centre that combines spirituality, land and social farming enterprise. A senior Leader (Team leadership) of Trinity Church Network in Dublin. Responsible for helping grow strategy, creative thinking in the outworking of their vision and ethos.This also involves developing and mentoring leadership and taking joint responsibility financially, relationally, strategically across the TCN community. Mentoring and developing leaders in community organisations and different spheres of society in many parts of the UK/ internationally in the profit and not for profit sectors. He is A director of Advisory team on National Conservation •Trustee of XLP (National Urban youth project)
Good News and the World with Dr Harvey Kwiyani
Dr Harvey Kwiyani is an emerging younger generation African missiologist who has spent over ten years working both as a scholar and a practitioner in missions in Europe and North America. He graduated with a PhD from Luther Seminary in 2012, having researched the theological implications of the missionary work of Africans in North America. Harvey has now published some of his research findings in his new book, Sent Forth: African Missionary Work in the West (2014, Orbis Books). He teaches missions, leadership, and African studies at Birmingham Christian College and at Church Mission Society (CMS) in Oxford. He is also research fellow at the Cuddesdon Study Centre at Ripon College, Cuddesdon.
Breakout 15
The Breakout Conference 2015 was held at High Leigh Conference Centre from Wednesday 30th to Friday 2nd October.
This year was slightly different as we wanted to create our own learning community so that we learn together as pioneers from each other at the gathering. We explored together in different ways the responsibilities and vulnerabilities of being pioneers.
At this years gathering we explored together what a 'stripped back' pioneer might looked ike, it helped us reflect on our own anchor points and the support we might require. We heard lots of stories to help us think imaginatively about our own situations. Growth and multiplication are becoming buzz words in our churches and so we asked how this might impact our work as pioneers.This year for the first time there was a stream for 'new pioneers' as part of our programme.
As usual there was plenty of time for meeting old and new friends, having fun,worshipping together and relaxing This year we had a very special 'Thursday night experience' to let our hair down. - Breakout Bollywood Bhangra party. We dressed up, busted some bhangra moves and a simple curry quiz.
Click on the ‘Bookings’ tab to make sure of your place.
2014 George Lings &
George Lings was a curate and then vicar for 22 years. From 1997 he has worked for Church Army, directing its Research Unit. His focus is ecclesiology and the re-imagination of Church.
He served on the working party producing the 1994 church planting report Breaking New Ground. He later wrote large parts of Mission-shaped Church, which has had a seminal effect in several continents. He has spoken about fresh expressions of Church around the developed world. His doctorate was on a component of the theological foundations for fresh expressions of Church.
Other outputs include lecturing at various dioceses and colleges, and from 1999-2012 published the fruits of research into local stories through the quarterly Church Army booklets Encounters on the Edge. He became a Canon of Sheffield Cathedral in 2011.
Martin Daws &
An outstanding performance poet whose live sets blend free musicality and innovative lyricism in a unique improvised theatre, Martin Daws' work explores life, history, nature and who the hell we think we are, anyway!
With extensive experience performing both as a headline and feature poet at spoken word shows, music events and major festivals, Martin is widely acknowledged as a highly original poet whose performances guarantee power, edge and tenderness in equal measure.
In recognition of his exceptional work as a poetry activist Martin Daws was announced in April 2013 as Young People's Laureate for Wales. Currently very active in this role, Martin works across Wales to engage and inspire young people to empower themselves through their creativity.
Olive Drane
Olive Fleming Drane is an affiliate professor in the School of Theology
of Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, California and a Fellow of St John’s
College, Durham. Until recently she was also chaplain at International
Christian College in Glasgow, where she lives. She is the author of
Clowns, Storytellers, Disciples (Fortress Augsburg 2004) and
Spirituality to Go: rituals and reflections for everyday living (Darton
Longman & Todd 2006), and was the lead researcher for a major report on
fresh expressions of church in Scotland – Reformed, Reforming, Emerging
and Experimental (Church of Scotland 2011). She is a regular speaker
on new forms of church at conferences and other events and wrote the
worship materials for the mission shaped ministry course.
2013: Stuart Murray Williams
Stuart Murray Williams works as a trainer and consultant under the auspices of the Anabaptist Network. Based in Bristol, he travels widely in the UK and overseas and works with local churches, mission agencies, denominational leaders, conferences and individuals. . His particular areas of expertise include church planting,urban mission, mission in post-Christendom and the contribution of the Anabaptist tradition to contemporary missiology. He is the founder of Urban Expression, a pioneering urban church planting agency with teams in several cities in the UK and in The Netherlands. He has written many books, recent publications include Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World (Paternoster 2004), Church after Christendom (Paternoster 2005), Changing Mission (CTBI 2006), Planting Churches: A Framework for Practitioners (Paternoster 2008) and The Naked Anabaptist (Herald 2010). He is married to Sian, who is a tutor at the Baptist College in Bristol.
2012: Ann Morisy
Ann Morisy is a freelance community theologian and lecturer. She directed the Commission that wrote the report 'Faithful Cities' and has written on the spirituality of public transport, ageing, neighbourliness as a radical, and has written two bestselling books - Beyond the Good Samaritan and Journeying Out.
2011: Jonny Baker
Breakout Gathering September 2011 invited Jonny Baker from CMS (Church Missionary Society) to come and share with us. Jonny picked the title “DREAMERS WHO DO”. He explained that dreamers who do are that kind of people who are able to see, imagine, dream differently to broker newness but they are also able to then catalyse actively that leads to the transformation envisioned.
Jonny then looked at three themes:
Prophetic Imagination - “The task of prophetic
ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception
alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture
around us.”
Prophetic Ministry - “There can be no constructive
change at all, even in church, unless there is some form of dissent. By
dissent I mean simply the proposing of alternatives, and a system that
is not continuously examining alternatives is not likely to evolve
creatively.”
Prophetic Mission - “Prophecy might be the best single word to describe the reality of mission in today's world”
With over eighty delegates gathering we had a real treat and challenge from Jonny so to hear more from him on these topics go to the downloads page.
