As a Salt & Light Advance family of churches we want to see individuals and local churches flourish and thrive so the Kingdom of God can extend and transform the world around us.
As Christians, we need to belong to a church family that’s thriving - so we can thrive personally: growing and serving, being discipled and stretched, cared for and loved, and finding supernatural life in God to live out our calling.
Society around us desperately needs the Church to thrive. God wants his Kingdom to extend into all aspects of society, so that his justice and mercy are established. This is God’s heart and the Church’s mandate. Societal injustices need to be righted and those living in poverty and hardship need to be cared for and helped by committed followers of Jesus who have found faith and community in a thriving church. Those around us who don’t yet know Jesus need to find him and grow in faith in a welcoming, loving, vibrant, Christ-centred community. We need churches to thrive.
Gathering together as a wider family of churches is important and at this year’s Thrive Gathering we will have the chance to catch sight of a bigger picture and see that he’s called us to be a movement, together impacting our part of the world. Together we will be inspired, taught and equipped and filled afresh with the Holy Spirit. We’ll have the opportunity to deepen old friendships and create new ones. We will eat, pray and worship together.
Programme
Unless noted, sessions in Thames Hall
Prayer Room throughout in Library
Unfortunately the lift is awaiting emergency repair, so there is no lift access to the Library, Boardroom or Hinksey Room
Friday 16 February
10.00am Doors open (refreshments and conversation) Atrium
10.30am Day 1 Opening plenary session, with worship led by Anna Ellwood, teaching from Joemon Joseph, and prayer ministry
12.30pm Lunch (included in ticket) in Cotswold Hall, with optional connection lunches
those interested in mission in Europe
those growing as evangelists
those who are aged 16-18
2.00pm News and updates
2.30pm Seminars: 4 options:
Joemon Joseph (guest speaker) - Thriving teams Thames Hall
Bex Lawton (Christian Medical Fellowship) - Thriving as a witness to Christ in the workplace Cherwell Room
Steve Jones (Oxford Community Church) - Thriving churches which impact society Hinksey Room
Naren Thapa (guest speaker) and Mark Eley - Thriving life of the Spirit Vale Room
3.30pm Refreshment break
4.00pm Seminars: 4 options as above, i.e. same content repeated, so an opportunity to participate in a different seminar
In addition, in this session
Andy Bruce will run a soaking worship session Boardroom
Ben and Chris will host a discussion for 16-18s Atrium
5.00pm Break
5.30pm Dinner (included in weekend or Day 1 ticket) Cotswold Hall
6.30pm Doors open for evening delegates. Coffee and cake for all. Atrium
7.30pm Evening plenary session, with worship led by John Gridley, teaching from guest speaker Damilola Makinde, prophetic art from Bev Jones, and prayer ministry (included in all tickets)
9.30pm End of day
Saturday 17 February
9.30am Doors open (refreshments and conversation) Atrium
9.45am Day 2 Opening plenary session, with worship led by Jason Huffadine, teaching from Liam Thatcher, conference offering, and prayer ministry, with a mid-morning break
12.30pm Lunch (included in ticket) in Cotswold Hall, with optional connection lunches
those interested in supporting church planting
those who are aged 16-18
1.45pm Seminars: 4 options:
Claire Cowles (guest speaker) - Thriving churches that communicate vision & values Cherwell Room
Joemon Joseph (guest speaker) - Thriving as disciples Thames Hall
Bex Lawton (Christian Medical Fellowship) - Thriving as a witness to Christ in the workplace Hinksey Room
Steve Jones (Oxford Community Church) - Thriving churches which impact society Vale Room
3.00pm Day 2 closing plenary session, with worship led by Anna Ellwood, teaching from Rich Ellwood, and prayer ministry
4.30pm End of day
After-hours for 20-30s: After Thrive, a group of 20-30s will be heading to the Punter, to get to know one another better as a community. Tell Chris or Stephanie you’re coming.
Speakers and team
We’re very excited by the team of speakers for Thrive, including exceptional guest speakers. Thrive will be hosted by Rich and Anna, as well as other members of the Advance team, together with younger leaders from our family of churches.
Joemon Joseph
‘Joe’ is the new leader of the Salt & Light International team, from Mumbai, India, where he oversees a network of 140 churches and church plants that have development since the 1980s from one church in Mumbai.
Naren Thapa
We’re delighted that Joe will be accompanied by Naren, a fellow senior leader from Mumbai. Naren oversees a cluster of churches, and is a senior prophetic leader in the family of churches.
Damilola Makinde
Damilola is Advocacy Engagement Lead for Evangelical Alliance UK, part of the team at KXC, and a speaker at Wildfires. She is passionate about being a witness of Jesus in public, including through thoughtful Christian engagement in the key cultural and political issues of our time.
Claire Cowles
Claire has worked for Christians Against Poverty for over 18 years and, as Senior Brand Manager, has been at the heart of shaping how the award-winning charity communicates with passion and clarity its purpose and values.
Liam Thatcher
Liam leads School of the Spirit, is a staff pastor in Oxford Community Church, and was previously a preaching pastor in a large London church. He is passionate about the word and the Spirit together!
Bex Lawton
Bex is Christian Medical Fellowship’s Head of Nurses & Midwives, a paediatrics staff nurse and CMF 'poet in residence'. She also shares performances of her Christian, nursing-focused poetry on Instagram as possiblybex.
Steve Jones
Steve is Senior Pastor of Oxford Community Church, and with his wife Bev, an artist, is helping the Advance family of churches explore how we engage well with the world around us. He is the author of the Upper Room leadership and theology course.
Rich and Anna Ellwood
Our event hosts are Rich and Anna Ellwood, new team leaders for the Salt & Light Advance family of churches. Rich and Anna have recently returned to the UK from Brussels, where they spent many years establishing a thriving and multicultural local church.
Offering
God has initiated a new season in our family of churches - a season of working together more closely and more intentionally with a variety of joint initiatives and projects as we seek to journey together with shared vision and purpose. God is calling us into a fresh season of fruitfulness and thriving - it’s a good day!
Please could you pray and reflect on how you could generously contribute to an offering which will be taken during Thrive. The offering will be to aid this fresh season of building together as we seek to train leaders, disciple young people, support churches, impact other nations and see our towns and villages touched with the love of God.
Each church that’s part of the Salt & Light Advance family is encouraged to contribute a proportion of their income into the S&L Advance budget to help cover everyday costs. This fresh season of building together that we’re entering in will need further finances to really give it a boost. Please consider giving generously and joyfully to this offering.
Who is Thrive for?
This is our annual Advance gathering for all those keen to play their part. That includes leaders (leading within the church), leaders and activists (leading beyond the church) and all those keen to play their part in seeing local churches thriving and helping their communities thrive.
Booking
Bookings are now closed.
FAQs
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For many years previous Salt & Light leadership conferences ran as Friday to Sunday residential events. However, often leaders had to leave the event on Sunday morning to go back home to run church services, as Advance is a group of smaller churches in which Sunday gatherings often rely on key leaders.
For 2022 and 2023 we took the opportunity of everyone ‘doing online church’ to switch to a Saturday-Sunday conference, but are also noting a waning of people wanting to watch online, and have had mixed feedback about the Sunday day of the conference.
For 2024 we have decided to run Friday and Saturday, with the Friday evening and Saturday designed for as wide a group of people as possible. All are welcome to all of the event, but recognising the challenge for some of taking a day off work, we’re expecting greater numbers for the Friday evening/Saturday.
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We are aware that finances are challenging for many people at the moment, and have kept prices as low as possible for the event to breakeven. In fact, we have managed to bring the 2024 headline ticket price below that of 2023.
If you need additional financial support, please contact your church leadership. They will be pleased to invest into your development.
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We are offering discounts to those under 30, and free places to those 17-18. Why prioritise these groups and not others who may appreciate a concession?
Recent conferences have been mostly attended by older people, and you will understand that it is vital, for the future of what God is doing among us as a family of churches, that we engage better with younger leaders. Concessionary ticket pricing are only one part of how we are doing that.
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With 94 spaces on-site we anticipate adequate onsite parking for 250 delegates, however, this is dependent on car-sharing. Please help your fellow delegates by car-sharing if at all possible.
Outside of Mon-Fri 8.00am-6.30pm there is also some on-street parking.
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Longterm bridge works by Oxford Rail Station means the Botley Road (A420) is closed for most of 2024, so you must approach from the west, from Botley Interchange.
However, there are also ongoing works at Botley Interchange which may affect drivers during Thrive. More details here.
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For general terms and conditions, including discounts and accessibility, please visit https://advancechurches.uk/event-tc
For event-specific T&C please see https://oxfordcc.churchsuite.com/events/su85i8xr