New Frontiers redirects here, New Frontiers program is a NASA space program to explorer the solar system.

Newfrontiers describes itself as is an international family of chruches together on a mission. Newfrontiers is rapidly growing and in September 2005 was approaching 500 churches worldwide.

History

Newfrontiers has its roots in the charismatic movement and was one of several groups that were influenced by a group of men gathered by Arthur Wallis.

Newfrontiers itself began out of the ministry of leader Terry Virgo who had been somewhat disillusioned as a young Christian by his experiences of church. As a pastor of a church on an estate in Seaford in the UK, he spoke of building a church that was biblical both in its doctrine and in its experience. As friends and others began to ask for his help both in renewing existing churches and in starting new ones a family of churches began to gather into ever closer relationship with him and each other.

The movement has been strongly shaped by bible weeks which are usually a week long

In those early years Newfrontiers was basically a small group of churches in the southern England (most notably Bedfordshire and Sussex), but from very early on the group began to be involved in working in other nations. Newfrontiers now has churches across the British Isles and in every continent of the world.

After a break from the Downs bible weeks of a few years, Newfrontiers started the Stoneleigh Bible week in 1991. This conference also focussed on bible teaching and worship albums were released. Musicians such as Paul Oakley, Stuart Townend, Kate Simmonds and the group Phatfish were all featured on these albums.

Stoneleigh was stopped in its tenth year following a prophecy and the group now focuses on evangelism and church planting, aiming to grow to be a thousand churches in the UK and to have individual churches with more than a thousand members.

Newfrontiers run an annual international where thousands of church leaders and Christians in their 20s come from around the

As it continues its work of planting new churches newfrontiers is one of only a few groups of churches in Europe which are consistantly growing in numbers and attracting young people.

Beliefs and distinctives

Newfrontiers today remains an evangelical group which largely teaches theology but remains modern and informal in their worship style. New Frontiers churches tend to hold to a complementarian positon on gender similar to that promoted by the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womenhood.

Worship often takes the form of soft rock and even on occasion dance/drum and bass music. The group believes in the modern availability of spiritual gifts including apostolic ministry. This is why a Newfrontiers slogan is "Changing the expression of Christianity around the world".

The Newfrontiers approach to church and the format of services has a reputation for being unconventional and informal. Popular culture is embraced providing that it is moral and not in conflict with evangelical Christian beliefs. Sermons are often humorous and attempt to relate Christianity to the contemporary world. Spiritual analogies from popular films and books are used.

With a passionate commitment to build the church according to what they see as New Testament principles, they believe that the most effective form of evangelism is worked out from strong local churches. Churches where each member participates, the gifts of the Spirit are outworked, where there is joy in caring one for the other, where there is a desire to make a difference in society and to reach those in need. They aim to achieve this by restoring the church to its new testament constitution, making disciples, training leaders, planting churches and reaching the nations. They are also strong proponents of the Alpha course.

Buildings and meeting venues

Churches in newfrontiers meet in a variety of different locations. Some, such as for example retain their baptist roots and meet in a traditional church building. Many others meet in schools and other non-religious venues - in at least one case a meets in a multiplex cinema. A number of churches including Terry Virgo's home have bought old warehouses and converted them into large places of worship. Perhaps the most unusual venues are an old Tram powerstation that now houses a and a former synagogue that houses a .

Further reading

• No Well Worn Paths by Terry Virgo

For academic and historical study of the British house church movement related to Arthur Wallis with a large section on newfrontiers see:

• Restoring the Kingdom by Andrew Walker

External link