INTRODUCTION
Andy Mackie is the Forge Midlands Director. Andy lives in Birmingham, and has a passion to see the city and region transformed by the kingdom of God. While originally from Edinburgh, where he began following Jesus, he came to Birmingham as a post-grad student, got married, and then worked in Riverside Church, firstly as the evangelism director and then as the senior leader. He has run many outreach initiatives, scores of Alpha Courses, and released people into a variety of missional endeavours. Through strong city relationships with other leaders, he has been instrumental in enabling and supporting a number of city-wide projects, prayer initiatives and training programmes. He is now focusing his energies and efforts on the wider church, across the city and region, to strategically and collaboratively reach communities and multiply ministries.
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FORGE Midlands is run by a team of missional practitioners who deliver the training, the coaching and the missional stories to inspire you and release your missional imagination. Whatever your context, whether you lead a church or part of a congregation, whether young or older, whatever your work, church or community context, we would love you to apply for our next cohort of FORGE Midlands.
KEY COMPONENTS
Our new online format Forge Midlands training programme will feature the following
• 3x Mini-Weekends comprised of a Friday evening and Saturday morning which introduce a core theme (Missional Context, Missional Character and Missional Competency) with relevant topics, missional practitioner interviews, peer group conversations, and next steps.
• Monthly evening sessions (2 hours) with a new topic related to that theme along with contextual stories by missional leaders and peer group discussion.
• Ongoing coaching of Forge Midlands participants from start to finish to help connect training with everyday living.
The participant joins a learning community that meets for learning, support, prayer, reflection and encouragement.
Each Forge participant will be encouraged to explore new missional opportunities within an existing or new setting with the guidance, help and encouragement of the local church. Forge does not take people away from local churches but provides training for local church members to become more effective in missional practice.
Each Forge participant will be encouraged to develop theologically and spiritually through the training and coaching, ongoing reflections and social media that are designed to support life and missional formation.
COST
The cost of Forge Midlands is £495 for the year covering 19 modules. This includes all costs of the training, coaching, and resources that participants will be given. With your help and support we will be able to help identify, resource and mobilise Christians to transform their communities, and to birth new missional projects and ministries wherever they are found.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for passionate people who are keen to mature as Christians exploring ways in which they can more fully engage in missional living. They must be open to learning, growing, working with others and willing to take risks and step out in an adventure with God.
DATES #2024
Weekend #1 Discerning God's Mission in my life context
Fri 19th Jan (6:30pm-9:00pm) & Sat 20th Jan 2024 (9:30am-12:30pm)
Midweek evenings
followed by 4 Wednesday evening sessions (7-9pm)
Jan-Mar 2024
Weekend #2 Developing Missional Character
Fri 20th Apr (6:30pm-9:00pm) & Sat 21st Apr 2024 (9:30am-12:30pm)
Midweek evenings
followed by 3 Wednesday evening sessions (7-9pm)
May-Jul 2024
Weekend #3 Developing Missional Competencies
Fri 13 Sep '24 (6:30pm-9:00pm) & Sat 14 Sep 2024 (9:30am-12:30pm)
Midweek evenings
followed by 3 Wednesday evening sessions (7-9pm)
Oct-Dec 2024
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